Post Christmas Post: and a Happy New Year

Day 120, 12/30/14

Rode to work and later to meet Liz for dinner at Barbecue and Bourbon in Speedway.  Dinner left something to be desired but the ride and the company was excellent!


Day 121

Rode to work.  The ride home was so cold, decided to drive to trivia at Broadripple Brew Pub.  We lost at trivia but won at life!


Day 122

New Year's Eve!

Rode to work.  Building caught on fire (not really, but there was some smoke),  Researching what it would take to be a firefighter.

Men and women at work.

Now off to Louisville for a PARTY at the Headliners!

Gas for $1.86

Christmas Week

Day 113, 12/22/14

The Monday before Christmas

Rode to work, home, and back again.


Day 114

The Tuesday before Christmas

Rode to work, then to Library.  mid 50's and sunny!  Took a long ride after work.  Stopped by Lucas', bought some Christmas presents, and worked it out.

Packed up and headed home to Fort Wayne.


Day 115

Wednesday, Christmas Eve

Surprise!  Everyone is sick!  Mostly napped, wrapped, and watched first three Die Hards.

That night I spent some time at Sam's. We rode around his neighborhood checking out Christmas displays. Some were lovely!

West Central Ft. Wayne.  Photos by Sam Hartman

Day 116

Christmas Day

After all the festivities and the sick family, rode down to the river. Clear and pretty night, but I bit it BIG time crossing a slick wood bridge.


Day 117

Day after Christmas

Another beautiful day. Took dad's bike to river then New Haven down the Maumee Trail.


Day 117

Schaab Christmas!

Laughing and chatting in the kitchen, best part of the gatherings.  Photo by Kathy Reuille

Raining slightly before the party. Took Dad's Schwinn around the cul de sac.


Day 118

Hartman Christmas!

After the celebration and fun, drove back to Indy.  Tonight's ride was to a friend's and around the circle.  Colder night, but still pretty!

Riding Ill

Day 107, 12/16/14

After riding to work I went home to change.  The wet weather made me want to put on non-work clothes for my post-work ride to the Library and Marsh.


Day 108

After work I took Tom Christmas shopping at Circle Center, book shopping at the Library, and lastly to Sherry's for watch The Departed.

Cold, crisp, beautiful night.  Lot's of pretty lights!

Elf: The Musical live on stage!

Day 109

Rode to work... felt like shit.  Rode home and napped after stopping by Marsh for sickly provisions.  Rode back to work for orientation.  Forgot my lights for the ride home!


Day 110

Rode to work... forgot my helmet!  What a silly thing to do.  Stopped at home before hitting up SK for treats.

Jogged to and up Monument Circle's stairs... woof!

Rode to Dan and Kayla's for Germanic Pagan Holiday party tonight.

Illness has proven to be more of an obstacle than weather at this point.


Day 111

Rode to Starbucks for tea.  Separate trip with Bruce to grab groceries before Matt got in town.

Hunqapillar touring frame outside of City Market

Taylor's has been baking treats for over 100 Christmases!

Day 112

Beautiful day spent watching football.  Took a brief trip around the Circle and Cultural Trail.

Century Mark

Day 99,  12/8/14

Drove to return Santa suit in AM, then rode in to work after a breakfast of Oreos.  Mrs. Humes made a fantastic dinner before basketball.  We won first 4 games at basketball with Brad and lost the last two.


Day 100

One Hundred! Rode to work and back.  Went for a run in the evening.

Day 101

Rode to work, City Market, Marsh, work, home.
Road to Ftn Sqr for 12.05, Hotel Tango, and Red Lion followed by an exploritory romp through St. Paul's as they set up for the Our Lady of Guadelope celebration.  It was the most fun I have ever had on a date!


Day 102

Rode to work and home.  Left wallet so had to stop back at work before visiting SK.  Enjoyed Christmas at the Zoo and the Yelp Bizarre that night!


Day 103

Rode to work after a morning jog.  Had a GREAT holiday party including grilled salmon, prime rib, and beer.  Won some homemade moonshine in the liquor exchange.
After a nap I rode to meet Stacey and Michelle at Old Point.


Day 104

Rode to Lucas Oil for Bleed Blue Blood Drive.
Later rode to Rock Bottom Brewery for Sam's 30th.
Stopped by Marsh on way home for bad food and a bad movie.


