Met mom at B&M Wednesday. She bought a Raleigh Venture. She plans on riding around the neighborhood for now. Then working her way up to riding down 39th ave to Starbucks and Dee-Lites with her boyfriend Brian. Then maybe some on the Hawthorne trail.

Virginia and I had a nice ride to the Top Thursday night. Lots of people still had Christmas lights up.

Dropped Civic Hybrid off at dealer this morning and biked back home. That was my first ride in several days. Haven't been riding to work this week due to cold. Plus my prostate problem has been flared up. I rode Mower's trainer a little on Sunday but that was boring and I was having some technical problems.

I went by B&M yesterday to pick up the Sempre. Dave did its 30 day tune up. Talked to Paul and Keith about zombies, recumbents, how Paul hates holidays and a bunch of other stuff. It was cool. Almost like hanging out at the record store.

Keith again invited me on one of the 352 team's Sunday rides. He said the ride for 4 1/2 hours. That is an absurd amount of time to be exercising unless it happens to be with a sickass pimp who happens to be your best friend and you talk about farting and Billy Squier the whole time.

Did the Race Track loop today. The wind was 20mph according to my weather app. The first part was rough and the last 6 miles were brutal straight into a headwind. The middle portion was good. I forgot to put my emergency tire kit on again, but thankfully avoided flats. The animal corpse I pass by is really on it's last legs now.

The bike periodically makes this annoying clicking noise. I think it has to do with the sensor for the bike computer which seems to fall into the spokes. Hopefully the power meter will be a little cleaner in this regard.

Going to ride in to work without the panniers tomorrow (Thursday). Tempted to take the Sempre but don't want to risk a flat. The Cortina's kevlar tires win out.

My commutes of late have been suffused with an overwhelming ennui and lassitude. Pedaling seems tedious. The ride in wasn't so bad yesterday (Tuesday). There were no kids going to school to navigate around. That will be nice for the next 2 weeks. As I rode by Littlewood Elem. the alarm sounded for no one.

Rode to work w/o the panniers again. V made me a care package of homemade cookies to tuck in my jacket. Practiced standing in place on the pedals while waiting on red lights like the match sprinters do. It was busier at the pharmacy tonight than I had anticipated. I bunch of people showed up at once with various problems. Right before close some Hispanic jackhole showed up to get Viagra. He was kind of a douche and he kept asking me annoying questions about erections.

Looks like 'Bikes' has stopped following me. Just like that I've lost 50% of my readership and we will never solve the mystery that was 'Bikes'.

Friday I did the Millhopper loop at a good clip. As I've mentioned before I can't sprint on a bike to save my life (riding as fast as possible for like 10 seconds). Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things. I'm going to work on getting my top speed up.

Friday afternoon I rode into work prepared for a miserable day. I stopped off at Starbucks and Cold Stone for a Frappe and ice cream cupcakes to fortify myself for a long night. It wasn't too horrible. There were a few roaches (oxycodone seekers causing problems). Saturday I had a couple of Smurfs (Meth heads buying Sudafed). They come in back to back buying the max strength Sudafed and they each have ID's from the same small town, like Bronson or Live Oak. God I get tired of dealing with Smurfs and roaches.

Sunday's commute was cold, overcast and damp. The students are gone for Xmas break which makes work much easier.

Ride in yesterday(Thursday AM) was cool. I had SY's "In the Kingdom" in my head while getting ready that morning, but surprise it wasn't playing on the Walgreens muzak when I walked in. Saw BHL. It dawned on me that she doesn't wear a helmet. Also she rides down 34th st on the sidewalk against traffic. Dangerous in terms of cars on side streets trying to pull out.

The lights were kind and I made good time despite not biking very hard. My legs were still sore from the day before.

It was cool riding to Bikes and More with you (Harry, not my other follower, 'Bikes'). Man you really don't like sidewalks.

