Bike Commute Goal Exceeded

Today, Halloween-- I managed to exceed my goal of +50% more bike commuting roundtrips in 2007 vs. 2006! My total today reached 118. With any luck I can get to 125 or more this year yet. Today was 36 degrees F in the AM and 63 in the PM. Quite a contrast.

The past two days I've tried wearing some earmuffs and these convertible glove-mittens called "wombat gloves" from Descente. Both seem to help ease the cold wind factor. As I get warmed up I still need to ventilate to keep a heat balance internally... Riding with lights in the PM is helping me feel safer on the streets.

I'm still thinking of various winter bike options ranging from singlespeed (I have something worked up on an old 26 inch MTB frame) to something else that I don't own yet, a steel or ti 700c cross bike. I know I need room for fenders... not an option with my standard roadbike really. Maybe I'll go back to my last-year's ride, an aluminum rear-suspension 26 inch cross bike. First I need to fix its flat tire. :-( no big deal, just need to get it done.

I'm continuing to pick up at least 10 pieces of trash per day. Today on the way into work I had about 3 aluminum cans, a beer bottle, some plastic bags, and a shopping cart (which I towed back about 4 blocks to the Kroger store entrance). Oh, and a leather baseball in great shape from behind a tree by the ballfield-- I gave this to my co-worker Chris for his kids to play with. On the way home, I ended up with about 8 aluminum cans, a couple plastic bottles, a McDonalds bag and cup with plastic lid, and about 12 plastic bags that blew off the Kroger lot into the trailside areas near the creek behind the store. Got two at the top edge of the creek bank, others near the back of the building that had apparently been there for a while. Thankfully, the chain link mesh fence installed this summer by the CRPD at the edge of the parking lot for the Kroger, does seem to be greatly reducing the amount of this trash moving toward Alum Creek. Hmm, it seems like I'm closer to 30 today than the minimum 10 items. Well, winter and dark days will make it hard for me to keep this up indefinitely.