Day 105

Rode to Lucas Oil for TD Town.  Then to Marsh and home.  Intended to attend the CycloCross races but didn't make it up there before watching the game at Paul's.


Day 106

Rode to work.

Circus Trains and Football Games

Day 95 12/4/14

While at work today (which I rode to and from) I spoke with Matt Loory, the executive chef of Ringling Bros. in town for the weekend circus.  Matt cooks on a train car that helps make up the 1.5 mile circus train.  He clued me in on the somewhat privileged information as to where the train resides while in town.  I must check this out before they leave town on Sunday (Day 98).


Day 96

This morning I left for work a little early and biked towards where Chef Matt described the train resting.  I must have under estimated the distance or location as I was unable to find it.

Met up with Paul later at Twenty Tap and he too was inappropriately excited to see the train!


Day 97

Rode to work today and SANTA came!  After I ditched the red suit, biked down to Georgia St. where red was also prevalent due to Wisc and OSU playing at Lucas Oil for the B1G Championship.  There were lumberjacks there!

Photo by Grace Hartman

The rest of the night included  performing in St. Luke's choir for the Gloria concert.  Mom was very surprised!

Dan said I was the best one in my row!  Photo by Kevin Hartman

Day 98

Rode to Starbucks in AM.  Took the suit on a house call to the Mundell's for River's first visit with Santa.

Baby's first Christmas 12/7/14  Photo by Lyndsey Mundell

Paul and I finally found the Ringling Train and chatted with some circus folk!

The train was peppered with cycles belonging to circus members.

Quarter Completion, Sick Days

Day 91, 11/30/14

One quarter of the year is complete!  Rode to Touchdown Town and got harassed by off duty cops.  They cornered me against a railing saying "Hey buddy, you can't have that bike here."  I actually felt as though they were drunk fans and might try to take my bike.  Finally one of them showed a badge and explained that you can't walk a bike through TDTown.  Of course none of the working security or Lucas Oil staff said anything.  Rather off put by the situation.

After the game, a nap, and the rain, rode the Cultural Trail in fairly nice weather.  The lights are up and shining at the Circle.

Photo by Indystar.  Originally taken Nov 27th 1964.

Day 92

Rode to work.  Then to the new Marsh to get ginger, lemon, and honey.  These tea ingredients are supposed to be a "Miracle".  In other news, Paul and I won 3 of our 4 basketball games.


Day 93

Not feeling well.  Rode to work and then to O'Malia's for additional tea supplies and OJ.  Also, rented the new X-Men.


Day 94

Rode to the Admin building for a meeting first thing.  Beat Natalie back to TCA by 10 minutes!  Went back to O'Malia's for eggs and juice.

Turkey Days

Day 87, 11/26/14

Rode to grocery to return Chef, the film.  Returned home to grab forgotten gloves. Then off to bank, Thirsty Scholar, and library.  Made it back to FW in time to see Jaime's award winning ginger bread house, the lighting and fireworks.

Above: Jaime's 2nd place ginger bread castle.  Left: the whole family enjoys Santa's display.  Right: Will and J await the fireworks.  Photos by Jill Schriner

Day 88

Home for the holidays.  After Thanksgiving dinner at the Hartman's I grabbed Dad's Schwinn and headed to the park for a nice ride along the river.


Day 89

Black Friday: Tooled around on George's dual suspension Trek while Sam brewed beer.  Can't figure out how to bunny hop a bike!

Day 90

Schaab Thanksgiving: deep fried best bird yet!
After packing up and saying goodbyes I remembered I hadn't ridden today.  Grabbed dad's Schwinn and zipped around a tight circle in the cul de sac 30-40 times.  Had to switch directions due to dizziness.

Jaunts

Day 84, 11/23/14

Got home from Chicago around 10:30 and walked home in the rain.  After making a quick dinner I hopped on Tom for the 2nd shortest ride since September.  I dodged raindrops while zipping through the Angie's List campus.  5 minutes tops.


Day 85

Rode to work, home for lunch, then back again.  It was 50 degrees this morning but in the 20's by the time I left at 5:30pm.


Day 86

Rode to work and walked back with Tom and Tom.... carried home a turkey Mr. Green ordered for me.

