Biking and Knitting and All

The bike sock reached the heel last night. Since I keep track of my minutes on the bike, I can state with certainty that it took almost exactly five hours of knitting to get to the start of the heel. Kind of fun to know! (At least for me; if you disagree, I doubt I could convince you otherwise.) My general rule of thumb is that this portion of a sock is about 40% of the whole (20% being around the heel, and the remaining 40% the foot and toe), which would make it 12.5 hours for the whole sock, but I am interested to see if strict counting confirms that.

I suppose it's sad that my strongest motivation for riding the bike is that I want to know exactly how long it takes me to knit a sock, just out of curiosity, but whatever works. Maybe by the time the sock is done, the riding habit will feel more natural. And to quote an apt comment (on Mir's post at Feel More Better/Off Our Chests today, which I practically could have written myself), "the reason you start to exercise is not nearly as important as the reason you continue to exercise."

I'm not certain I'll be able to do the entire heel while riding. I did cast on from the couch, before this sock officially became the bike sock; that part's a little fiddly, and I didn't want to screw up my count at the start. The heel flap shouldn't be a problem, and even the turn, but I may need to be sitting and not cycling to pick up stitches. We'll see. It will certainly be easier when the new Ott bulb arrives; I need better light.

In other bike-related news, when I rode it on Saturday, my quads were more than usually painful; I managed just five minutes at a time, albeit twice, when usually I can manage at least ten straight. When I tried again Sunday night, it was even worse, which I found puzzling, and I got off after three minutes in great pain and frustration. I mentioned it to a friend at work, and she asked if I was stretching first, which I hadn't been. I mean, I've been biking for six weeks, I don't expect any changes to be for the worse! But I tried stretching before riding last night, and was able to do six minutes, and then seven more a little while later, so it seems to have helped. But really, isn't exercising supposed to make me more fit, not less? I really do hate riding the stupid bike.

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Are you ready for tomorrow? I really want to write the date on things: 12/12/12, it means the same thing to everyone! No possible confusion! Oh, and the world might end, if the Mayan calendar ending* wasn't just the result of a short attention span. Which sounds plausible to me: Oh, this is good enough. I want to start that new project already. Let the kids work on this, or their kids; it isn't going to be my problem...
*I know, I don't really understand the whole thing, and that's the 21st and not the 12th anyway. Whatever.

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I am regretting that the late fall to winter weather change means not eating my lunch outside. All through the summer, I enjoyed eating at a picnic table outside, then reading or knitting for the rest of the hour. Sometimes I would run an errand, but generally the time was spent relaxing, away from the office, and the break was nice.

Since the weather started deteriorating, though, I have taken to eating at my desk, an unwelcome event in many ways: some people will come over and ask about work things when I'm eating, which I think is rather rude if it isn't urgent (which it never is; editors are more often stet than stat), plus I rarely end up taking the full hour, because my work is right there, catching my eye. Unfortunately, there isn't anywhere I can go indoors that is comparable to sitting at a picnic table outdoors. There are plenty of places I can eat if I buy there, but bringing my own food somewhere that sells it is a little questionable (even the food court at the mall--it would feel weird to unpack my own lunch there, you know? plus the noise is a bit much). I guess I could go sit in the lobby, where there are a few chairs, but it isn't the same.

Last week I did manage to run lunchtime errands on three days, so that got me out of the office a bit. On Tuesday there was an errand I wanted to run, and going to that store after work would lead to a nightmare of traffic-related proportions (any time of year, thanks to rush hour, but especially this close to Christmas), so I managed to make myself do it at lunch, when it was much easier. Wednesday I got that headlight replaced and ran to the post office. Thursday I walked over to the mall, and though I didn't find what I wanted, still, points for trying.

Today, seeing that the sun was shining, I stepped outside after eating, to feel the sun on my face. Unfortunately, between the chilly weather and the sun that was (at noon) barely high enough in the sky to clear a three-story building, I didn't really feel it. Credit for trying?