July 17

It was like October today! Holy cow. The temperature was 62 F when I left at 5 pm, winds 10 mph from the NW gusting to 17. It was down to 60 when I got home at 8 pm, winds 9 mph. It was cold, cloudy and windy. brrr.

july 16

Today the temperature was 74 F , winds 11 mph gusting to 26 mph from the West when I headed for exercise class. No wonder I was a little late. No problem, I just missed the start of the warmups and my 5 mile bike ride into the wind was a good enough warmup.

After class, the skies cleared, the air was very clear and it was a beautiful ride in the evening sun with a tailwind at my back. The temperature was 73, winds west at 9 gusting to 21, and dying down to 7 mph by the time I got home. It was particularly beautiful I thought. Here's eastwood ave:

Atwood gardens:

last leg of the bike path, almost to Dempsey:

I must be one of those people who sees the glass as half full. When I have a headwind on the way to my destination, I look forward to the tailwind on the way home. When I have a tailwind on my way to my destination, I don't have to hurry and can just go as slow as I want on my way home.

July 15

Today was windy. But warm and nice, a little more humid than yesterday but not bad. Temperature was 79, winds 9 mph from the West gusting to 18 mph at 3:30 pm. They seemed to be gusting a lot and it was a headwind. Dewpoint was 59 so that's getting up there but it felt great. It was sunny and beautiful.

After a wonderful "restorative" yoga class, I headed off to a meeting. Winds shifted to the WNW but I guess it was mostly a crosswind. Then I headed home at 8:30 pm. Winds died down to 5 mph, so I didn't get much payback on the return trip. Oh well, that's the problem with living on the east side of town and heading home in the evenings. You tend to get more west winds in the daytime and they die down in the evenings.

July 14

Today I had several places to go. First was the dentist, yuck. 2 fillings and a crown. But I was pretty impressed with the work by both dentist and assistant. Temperature was 72, winds 13 mph from the south when I left at 1:20 pm. It was mostly cloudy and threatening rain but it never happened. Here's the start of the bike path:

There are even more flowers at the Atwood gardens than there were last week:

After the dentist, I had a work telecon to tune in to. So I stopped at the Capitol for that business. The benches are away from the street so the traffic noise was quieter. I also read some work stuff. There wasn't enough time to actually go to an office, like home or campus, so this worked fine, was nice actually.

Then I headed to the Monkey Bar Gym for my workout. Then to church for a meeting. Now the skies had cleared and it was very pleasant. Winds were up to 17 mph from the SE but it was mostly a crosswind. I got home at 9:20. Temperature was 71, winds back down to 13 mph from the SE.

July 13

Another gorgeous day. Temperature was 78 F, dewpoint only 50, winds variable at 6 mph. Here's the start of the bike path:

Someone stopped to ask for directions for getting downtown and I said that way, and she said, where are you going? and I said, downtown, so we rode together. Eventually I told her I have a blog where I log my daily bike ride and she said, what do you write about? I said, um, the weather, birds, flowers. I'll take your picture and put it on the blog if you want. She decided that wouldn't be too dangerous so here's Lydia (I think). She loves Madison like I do so she's blogworthy.

To be fair, I'll include a picture of myself. After exercise class, I met a friend at the terrace.

Then I went grocery shopping on the way home. Didn't get home until 9:20. The temperature on the way home was down to 64, winds calm. It was a peaceful ride by the lake.

july 12

It was a bit cool this morning: temperature was about 69F at 9:30 am, winds light from the north. The start of the bike path:

I returned home at around noon. Temperature was 74 F, winds variable at 6 mph. Not much to report today. Just the usual, birds chirping, quiet streets on Sunday morning, which is nice.

july 11

Today housemate and I did some more of the planet trek bike route. Starting in Verona, we headed west to Neptune, then came back, ate lunch, and headed east to Uranus. We went up to County PD road, and didn't find Uranus. It must have got broken or stolen or something. It was supposed to be around Goose Lake, which we passed on the way to PD. It was a glorious Wisconsin summer day. The temperature was 75 F, winds 10 mph from the NNW gusting to 18, when we started. Dewpoint was 57, and continued to drop throughout the day, to 44 F at 6 pm (while temperature was still 78).

We saw some more glade mallow (see Monday's ride for a description), but I didn't take a picture. I love frogs so had to take a picture when I saw one:

The bike path goes through a lot of wetlands so there are lots of birds to see. Here's a Bohemian waxwing.

And it's cousin, the cedar waxwing. They were all hanging out together.

And of course there were flowers.

We sat on a bench with a nice view.