Sunshine and Rain

Day 82, 11/21/14

Rode to work where we had our pitch-in Thanksgiving Feast!  Sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, and stuffing where among the most notable, but everything was delicious!
After work I stopped at City Market for a trim and then to RAM and Sun King Breweries.

Beautiful day!

Indy Bike Hub at City Market

Day 83

Rode to Starbucks on the Circle to start the day with coffee.  Later to work to connect with weekend students.

Rainy, shit day!

Cold weather rides

Day 79, 11/18/14

Weather has turned for the worse!  Single digits this morning, only 4 degrees off of the record low.

Rode Bruce to and from work.  While it was cold, it was very clear and pleasant.  Considered going for an evening ride, but instead I went to bed at 9pm.


Day 80

Road Bruce to work and then took Tom to Killroy's to meet brother Sam for dinner.  Pacer's game followed where Lance Stevenson and Cody Zeller got beat at the hands of the last second put back of an air ball.


Day 81

Road to work and then to the first successful Indy Met for mentor session of the year.  My "Moving on Up" time improved further!

Snow Days

Day 77, 11/16/14

Sunday morning after sleeping in: Rode to grocery to get eggs and some canned goods.  Returned home to drop off the goods and then headed to the Library.  Finally, headed to Fountain Square Brewery for a delicious growler.

Took Bruce to Touchdown Town to work the food truck.  Scored a ticket to the game and road home in the snow as well.

TD Town pre snow days.  Photo from demotix.com

Day 78

This morning was spent fixing the chain on Bruce.  Last night I noticed a link was loose.  I tightened it this morning but the link became ultra-stiff.  After much fiddling and greasy hands I finally replaced the links and headed off to work.

There was snow on the ground and it was VERY cold!

Awards and Recognition

Day 75, 11/14/14

Early morning ride to Kurt's new house in Irvington.  He was generous enough to give me a ride to Employee Appreciation Day at Marriott East.  This event was actually really fun, mostly because I won!  Career Services Employee of the Year and 'Moving on Up' Minute to Win It game!

Only one of these vehicles had frost on it this morning.  The other got used.

Day 76

Beautiful morning for a ride!  Went to Madame Walker Theater at 8am for TCA commencement.  The ride home was as beautiful.  Because I was up until 4am the night before I promptly slept through the rest of the day.

Photo borrowed from HistoricIndianapolis.com

Butternuts

Day 72,  11/11/14

Rode around downtown before work.  Weather was still fair in AM
During the day the temperature dropped drastically.  Chilly ride home.  Realized I left my keys.  Chilly ride back again.


Day 73

Wintery cold day.  Rode to work after a brief AM run.  Another trip to get bread supplies.  And another to get SK while the bread was baking.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cooked squash pureed
• 1 1/2 cups flour (I used GF oat flour)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2 flax eggs 
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325. 
• Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. 
• Mix all wet in a smaller bowl. 
• Add wet to dry and place batter in a loaf pan.  I used an 8 inch loaf pan.
• Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

Recipe found on mywholefoodlife.com/


Road the bread and growler up to Paul's for a lovely pitch-in dinner.


Day 74

Rode Tom to work bundled up but opted out of the gloves.  I will be wearing gloves in the future.
Evening ride to the library for a movie and an article.

Happy Cranksgiving

Day 69   11/8/14

CRANKSGIVING 2014

The 3rd annual food drive/scavenger hunt was a huge success.  Showed up alone but quickly located many friends/riding buddies.  Had some drinks after and even road out to UPS store to pick up my fake check from Criagslist.  Long story.

Ivy's Trek 470

When asked about his Thickslicks Rob replied "they looking [freaking] awesome!

Post ride, all riders to the bar!

Day 70

Lovely Sunday rides.  Went with Stacey to check out Milktooth, eat at End of the Line, drink at Fountain Square Brewery.  All were excellent.  One of the riders hurt their crotch on the top tube.

Day 71

Rode to return library books and meet Paul for lunch at Ali Baba's Cafe.  Later biked to the Indy Hostel for Share the Road, a documentary on cycle touring.  Temps reached 62 today!

Last warm day on the Cultural Trail.

Full Moon Drive

Day 67   FULL MOON   11/6/14

Rode to and from work.  Drove to Broadripple for tea with a friend, then to rehearsal before heading back to Fountain Square to see The Ragbirds play The Hi-Fi.  Great show!

