Red Riding: Cluster****, forgetting stuff and defective stuff

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Cluster****, forgetting stuff and defective stuff

Sunday was a great day to get out on the bike, the new Clemente bridge bike lane was open and it seemed everyone was out jogging, riding a bike and trying the new bike infrastructure. Everyone: noobs, older folks, families with kids in training wheels. WOW. There were also cyclist counting devices installed to count us! Yes! We count!

I decided to ride back and forth on the counters from the Strip and back to the North Shore a few times, because: shopping in the Strip! The gap in infra between the bridge and the bike lane was a challenge for the noobs, they hopped onto the sidewalk, stopped and looked befuddled when cars were parked in the bike lane and made erratic unpredictable moves around the parking garage there.

I nearly got left hooked in the Strip, a pedestrian on a cell phone stepped out in front of me again, cyclists riding on the sidewalk rode out in front of me in an intersection. So much insanity. I ran into PaulB Downtown when the insanity was at it's height and he said: "This is CRAZY!" in regards to the incredible numbers of people in Downtown on a Sunday afternoon.

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Monday was the first day of a season of baseball in Pittsburgh, the Home Opener. I rode down to the park rather early anticipating long lines at the new walk-through metal detectors, no lines though. This was good. However, bike parking: was hard to find! I had to ride past several full racks to find a space.

I'd forgotten to wear my new cycling sandals. I'd left my Birkenstocks on accidentally. Thankfully, they'd didn't fall off in traffic, which is a fear of mine.

Wednesday, I'd forgotten to bring in all my bike shorts I'd laundered. They were all hanging on the clothes line at home. I'd have to run an errand to the Library without them. I'd become accustomed to wearing them: would I survive? Yes, I lived.

Today, I wanted to use some cheap iron-on reflective tape I'd found in bulk at Ollie's. I'd picked up 4 packages of grey and 2 packages of orange.

I was worried it was relegated to Ollies and steeply discounted because it was defective. I was right, partially. The orange worked fine, I tested it on a tee shirt and it adhered like every other iron-on reflective tape I've used and reflects well. I was looking to make one of my thrift store blazers that I wanted to use as commuter gear more visible in the wee dark hours.

The grey was a nightmare to work with: one of the films would not release from the reflective tape, I had to rip off the first strip I'd ironed on and try and remove the clear film before ironing. It was difficult and frustrating, but it worked.