Change.org

Obama has set up a website (www.change.org) for people to write in to propose ideas in the new administration. I've posted a link on the left for you all to click on to promote cycling infrastructure as part of his new economic stimulus package. Give it a whirl. You actually vote by clicking on the vote count button on the page that this links to.

Cold cold cold

Yesterday was balmy and humid, in the mid 70's for most of the day. Then in the Texas tradition of unpredictability, the weather turned. In a matter of hours, the temperature dropped 40°, and it began to snow big fat wet snowflakes. That, in Austin, is a newsworthy event.

The snow, of course, did not stick to anything other than a few car tops and house roofs, and it was all gone not long after the sun came up, but we take what we can get.

It's amazing, though, how quickly I forget what it's like to be cold on the bike. I rode in today, like every day, and became reacquainted with that unique and uncomfortable feeling of being cold and hot at the same time. My clothing consists of an undershirt, a long sleeved cotton henly-style shirt, a felted wool pullover (by Swandri), and a wind-breaker shell that I can zip up and down to control wind exposure. In addition, I wear thick wool socks in my biking shoes, full fingered gloves, and a custom-knit wool cap with ear flaps that goes under my bike helmet. This getup is the result of many winters' worth of refinement; in particular, it was the Boston winters that truly forged my winter biking style. While I don't stop to admire myself in the mirror, but I've been told I'm quite a sight to see...

It takes a little while to get used to it again, though, and this morning was no exception. With a stiff headwind blowing 35° air at my nose, I quickly became reacquainted with the cold-nose, cold-finger, warm core phenomenon. It usually takes about 5-7 minutes of painful effort to get my body heat up until I'm comfortable, and during the warmup there's the terrible tradeoff between riding fast to warm up and getting chilled by the wind at higher speeds. The best way to warm up, really is a hill, where effort is high and speeds are low...

...which brings me to a funny thing. I've long noticed that biking vigorously moves the blood to concentration becomes more challenging. My wife can attest to this since I can't remember anything she tells me when I get home until I've had a moment or two to wind down. So, I've noticed on cool days that it seems like there is a specific place (Rosedale Elementary, if you happen to live in Austin and know where that is) where the air gets warmer on my ride in to campus. I have always attributed this to the heat island effect and to the quirks of local geography. Today, as I was pondering body heat and the best way to warm up, I finally realized that this is not the case at all, and that the air probably does not get warmer at all. The truth is that Rosedale Elementary is at the top of a killer hill, and that I'm warmer at the top, not the air around me... With all the blood in my legs, this has been hard to realize, but I'm sure that's it. It was certainly the case today, when the ride became tolerable at the top of that hill, and I even started to sweat a little in spite of my frozen nose and pinkies.

I'm happy for the cold weather, and I will soak it in and store it up for the summer months that are coming all too soon.

Expedition photos, and my web site

When I was in High School, my family lived for a year in Cambridge England. As part of that experience, I attended a British boys' school (it's co-ed now), which sent a small expedition to the Arctic island of Spitzbergen. My parents offered me the opportunity, and I took it.

Recently I scanned the photos from that trip and uploaded them to Picasa. Then I made a web page to show them off. Find it here. Please don't expect to find much on the rest of the site; there are tidbits, but not much. I don't do this professionally, and I'm busy with a lot of other things. But at least the expedition photos are all commented and in good order. I hope you enjoy them.

I hope that one day, I'm able to provide my own children with the same kind of incredible opportunities that my parents gave me.

BTW this post is cross listed at my other blog.

Two Little Biking Rants

One for the cars:

Why do cars feel the need to accelerate and swerve to get in front of me at a stop light or stop sign!!!?? We're both going to stop anyway, and I'm probably going to pass you on your right anyway. If you don't leave me room to pass, then that's just really rude, and if you do leave me room, what's the point?

And one for the bikers:

Why not stop at stop signs? Especially when there are cars two deep in each direction, when you blow through without a care in the world, it disrupts the turn-taking and does all bike commuters a big disfavor by pissing off the drivers. I'm sympathetic to blowing stop signs on empty residential streets if you at least make a motion of slowing down, but out in the busy-traffic public? Come on!

Yeesh!