 

Album art courtesy of theragbirds.com

Day 68

Missed opportunities.  It was a beautiful day but I did not ride to Konesco's for our celebratory cook out, to UPS store for package pickup, or to Mundell's for board games etc.

Did, however, ride to and from work and walked with Joe, Wes, and Jason to Old Point for nachos,  Yum!

Daylight Savings Time

Day 64   11/3/14

Rode to and from work.  Last nice day this week (temps in the 60's) before rain comes in.  Also went for a nice evening run.  No basketball tonight as the Colts played on MNF.

Indianapolis Colts 40, New York Football Giants 24

Day 65

Still adjusting to last weekend's time change.  Up at 7, riding by 8.  Dropped off recycling at O'malia's before work.
Later that day rode to our corporate offices for a meeting.  There was a gentle mist when I left, but that quickly turned to rainfall which made for a soggy meeting.  Afterwards I stopped at the Library and picked up a slue of films.


Day 66

Again, rode before work then to work.  Beautiful, dry day.  After work headed back to the Library to start plotting out the 10,000 mile bike trip coming up next Spring!

Two Months Down

Day 60  10/30/14

Rode to and from work then welcomed Matt and Stacey into town.  Chauffeured for a bit then ended up at Ale Emporium, Sinking Ship, and finally Lockerbie Pub.


Day 61

Happy Halloween!  After sleeping through our 4am bus, we had to reschedule for 2pm.  Matt borrowed Tom to go to his conference and later I went to fetch some coffee.  Unfortunately, this mission was derailed by a steady rainfall.  I zipped Tony through the precipitation and located his fixed gear brother just in time to protect its leather seat with a plastic sack.  Coffee will have to wait.
After a long bus ride we ended up at a great airBnB location, had pizza at Mafiaoza's then stopped in at Santa's Pub which is highly recommended!


Day 62

Two full months of daily riding!  Stacey and I went to breakfast at The Flipside then stopped at Savant, Nashville's best vintage store (according to Vogue Magazine).  We then checked out a couple B Bikes and headed downtown.  Along the way we stopped at Jack White's studio, Third Man Records, where I recorded a vinyl in the same recording booth Neil Young recorded his A Letter Home album.

Stacey speaking on the phone safely behind traffic cone.

Also had drinks at 12 South Tap Room, Acme Feed and Seed, Rosepepper's Cantina, and finally Pinewood Social.  Pinewood is highly recommended!


Day 63

Enjoyed breakfast at The Frothy Monkey before riding the bus back home.  Did some serious couch sitting before heading out for a solo night ride with Tom.  Rode around the inside of the Circle no handed for one complete rotation.  Achievement unlocked!

Finishing October

Day 56  10/26/14

Hiked in the AM then Court gave me a ride back home to the city.  Rode to Fountain Square for tasty suds.


Day 57

Parents' 35th wedding anniversary and Sam's 28th birthday!
Rode to and from work.


Day 58

Rode to work, SK, home, work, home.
Late ran to 16th St. CVS for Halloween costume accessories.  Then down New York to Irvington where I got to visit baby Mundell.  River is big and freakin cute!


Day 59

Missed opportunities.  Rode to and from work but elected to drive to Sher's and later to Paul's.  Certainly both trips were bike-able, but I felt rushed and didn't have time to get everything done that day.  Shame on me for not planning better.  Enjoyed The Dapper at The Vogue though!

Turkey Run Weekend

Day 53

Simple ride to and from work  Car-pooled with co-workers to Indy Met for mentorship program. 

Day 54

No work Friday!  Road to Circle to post attendance and grab a cafe.  By 9:30 I was beginning to cover the 70 miles to Turkey Run.

Happenings

1) The stretch of the Cultural Trail from Meridian to the Canal is probably the sketchiest portion of the trail.  I rode past an argument between and man and a woman who was passing out hot dog breakfasts to hungry homeless.

"She ain't family," said the man in reference to giving a white woman a hot dog.

"She has nothing, just like the rest of us.  That makes us family."

The woman's response of one-ness stuck with me for several miles.

2) Shortly after I was almost flattened by a combination of SUV, city bus, ambulance.

3) Two dogs gave brief chase once I got into the country.  One got close!

4) The last third of the trip was all gravel, mud, and rock.  This was not ideal.

