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My boss is back from a two month leave of absence. Lately it has not been a given that people would return from such things, so we were all very excited that he had actually done so. One of his lieutenants organized, and the other provided, some cheesecakes to celebrate. I love cheesecake, but I can't eat the ones you find in most grocery stores. And I had some mascarpone cheese taking up space in my fridge, and (finally) some weather cool enough for baking cheesecake.

At first I thought I was just going to make a little mini cheesecake in one of my 4" springform pans. This would be one egg worth, though the recipe I use is very flexible and fractions other than quarters are quite possible even though it calls for four eggs. Then it was two minis. But ultimately I realized that I didn't have a plausible plan for what to do with the rest of the mascarpone if it didn't all go into cheesecake, so I made a full (or technically very slightly more than full, see above re: flexible) batch in a 9" pan.

I sort of had a plan to get this to work on my bicycle, but only sort of. And I took longer getting out the door than I'd intended. So when miss_chance suggested I drive as she didn't need the car, I realized I could get a bunch of other car related work errands done at the same time and not have to worry about serving delicious cheesecake soup to my coworkers.

Our group recently moved locations in the building and there isn't a collective bookshelf in the new space. I'd offered to bring something in, and in the meantime had found a suitable bookshelf being given away curbside and brought it home for this purpose. Into the back of the car it went.

I have a shredder, but it doesn't do thick items like CDs or credit cards. The shred box at work can handle these no problem. I keep a small pile of things to take to work to shred, and into my backpack that went. We also had some e-waste, and that went into the backpack too. None of this was too big to fit into my panniers, but it was still nice to have it out of my way.

We have a bike cage at work, to encourage people to ride in. Sometimes, though, folks will ride in and then for whatever reason accept a ride home from a coworker. Usually said coworker can't get their bike into their car, so the rider's bike is stuck at work and now they need some other way to get in the next morning. I have a large number of trunk-top bike racks and got permission from the facilities people to put one of these in the bike cage for general use. But these are awkward to carry on a bike, so into the car it went, too.

Speaking of awkward to carry on a bike, a while ago biking to work I came across a large collapsing delivery bag lying in the middle of the bike lane. I moved it out of the way -- and then, not seeing anyone whose bag it might be, folded it up and carried it, rather awkwardly, to work with me. It has been sitting there ever since, waiting for me to come in with a better way to carry it. Now it's in my basement, with a bunch of other (mostly non-folding) packing totes and containers.

I'd hoped that doing all this in a car would also keep me from getting rained on. But as it happens the driving I did wasn't in the rain, or even on particularly wet roads. That's a pity, because we need the rain.

Rode 81 miles today without exactly intending to. By which I mean I only brought enough food for a 50 mile ride. I did stop a few times for things like apple dumplings but my ride did not take me past ice cream I could eat so I was pretty hungry by the time i got home.

Next time i do this I'll have to make sure the route passes by Meletharb, so that I don't have this problem.

I left the house this afternoon into the perfect weather figuring I'd see where my bike took me. The first stop was Bfresh for some snacks. Outside, Redbones had closed the street for an Oktoberfest. I bought a plate of food and ... let's just say that of the traditional Oktoberfest comestibles, only the beer is really in Redbones' core competency.

I don't get to Karl's Sausage Kitchen much now that they have moved to Peabody from Saugus—really only when I am on my way home from something in that direction. Or, it turns out, when a sufficiently heinous crime against bratwurst has been committed. Google sent me right past a friend's new house in Lynn to get there so I had a chance to ride with him, have some much superior sausage, and meet the dog he's got now that he's not renting any more.

I made pretty good time getting out there, but only because Kane's Donuts was closed for the day by the time I rode past. There were a couple of fun hills, too. The one up to Breed's Pond in Lynn was delightfully evil. It's also perfectly placed on my friend's commute home from work so that he's nicely warmed up when he gets there, and also doesn't have to worry too hard about getting the rest of the way home if he knocks himself out on it. It almost makes me miss climbing Clarendon Hill on my way home from Voltdb every day.

The forecast for Saturday is for rain, so I am postponing my birthday bike ride to Sunday, still at 10am.

We'll be riding a little over 48 miles, out the Minuteman, through Carlisle and Chelmsford to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, south through a corner of Acton to Concord where we'll have lunch, and then back in via the Minuteman. There are a few hills but MapMyRide says nothing steeper than 3%.

We'll be riding slowly -- between 10 and 12 mph -- and taking lots of breaks. We'll probably get back to Somerville between 4 and 5 in the afternoon.

Feel free to join for all or part -- hope to see you then!

Dear anyone I know at a company that's working on self-driving cars,

I write to you as a person who regularly rides a bicycle in the Boston area to say that I think what you are doing is great and I look forward to seeing the results of your work very soon. You don't have very far to go before your cars can drive better than the drivers here! But what I am most looking forward to most of all is that unlike Boston drivers, self-driving cars use their turn signals! In fact I wonder if you couldn't implement self-signaling cars right now. Many drivers are already running a navigation app on their phone and have a bluetooth connection to their car. The phone knows when the driver is going to make a turn and these days the car's computer has all the connections it needs to be able to connect that to the strange yellow flashing things on the sides of the cars the purpose of which people around here don't seem to understand. Maybe you could even use the blinky things on the dashboard (and the handy synchronized audio feedback) to help guide drivers so they don't miss their turns.

