My Evening Commute

[Dickie]

Was not my finest. It started OK as I stopped off at Bikenetic to see Dirt and talk new cross/commuter tires as mine are completely shot and flatting all the time. Dirt was not around but Jan was glad to help out. I left informed but without new rubber for now. Back on the WOD and being careful to elude the dreaded FCPD I slowed at the Grove St. crossing only to be passed by a dude with absolutely no regard for the stop sign. He flew through the intersection just as I was getting clipped in without even a look. He then pulled the ultimate DB move, passing (and nearly clipping) two woman with strollers as they crossed paths with a gentleman walking towards them… yep, four abreast with him at speed. The gentleman yelled and put his hands out for protection and the ladies screamed. I slowed, apologized for his behavior and chased the scum down. As I got next to him (and gestured for him to remove his headphones) I became possessed by a sudden calmness (weird). I decided to politely explain what I had just witnessed and suggested better methods for future situations… he tolerated my intrusion and then I flatted. DANG IT! Luckily it was directly in front of the “Free Air” station on the WOD so I rolled my bike to the station, leaned my steed against the air machine (you can see where this is going), started taking off my back pack when I watched my bike slowly roll forward and fall against the pole…. result:

Needless to say, wasn’t a great ride home.

Topic

[jpaulwhite]

Well I made it home today and managed to get 3 herb plants, a half gallon of Olive Oil, 3 pounds of Butternut Squash, 2 packs of fresh herbs, a jar of wild rice, a bottle of dried Oregano, 2 containers of yogurt (Which I wound up not using by the way, it was marked plain but had a sweet taste) and ummmmm a piece of Ginger root in my backpack. Then I took my work clothes and put them on my rack, along with my work shoes. I need to get my milk crate back on there. That thing made it easy to carry a lot of stuff. With that and some bungee cords you can work wonders lol.

And I feel 10 times as tired as I did this morning. On the plus side I did not stop even once! Where’s that thumbsup Emoticon lol

[hozn]

I had a fun commute home yesterday. Got stung (by a bee? wasp?) on my lip and while I am thankfully not allergic, I swell up quite extremely. I couldn’t eat or talk clearly until the swelling had subsided around 9pm. On the upside, I had a milkshake for dinner.

Better than a few years ago when I got stung between the eyes (behind my glasses) on a pre-work ride to Leesburg and could barely see the rest of the day.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@hozn 92462 wrote:

I had a fun commute home yesterday. Got stung (by a bee? wasp?) on my lip and while I am thankfully not allergic, I swell up quite extremely. I couldn’t eat or talk clearly until the swelling had subsided around 9pm. On the upside, I had a milkshake for dinner.

Better than a few years ago when I got stung between the eyes (behind my glasses) on a pre-work ride to Leesburg and could barely see the rest of the day.

seems to be what the cool kids are doing these days – i got stung on the lip about 3 miles from home on the tail end of a metric century last monday. my stomach was saying “EAT. RECOVERY. FOOD.” my face was saying “BUMMBA. MUMMBA, BUMMBA MUMMBA.”

[DCLiz]

@hozn 92462 wrote:

Got stung (by a bee? wasp?) on my lip

This is my nightmare!

[Steve O]

Me: Traveling south on the MVT between Memorial Bridge and 14th St. Bridge, going 18ish-20ish mph
You: In cars traveling southbound on the parallel George Washington Parkway, going 3ish-6ish mph
Me: SUCKAS!!

Me: Crossing 14th St Bridge into VA after a quick HP lap, going 18ish-20ish mph
You: In cars on the bridge, waiting in line to exit, going 0ish-4ish mph
Me: SUCKAS!

[consularrider]

@Harry Meatmotor 92470 wrote:

seems to be what the cool kids are doing these days – i got stung on the lip about 3 miles from home on the tail end of a metric century last monday. my stomach was saying “EAT. RECOVERY. FOOD.” my face was saying “BUMMBA. MUMMBA, BUMMBA MUMMBA.”

At least my hornet sting on Saturday was on the underside of my upper arm. It still itches, but at least it didn’t affect my ability to speak or eat.

[Powerful Pete]

Wonderful commute home this evening.. the roads were almost dry, one lap of Hains Point and back home. Very pleasant.

