All the talk about commuting on a 990 over in Orange Crush has me wanting to adjust my current ride into work. In fact, work is slow, and I am jonesing for any ride at all, RIGHT NOW. Now, you gotta understand something right up front. I don't have a commute in the sense that most of you do. In fact, even if I did live in one of those big concrete jungles that inspire so many to commute at all, the fact that I live a whole .6 miles from my work would probably mean that I'd walk rather than deal with even that whole half-mile of cage-borne madness. But I don't live in one of those places, and most mornings I see somewhere between two and five cars on my way to work, so I ride. Since I go to work most days between 5:30 and 6:00am, extending the commute is not attractive to me, as these are the DARK hours. Not dark as in no light, but DARK as in the Forest Rats are out and I don't need one in my lap. Besides, my wife prefers me to take a little time on the way home to get work out of my system, so I get a pass in the evenings... But, I digress. === While Wretched waits patiently in the parking lot (Who?!? - see: Wretched Excess), my day is DRAGGING. Don't know what's up, maybe folks didn't get their reminder calls, but they're sure not showing up for their appointments. The ultrasound closet is quiet, but I'm stuck sitting here in case the next one actually shows up. Cue the crickets... It's a beautiful day outside, or so I'm told: About as warm as I like it, but not yet too hot. My boots taunt me from the corner: As my screen saver silently reminds me what else I could be doing... As the second-hand of my el cheapo wall clock clacks its way through the day, reminding me of just how slowly time is passing, I realize that it's gonna be the perfect evening to test the second fan I installed last night, if I can just get out of here and go find some slower-going dirt. Wretched has some new, awfully clean belly-bling as well that needs a scuff or two: ...so all I have to do is make it to 5:15.
Because I'm on call, I've gotta stay in a reasonable radius, time-wise, and I've gotta stay in cell-phone range as well. This is a challenge, since I live on the western slopes of this: and everything from here is either up, over, or both. There's OK cell coverage along I-5, but it peters out pretty quickly as you begin to go anywhere interesting. Spots like this are pretty much off-limits while on call. The work day FINALLY ends, and, miracle of miracles, there's no late add-ons to extend the day. In no time, my view goes from my dark little cubbyhole to this: It's a traffic jam on Old McCloud Boulevard, quickly giving way, five minutes (I caught a red) from work, to this: NOW, the commute's starting to look up! If you're worried about missing cars with your panniers during your drive home, best you just stop reading now. Dropping over the shoulder of the mountain toward Signal Butte, I still have some cell signal; I'm trying to be clever and stay on the fringes of the McCloud/Hwy 89 cell towers. It looks like I'll be able to close the loop and still get reception, but the road has turned to varying depths of dust. I hate this stuff, particularly on the 990. Bull dust, fesh-fesh, baja silt, volcanic ash; call it what you will, it's no fun to ride in, especially alone. I know that the best way to deal with it is to ride it hard, but today I just can't quite get into the required mindset. It's hot and I just don't want to crash, or pick the bike up, if I can help it. This is complicated by the fact that the road got rutted while it was wet, so there's concrete-like ruts buried under 3-10 inches of this stuff. Just need to wick it up and it'll be fine... There's little wind and this stuff is so light it just hangs in the air forever. There are advantages to riding alone. ...yes, that's my dust back there... Finally, this: Turns to this: and I find my Mojo, picking the speed up and running home, back over the shoulder of the mountain. Coming back around to the West and into the lowering sun. Back to the big city... ...traffic light and all... Oh yeah, commuting in traffic sucks. Got some dirt on the new bling: and, despite my best efforts to the contrary in the silt, completely failed to overheat the bike. 'Course, now it blows hot air on BOTH legs, but no overheating! Left some silt on the side panels for the morning. If you look at the left side of this, you'll see "Home" and "Work". Gotta love the commute loop, eh? Steve
Thanks. One of these days I'll get around to putting together some video of the "twisty" alternative... Steve
I wasn't kidding about Bambi in the morning. Wanna lap dance? This AM: and the road to the top's finally open! Finally, a pic of Wretched herself: Love the morning light! Steve
Did the 4600 mile service so had to take the long way this morning... I wasn't kidding about the forest rats; this one came sliding down a very tall embankment right in front of me; by the time I got stopped and he quit running, I was lucky to get even this unsharp shot: and, of course, had to get a shot with the nearly-full moon: It's getting dark earlier and earlier; cold mornings now, too. This has been the shortest summer I remember... Steve
