Getting my legs back

I'm back!

After about 10 months working 50 miles away, I'm back working in Springfield. Woohoo!

I thought I could do it, make the transition from bike commuting to car commuting. After getting laid off from the newspaper, I really wanted to get back to work right away so I took an early job offer in marketing. In Kirbyville, Mo. That's an hour-long drive. Each. Way.

OMG, you guys, I thought that drive would kill me. I was getting up so early, and leaving for work before the kid even woke up. Plus, I had to drive all that way on the highway with elderly tourists and road ragers. Everything that was awful about driving to work happened during that drive to work. And then I'd have to leave early so I could rush back to town in time to pick up the little guy before his school closed for the day. And then there was hardly time to make dinner and hang out with my dudes before bed. And then I'd have to do it all over again.

Fortunately I was allowed to work from home two days every week, but it turned out I didn't like working from home very much. I wore a lot of stretchy pants and didn't bother fixing my hair on those days. It's also worth mentioning that that we had already downsized to one car so the dudes were left to bike to town through the winter.

I was sitting down all the time, I didn't feel good about myself and was so anxious I was breaking out in hives a lot of the time.

And so it happened that an entrepreneur Cody recently met needed to make an addition to her marketing staff, and I landed that gig!

The people in Kirbyville were so, so nice. I'll never forget them. But the lifestyle just wasn't what I wanted for myself, or for my family.

Now Cody and I work across the street from each other. I bike our boy to school in the morning. Cody and I bike home together for lunch. The hills are a little more challenging than I remember them being last summer, but that's okay. It feels like I get to fall in love with urban cycling all over again.

If you're going to bike, you might as well be fancy

Was just looking through files on my computer and found this:

Wowzers.

Cody always looks nice for work, but this was a special day back in June. There was a press conference and everything. Big research announcement.

Why didn't I post this back then? No idea. But I sure wish I did.

How not to bike in the rain

It's no secret I hate biking in the rain. The streets get gross. My hair gets frizzy. My clothes get wet. But I always wanted to try biking with an umbrella.

It's so unsafe.

Having access to only brake on slickery streets can only lead to disaster. What you see here was just a two-block experiment, but even that made Cody really nervous.

We put together some real tips for biking in the rain for the Healthy Living Alliance. See what you really need to take into account when cycling on a rainy day.

Red lights

I was out with Cody, waiting in the left-turn lane at a red light, wearing this getup, when a lady in a car pulled up in the going-straight lane next to us. She rolled down her window and said, "Hey! I like your dress!"

Whoa.

I was so flattered that I immediately made Cody pull over and take my picture to commemorate the occasion.

And last weekend at Bicycles and Brews, I was in the middle of a pack of riders at the beginning of our 17-miler when we stopped for a red light. Rather than wait behind the pack, a city bus scooted up the lane of oncoming traffic and waited there to pass us. 

I sometimes drive, too, and can certainly understand the desire to pass slower-moving vehicles safely, but blocking oncoming traffic at an intersection just seems...less than safe.

Am I wrong? What's a driver supposed to do in this situation?

Stringer bike date

Cody and I hired a sitter and went out on a bike date. Yay! We rode around downtown to take pictures. This flea market, the STD,  is as delightfully shady as you imagine. I hope they still have those wonderful wicker chairs I spied in there (hands off, Springfield. I have big plans for those).

How great is this mural? We work across the street from each other, and both see this every day. Downtown's buildings are full of great old art like this. It's one of the things I love about this city. Why, though, is Cody standing like that?

It's because I asked him to stand near the World's Biggest Turd. This photo doesn't even do it justice. Freakish, it was.

I tried to sneak some behind-the-back photos while we were riding. I was not as sneaky as I thought I was.

Anyway, we biked around some more until we found a rolling pub crawl. There was a great deal of awesome, including this Frankenbike.

So much about the group was amazing. We rode with them for a bit. Riding in a group of around 50 strong was so unexpectedly wonderful. It made me miss our Sunday Joyrides. We didn't really know anybody, but we did get to talk to some very nice people, who all seemed like old friends, which always makes for a fun atmosphere.

One of the places we went did not have adequate bike parking so some of the riders got creative. This, we liked.

Anyway, we eventually split off from the group and met up with a couple of friends at a sweet little place called Skinny Slim's, where I had the most delightful Old Fashioned. It was easy to spot my date in a crowd.

When we went outside to show my new bike box off to our buddies, and found a smoker's empty in my rig. Awesome.
Anyway, we do not often get the chance to have a night out together. Now that we've found a great sitter, we hope we can make this a more regular activity. Maybe, with more awesome and less littering.

