And, it’s frustrating in other ways. Obviously, missing out on the first spring weather of the year is not fun. Plus, while we’ve moved most of our stuff to our new house now, we still have a lot of moving-related tasks that need to be done. My wife has been wonderful, taking care of business while I’m sitting around with my foot up in the air (I have to keep it elevated above heart level as much as possible). And I’m very grateful to her for that, but I hate that I can’t be more helpful.

On a positive note, work has been going well. I’ve done some extra side work as well, so at least I’m using my downtime productively. I’m also working on some changes for this blog, which I am excited about. And, Sarah’s sister and her boyfriend are coming to visit us this weekend, I’m very much looking forward to seeing them.

I’m trying to keep a positive attitude, and generally succeeding. Today has been the hardest day so far, and I’ve definitely been feeling down. I’m almost out of pain meds, so I think I’ll see if I can get a refill tomorrow. I think I may have a couple of harder days before things start looking up.

I get my stitches out next Tuesday, which is sort of hard to believe. It doesn’t seem like my foot will be ready by then. But I assume the doctor knows better than I do.

Sorry for the negative post. I’m trying to keep my chin up. I know it won’t be long before I can help get the house set up, and before I’m out riding again. I can’t wait!

After work on Thursday, I wanted to fit in one last ride before my foot surgery. I thought about planning  a route, but never really got around to it. Instead, I decided to do a ramble west of town. I stopped by home first to drop off some dead weight, but forgot to drop off my lock, and I had a pannier with me, so I still had a few extra pounds to deal with. The ride was short — around 11 miles — but hilly. And, I was still dressed in my work clothes. This actually worked out just fine. I’ll be posting a video, but I will put that at the end of my post. The scenery in this video is a lot better than in previous videos. Here’s a map of the route I ended up riding.

I started heading west on Rhorer Road, which turns into Gordon Pike. This road was slightly busier than what I’m used to, and had a couple of good hills.

But I wasn’t on it for long before I turned onto the Bloomington Rail-Trail. It didn’t take long for scenery to turn more rural.

Before long I was on Church Ave, which took me to Victor Pike. I then crossed State Road 37 and was truly out in the country. The riding in this area is a lot different from where I’m used to riding. The hills are just relentless on this side of town. Most of them are smaller, but you ride one hill after another. It’s both exhilarating and exhausting. And, there are several limestone quarries out in this area, which are always interesting.

I mostly took video throughout this section, so I suppose this would be a good place to post the video. I did more editing and added music this time. The music is a track I wrote a few years ago.  The video is rather long, but the beginning and portion from about 4:30-5:30 are the best parts. Toward the end it gets dark but I kept this footage to give an idea of what the experience was like. The light was incredible for most of the ride, as it went from near-sunset, to full-on sunset, to dusk. Just lovely.

And here are a few more still shots. It felt wonderful to get out and ride, and I especially relished the opportunity, since I knew it’d be a while before I could ride again.

This was a fitting ride, both as a first real recreational ride after moving to our new house, and as the last ride before my surgery. It felt like a chapter of my riding closed but another opened at the same time. Here’s looking forward to more exploration of this beautiful land, which is different from my previous riding territory, but equally full of wonder. And, my old riding grounds aren’t too far away, either.

• Throughout – Bike lane is situated in the door zone. Riding on the left edge of it helps, but I still don’t feel 100% safe with it. Sometimes I have to ride in the traffic lane to avoid the door zone.
• 0:22 -  Weird dividers between the bike lane and traffic lane. Not sure if these are really problematic but they seem odd and make me a little nervous.
• 0:34 – Hazard in bike lane (manhole cover, slippery when wet)
• 0:50 – Starting at this point, the street gets wider and the bike lane moves to the far right of the street, which soon becomes a right-turn-only lane. I avoid this by staying in the main traffic lane to go straight. After the intersection, the bike lane continues on the far right, which once again becomes a right-turn-only lane. I suppose you could go straight from the right lane, but this seems like you’d be setting yourself up for a right hook.
• 1:39 – The bike lane continues on the far right, but this is a one-way street. State law permits riding on either side. If you want to turn left (as I did), you have to maneuver across the traffic lane anyway.

