Another year down for me.

Since this is the last day... work day, of May I thought I might go ahead and list my bike commuting numbers for the month and some of the things I've seen.

By the time I get back to my car today I will have ridden about 868 miles over 21 work days. All but three days I rode just shy of 42 miles round trip, two days were 45 r/t, and 1 day was 27. This beats my last years record of 823 miles which I thought was already about the best I could possibly do. It's also my very first year that I rode every single day, it helped that it was a good month for weather. I'll probably end up ranked in the top 50 riders in terms of miles out of like 14000 total, and in total I spent about 60 hours in the saddle.

I'm tired, really, really tired. That feeling has seeped into every single thought and aspect of my being. On the weekends I've tried to make plans, but kids allowing I often just find myself laying down and not moving. I'm so tired I have kinda started to understand what crippling depression feels like. But I also feel stronger in general than I have for a long time and the days where the tiredness isn't as bad I actually feel good and quite peppy, so next month when I cut back on distance I think I'm going to start feeling really good most of the time.

Now some of the shit I've seen. First of all I can count about 4 times that I have actually seen shit, real human shit just off the side of the sidewalk. Since a lot of my ride goes through areas where homeless people camp this isn't all that surprising really.

I saw a guy on a unicycle several miles away from anywhere in particular, along one of the busiest and shittiest roads I commute along which has no shoulder, no sidewalk, and the speed limit is 45mph and most of the vehicles are large freight trucks. Hella ballsy as shit.

I saw cyclist get a speeding ticket, he then complained to me before racing on past me, Asshole.

There was the skateboarder who was hit by a car and no one around seemed to be doing anything except one old lady who was calling the paramedics. He was lying in the middle of a 3 lane one way street and cars didn't really seem to know what to do or how to drive around the guy. So I hopped off my bike and checked on the guy, he was conscious but in a lot of pain so I just directed traffic around him until the paramedics arrived then continued on to work.

Saw a car drive the wrong way up a highway offramp and get basically pulverized by a truck coming down. Did not stop for that one.

Also randomly met a girl who was biking to an REI photo shoot, but didn't know how to get there. As it happened it was on my way so she tagged along for a little while, so I might know someone who's going to be in their next catalog.

All in all, an interesting month.