Fifty Plus (50+) - 2008 is 50 days old

50 days into the year now. Sunsets are noticeably later. We are only 19 days from switching to Daylight Savings Time, which will instantly bring 7PM sunsets to Wisconsin.

I'm sure it is also warming up, somewhere out there. Unfortunately, not here. We've had below zero windchills for 2 days, it is supposed to be around -7 tonight with windchills around -25. But, hopefully, warmer days are just around the corner. With the sun moving higher in the sky, it has to begin warming soon.

Before long it will be Spring and all of us will be out riding more.

Thank God!
Spinning class, bicycle shopping and reading this forum are just not doing it. I need my biking fix!:p

It was warming up in the SF Bay Area until today. Gray drizzly day all day long.

Up to 72 degrees in Tucson today . . . . up to 110 in July!

It was warming up in the SF Bay Area until today. Gray drizzly day all day long.

Tell me about it -- I rode 48 miles in it today to watch the Amgen tour pass by -- really glad I had my rain jacket or I'd be singing a different song right now.

Minor rant: Why is DST so early this year? I hate that we have it at all; let alone so early. Feh.

The schedule for DST was changed by federal legislation in 2005, with the new earlier date (and slightly later in the fall too) going into effect in 2007. There was a provision in the bill to switch back to the old schedule, should Congress be persuaded to do so. The Department of Energy was commissioned to study the energy savings of the new schedule.

Personally, I love the new schedule as I'm not a morning person and love the later sunsets. Waiting until April up here in cold, dark Wisconsin seemed to take forever.

The new schedule for DST runs from the 2nd Sunday in March to the 1st Sunday in November.

My preference would be to chuck Standard Time forever and stay on DST all year.

If you really object to DST, you could move to Arizona or Hawaii, as they don't observe it.

Bring it on. I miss my after work rides.

Before long it will be Spring and all of us will be out riding more.

I'm riding a quarter of a mile every day to my mail box.

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

Looking at the next 10 day forecast for the area - 8 days of rain/snow or wintery mix:(:mad:

This doesn't look good for biking outdoors. At least the biking activities are picking up...club banquet this weekend, park bike program breakfast and CPR training for bike volunteer position. This means spring is not far behind.

I like the fact that I have access to a gym at work, and that we have a stair machine. In fact, I'm headed there very shortly. If not for that, I'd say the poor man's answer to a gym would be to find a multi-story building w/ public access to the stairway. Go up and down multi times on real strair climbing for a workout. Great for the quads at least. Mall walking anyone?

"Sure it's a stare machine. I stand here most of the day and stare at it!"

"Whaddya mean I ain't athletic; I bowl 280"

Don't tell me----It is only 316 days till christmas aswell. Yet another thing to cheer me up.

February used to be the dismall month of the year to me- but it is the end of the winter---Or at least getting on towards the end. Started looking on the Ride sites to see what is available for the early spring. Sorted the opener for me already and it is a local 40 miler that I always enjoy. Fairly flat route for the 25 miler but just a gentle 10% for about half a mile to get the legs working again. Not for me as I hope that I have been able to get some hills in over the next couple of months- but it will be great to have the 50+ jersey showing the youngsters that they should have kept riding over the winter.

I now treat Winter as a planning session. Don't get any serious rides in but just do the odd hill here and there so that when the good weather hits- I will be ready for it.

Bring it on. I miss my after work rides.

You don't ride in the dark?

Nearly 450 on-the-road miles so far this month...that's life in California. :D

You don't ride in the dark?

Hardly ever.

YEAH bring on DST. Here in the great grey Pacific North wet those days where we get 20 minutes of daylight are getting old. I noticed last week though when we had some really sunny days it was staying light till after 5:00 so thats great for us

If you really object to DST, you could move to Arizona or Hawaii, as they don't observe it.

Neither does much of the rest of the world.

We lived in South Korea for a couple of years, and they don't mess with their clocks. The seasons cycle as they do here, and there's no artificial tampering with time.

I just don't see the point of it, is all I'm saying.

Here in Wisconsin I would argue for DST in the summer because without it, in mid-June our sunrises would be at 4:18 AM and sunsets at 7:39 PM. Moving those to 5:18 AM and 8:39 PM is much better. I wouldn't mind moving them another 30-60 minutes.

Anyway, there is no "natural" time. The time was set arbitrarily. Why base it roughly upon when noon occurs in Greenwich, England? If it had been based upon another location, it could vary by several minutes from what we have now.

Even England advances the time in Greenwich by an hour in the summer, calling it British Summer Time.

February used to be the dismall month of the year to me- but it is the end of the winter---Or at least getting on towards the end.

Yeah, life is good when winter ends before May.

Weatherman says a mix of sun and clouds today. So I guess that's what that white stuff all over the ground and falling from the sky is? Maybe it will clean up the inversion a bit anyway. Red air quality day, again. :(

Yeah, life is good when winter ends before May.


AMEN

I love the new schedule as I'm not a morning person and love the later sunsets...

My preference would be to chuck Standard Time forever and stay on DST all year.

+1 and +1

Bring it on. I miss my after work rides.

+1

Of course with retirement just around the corner I won't have to wait until after work for those rides:)

I'm riding a quarter of a mile every day to my mail box.

Lucky you.....my driveway is a solid sheet of ice this morning:(:(

"2008 is 50 days old"

I believe that 2008 is 50 days YOUNG.

My glass is always half full.

This afternoon after a 65 mile organized ride. Winter you say? What's that? :p
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2286628155_394bdd964b_o.jpg

http://www.mvillebikes.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=280

This afternoon after a 65 mile organized ride. Winter you say? What's that? :p
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2286628155_394bdd964b_o.jpg

Those people are waaaaay too skinny! They must be pie-challenged. :D

Bring it on. I miss my after work rides.

+1 gabillion...

At least then I can get my mileage up to some kind of reasonable level.

I like morning rides. It is just getting light early enough now that I can get to work at a reasonable time; come the 2d weekend in March, I'll be late again. Or later. Retirement beckons but is still a few years off.

55 days and counting now. Two weeks from today the clocks will change!

And I'm heading to Chapel Hill, NC a couple of days later, so I hope to be in long, warm days. On March 12, the average high there is 60 and sunset is at 7:22 PM. Yee Haw!