Cold rider

All my friends know the cold rider
The cold rider is a little sire
Cold rider rides a little colder
Cold rider is gettin older
Cold rider knows every bike lane yeah!
Cold rider has everything to gain yeah!
Cold rider don't use no gas now
Cold rider don't bike too fast
Take a little trip
Take a little trip
Take a little trip and see
Take a little trip
Take a little trip
Take a little trip with me

(to the tune of "Low Rider" by War, 1975)

Green guilt: Driving to work

I drove to work today - and yesterday. Oh the green guilt! This is indeed a rare occurrence. I won't even go into why. Nope not me. I won't write about how I truly enjoy leaving home a whole four minutes later. Usually the rain and body aches are not valid excuses for skipping the ride to work. The need for running errands during the day won't be discussed either. Nope, you won't hear of it. I admit it! I enjoy multi-tasking: listening to the radio, while shaving and driving - Maybe I could even break out that portable coffee cup too! - and the feeling of staying dry - oh help me! I savor walking in the door at work - dry and free - not lugging extra pounds of cycling clothing and accessories. And the time I save! Minutes a day! Oh life is too short to waste it on bike commuting ... oh wait, I usually like cycling.  C'est la vie. There's always tomorrow . . . I can ride my bike tomorrow; yea, that's it. Actually the plan is to drive to run a quick errand after my morning meeting, drop off the car at home, and then cycle back to work. Wish me luck.

SolarMonkey Bike?

I received a SolarMonkey Adventurer - Portable Solar Charger with Internal Battery for the holidays and am trying to figure out how to hook it up to my bike lights live. Thus far, I can top off my cell phone after a few hours of charging the monkey, but I do that in the evening when not in use. Pretty cool stuff, but it does not have a gauge to know how charged up it is. It says it takes 12 hours of sun to fully charge it, and I have only received a full charge by plugging it into the wall. We'll see what I can do! As Spring approaches, the sun should be more available for charges. Next will be a solar charging station in our home!