Method to my madness

I'm pretty clumsy and after thirty-mumble years of being so, I've pretty much come to accept that I shall never have natural grace. It is with this understanding in mind that I do certain off-beat things like attaching my rear-view mirrors upside down.

Upside down you turn me.

 I do this not because I'm bucking the norm, but because I've already laid down this bike and I don't want to be cracking mirrors all the time (like I need that kind of luck). The reverse mirror position means I have to shift my wrists a bit to take in the rear view, but today my odd preparation paid off.

While hauling out the bike for this morning's oh-my-God-chilly commute, I fell off our stoop and into the Dagobah-esque low spot in our yard. I was fine, bike was fine aside from great gobs of mud on the left handlebar, the first set of clothes was covered in mud from my left ankle to my left elbow. I suppose I should be thankful that the swamp was soft. The mirror was perfectly fine aside from the aforementioned great gobs of mud. A change of clothes and a half dozen paper towels later and I was ready to roll.

And speaking of mud, I've finally found a front fender to fit my bike. I purchased a set of Planet Bike fenders (this set, maybe?) last year and was horrified to discover that my bike has braze-ons on only one side. Really? Really really? Of course this was after assembling and attaching the fenders to the side with braze-ons. So, I've been using something like this for several months and was pretty unhappy with that set up. But then I discovered the Planet Bike Freddy ATB fenders this past weekend. I do have a braze-on at the cross piece of the front fork (visible just under my purse on the picture above) and, after purchasing a slightly shorter bolt at the hardware store, I attached the front fender with the assistance of Scott's brawn. Unfortunately, I could not get the back fender to work with my rack set-up. And the pseudo braze-on back there is too tiny to be useful. At least the rack protects me from having a skunk stripe up my back even if doesn't protect a cyclist behind me from my rooster tail. I'm very happy with the front fender, though, and have joyfully rolled through the once and future puddle on the W&OD between LoCoPkwy and Smiths Switch.

In other news, I thought I'd share a comparison of yesterday's fog to today's sun.

On a clear day...

That's more like it.