Later Virginia and I biked to Boca Fiesta for dinner. The Hippodrome looked nice with it's Christmas lights. In fact the whole area had a nice atmosphere considering how built up and commercialized it has become. Boca was out of the Dessert Nachos as always. They get bits of waffle cone or something from Karma Cream and then add ice cream and hot fudge and stuff. I really don't know because every time I order it they don't have it.

The ride home was colder and V was pedaling at a good clip to get home. We'd hit these pockets of cold at the bottom of hills.

My mom emailed me that she wants to test drive my bike and accompany her to the bike store to possible buy one. Should be interesting.

Had to drop off my car at the Honda dealership on Main this morning. I biked home on the Cortina. Around 2PM I went for my ride on the Sempre. I did the Race Track loop. I was feeling pretty good. Maybe the bike fitting helped. The wind was only 4 mph according the weather app so I wasn't having to battle that for a change.

I check my times every 7.5 miles and about halfway through I realized I had a shot at beating my all time best. Usually I'll switch into a higher gear if my cadence goes over 95 rpm's. Today though I didn't switch gears as much and just focused on fast pedaling.

Another thing that was good was my heart rate was up in a higher range and I was going faster. The last several rides I seemed to have become fatigued before my heart rate really got up that high. Maybe my legs were just a little over trained and needed some rest. I have been biking less due to the cold snap.

I passed the animal corpse on the route and surprisingly it still stunk. My butt was getting a little sore in the saddle, but not as bad as previously.

Anyway, I was in the last quarter of my ride. I was on pace to ride my best time and I still felt pretty good. It was all going to depend on the 441/53rd ave intersection. If I was hung up at a red light for 1-2 minutes then it probably wasn't going to happen. Otherwise it seemed like money in the bank. Four miles from the stopping point my tire went flat. I later discovered I had run over a piece of wire or an industrial staple or something.

It took a few minutes to get the tire off the rim. Getting the new tube and tire back on wasn't too bad. Then I took out the CO2 cartridge and thought I was home free. Without going into details I proceeded to clusterfuck the cartridges. I was on the phone with my wife to pick me up. Suddenly some dude in a truck pulled up and gave me a lift to the Honda dealership. I picked up the car and drove home.

That guy was pretty cool. Maybe he has a blog called Lone Motorist of the Apocalypse. If not, he should.

Didn't ride to work Monday or Tuesday. Monday I had to drive our landscaper back to Alachua and then go straight to work. Tuesday morning I had to drive to another store to pick up a drug we didn't have. I'd be lying if I said I missed biking in the freezing cold and all the prep time it entails.

Went to Bikes and More to order a power meter. Spoke to Keith about it. Still nothing definite. I'm a fool for getting deeper into the bike gizmos. God I wish cycling was like running. With running there's a race somewhere nearby almost every weekend and all different levels of talent can show up and feel free to compete. No big deal. Cycling you have to drive for hours if you want to race. Plus there are much fewer races. And it seems kind of bogus and complicated with drafting off people in a peloton and not crashing and crap. I don't know, I'm babbling. I had a mixed drink with dinner at the Top earlier.

Anyway, I miss running. This weather makes me depressed.

Did the Hawthorne trail Sunday morning. Of course I knew in the back of my mind that it was going to be cold, windy and rainy. It actually wasn't horrible. My jacket performed admirably. You (Harry, not to be confused with my one other potential reader "Bikes") were a champ even though your clothes were soaked.

I remember the first time I did this ride with you over a year ago it seemed really long. It's still long but now that I know what landmarks are coming up it seems to go by faster. Gee, it only took a year to learn the trail. Imagine if they had sent me to map the northwest instead of Lewis and Clark.

I tried to ride the trainer this morning but I was self conscious about the noise I was making indoors. Plus my shoes were still wet from yesterday. Plus I was hot and bored in about 2 minutes.

