Burley!

LeahC — Wed, 25 May 2011 02:56:39 +0000

Last summer Jason and I bought new bikes because I was going to BIKE TO WORK EVERYDAY!

Do you know something? Biking is hard. Also, I was still nursing and biking + nursing proved to be too difficult for me. I was carrying my pump, milk, lunch, change of clothes, laptop on my back and biking 20 miles a day. I know for all you super starts that’s nothing, but for me it’s a lot and it was just too much. Plus with nursing I was still burning so many calories just from doing that, that I wasn’t able to eat enough to keep up with it. So I had to drop the biking.

This summer we want to bike more and now that Lucy can actually hold her head up we can include her in the bike trips. So we went back and forth do we want a seat on the bike or do we want a trailer. I have fond memories of being on the back of my mom’s bike, but then I would see kids on the lakefront path seemingly enjoying being in a trailer. Plus one trailer works for two kids while the seat on the back is just for one and at some point we plan on having more kids. I also heard good reviews from people I know that had tried the trailer and so it was decided the trailer would be the way to go.

Do you know those things are expensive?

Well they are.

But we found out that REI was having a sale for members for 20% off so we could get one version of a Burley trailer for not too bad a price. But I did one last check on craigslist for a used one and Sunday night a Burley d’lite was posted for $100 less than the new one (even after the discounts) and so I sent a quick email and we decided on a time to have me look at it.

That day was today and it looked good and so the deal was made.

We gave it a roll today and wow is that thing awesome. Jason did the biking with Lucy in there, but I gave it a try empty and it’s so light, and you can’t even tell that there was something back there. In even better news, Lucy *loved* it. And laughed and smiled and played in there the whole time. Which was great to see as lately she’s been a little firecracker.

We are both really excited because we have a lot more possibilities in the city now. One day a week we would like to hang out in Millenium Park for music. The plan there will be for me to pick up Lucy from the daycare and ride downtown with her and meet Jason for some picnicing and downtowning. Then perhaps Lucy can fall asleep on the way back home. I don’t know if she will but it looks pretty comfy in there! Here is her first trip:

She's unsure, but not hysterical so we are making progress!

Nice ride Kid! She has her George, and her graham crackers and she's good to go!

Go that way daddy! Go! Now! What are you waiting for, I'm clearly ready to go!

So we haven’t really used it that much, but so far I can highly recommend this trailer. It’s light, good space for lucy and gives us freedom for some longer trips around the city. But it is large so if you have a smallish apartment (hello my home) it will be a little hard to store. Right now it’s living in the middle of our bedroom and so we have to get our clever on and find a good spot for it.

Summer is coming Chicago. It’s right around the corner!

Whew!

LeahC — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:23:07 +0000

Wow. What a whirlwind few days already this week. Both days so far this week I’ve been at Fermilab getting accounts and getting reacclimated to physics code. Read: not the prettiest thing in the world. However, it seems to be like riding a bike and so I’m back in ROOT, and fitting distributions and all that good jazz. You know the stuff that took me about a year to figure out as a grad student. Ok not that long…..but not too far off I suppose. Oh graphs. I love you so much. I’ve missed you terribly!

But in all seriousness, it’s funny how much faster it is for me to find my way around the computer systems, and get things up and running. Or at least I know who to ask when things aren’t working. Hello Alan!

On Monday I rode my bike-cycle as I’ve been calling it (40 year old Virgin reference right there for you smarties out there) to Union station for the 6:32 train getting me to Route 59 at 7:15. Then from there I rode all the way to the lab. And let me tell you something suburbs. When someone does a Google search for “Bike riding suburbs Rt. 59″. You could mention that the bike route goes right up to it which connects to the Prairie Path. Jeez. I looked on google maps at the area, and found a road that looked like it would work. IT WAS AMAZING! Fairway drive for anyone looking for that kind of thing. Nicely paved wide street. No traffic. It was perfect.

It took me awhile to get to the lab because I couldn’t quite figure out which side of the station I needed to be on, and then I couldn’t quite figure out how to cross Butterfield Rd. But I got there eventually.

Then I worked until 4 and left thinking that I might be able to catch the 4:32 (it’s about 6.5 miles away). But there was a 4:58 that I really didn’t want to miss and I just wanted to give myself time in case I got a flat. And so I’m going, and there is a headwind and I’m tired and there is a headwind and I’m thinking, “I’m a runner. What the fuck am I doing?”. But then I get on the Prairie path and my foot slipped (it was out of the straps because there is some loose gravel and I’m convinced I’m going to go head over heels and kill myself). ANYWAYS. I thought I kicked something off my bike, so I dismounted layed the bike down and started looking in the weeds. Seriously. THERE IS NOTHING ON MY BIKE hence nothing to fly off. I finally figured that it was my imagination that something fell off and I realized I had about 10 minutes to make the 4:32 so I hauled my ass there and I made it just as the train was pulling into the station. Of course then I got onto the wrong car as I was on the one that didn’t have a bike area. But I figured it out, got back to Chicago and biked home with the J-Man. So yeah. No biking ever to 23 miles in one day.

Tomorrow I’m going to bike to Northwestern and so we’ll see how that goes. I’m pretty happy with the biking but I want some things to make it easier (some Amadillo tires is a big one as I’m afraid of flats…I can change them…but I would rather not have to worry about it). Also in the future I suppose I should learn how to ride with clip pedals.

Today I drove to the lab. In the future my days at the lab are going to be Thursdays and Fridays and so I’m going to drive to Fermilab early on Thursday with my bike on the car, then commute by bike home Thursday, then Friday morning. Then drive home Friday.

Seriously. I’m the queen of different commuting options. I’ve found that if it’s ever all of one thing it gets annoying. All biking is tough, all driving is tough…so I like having a mix.

Ok. Don’t say bike. Bike.

That is all from here in the world of commuting and physics.

Oh and Lucy. She’s awesome. Crawling and pulling herself up on everything. Also. Room full of toys and all she wants is the remote for the TV. Of course.

JasonLeahRun » biking

Burley!

Whew!