Open letter to the lady who almost killed us today

Dear lady,

I'm sure the thing you were digging around for in your SUV's console was very important. So important, in fact, that you failed to notice your light at the intersection of Grant and Walnut was red. So riveting that you failed to see the pair of cyclists in the middle of the intersection directly in front of you. So captivating that you didn't seem to hear me bellow into your passenger window a few panicked 'HEYHEYHEYs'. That thing in your console must have been pretty bewitching.

Luckily my husband makes sure our brakes are in excellent condition.

Sincerely,
Ginger

The name of the game is comfort

It's not the most stylish thing I've ever worn, but it's comfortable. Bonus points: it's shiny.

I'm a big fan of visibility, and this simple sequined tank was one of my favorite summer shirts last year. It's just layered over one of Cody's undershirts and paired with this ancient, stretchy pencil skirt. I swapped the flats for wedges at the last minute, and I stayed comfy for both my commutes.

Hope you're staying cool out there

How to handle the hot

Have you ever tried to balance on a bike while pressing a button at the precise moment you're directly in front of a camera? It's not easy. Forgive the face.

Anyway, you want to know what to wear on a hot, hot bike ride? Here's the answer:

Don't wear much.

This here is a flimsy cocktail dress I found in the back of my closet, and haven't worn in ages. It looks a lot shorter than it did to me a couple days ago when I wore it to work, but wear it I did. I threw leggings underneath it for the commute, and switched those out for a blazer to church it up for the office.

I am a terrible blogger

I know I've left you guys hanging, but I've been busy. There's something about working full time and chasing a toddler and hanging out with Cody and keeping my vegetable garden alive that makes opening the computer one more time during the day just really hard to do. Not because I don't enjoy blogging, but because I enjoy it all, everything, so much, especially the part where I hang out with Cody.

Anyway, speaking of the job, I recently wrote a couple things for the paper related to city cycling. One thing was an informational guide to biking around Columbia. The other was a little thing on trending styles that work for bike commuters.

I haven't forgotten about you. I've just been preoccupied. I'll be better, I promise.

This is how I got snot and peanut butter on my pants

These pictures I post, they are taken with my old-but-trusty Nikon D70 set up on a tripod. I have a remote clicker to trip the shutter. This clicker is the source of my boy's distress here. Lately he loves to "help" me outside. Highly adorable in the garden, but less so when he's just snacked on peanut butter and we're on our way out the door to go to the sitter's.

He was profoundly saddened to learn he couldn't hold the clicker at the exact moment he wanted, and expressed himself by wiping his drippy nose and peanut butter mouth on my pants.

You know what? I wore those pants to work anyway.

Slim, stretchy pants with flats, a bright tank and a spangly necklace are pretty perfect for biking to work. I just threw on a blazer when I got there.

And I wasn't going to let a couple of boogers change those plans.

I am wearing maternity clothes

BUT, NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT.

Let me explain. I was perusing Riyoko's urban bike wear catalog when I saw her shirt bands. They're just a long circle of stretchy fabric used for layering underneath shorter shirts so you don't go riding around town with whale tail. "Self," I said to myself, "You have some of those."

Back when I was carrying our boy, I got a lot of mileage out of my belly band from Target. A pregnancy belly band is made to hold a pregnant lady's pants together when she can't zip up her regular pants anymore, but isn't yet big enough for maternity duds.

I kept some maternity clothes around in case Cody and I decided to have another kid. When I came across Riyoko's shop I decided to dig out my belly bands and try 'em out. They worked like a charm!

The bands made for cycling are sort of pricey. I haven't seen 'em in real life so I don't really know how they differ from the bands I already have, but they cost about twice as much as the things I got at Target, which is motivation enough for me to keep on wearing maternity clothes, even when I'm not expecting.

Hasty blogging

Not the most flattering pose, I know, but it's the only one I got before the little dude needed to be held. It was a spectacularly beautiful day for biking around yesterday. Probably it will be a lot more humid and way less pleasant today, but it could be worse, right?

Okay, I'm headed out the door. Happy cycling, you loyal readers!

These shoes get cat calls

I actually had a woman stop me in the street after I locked up my bike and was walking into my office to tell me how much she loved my shoes. This made my whole day

They are great biking/working shoes. Great for cycling because there's a strap to hold them on my feet, the heel and sole are substantial and they're pretty comfy. Great for working because they go with almost everything and get compliments from strangers on the street.

Anyway, I opted for tights-as-pants for the commute and brought a pencil skirt for work. It wasn't until later that I realized it's way too big for me right now. Oh, well. There are worse things, right?

This shirt doesn't have a top button, but luckily I have a large collection of vintage clip-on earrings. One was enough to hold my top together in an ornamental fashion without poking holes in my new blousy blouse.

This, we call the Ozark Hunker

Our boy regularly assumes this position, which we call the Ozark Hunker. Cute, huh?

