The pain ...

... it continues. So it's actually been, like, three whole days in a row! that I've biked into work. The morning commute, not so bad, especially after I bought a pair of bar ends, which allow me to achieve a more comfortable, forward-leaning position. The ride home, almost totally unbearable. The heat washes up from the asphalt, there is a dry, hot, stiff wind that blows in my face almost the entire time ... and all the loonies are out in full force. You'd think people have never seen a bicyclist before. Anyways, I also bought a rear light while I was at it, and not a moment too soon as I had to ride into work in some heavy fog this morning. The most difficult part is still dragging my ass out of bed at 5:30 am. Fortunately I've been making lunch the night before, so all I have to do is get dressed, pack up the bike, let the dogs out to pee, put them back in, and then head on down the road for my 35 minute ride.

Who knew reducing your carbon footprint would be such a pain in the ass?

Shrink your carbon footprint ...

... move to a large city.

"Large metropolitan areas give their inhabitants smaller carbon footprints," says energy policy expert Marilyn Brown of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (ranked 67th), lead author of the study. "Footprints are the smallest in areas with high density and good rail transit."

I did it!

I biked into work today. Eight miles in a shade over 30 minutes. It wasn't too bad this morning, saw maybe a couple dozen cars on my ride in. I'm not sure what it's going to look like later this afternoon when I head home around 3:30 - 4:00. There are a couple of places where there is absolutely no shoulder whatsoever, so I have nowhere to go if someone doesn't give me enough room ... well, except down into a ditch. Hopefully drivers will be courteous and give me wide berth. Most of them did this morning, so here's to hoping the afternoon drivers are just as good.

I'd be doing somewhat better if I was feeling 100%. Spent part of the day at the beach on Monday and wound up with sunburn on the back of my knees, and then pulled my calf playing softball last night though it was a good night at the plate (3 for 5, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and in the field so I suppose I'll take it.

At any rate, I hope to keep this biking trend going. Not only does it help me reduce my carbon footprint, it allows me to give my wife my car which has better gas mileage than her beast. With gas hitting almost $4/gallon, we need to find a way to save some money ... and this is one of them. Of course, I guess I shouldn't complain. Watching the news this morning as I was eating breakfast ... diesel in England is (in US dollars) almost $9/gallon. Holy crap.