Biked on the Hawthorne trail with V this morning. Went from our house to the fishing bridge- round trip 20miles with a stop at Bagels and Noodles for breakfast. We spent a while at the bridge watching a large gathering of noisy ducks. My leg feels a little weird now. Hopefully it's not going to flare up again.

Went to Bikes and More later to order a Power Meter. Paul wasn't there because of Swamp Cross preparations. I spoke to Lisa but since I wasn't exactly what I needed I'll just wait for Paul to call me back. The power meter measures how much work I'm doing on the bike factoring in wind , hills etc so it gives me a more consistent number to shoot for rather than just mph. I know I'm being a total geek about this.

I also to get some kind of bike rack for my Civic Hatchback. The one we bought for the Civic hybrid doesn't seem to quite work.

Thursday afternoon I came home from work in a bad mood and then proceeded to thoroughly botch the bolts on the bottom of my bike cleats. The fitting dude had recommended moving the cleats back on my shoes. I couldn't get one of the bolts out and practically stripped it using I drill.

So I took the shoes to Bikes and More Friday morning. There was a palpable electricity in the air. Paul was in an ebullient mood joking with everyone. The whole place seemed fired up. Then I remembered that the cyclocross race they put on is this Sunday. They were buzzing around making plans. Other Christian's arm was in a sling from a biking accident. Mountain bikers seem to get hurt a lot.

Anyway, Dave gave me back the shoes with new bolts adjusted to my specifications. No charge. I feel bad when I wander in with my latest screw up and they stop what they are doing and help me out. At my job it annoys me when I have to unravel some numb skull's problem at Walgreens. I suppose it's a different environment.

Before leaving I asked Dave how to switch pedals between the Sempre and Cortina so I could wear my bike boots on the Sempre for when it's really cold. He said to just bring in the bikes and they'd be happy to swap them out. That was Dave's genius polite way of saying, "Christian, you are a walking clusterfuck. Instead of trying to explain to you what to do, then you effing it up and then me trying to fix your disaster. Just bring it and I'll do it right the first time." You have to give it to the guy, he's absolutely right.

I blew off my planned Millhopper ride. There just wasn't going to be enough time before work. I rode into work around 1:15. I took off the panniers because I was biking in my work clothes, there was no chance of rain (no rain gear) and I didn't have any food to carry. The decreased wind resistance was noticeable. The bike was making an odd purring noise though. I guess the rack is a little loose.

You know what I hate? When I'm biking along at a decent clip. I'm on the sidewalk because the section of rode is narrow and has no bike lane. Then I car is blocking my path trying to turn out on to 34th. I have to brake and try to maneuver around them. I realize they have to pull out that far in order to see traffic because of bushes and crap. I do the same thing when I'm driving. Still it's annoying.

Left work around 10:15PM. It didn't feel nearly as cold as I thought it would and I was over dressed. I stopped by Sweet Dreams on the ride home and had the Grasshopper which is mint ice cream with Oreo crumbles, fudge and whipped cream. The 2 people that work the night shift are really nice. I feel guilty being such a dick to people at my job. Maybe if I sold bikes and ice cream I'd be a lot better off mentally. Oh and I ate the Grasshopper on bench outside the store. I was expecting the bench to be kind of hard but was pleasantly surprised that it had just the right amount of sag to it.

Ride in this morning meditated on my pedal stroke. U Got the Look was playing on the muzak when I walked in the store which was weird because I had been singing the "crucial" part of that song to myself earlier in the morning. Forgot tie, so I had to activate emergency back up tie.

Went to the bike fit dude's apartment this evening with the trainer and bike in tow. I was there a couple of hours. He made measurements and moved my seat forward as far as it would go. He said I have limbs that are longer than average for my height. He also thought my lower legs were relatively longer than my upper legs.

He also moved my cleats on my shoes back some towards my ankles.

The rest of the time he was watching my mechanics, pedal stroke etc and offering tips and training exercises. Overall it was pretty worthwhile. I was getting pretty tired pedaling on the trainer after having worked out earlier.

