Odds and Ends

For those who like fresh fruits and vegetables. Here's a little advice. Small, thick-skinned grape tomatoes do pretty well riding on a bike rack. Large, juicy tomatoes.. not so much. Same with ripe peaches. If you must transport these items on a rack and not on your back, try submerging them in a sealed, completely water filled wide-mouth container (eg. a peanut butter jar). This works best with juicy tomatoes. Some heirlooms I've had tended to have air pockets inside, causing them to float, and bump against the top of the container.

There's another thing I had to share. As an old mountain biker, I'm always surprised by the speeds that can be reached on a road bike with nice high gears, skinny tires and drop bars. As I was leaving work last night, my boss was walking out to his car, a BMW X5. He quickly caught up with me, pulled up beside me and rolled down his window to offer a draft. My muscles were still pretty cold, but I fell back and took a place on his rear bumper. The X5, while being fairly tall is still a somewhat streamlined vehicle and most of my body was above the roofline while honking on the pedals, so not the best to draft behind, but still a help. He increased his speed gradually, then leveled off. I waved him faster then picked up a gear and cranked. Soon a curve was coming, and my cold muscles were beginning to cramp, so we backed off and went our separate ways.

This morning, as soon as I could hear activity in his office, I went to find out how fast we had gone (I don't use a computer).
"Good morning. I have to ask..." I said.
"Thirty five." he interrupted, grinning.
Cool. I had at least one or two gears left. Had I not been cold and cramping, I might have had a few more miles per hour left. Maybe I should get a computer to avoid a speeding ticket.