5) Built in 1856, I rode across the Portland Mills Covered Bridge.  At this point a local kid on a dirt bike stopped to chat.

"Nice wheelies," I complimented.

"Thanks, I've been practicing."

"Do you know how to get to Sugar Valley Canoes?" I inquired.

"You're a long way off." (though I was only 5 miles away)

"Well I'm coming from Indy."

"You ride that thing from Indy?!"

He went on to give me shit directions, but I knew where I was going any way.  Court picked me up at Highway 47 to save me a dangerous last 3 miles.

Tony taking a rest from the gravel roads.

 Day 55

Brilliant hiking today (see photos below).  Rode around loop of camp sites and then later down a large hill to the Coxford Covered Bridge.  The gravel roadway made for a careful climb back to the camp site.

Muddy walls, trail 3 Turkey Run. photo by Kayla Dwelle

Heavenly light, trail 3 Turkey Run. photo by Kayla Dwelle

Chocolate Drops the Beet

Day 50   10/20/14

Simple ride to and from work.  Had a 3pm dentist appointment which I was nearly late to.  Made it up to 23rd and Meridian in <15 minutes.  The ride back to work was much more leisurely.
Paul came over for dinner and helped with dishes.  Then, we headed South for basketball.


Day 51

Rode to and from work.  Then to Broadripple for dinner, drinks, and Carolina Chocolate Drops.  Kelley made excellent soup, my contribution was roasted beets.  We worked on kegs left over from Harvest Fest and greatly enjoyed the tunes.
Rode home 11:45-12:15.

thefreegeorge.com Carolina Chocolate Drops

Day 52

To and from work.  Ran a mid-day errand to 16th St. Chase to cash my first car rental check.  Lastly, hooked up Garmin and tested it on a ride to Fountain Square.  Should work great for touring!  Enjoyed some pizza from South of Chicago.

Taqueria

Day 46, 10/16/14

Road to Henry's early morning for breakfast with Paul.  At work I enjoyed Tex Mex with Kurt, the best burrito in town (Tex Mex, not Kurt).

Lonely morning hallway, anticipating the day's ride.

Biked up to SoBro to help prep the hostel for Harvest Fest and see the Mundell's at HopCat (River was with his Gma).

Day 47

To and from work with a pit stop for beer.  Heading to Fort Wayne tonight to see Ben Folds!

Day 48

Road to get some Sun King.  Decided to bike up to Hostel for the Harvest Fest.  Weather was bad, but mostly I didn't have the time.

Day 49

Road to Touchdown Town to work the food truck.  Attended the game (Indy shut out Cincy).
Night ride to O'Malia's for mixers as I had an unexpected, but welcome house guest.

Ride Share

Day 44, 10/14/14

When I walked out the front door this morning there was barely a mist.  By the time I mounted Tom is was pouring!  No option to use the car as I rented it to my neighbor for the week.  Happy to ride anyway.

Had a brilliant wondering ride after work.  Zigzagged through streets and trails.  Out paced an SUV cruising down New York's bike lane.  Heart almost beat out of my chest!

Under the Banker's Life parking structure.  Lights pace along with motion.

Day 45

Took the car to Dunkin' Donuts to pick up a treat for my morning class.  They were the best class I've had at TCA!  Dropped it back off to Brett who was waiting to roll to work.  Hope he appreciated the treat left on the passenger seat.

Lazy Sunday

Day 42 10/12/14
Sunday drive back to the Hoosier State.  Caught some of the Chicago Marathon on my way out of town.  Apparently a man ran into a pack of participants to escape police.  It did not work.

Took two long, lingering rides to Fountain Square Brewery for fresh, delicious beer.  Saw some covered bikes that appeared to be set up for tours.  No tours in side though.

Day 43

Monday ride to and from work.  The morning ride was fairly wet.

Family dinner at the Hume's and a rousing basketball outing!

Chicago

Day 40, 10/10/14

One Lent's worth of riding down!  Left The Hostel after midnight to ensure the entire ride would qualify for Friday.  Quiet and peaceful ride though just outside of the Monon's 5am-midnight hours of operation.
Of course traveled to and from work as well.