Ok, acceptably pleasant. The still sogging wet socks and somewhat wet pad on my Castelli bibs did dampen my enthusiasm somewhat… :rolleyes:

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Steve O 92474 wrote:

Me: Traveling south on the MVT between Memorial Bridge and 14th St. Bridge, going 18ish-20ish mph
You: In cars traveling southbound on the parallel George Washington Parkway, going 3ish-6ish mph
Me: SUCKAS!!

Me: Crossing 14th St Bridge into VA after a quick HP lap, going 18ish-20ish mph
You: In cars on the bridge, waiting in line to exit, going 0ish-4ish mph
Me: SUCKAS!

whenever I see stopped traffic and I’m whizzing by @ 20mph I hope there’s at least one driver in the flock that takes 4 seconds to consider bike commuting. Here’s to hoping!

[Sunyata]

So I am glad I did not read all of the angry bee stories until this morning. On my ride home yesterday, a hornet flew into my jersey and got me five times on the back (the jersey is a little bigger than it should be and he apparently made his way around to the back before he got annoyed). Luckily, I am not allergic, but man oh man did it hurt like crazy!

Lesson learned: Do not ride with jersey half unzipped, no matter how humid it is. 😮

[creadinger]

Picked up my Surly from the shop……..

[Terpfan]

@hozn 92462 wrote:

I had a fun commute home yesterday. Got stung (by a bee? wasp?) on my lip and while I am thankfully not allergic, I swell up quite extremely. I couldn’t eat or talk clearly until the swelling had subsided around 9pm. On the upside, I had a milkshake for dinner.

Better than a few years ago when I got stung between the eyes (behind my glasses) on a pre-work ride to Leesburg and could barely see the rest of the day.

This is sort of my current fear at the end of my trip when I get home. The other week, the neighbor pointed out a huge hornet’s nest in the hedges between our homes that he found when trimming his hedges. I hadn’t noticed it all summer, but it’s positioned in a spot that I routinely ride right next to en route to my shed (no garage for me, but a big enough locking shed for my bike, mower, etc). So now I’m paranoid every time I go by because of the hornets. Their nest is slightly bigger than a basketball, yet they haven’t stung me. Neighbor thinks we wait until the cold kills them, another says just suit up and poison them, and yet another had some beekeeper type strategy to just move their whole nest into the woods. Still a process in the works.

But, I have not been stung in probably five years by anything. Fingers crossed the trend continues!

[creadinger]

@Terpfan 92518 wrote:

This is sort of my current fear at the end of my trip when I get home. The other week, the neighbor pointed out a huge hornet’s nest in the hedges between our homes that he found when trimming his hedges. I hadn’t noticed it all summer, but it’s positioned in a spot that I routinely ride right next to en route to my shed (no garage for me, but a big enough locking shed for my bike, mower, etc). So now I’m paranoid every time I go by because of the hornets. Their nest is slightly bigger than a basketball, yet they haven’t stung me. Neighbor thinks we wait until the cold kills them, another says just suit up and poison them, and yet another had some beekeeper type strategy to just move their whole nest into the woods. Still a process in the works.

But, I have not been stung in probably five years by anything. Fingers crossed the trend continues!

Maybe the best course of action is to take care of them now, by sucking them all into your mouth like a big vacuum cleaner, and then let them kill themselves by stinging the back of your throat Tim Kelley style. He killed that little Bee-atch.

[cyclingfool]

@creadinger 92513 wrote:

Picked up my Surly from the shop……..

Posts involving Surly are certainly worthy of a like, even if in the wrong thread.

[scorchedearth]

@hozn 92462 wrote:

I had a fun commute home yesterday. Got stung (by a bee? wasp?) on my lip and while I am thankfully not allergic, I swell up quite extremely.

The exact same thing happened to me while commuting home last year. With 9 miles to go, I was lucky to have a frozen water bottle handy.

[hozn]

@scorchedearth 92533 wrote:

The exact same thing happened to me while commuting home last year. With 9 miles to go, I was lucky to have a frozen water bottle handy.

Nice — I wish I had had a frozen water bottle! That would have helped. Hopefully I have gotten that statistic out of the way for a few years.

[Author]

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