Busy

All I have are excuses. I want to post, but school is currently destroying me. Only a couple more weeks until the end of the semester and a couple months worth of work to do. So I stay up late, don't see my family and live a fairly miserable existence for two more weeks until the semester is over. Hopefully it was worth it, I think this semester took a year off my doctoral program (not credit wise, but because all of my classes this semester are only offered once a year).

So here's what keeps me sane:
First off, my wife who takes care of EVERYTHING for me, except for my schoolwork. She's amazing!!
Second, my bike ride. Getting outside, breathing fresh air and relaxing everyday surrounded by the silence of nature has kept me sane.

Today, I want to write about my bike ride home last night. I was riding along the same road that I take every day. It parallels the railroad tracks and it's pretty dark, except some faint city lights coming through the train (and my incredible new headlight, but it doesn't point toward the sides). So I'm riding along and I see this little wave of shadows that seems to be following me, just off to the side. I put it off as the dancing shadows from the train that I often see. Then there was a truck approaching from the other direction with his headlights on and it changed the shadows a little so that I looked over and could see the silhouettes of about eight deer that were bounding along side me. At first I was thinking how cool it was that I was riding with the deer. Then I though about the oncoming truck and the fact that they could be started and turn right in front of me. That wouldn't be good, so I came to a stop, and luckily so did the truck. The eight deer passed between me and the truck and bounced off into a field.

That is why I ride my bike, because I get to ride with the deer rather than being afraid of what the deer will do to my car when I hit a it. I get to experience my commute instead of being a passive observer of an outside world.

Let there be light

Last night I finished truing the wheel and I got it all set up so I could use it on my ride in this morning. For the first time in the year and a half I've been commuting, I could see the road while i was riding at night. Now I can share some of the stories that I was afraid would upset my mother and grandmother because the problem has been cured.

For example, there's an area on my commute where I ride through a sort of swamp land next to the railroad tracks. It's on a road, but there is no development around so it's pretty dark. There also aren't any trees, except for a section about 400 meters long where there's a canopy of trees over the road. So on my commute I can sort of see on the open road (at least distinguish road from not road), and I usually ride right on the yellow line because that's the only part of the road that isn't black. The section that goes through the trees has no yellow line and the shadows from the trees make it so I can't tell road from not road. Luckily, there are a couple of street lights at the other end of the trees so I have something to aim for. So you go under the trees and it's like riding through a pitch black tunnel, you just shoot for the light at the end (and that was with my old headlight on). Today, for the first time in the dark, I was able to see the road I was riding on. I think this will be a good change

The other part of the ride where I have been a little nervous at night is at an intersection in the country with no lights around. Like I said before, I generally just follow the yellow line, because I can see it. At the intersection, the yellow line goes away, I have to turn left and hope to find the yellow line for the other road without riding into the ditch that I can't distinguish from road. Luckily I was batting a thousand and had never ended up in the ditch, but this morning I could actually see the road as I went through the corner. Oddly enough, i think i was able to take that corner faster today that I have previously. I'll write more about the new light when I have a bit more time, but as a preview, I love it!

On a completely different note, The Mugwump made a funny comment last night. He was sort of being a pill, and he wanted Mom to come in to the playroom while he got his things out of the dryer. She was busy, so I went in to help. He looked at me and said, "Dad, I love you, but I want someone pretty in the room, that's why I need Mom." They're so cute at that age.