"Good lights!"...and a crap beer.

"Good lights!" That's what I had a motorist say to me one day last week on my commute home. A minivan in the opposite direction was waiting to make a left hand turn, and as I passed, the driver made the comment about my superior illumination. It definitely wasn't made as a sarcastic remark...I had just replaced the batteries so my lights were nice and bright. The way the motorist said it, it was more of a "you go Mr. bike commuter! I'll commend you on the bright output of your blinky lights! Woot woot!" Ok, there was no "Woot woot!" thrown in there, but it was definitely implied.

I run a red blinky on my seatpost and a white blinky on my handlebar...pretty standard fare. But what I think sets me apart from the common commuter is my helmet mounted BLT Lid LED. I find this gives me a lot more visibility (as in being seen by others) over a standard light set up.

The Lid LED....

....up close and personal.

The Lid LED has alternating red and white LED's, with 360 degree visibility. I think that the key thing about this light is that because it's up high on my helmet, it's visible over the tops of cars...useful when a car is turning into oncoming traffic but their view is blocked by another car.

The other lights on my commuter, Topeak Highlite Combo.

I just realized....I'm not sure if it's a sad sign of things if I've been reduced to posting about my commuter lights....

As far as the crap beer goes, I noticed that Alexander Keith's has expanded their line-up once again, and it now includes a dark ale. I've been trying lots of dark ales lately, so it seemed natural to give this one a whirl. I've come across some really good dark ales in my short tasting career, but the Keith's dark is among the worst. It could be best described as a watered down excuse of a dark ale. No aroma, no taste, no finish....no good.

Blah!