What a day, what a day, what a day..... Woke up super early this morning to go to the Hemophilia "Blood Sweat & Gears" 1/2 Century bike ride. It was colder than a witches tit this morning. Was 39 degrees, and very windy. Not to mention, humid - it rained early in the morning.

Got ready, headed out to Reston - had difficulty finding the place. Found it, registered in - my number was 55. Geared me and my bike up. I wasn't exactly what combination of layers to wear. It was really cold. Least it was sunny - at that point, there was a fraction of a chance that it may rain.

Went with a heavy-duty layer option - neoprene scullcap, gloves, long tights, shoe covers, long sleeve inner "dry shirt" and my new winter bike jacket. I stayed toasty warm, except at stops - I was sweating like a pig inside - but "dry".

The whole ride went really smooth with the exception of at around mile 35, it decided to rain. Not hard, just drizzle. Did so all the way back. Just annoying, The entire time I was thinking, this is gonna be a short ride (it was - and it wasn't). 50 miles is nothing to sneeze at, but sheesh - I felt like the glory was tarnished - like I was cheating. I usually do between 50-60 miles every saturday and sunday. This was just a training session that I paid $ for the charity.

The folks who ran the fund raiser were really nice - they had a quaint Fall BBQ at the end - with the best homemade pulled BBQ pork (sandwiches). I had to have 2 of them, with the spicey vinegar dressing and cole slaw, Carolina style.

Jiffy Lubed my car, washed it, came home - showered, then went out looking at cars and to dinner with my parents at a neat seafood restaurant. I had the oddest dish - but very good. Two types of shrimp - Shrimp stuffed with crab meat and pecorino cheese, baked - and En Brochette, shrimp stuffed with Monterey Jack Cheese and wrapped in Bacon. Very good.

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Welp, long ass day at work. Stormy/chilly 20 mile "stretch out" bike ride. Time for an early bedtime (gotta get up early to go to the Blood, Sweat & Gears Hemophilia Half Century [50 miles] bike ride). It's gonna be cold cold cold - maybe in the upper 30s and low 40s all morning. I'm prepared.

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Oh grody, just burped up some baked salmon I had for dinner.

What a tedium day. Nothing spectacular about work, twas that...just work. Went on a nice 41 mile bike ride afterwards. Comfortable biking weather - almost chilly, very dark at the end, but fantastic weather. May rain tomorrow night - will take a short 12-20 miler to stay stretched out for the 1/2 century (50 miles) on Saturday.

I may start looking for a new car this weekend. The "operative" word here is "look". Pajoratively speaking - I need to get a new car before the end of February, which is when my warranty runs out. No way in hell am I gonna spend out of pocket expenses for repairs (like what I spent on that last window motor replacemant debacle [over $1000] a few weeks ago).

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Another day, another donut. It's definately Fall now - leaves are changing, gotten chilly, getting darker. Had to break out the feather comforter last night - felt nice, damn good sleeping weather.

Work was just simple today - almost stupid. Some days you are busier than snot, the next - just barely awake. Fortunately, more snot these days.

It was stormy this afternoon, and the temp dropped - but I was still determined to take in my bike ride. I suited up - it was raining and cold. Screw it - had a great 41 mile ride. I felt hermetically sealed in my neoprene bike tights, shoe covers, gloves and my polyproplene shell. I sweat like a mo-fo, but I was "dry". Came back in the dark - with some dude who was commuting home. He made an interesting observation (as we were crossing an intersection - people stopped and let us go) - he had noticed a severe increase of how motorists stop for bicyclists at bike intersections since this past summer, when Lance Armstrong won his 6th Tour De France. Lance is now a household name - the level of awareness that people have of cyclists has risen - therefore motorists give them the "right of way" more often. I have to agree with that theory.

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Great day at work. Great 39 mile bike ride (chilly). Looking forward to the Blood, Sweat & Gears 1/2 Century (Hemophilia Half Hundred) this weekend. Gotta take care of some computer stuff, and a mini crisis - no biggie.

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I wish everyday was Columbus day - in terms of commuting to work. Being a Federal holiday - the roads were totally clean this morning (lot of Federal agencies here) - took me 25 minutes to get to work, as opposed to the regular hour and 15 minutes to go 17 miles.

Work sped by - good to have a project that encompasses you. Got all wrapped up for my ride (the temperature dropped) - it was a really chilly ride. Well, when you are out in low 45 degree weather, in the dark doing anything for 2 hours you get chilly.

I biked out to Peonnian Springs and back, 43 miles. On the way out, I biked with this one dude who was drafting me for a bit then finally saddled up, we got to talking. He's been commuting to work 3 days a week, 20 miles each way - for 14 years on the W & OD bike trail. he was an interesting guy, told me about how the trail has changed in that time. Now it's almost suburban - back in the beginning - was purely rural. I said farewell to him as I turned around in Peonnian Springs.

On the way back, another biker saddled up to me as it was getting really dar - I had on my lights. He says "'ya mind if I bike with ya til Ashburn? I forgot my lamps" I was like sure. I recognized him as one of the guys I biked with on the Reston Century back in July. We reminiced - it was a really hot day - and here we were biking in the dark, 45 degrees outside. He left me at Ashburn and I continued on - the battery on my light ran out about a mile from my car - It was difficult to see, but I got back. I need to charge it daily now - I've been charging it every 3 days.

Got my "flash stick" in the mail today - it's a mini-portable memory drive. Holds a Gigabyte of data on it - 1000 megabytes of space to transport. The things is tiny (1.5 inches long, 1/2 inch wide, 1/4 inch thick), fits in a USB port, no drivers needed.

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YAY! Re-formatted the hard drive and re-installed 98 (now just need to upgrade to XP here soon). What a pain in the butt, even as prepared I was - all the tiny details. Since ya start from scratch, you have to think backwards to what you do, what you need. For example, I have a plug-in type flash card, it needed a driver, had to go online to get the driver, downloaded it, but I needed the Winzip utility to unzip it...the list goes on. Took me 3 hours to format (wipe drive clean) and reinstall OS, small apps, and configure internet/network settings, reinstall fonts, all pertinent settings to what it was, printer/fax, et al. Phew.

Went on a spectacular 46 mile bike ride this late afternoon - the "Annondale loop". It was so pretty, weather oh-so-perfect. One highlight on the ride - a bicyclist heading towards me alerted me "Cat ahead!" (cyclists have a tendency to overwarn people of things ahead - glass! deer! car back!, et al) But Cat? I laughed, but sure enough as I rolled over the summit of that hill, there was this jet black cat swaggering across the bike trail. I had to stop. Number one - he was a spitting image of "Stud" one of my family's cats as I grew up (who has since passed a few years now). Totally jet black cat, orange/yellow eyes. So this cat came right up to me and demanded attention (like Stud). Now I see why the warning, not just a black cat crossing the path ahead of me (cliche "bad luck" for the superstitious)...but one who will demand attention. It was also a very October/Halloweeny cliche - this black cat amongst the orange and yellow leaves on the ground.

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