In my view, this road is good for biking, and would be even better *without* the bike lanes. They encourage/force unsafe riding practices — riding in the door zone, going straight from a turn lane.

Here’s another video, in which I go through part of downtown Bloomington. I had previously been taking a route that missed the square entirely, but I’ve discovered it’s actually very pleasant riding by the square.

For the procedure, I had an IV, plus electrodes on my chest and I’m told they put in a breathing tube after they knocked me out. I must’ve looked like some kind of freakish cyborg. They cut out a bad section of skin and shaved off part of a bone in my little toe, and sent in the skin for testing to make sure it’s not something serious. The doctor said there’s no reason to think it’s more than an abscess, but they always send it in for testing, just to be sure.

After the procedure, I woke up feeling quite well. I didn’t even realize it was over until I looked down at my foot and saw it was bandaged. They used a local AND a general anesthetic, and my foot is STILL somewhat numb, and I’ve got meds on top of that, so there’s really been little pain so far, for the most part. I expect things to get worse before they get better, as my foot numbness wears off, but time will tell. From what I understand, some people wake up from the general anesthetic feeling horrible, and this has not happened to me this time, nor when I had my wisdom teeth out. I guess I handle the general anesthetic well.

I’ve been prescribed hydrocodone for the pain. Some people love the way this stuff makes them feel, but I don’t. I don’t hate it either, but I can’t see why people do this stuff recreationally. I’ve found that some caffeine makes it more tolerable by keeping my from feeling so lethargic.

So … so far, so good. It was a beautiful day today and I would’ve loved to go for a bike ride, but I am just glad not to be in excruciating pain. I did get out for a while, we managed to get out for lunch and we went for a drive, with Sarah driving. It was great to get some fresh air. We also dropped my bike off at the bike shop for a tune-up. When I’m ready to ride again, my bike will be in top form. I also had them order a couple more Pasela tires for me, they had a good price, and I really like the one I’ve been testing.

Minutes later, I found myself brooding. Just as winter’s grasp begins to weaken, I have to have surgery. I won’t be able to take advantage of the nicer weather for at least a couple of weeks. Hell, I won’t even be able to walk to lunch for a while.

The further I walked, the more my foot hurt. Soon I was limping along, still enjoying the sun, but having a little trouble getting around. I’ve had a few doubts about my surgery, as my foot really doesn’t hurt too badly most of the time. But at that moment, I realized, quite clearly, that the surgery is definitely the right thing to do. And that in the long run, I will recover and be better off.

All of this feels a little melodramatic. My foot doesn’t hurt too badly now, and the surgery is supposed to be relatively minor. But, now I feel much more relaxed, focused, and confident. Sometimes a good walk does wonders for clearing your mind.

Here are a few other features of my new bicycle commute.

• Parks
• Wooded area
• Residential areas — some nice, some not-so-nice
• A few commercial/industrial buildings
• Downtown Bloomington
• Signed bike routes (very nice) and bike lanes (mostly poorly designed). More about this in a future post.
• A headwind every morning, so far

I’m surprised by how much longer the five-mile trip each way feels compared with three miles before.

I also feel the extra weight I’m lugging around a lot more than I did with my old commute … both in my panniers and around my waist. The solution to the waistline problem is obvious … now, I really need to streamline my commute strategy. Here are some things I’m doing.

• Leaving shoes at work, rather than lugging them back and forth every day. With the longer commute, I don’t think riding in the same shoes I’ll wear all day is a good idea.
• Figuring out the water situation. I have been using an insulated water bottle which I carry everywhere. But it doesn’t fit in a water bottle cage, so at first I was bringing a bicycle water bottle too. Solution: bought a second insulated water bottle to leave at work. Now I only carry the bike one back and forth.

Also, I’ve been riding the Long Haul Trucker every day. It is just such a wonderful bicycle … and it handles well with a load, too. I don’t know if I can ever go back to commuting on The Beast, especially with a more challenging commute than before. The Trucker really needs a tune-up, and I hope to have some work done on it while I’m recovering from my surgery. This is convenient, because I don’t like to be without the Trucker, even just for a day or two.

