definitely chilly today; tights were appreciated, and I am awfully glad I put on the beanie under the helmet. I stuck with thin gloves, which made for cold fingers for the first 4 miles or so. Wasn't sure about my decision to leave off the midlayer fleece, and run with only my base layer under wind layer, but I warmed quickly enough, and it meant a rare not too sweaty arrival at work.

The fun of today's commute, though, were the two separate trees blocking portions of my route. Had to lift my 50-60 Lbs of well laden commuter cycle to get over them. Definitely could have passed on that part of the adventure. Also, my front brake (mechanical disk) is squealing pretty badly -- does anyone know if bicycle brake pads have 'wear indicators' like car brakes sometimes do? I started noticing it on Friday's ride home, but it was much worse today. I have about 3200 plus miles on the bike, original pads, and I ride pretty heavily loaded (190 lbs of me, 35 lbs of bike plus rack/accessories, and 20 plus pounds in the panniers on a regular basis) so I would not be at all surprised if it is time to replace them. They look somewhat 'thin' but they've always look thin to me (compared to car or motorcycle pads).