Much love,

Me


PS: Sorry for spoiling the patent idea if you hadn't thought of this.

Yesterday I took part of a personal day and went for a nice long bike ride, in summer kit.

Today I commuted to work, and rode home wearing (besides business casual) long underwear, wool socks, a good foul weather coat, helmet cover, cashmere hat, neoprene face mask, and my new winter gloves. And a sweatband, because that's how I roll. This was just about perfect.

The gloves, Specialized Element 1.5s that I picked for the fit and because they'll take liners, aren't really cold-rain gloves, and I have another pair that are. But I wanted to see how they'd do, and the answer is that for 15 or 20 minutes at least they were just fine. This bodes well for how they'll do in real snow, when the rain gloves are out of their depth temperature-wise.

I am turning 43! Help me celebrate this coming Sunday by joining me on a 43 mile bike ride from my house in Davis Square to Concord and Carlisle. Meet at 10:00; if you RSVP we'll wait for you (or stop along the route to meet you).

The ride goes past several bike shops and at least three ice cream parlors. We'll be going slowly and making plenty of stops -- this should be a good ride for those who have never gone as far before. It's impossible to completely avoid hills in New England but this ride won't have any monsters on it.

Once again I plan to celebrate my birthday by riding my age in miles. I'd love it if you came and joined me! Some details:

• We'll leave from my house around 10am, have lunch in probably Concord, and expect to be back in Somerville around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
  
• This is a social ride. No particular level of fitness is assumed. We will regroup at the tops of the two or three steepest hills, and ride together otherwise.
  
• Please come ready to ride, with tires inflated and nothing requiring immediate repair. If you haven't ridden your bike yet this season, take it out for a spin around the block beforehand to make sure it's in working order. There are several bike shops right on the route if anything breaks on the ride, and time to stop at them if need be, but I'm hoping we don't need to stop at the one that's in the first mile.
  

Hope to see you there!

ETA: Right, I knew I was forgetting something important. This is on my actual birthday: Saturday, May 12.

I have two bikes right now.

One is the Ciocc, which is a 1991 restoration of a 1986 bike. Its lowest gear is a 42x21. Riding it on hilly training rides in New England is a stretch. It's not up to mountains, even without panniers. It's not able to take panniers, even if you somehow got a rack on it. And it needs some work on its frame much sooner than 3000 miles from now. Riding this across the country would be like driving a Model A across the country. People do it, but not without spending a whole lot of money along the way.

The other is the Cannondale, which I rode to Montreal and back last year. At that time I put it together according to an ease-of-maintenance philosophy which I no longer subscribe to. And even at the time it was clear that this was the last gasp for this bike. The front end is in bad shape and I did the last rebuild I was going to be able to do. The wheels are both in really bad condition. The drivetrain is nearly as old as the antique drivetrain on the Ciocc. About the only bright spots are the seat (which is the only seat I trust for multiday tours) and the lovely front brake.

So, I've been test riding bikes. I'm a little hard to fit, since my arms are so short. This makes a Surly not work for me -- nor a stock Gunnar or Waterford or really a whole lot of otherwise very, very nice touring bikes. I don't have time to have one custom built. There are some cyclocross bikes with short top tubes and long chainstays -- like the latest edition of the Bianchi Volpe -- and some of those have eyelets for front racks, too. There are some touring bikes that might more or less work, and I have plans to test ride some of those. And then...

And then there's the Trek 520. This was the first model Trek came out with, 30 years ago. They've updated it, but not in radical ways. On paper, the fit is perfect. I wasn't expecting to like the components, but then I test rode one. I love this bike's drivetrain. I love the handlebars. The bike as a whole is incredibly well behaved -- just the thing for a long tour. The brakes are grabby -- but I can put on the front brake from the Cannondale, and the matching rear brake that wouldn't fit on the Cannondale but will work here. It will need new fenders, and racks (I don't trust the rear rack it comes with), and I'll move the seat over too.

I haven't actually bought this bike, because I want to give the Volpe a chance. But every time I ride it I'm more convinced it is the bike for me.

Thinking of coming on my birthday ride this Saturday? Haven't ridden that far recently? Some tips:

• Take the bike out for a mile or two (or five, if it has been a while since you rode it at all) beforehand to make sure it doesn't have a slow tire leak or some other mechanical problem.
  
• Gloves are every bit as important safety gear as a helmet.
  
• The current weather forecast is for the rain to hold off until the evening, but New England weather is changeable. Don't overdress. Do wear synthetics, and the most useful piece of extra clothing you can bring is probably a lightweight polypropylene undershirt.
  
• This ride is long enough that you'll need to drink water on it. And most likely, you'll need to replenish electrolytes too -- not doing so can lead to cramps which can be quite uncomfortable. Gatorade helps some but not as much as you think. Bananas, V8 juice, and raisins are all excellent.