Tag Archives: Commute by Bike

April in Colorado…

Like most cyclists and Coloradans April is a time to come out of our shells and get back on the bikes/trails/whatever outside and get some fresh air.  This winter has been different, we’ve been riding every day/week/month as the weather has provided us way more singletrack than should be allowed for a winter in Colorado.  Today is April first, we’ll celebrate our next snow storm in a string of great snow storms.  It’s two so far this week with a good one scheduled for the weekend.  Can’t really ride the trails so let’s trash the roads, yeah whatever.   We’ll ride our bikes no matter what, we keep 5-6 bikes a person for a reason.  Today’s first picture from the Canon G10 is the Apre-Commute today during the Thunder-Snow.  Snow is cool when it’s thundering (like the Pacific Northwest) but the lightening was a bit scary as it seemed to be hitting quite close.

The second topic of the day, as I’m not particularly pissed about anything now, is beer.  America has undoubtedly the best beer in the world.  The Germans can argue (why?), the Belgians can compare (they make some great stuff too), the English (they’re good but too narrow in the taste spectrum) and the rest of the world, eh, maybe some good ones but who has time when we rule.  Today’s story comes from Russian River Brewing in Sonoma California.  It’s a new to me brew called Pliny the Elder.  Fantastic, over-hopped, well malted beverage comining in at a daily drinking weight of 8.0 ABV.

Pliny the Elder was a Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler,
officer, and writer. Although not considered his most important work,
Pliny and his contemporaries created the botanical name for hops,
“Lupus salictarius”, meaning wolf among scrubs.” Hops at that time grew
wild among willows, much like a wolf in the forest. Later the current
botanical name, Humulus lupulus, was adopted. Pliny died in 79 AD while
observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He was immortalized by his
nephew, Pliny the Younger, who continued his uncle’s legacy by
documenting much of what he observed during the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius. (taken from Russian River’s website)

Needless to say it’s a fantastic beer and everyone should drink 4 of them.  A photo for proof.

Anyway that’s it for today.  This weekend will be with out cycling so maybe I’ll photo around the snowy neighborhood again and figure out how to use my Nikon again.

Re-Fold the fabric of society…

Not everyone has the choice in life to work close to home.  I am not one of those people.  I chose to work at a job which is close to my home rather than take a job that may have been more lucrative financially.  The largest benefit that I have is a 6 mile one-way commute that can be solved through bike lanes and back streets.  I am a bicycle commuter.  I see single people in large vehicles in hurries to get everywhere with no consideration for anyone but themselves.  People are most often on the phone, by themselves, trying to stay linked into life.  Sitting in a car for 1,2,3,4,5 hours a day to make a living? No sir…not for me.

It’s interesting to think from the perspective of one guy (me) that it’s possible for most people to give up their cars as a daily part of life.  But if you talk the car people, I believe they’ll disagree.  So be it.  I hope for the day of $10 a gallon gas and fewer cars like our more sophisticated and civilized European brethren, for now I’ll know I’m doing some of what I can for the cause.  Here is an interesting link to an article from our weekly free paper Westword It is very bike centric (as it should be) and has some of the plan for what Denver is going to do with it’s overpopulation of car problem.  Visit those on the front lines of the good fight here Bike Denver dot Org

One of my favorite pictures of my personal grocery getter…

All for now.  Keep riding.  Will post again soon.