It’s Everywhere!

Road Construction on my bike commuting route.

Catalpa at Highway 65

The underpass is closed due to bridge work on 65, causing me to detour around it by taking Battlefield over the highway and coming up Ingram Mill.  This route adds about 1.5 miles and has quite a bit more traffic than the more straightforward route I usually use.

Fremont south of Grand

This section of my route is being resurfaced.  They’ve ground off the old layer of asphalt and haven’t yet laid down the new one.  I made the mistake of riding this on Monday and had about three teeth rattle out of my mouth.  Since then, I’ve re-routed over to Pickwick for this section.  Andy has a few pics up on his website.

Deeswood at Sunshine

The construction pictured above just  started this week.  They’re replacing several sections of bad pavement.   I don’t have any good options for avoiding this since I can’t cross the highway at Catalpa.  I could cross Sunshine further to the west, but doing do would put me on some higher traffic arteries and add more mileage. 

Is this much road work going on in other parts of the country, or is this just a Springfield thing?

God bless….

TW

Oh No. Not again….

 

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/39429816/ns/sports-other_sports/

People I See 09-29-2010

 

In this age when young people are glued to their video games and cell phones, this young lady is a refreshing breeze.

As long as I’ve been  riding down Fremont Street on the way home from work, I’ve been seeing this delightful 16 year-old out in her front yard enjoying her swing. 

It doesn’t surprise me, though.  She’s also a cyclist!  Her dad is Andy, from Carbon Trace.  I think he must be doing something right!

God bless…

TW

New Gloves!

Before my daughter got married, she worked in the shoe department at JC Penney.  It didn’t take long before we realized she was using her employee discount to amass quite a collection of shoes.  We didn’t quite realize the extent of her collection until she got married and her husband had to try to find space to store those shoes.  For some reason, he’s still sensitive when the subject of shoes comes up!

With the weather forecast for this morning calling for temps in the forties, I started rummaging around my cycling gear for the right pair of gloves and came to the realization that I’ve started a collection of my own! 

You see, my hands are very cold natured.  My wife will tell you they feel like ice cubes almost every time I put them on her (which is often, by the way)!  Unfortunately, that means I tend to keep seeking out new and better options for keeping my digits toasty warm in all weather.  This morning, I pulled out a brand new pair of “mild weather” gloves.  As I did, I laid out all the other options I had for different temperatures and realized there were eight pairs of gloves laying on the floor.  Good grief!

Do you find yourself accumulating stuff like that also, or does it just run in my family?

God bless…

TW

Footnote:  I would probably be remiss if I didn’t explain why I have a new pair of mild weather gloves.  I lost the last pair I had.  I found out that when you lay them on the spare tire on the back of the Jeep and then drive someplace they will magically disappear.  Can you imagine that?

People I see – 10-25-2010

Friday evening as I was heading home on Fremont, I absently noticed this lady mowing, then did a double take!  Look closely…she’s got a cockatoo (so I’m told)  sitting on her shoulder!

I quickly hit the brakes and after traffic cleared, swung over to the other side of the street.  As she turned my way, I smiled at her and indicated that I would like to take a picture.  She smiled back, struck a nice pose with her cockatoo and let me snap a couple. 

I gave her another smile and a “thumbs up” as thank you and continued on my path home without ever exchanging words with her.

You never know what you’re gonna run across out there!

God bless…

TW