It's going to be another cold one tomorrow morning. All my gear is ready for the AM ride to work.

Did the Race Track Loop. It was 53 degrees. My feet went numb and I was slinging snot. The ride itself felt pretty good. I rode in a higher gear/slower cadence more than previously. The cows at the UF Dairy Unit were mostly sitting on the ground. I guess to conserve heat. The area didn't smell like ass for once for some reason. The animal carcass I ran over last week was still there in a further state of decay. I should have started taking a picture of it every week.

I had pretty good luck with the lights. I only had to stop once for about 20 seconds crossing 441 on the way back. The final sprint in was slow. I'm still tentative out of the saddle on this bike. It is more twitchy than the Imola and is more easily swayed by the wind.

The only other thing was at the very end of the ride some truck swerved into the bike lane for no reason. I had no idea what the driver was trying to accomplish but I slowed down to avoid problems.

This morning (Tuesday) I got stuck behind some little kid on a BMX bike pedaling to Glen Spings Elem. If I stay on the right hand side of the road I run into a traffic snarl with all the cars turning towards me into the school. If I cross the street early then I have to stay on the sidewalk on the left hand side then it's hard to get around all the kids and parents.

Along 34th St I saw small kid with huge backpack(SKHB). All bundled up he looked like even more of an old man with his downtrodden shuffle. At the intersection of 34th /16th ave the lead car at the red light was pulled halfway into the bike lane. As punishment I hit the crosswalk button which forced all the cars to stay there an extra 30 seconds while I got to cross with the walk signal. I looked back when I was at Westwood Middle School in satisfaction to see all the cars still stopped there. Sure I'm a dick, but the lesson is don't take my lane.

My left hand started to get painfully numb even with the thermal gloves and liners. I passed Biking Hispanic Lady (BHL). In a moment of unprecedented jauntiness I waved. Her mouth just opened and she registered no emotion. I don't think she was thrilled. It was kind of the blog version of breaking down the fourth wall.

Ride home was non-descript. A car was cool to slow down on 34th by Publix to allow me to slide into the bike lane. It's a tricky spot where the bike lane moves out into the road to the left of the cars' right turn lane.

Later went to Steve's house to borrow his bike trainer. He had left it out in his driveway for me.

Decided to ride the Sempre in to work this morning so I could take it over to Bikes and More to have a noise checked out afterward. It took forever to leave home because I kept remembering stupid stuff I had to do like clean a litterbox and bring in the paper. Since it was Sunday morning and I was running late I couldn't resist trying to beat my fastest time to work. I got there in just under 18 minutes on the Cortina on one golden Sunday long ago on a morning that will go down in cycling history.

So I hit the stop watch and immediately realized that it had rained the night before and the Sempre obviously has no mud flaps. I was wearing my work clothes and this was going to be messy. Undeterred I rode out. I wasn't going completely bat shit insane with the pedaling but it was a good effort. The backpack felt weird since I'm used to the panniers. I had to slow down in a couple of areas but pretty much hit all green lights. I arrived at the door of Walgreens at just under 18 minutes. So pretty much the same time as my Herculean effort on the Cortina. My pants were dirty and wet and the Sempre was pretty gunked up as well.

That afternoon leaving work one of the guys that works in the store saw the bike and was really excited about it. He likes bikes and is half Italian. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was actually made in Taiwan.

So I rode over to B&M. I walked in to hear Chandler exclaim, "I just assembled a tricycle!" I didn't want to know what that was about. Thankfully Brian was there. He made some joke about how fast the Sempre was. At that point I'd had it with everyone lauding this overrated bike. I explained my theory about how when I pedal at a certain cadence with no wind or hills it goes the same speed as the Imola did. His eyes got all wide and for a second I thought he was going to say "But he did the Thriller!". Instead he started with the whole carbon frame stiffness BS.

