Mid-summer status report

I feel somewhat bad for not posting many comments over the past month or so. Just not much new to comment on, I s'pose.

A couple nights ago, the Statesman is reporting, a cyclist was killed in a late-night bike-car accident that mostly likely was caused by his low visibility.

How tragic! Also tragic on a lesser scale is the level of some of the commentary... one more chance for frustrated motorists to spout off anecdotes about rude/arrogant/stupid cyclists. Golly! Thank goodness that rude/arrogant/stupid MOTORISTS aren't a problem on our roads, huh? (The difference is... dumb cyclists are only killing themselves. Dumb motorists kill themselves and other people!)

It's good to take a moment to realize how INVISIBLE we can be out there, particularly at night! I'm totally convinced that nobody will deliberately hit a cyclist, but if they don't see you... all bets are off!

July was my third consecutive 30+ day, 600+ mile month. Feeling pretty good about that.

When I got on the scale on July 30, I was at 234 pounds. Yeah, that's a lot of weight for a bicycle to carry... but that's probably the lightest I've been in 25+ years. (I weighed 230 when I got married, 30 years ago. As recently as 2 1/2 years ago, I was over 270, even as a regular cyclist. No wonder I was bustin' wheels!) I've cut back slightly on the food intake... summer's here so I'm riding a lot. When I feel like a snack, I grab an apple or peach SOMETIMES, instead of M&Ms. Nothing more drastic than that.

(I'm NOT sick... my weight hasn't varied more than 10 or 12 pounds for over a year. It's just that it's currently at the low end of that variation. Of course, I'd have to lose another 20 pounds or so, to not be on the "overweight" part of the chart. I don't worry much about it, as long as I feel okay and my pants still fit.)

Mackie and I are putting a lot of miles on the Tag-A-Long. The other night we were riding home from the swimming pool, and she was falling asleep back there! Nodding off! (Scary!) I tried to scale up the conversation, and keep her observing things... and we made it home safely.

If things work out, in the next few days I'll do my first "mountain biking" in a LONG time. The BSA Varsity/Venturer young men I work with are planning some "high adventure" up around Cascade that will include an afternoon of all-terrain riding. Yesterday I dusted the cobwebs off my old Peugeot Canyon Express, did a thorough cleaning of the drivetrain, new chain, new derailleur cables... and adjusted the brakes. I'm taking some satisfaction in knowing that bike is 8 or 9 years older than the other riders I'll be with next week!

I hope y'all are getting in some QUALITY miles!