July 10

Temperature was 78 F, winds variable at 7 mph when I left at 5 pm. Here's the start of the bike path:

After yoga class, I met housemate at the co-op from the shopping and got her to take the groceries home. score. had a lovely ride by the lake. didn't take any pictures. Temperature was still 78 F (It dropped over the next hour), winds 3.5 mph from the SSW.

july 9

Today, I had three things to go to. It was 78 degrees F, winds 13 mph gusting to 18 from the S at 2 pm. It was mostly a tailwind so that was nice. Here's the start of the bike path:

Then it was off to exercise class, then off to a meeting. This was an interesting site on E. Wilson St. I looked it up when I got home. There was a reception party for the 20th Annual Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba.

I rode along the Yahara bike path to my meeting. I've raved before, but I just love this bike path. It bypasses busy streets and feels almost rustic. Here's where one segment cuts over to meet up with E. Johnson st, which I take.

I got home at 9 pm or so. Temperature was 73, winds 6 mph from the S. So I got more tailwinds than headwinds today, a good day.

july 8

Today was a bit rainy but it managed to stop a few minutes into my ride. I haven't got rained on yet this summer or spring. I know I'm due, especially now that I've made this statement. Temperature was 64 degrees F, winds ESE at 10.4 at 3:30 pm. I guess it was a partial tailwind, I didn't notice (much easier to notice headwinds).

On my way to the bike path I noticed some pretty flowers amidst the weeds:

okay, here's the start of the bike path, still a bit moist:

This is an interesting-looking bike that was next to mine in the rack. It was a wood frame !

Here's a close-up:

That probably gives a comfortable ride, you think? some give in the frame might be more shock absorbent?

After yoga class, I stopped at the co-op and loaded up with groceries. Temperature was 67, winds 6 mph from the east when I headed home. I saw a friend, biked with her for a while and then she turned off for home. I had a conversation with a guy who only spoke spanish. I only speak English so we didn't talk about anything deep.

july 7

Today was back to my usual routine. It was 78 degrees F, dewpoint 53, winds 4 mph from the west when I headed out at 3:30 pm. Here's the start of the bike path.

Temperature was still 76 F, winds 7 mph from the SSW when I headed home at 6:30 pm. Just another perfect summer day...

july 6

Today was a beautiful day and housemate and I decided to extend our vacation one more day and go on a bike ride. Housemate really likes the rails-to-trails rides so we loaded up the bikes on the car (sorry Mike)

and headed to Mt. Horeb to start the Planet Trek ride (a scaled model of the solar system) from the outer solar system and head inward. We just planned to go from Pluto to Neptune, which is 9 miles one-way. We'll finish the rest of the solar system another day.

Here's Pluto, in downtown Mt. Horeb:

The sun is located at the Monona Terrace. Pluto is 23.5 away in Mt. Horeb. If the sun is 24 ft in diameter, pluto is the size of a chick pea (garbanzo bean).

The temperature was 79-80 degrees F for most of the ride, dewpoint 54, winds 10 mph from the NW. We had a tailwind going out and it was downhill for about 3 miles so we coasted the first 3 miles, realizing the ride back was going to be harder. What a gorgeous day. This is why I love Wisconsin. Here's housemate at the start of the ride:

As usual, I can't resist the flower pictures:

a close up:

oops, more flowers:

a closeup:

Lunch under a huge elm tree:

pretty grass in the foreground:

More flowers. This is glade mallow:

It turns out this area by the sugar river is the "glade mallow headquarters." It's a rare plant and listed as endangered in some states. Here are a couple more shots of it:

The Sugar River wound along the bike path:

This was a grassy wetlands area along the Sugar River.

Typical Wisconsin scenery:

The bike path:

Sugar River again:

Neptune: This is 14.5 miles from the sun (at Monona terrace) and is the size of a basketball (if the sun is 24 ft in diameter). It is in between the towns of Riley and Verona.

Here I am next to a corn field. I'm hoping this is sweet corn. Most of the corn around here is feed corn and is quite a bit shorter than this right now. I'm 5'9" so this stuff is pretty tall. I'm hoping the sweet corn season will start very soon!

If I had chosen the bike ride today, I would have avoided the car and just rode around town, to Olbrich gardens or some other local park. But I forget how nice it is to go out of town and see the country side. I'm glad we took the car, even if it is a bit evil.

july 5

Today was a beautiful day. The temperature was 73 F when I hit the bike path at 9:30 am. Winds were calm.

It was hard to find a bike parking spot at church. That's what I like to see:

I counted 8 bikes. I think attendance was about 75. So that's about 10% bikes. More people walk than bike. I'm not sure how many though.

It was 79 F when I headed home, winds from the north at 9 mph so I had a partial tailwind.