Anyway, here I illustrate the best tool in my bike commuting wardrobe arsenal: layers. It definitely felt like summer outside today, but it also felt like winter in my office. The t-shirt underneath this dress kept me from getting my dress all sweaty and also gave me an extra layer of insulation for my oh-so-chilly workplace.

I shopped my friend's closet

I have an impeccably-styled friend named Liz. Over the weekend she decided to set aside some things she didn't wear so often anymore, and she let me pick a few things out that caught my eye. A lot of things caught my eye so everything cute you see me in this summer will have come from Liz's closet. She's an avid cyclist as well, and we've been talking for months about having her do a guest post for us. Probably you'll see something from her sooner rather than later.

In other topics, let's talk about breakfast. I don't have time to sit down and eat a regular meal because I'm a very slow eater and I treat every meal like a total dining experience, complete with either literary or televised entertainment.

Since the little dude will not tolerate any such thing, I have to improvise. For months now I've been drinking a breakfast smoothie, and it has proven to be the single most filling and long-lasting breakfast I've ever had, plus I can put it in my reusable Starbucks cup and take it with me everywhere. Here's my breakfast smoothie recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Smoothie

1/2 banana, frozen
5 ice cubes
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
Huge scoop of Jif
1/2 packet of Carnation Instant Breakfast, sugar-free, vanilla
1 tablespoon ground flax

Blend it together and voila! Breakfast!

Hooray for a new route!

I work with a delightful group of people who bike to work religiously. We often talk to each other about what's been happening out on the roads, who we've seen, cool bikes out there and other local bike-related happenings.

One of these coworkers lives in the same neighborhood as Cody and I do. He once mentioned a shortcut he takes that allows him to avoid a busy intersection and a left-hand turn. This alley runs from First to Fourth Streets between Walnut and Ash, which pretty much delivers me directly to my employer's bike racks.

I took this shortcut for the first time this afternoon. Probably I'll never go the old way again. Thanks for the tip, Steve! Great find.

How my Grammy helped me with my hair

It has been just over two months since my grandma died. She was 92. She and my grandpa were married in 1943, and raised eight kids in a tiny pink stucco house in Pueblo, Co., where they both died, he on Christmas Day 2010, she on March 11. Their lifetime of devotion to each other and their family has had a deep and lasting impact on me. She was beautiful, a devoted wife, an excellent mother, a doting grandmother and she made the best tortillas.

Sadly, I wasn't able to make it out to Colorado for her service so I was really, really touched when my mom sent me a Mother's Day package full of things that belonged to my grandma. I got a vintage cami, a peasant skirt a straw pocketbook and several scarves.  These things I will always treasure.

This scarf is one of them.

I was having a bad hair day so I just fixed my bangs, made a bun and tied Grammy's scarf around the whole shebang. It fit under my helmet, required no fussing and was easy to do.

Thanks, Grammy.

Bike to work day

Hooray for Bike To Work Day! I saw six bikes on the rack at work today. Not a record, but it's a solid turnout. I also saw a whole lot of other cyclists out on the road today and absolutely zero d-baggery between motorists and cyclists. In fact, I had a minor chain mishap and a coworker happened by in his Jeep and helped me out. This, I thought, was exceptionally kind (thanks Brennan!).

I also saw a free bike out on somebody's yard over on West Worley. Didn't get a good look at it, but it seemed like a clean rig. All in all, I thought it was a lovely Bike, Walk and Wheel Week. There's a free and untimed walk/bike ride tomorrow. I don't think we'll make it, but it sounds like a whole lot of fun.

The worst

I love this skirt. It's light and roomy, it has pockets, it's surprisingly versatile. And it just makes me feel so pretty! So, at least I was feeling great when a horrible screeching sound started coming from the front of my bike and then this happened...

My front brake fell off my bike. Above, you see the spacer that I picked up off the street. Below you see where the whole thing is supposed to be attached. I have no idea where washer and nut are that should be there. I may have been riding around without them for quite some time. We can't figure out how this could have happened.

Actually, now that I think about it I probably have been riding around with some falling-apart brakes for a while. When Cody took the screw out he found it was bent. This makes us both sad.

I guess we all know what Cody will be working on this weekend in the Tinkery.

Helloooo CoMo!

I don't often change clothes for the bike ride, but some days I just have to wear a narrow skirt, but want to ride my bike anyway. It's the easiest thing in the world to roll a pencil skirt around a pair of pumps and shove the bundle in my pocketbook. it's even easier to roll up a pair of tights and sandals for the work day.

It wasn't so easy to keep my shirt closed for my commute, though. Halfway through my ride in I looked down and found myself displaying an obscene amount of cleavage. Breezy? Yes. Distracting? Absolutely.

There was nothing I could do to fix that mid-ride, but before I left for my evening commute I grabbed a paper clip from my desk and closed the top of my shirt for a worry-free ride home.