I was like whatever let's just deal with this chain noise. So he showed me how I could make it go away by pushing the shifter in halfway. Then he dropped some bike hitch science on me.

I rode home and gave the Sempre some TLC, cleaning the dirt off the frame and chain. Then I hung it back in the shed until next time.

Probably flared up my back problem from biking a lot lately because my right lower leg was kind of numb at work today (referred pain). First Saturday at work with the schedule where I have no help. It was just as well because I was ripping massive farts the whole time. Had to deal with frickin' methheads coming in one after another to buy Sudafed. After the first two I told them to fuck off. One meth dude was wearing a giant cowboy head and actually drooled this yellow slime right in front of the counter. Just when things couldn't get worse the store's music played the worst song of all time- Bob Seger's "Katmandu".

Wasn't really cold biking home tonight. Biked mostly standing up which I do sometimes when I'm rocking some sick ass jams. Thought about stopping at Sweet Dreams but blew it off for V's poundcake and ice cream.

Last night riding home from work I wore my "Everything Is Illuminated" miner's hat bike helmet light. Still wasn't paying enough attention to fully avoid the massive amount of broken glass in the bike lane. Still the kevlar tires held up.

This morning started off as a cold ass ride down the Hawthorne trail. Finally rode the Peugeot for a few spins at the rest stop. The Sempre rode fine other than this odd noise coming from the chain. Saw a lot of wildlife including an older cyclist in a Pink Floyd bike jersey.

Did the Millhopper route this morning in pretty good time. Had a tailwind on the way back which felt good after battling into the wind the majority of the last several rides. Saw I dead cat on the side of the road though which made me sad. It was a fluffy tabby, likely hit by a car. Looked like it had been a good kitty. I wish pets lived forever.

Had a first this morning when I rolled to the intersection of 34th and University. There was a biker in front of me and another biker pulled up behind. So there we were three bike dudes at a stoplight freezing our nuts off. I was actually pretty comfortable underneath my layers. I was firing a lot of snot and the balaclava was kind of itchy, but the boots and the gloves performed admirably.

Passed Biking Hispanic Lady (BHL) in her winter ensemble.

I like riding by Littlewood Elementary's Christmas tree sale on the corner of 34th and 8th Ave. Seeing the little kids milling around and all the trees warms even my Grinch like heart.

Cops were up and down 34th st pulling people over during the ride home. I brought home a ton of paper from work to recycle . The weight in my panniers threw off my balance a little. Kind of like when I go grocery shopping. The worst is when I have like a watermelon on one side and toilet paper in the other and eggs in the backpack. Pulling that off is like jugging a chainsaw, a raisin and a bowling ball.

Did I mention I accidentally ran over an animal carcass yesterday during the Racetrack loop?

Another rough day on the road with the Sempre. Did the 29 mile Race Track loop again. Finished in about the same time as last week. I felt a little more comfortable in that I avoided the nut shattering speed bumps this time. Even though this is a short ride by cyclists' standards I get bored out there. All alone in the middle of nowhere, gloomy and overcast. There is one section by the UF Dairy Unit that carries the overpowering smell of cow shit.

On the cool down ride back home I saw another one of those bicycles with a motor on it. I guess I kind of see the point, but I couldn't help but stare in disdain. He wasn't pedaling at all. The rider must have noticed because he hollered some indecipherable piece of wisdom at me.

Earlier I had dropped off the Cortina to Bikes and More. The rear wheel was rubbing on the brake. Broken spoke. They went above and beyond to get it back to me same day so kudos to Bikes and More.

Now I can ride it to work in the 32 F weather expected tomorrow. I have all of my cold gear laid out ready to go. The heated gloves are charging. I've got the glove liners, smart wool socks, balaclava face mask, winter bike clip in boots, under armor pants, sweat shirt and orange windproof jacket. The ride is only 20-25 minutes long, but that's all it takes for my fingers and toes to get totally fucked up.