We are on the cusp of spring. It’s warming up, slightly, and I hear birds chirping every morning. It’s going to be very frustrating not being able to ride for a couple of weeks, after my surgery on Friday.

When I posted the test video, I was surprised at how much attention people were paying to various details, and some of the comments talked about my riding style and traffic controls in the brief ride. So, I’m curious what people will see here.

Before I post the video, I have a few unrelated comments.

1. For quite a while now, I have been having some problems with my little toe on my left foot. Nothing has worked to get it to heal on its own, so I will be having surgery next Friday. It’s fairly minor and routine, or so I’m told, but I’m very much not looking forward to it. I will be off the bike for at least two weeks. After two weeks, the stitches come out and I can do whatever I’m comfortable with.
2. Moving, and doing some work in the new house, is proving to be very time-consuming. So I have not done much riding. We also don’t have Internet access in the new place yet, so it’s proving difficult to blog much.
3. My new commute will be close to twice as long as the old one, so things are going to get more interesting on the commuting front. I already started riding the Trucker when the weather isn’t too bad, and I have to say, it makes my commute much more enjoyable.
4. I tried to make a video of a fantastic night ride I did with my friend Dave. It was cold, dark, snowing, windy, and we were riding on hilly gravel roads. It was phenomenal! Unfortunately, the helmet cam does not handle darkness very well. I’m not sure yet if any of the footage will be salvageable.

Anyway, back to the commute video: I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve enjoyed quality time with my wife, mom, sister, and nephews, good food, a little time on the bike, new birthday toys to play with, and a beautiful drive with my beautifuler wife. What more could I ask for?”

What I didn’t mention is what I meant by “toys.” My wife got me a really cool gift: a helmet cam! It’s a “Go Pro Hero Wide.” It’s a tiny video camera that can mount on your helmet, handlebars,  etc. I did a short test yesterday with it on my helmet. The wide angle view lets you see a lot.

The best thing about this camera, though, is that it has slick mounting brackets that make it very easy to mount the camera or remove it, without hassle. It’s also very small, so it should be easy to take it on rides.

Here’s my brief test video from yesterday. The image quality is pretty good. This thing is going to be fun! This ride isn’t particularly interesting — just a test around the neighborhood — but it gives you an idea of the camera’s capabilities.

But, I think I figured out what the problem is. I’m annoyed with the snow because I haven’t spent enough time in it! Aside from one ride on Saturday, my only riding has been in the form of commutes. So, the only time I’ve been out in the snow, it’s been an impediment to getting to my destination, rather than something I take the time to enjoy.

Riding in the winter is like riding up hills: you have to fully embrace it in order to enjoy it, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you become with it. Some unexpected things came up last weekend that prevented me from getting out and enjoying the snow much. Hopefully, I’ll have more time this weekend, and I can get out and ride in the snow, and relish the opportunity, rather than simply trudging through it. In the meantime, I’m trying to keep a positive attitude, and I might even try to squeeze in a night ride one of these days. The darkness is really more of an impediment to riding after work than the snow is.

We got the biggest snow of the year on Monday. Again, schools and many businesses were closed. As usual, I rode my bicycle to work. And I did have fun with it. On my way to work, the snow was so deep in places that my shoes were dipping down into the snow as I pedaled, and snow was shooting up into my brakes.

After work, I had icicles hanging from my saddle, and I had to dig my bike out.

But, that was nothing compared to what people who drove to campus had to deal with. Check out the cars on the side of the road — they had a lot of digging to do before they could get out. All that snow had fallen since the morning.

When I arrived back at home, I had to re-bury my bike in a mound of snow.

Rob could barely walk in the stuff. That’s a 70-pound dog, legs completely buried.

Every day when I get to work, the bike racks are more buried. I have to lift my bicycle onto a mount of snow over a foot deep to lock it to the rack.

Hopefully, this’ll let up soon. I love snow, but I’d say we have enough for now.