Pedal Therapy

I wish I could convey the kind of day it was today: sunny, cool, and quiet with an out-of-place rising current of nonsensical irritation that made me realize I needed to get out and exercise. I realized that I'm addicted to my bike. I found myself looking for an excuse to get out and ride somewhere, so I convinced my son (with whom I had recently snapped out of an unpleasant downward dance of mutual aggravation) to hook up the tagalong trailer and come with me to get a part to repair my chainsaw. On the way, I remember that I had something on hold at the library, so we zipped in to pick it up. Then we spent some time wandering around trying to find the repair shop. While we were finishing up there, I realized there was an archery store nearby that I had always wanted to visit since Ian has expressed some interest in getting a bow. (He's actually made several that work pretty well but have subsequently broken.) Well, it didn't take too long to realize that it was a very high-end store and the least expensive option for a beginner youth bow was far above what I wanted to pay. We went on, and I decided to make a small detour to see the new library branch that's going in, and we happened to be by a friends house, so we stopped in for a visit and a fudgesicle. Then it was home. The trip was about 10 km all together and took something like 2 hours.

I'm sure I wouldn't have wandered around like that in a car. I'd have been worried about gas and taking too long and getting home and probably wouldn't have been paying attention to my surroundings enough. The bike is kind of a refuge for me: I pray, sing, think, listen. It provides a comfortable solitude that is not lonely and that the car does not provide, so I find myself seeking out opportunities to go out and bike.

Plus, there's my odometer obsession, and I was looking for a way to flip 52oo km before the end of the week. I bought the bike (my Crosstown 7) in August of 2007, so that's 5200 km in 16 months, or an average of 325 km per month, or about 83 km per week. Most weeks that I bike I go about 100 km or a little bit more, and there are weeks that we are gone that I don't bike at all, so that seems about right.

Today as we were in the final stretch coming home, the bike felt good, the wind was the perfect temperature, and there was a certain freedom to being out and about with no expense and no stress.  It was therapy.

Robocalls

We have had no fewer than 7 Robocalls on behalf of Senator Cornyn, Congressman McCaul, Senator Obama, Senator McCain, Larry Joe Doherty, etc. Yeesh! We've just stopped answering the phone today, it's so crazy.

Biking Pork

I read here about a piece of pork that got into this $700b bailout bill. The pork is a bill which offers corporations a $20/commuter/month tax credit per cycling employee. While I agree in principle with the result, I have to say I'm not impressed that a senator switched his support of the bailout because of this earmark. Some might call this compromise in action, but I tend to see it as a selfish hold-out for a pet interest. Can I get an Amen, anyone?

Here's the relevant snippet of H.R. 1424  (in full here):

"To provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy... (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)"

...

SEC. 211. TRANSPORTATION FRINGE BENEFIT TO BICYCLE COMMUTERS.

(a) In General- Paragraph (1) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(D) Any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.'.
(b) Limitation on Exclusion- Paragraph (2) of section 132(f) is amended by striking `and' at the end of subparagraph (A), by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (B) and inserting `, and', and by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
`(C) the applicable annual limitation in the case of any qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement.'.
(c) Definitions- Paragraph (5) of section 132(f) is amended by adding at the end the following:
`(F) DEFINITIONS RELATED TO BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT-
`(i) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING REIMBURSEMENT- The term `qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement' means, with respect to any calendar year, any employer reimbursement during the 15-month period beginning with the first day of such calendar year for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee during such calendar year for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee's residence and place of employment.
`(ii) APPLICABLE ANNUAL LIMITATION- The term `applicable annual limitation' means, with respect to any employee for any calendar year, the product of $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during such year.
`(iii) QUALIFIED BICYCLE COMMUTING MONTH- The term `qualified bicycle commuting month' means, with respect to any employee, any month during which such employee--
`(I) regularly uses the bicycle for a substantial portion of the travel between the employee's residence and place of employment, and
`(II) does not receive any benefit described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1).'.
(d) Constructive Receipt of Benefit- Paragraph (4) of section 132(f) is amended by inserting `(other than a qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement)' after `qualified transportation fringe'.
(e) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.

Try as I might, I could not locate the section 132(f) referred to in this final copy. I suppose that's why they hire full time staff, to sort through the tangled wording of such bills. Anyway, shouldn't a bill to provide a tax incentive for bicycle commuting be voted on as a bill to promote bicycle commuting? Here's a short list of some of the other gems tucked away into this one:

• renewable energy credits
• tax credit for fuels used by the steel industry
• clean coal technology investment credit
• CO2 sequestration tax credit
• biofuels tax credits
• plug-in electric vehicle credit
• tax deduction for energy efficient buildings
• tax deductions for domestic hydrocarbon production
• railroad track maintenance
• indian employment tax credit
• duty suspension for wool products and wool research fund
• Sec 401 "permanent authority for undercover operations" !!!
• Sec 503 "exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children"

These are but a few of the many many many tag-ons to this bill. I think we're getting a heck of a lot more than we've bargained for on this one...