A beautiful morning...

Wow. Today marked two straight weeks of biking in to work (well, 9 out of 10 days). My legs were very tired, and I think I've got a brake pad rubbing a bit, but it was nice. The weather was noticeably cooler that previous days - almost chilly. Sunshine, puffy clouds, blue sky, the works. Drivers were nice. I got waves from pedestrians. And by the time I got to work, my craving for Wendy's sausage biscuits (bad!) had mellowed into a mild hunger for a bagel.

Of course, the walk in from the bike parking area reminded me why I'm going to need to replace my commuter bike shoes soon. When biking (more than just tooling about the neighborhood), flexible soles are a BAD THING (tm) because the flexing sole uses up energy that should be going into turning the pedals and moving the bike. It makes for a slower, tiring ride. So, my road bike shoes have an extremely stiff sole. Plus, since they aren't intended for walking, the pedal cleat sticks out noticeably from the bottom of the shoe. This results in a stiff, awkward, noisy (clack! clack!) walk. After fifty yards or so it's pretty annoying.

The shoes I want (and the ones I'm replacing) still have a moderately stiff sole, but the tread is designed to level the feet and hide the cleat as much as possible when walking... MUCH more comfortable, and I don't look like I'm walking on tennis balls. They also look more like real tennis shoes, instead of something out of a science fiction movie.

You may notice the photo slide show running over to the right. Those are semi-random photos I took of the scenery on my recent business trip to the Boulder, CO area. I'll be updating the show with family pics as I figure out how to use this blog.

So, back to the morning. Normally, my early bird TwinGirl is already up watching cartoons before I leave. This time, for some reason the whole house was quiet. We've only got a few days to get organized for Wednesday's start of school. The kids have to be there by 7:30am, so it's going to mean a shift in mommy and daddy's bedtime schedule, too.

TwinGirl has decided she wants to be a Girl Scout. There's a lady organizing a troop at the new school, and TG nearly talked her ear off at Tuesday's meeting. I checked, and the Boy Scout district is also looking into a Cub Scout pack, but it's not set up yet. TwinBoy is interested in that as well... I think it would be a good fit for him. Worked for me!