Drove up to Chicago for the evening.  Enjoyed enormous pretzels at Prost and a night cap of tacos. and tacos at location I cannot recall... [addendum: Big Star was the Friday night taco location]

Prost! chicagomag.com

Day 41

The saving grace of this streak so far has been the easy use of Chicago's Divvy bikes.  These are quite convenient, efficient, and fun.  Picked up a friend from the Chicago Greyhound station where we declared scenes were staged for the 1987 film Adventures in Babysitting (had someone used their IP capable phone we would have avoided this conversational nonsense). But once we had our "Brenda" it was off to breakfast at Taco Joint to continue the theme of last night.  The day continued from there to include Navy Pier, architecture tours, and Tengo Sur a fantastic Argentinean steak house.
While waiting for our table, we took a sidebar to have a beer in front of the Blackhawks home opener.  Sure it was exciting to see a goal within the first minute, but did you see the ice projection during pregame!?

Blood Moon

Day 38, 10/8/14

October's Full Moon Ride was glorious!  The night started as dinner at Tavern on South to celebrate the completion of Disney interviews and getting hit on by the host (#flattered).  I carefully removed myself from the obligation of entertaining our guest and road over to Tomlinson Tap where a slue of friends and riders where waiting.  The plan was to ride to Triton Tap Room in Broadripple, but we were quickly separated in order to go back for a friend who's phone call delayed departure.  Grabbed a quickie at McNiven's.  The four of us then rode straight up College in order to make up for lost time.  We ended up beating the larger group who took the White River Trail and Tow Path.
After more drinks I led a group to the Sinking Ship before wisely crashing at a friend's.

theindychannel.com

Day 39

Chilly morning ride back downtown before Thursday's work day.  Headed back to Broadripple to meet up with two former co-workers in the evening.  First to the beloved Twenty Tap then to Killroy's.
Good friends, good beer, and good game!

Stopped by the Indy Hostel on my way home to hang with Paul and Eric.

Haiku

Day 36, 10/6/14
Road to and from work, Disney is back in town!  Kept Tom inside to avoid the rain.
Fell asleep by 9:30.


Day 37
Disney day 2.  DID NOT RIDE TO WORK! First time in some time.  Picked up Chef P. at his hotel and took to the day.

Great ride after work.

 Followed the Sun, then the Moon.

Aimless wandering.

Home Rides

Day 33, 10/3

Pedestrian ride to and from work before a FANTASTIC night on the town.  Tom handled the raid nicely beating Dan and Kay from their apartment to Fountain Square for First Friday at the Murphey Building (by 4-5 minutes).  A slight rain kept the slacks damp, but worth it for the great ride.

Heard some great music at HiFi and met a couple girls that bought Paul and I drinks.  Believe it or not, that doesn't happen too often.


Day 34

Sadly did not ride as much as planned for a Saturday with no plans.  Did make it downtown and back, but had plans for more!
Drove home to FW for Sister K's nunniversary.  60 years!
Fort Wayne is where Grace's bike lives.  I would imagine he or she has a French name.  Maybe Adelaide or Sophie.

Grace's Motobecane mixte. 

Day 35

Took Dad's new Schwinn to meet big sis and her family for breakfaste.  This included coffee, donuts, a pant-less nephew, dolled up niece, and one hell of a dance party!

Dad's new Schwinn. Comfortable and quick.  Memory foam seat accessory!

Fall cleaning, everything must go!  I had the good sense to keep riding.

Month Two

Day 31, 10/1

One month is in the books of riding a bike every day!  Granted some of the rides were short but some were utilitarian, and some in poor weather, although overall Indiana experienced a beautiful September.

But enough about the past.  Onward we go.

Today I road Tom to and from work then fetched Bruce to take one more trip out to the UPS store to retrieve my packages.  Wouldn't you know it, they were there this time (thick frustration and sarcasm)!

Glad to be back online.

Entering White River Trail en route to 16th and MLK Jr.

Day 32

Road Tom to and from work.  Stored him inside to avoid early showers.  This sparked some questions from students.  When a particularly short one asked if she could take it for a spin and I suggested a booster seat, she chased me down the hall.

An increasing number of students have been asking me why my right pant leg is rolled.  They find the explanation* satisfactory but I think they were hoping for something more fun.

*perhaps not obviously, this prevents chain grease from rubbing off on pants.  To a lesser degree is keeps you pants from getting caught in the chain, but the real culprit there is a wayward shoelace.