One way to beat the heat

I can always tell when I am getting close to home on the evening commute since I start seeing the piles of free stuff people set out. You could call this a type of recycling or just pure laziness on the part of St Paulites who just can't bother to set up a garage sale (or have never heard of Craigslist). Anyway, sometimes you can find some pretty good stuff. I once got a full size ping pong table, including rackets, in one of these alley finds.

It has been hot here lately and I stopped by one house with a sizable pile of treasures and found this small clip-on desk fan. My initial purpose for grabbing this was to set it up at my desk at work both for cooling me down and helping air out the bike gear. Of course once I discovered this clip fit on the handle bars I got a kick out of mounting it on the front of the bike.

The obvious benefit is I always have a breeze to keep me cool even at those intersections with long red lights...

Just to set some context, you can see the temp on the bike computer at the far left of the display. It is tiny but this is one of the only times I recall seeing the readout go to three digits at 102. We will have a winter day when we drop to -20 which makes for a pretty impressive range. But for now, I am finding ways to manage in the heat.

That's what I call utility biking!

I was recently invited to a bachelor party for a friend who has a wedding coming up this July. Just to set some context, this is a party at my friend's house, it is on a Monday night, and the bride's father is invited. I don't think there will be a knitting contest but clearly this is not at the same level as a trip to Vegas.

Since this friend lives about 2 miles from downtown Minneapolis, where I work, I decided to bike to the party after work. The event is a BYOBBQ so I had to pack some food to grill and beverages. Fortunately, I have an old commuting pannier that did the trick.

I have the food supplies ready to go. This is 1 1/2 pounds of jalapeno peppers, 1 pound of beer brats, buns for said brats, and 3 cans of Great River beer.

What made this arrangement work was the soft-sided cooler that I could stuff into the pannier. I added a few ice packs for the trip to work, zipped it up, and stuffed it into the pannier. I didn't try to cool the beer instead waiting until I could put it in the fridge.

This is my version of a bike mullet: business on the left (work clothes), party on the right. It was a nice change to ride with a balanced load. I don't notice the imbalance riding with one pannier until I change the load and the second bag almost always makes it easier to ride.

The party was good: we gave the groom a good sendoff and there were no arrests or injuries. It was also another chance to prove that a bike is a great vehicle for everyday life and even special events.