As reported elsewhere cold this morning. Wore the balaclava because I still haven't got the neck gaiter back from the lendee. The 'clava has three problems: 1. If I wear it over my mouth, I have trouble breathing through the fabric and can't catch my breath. 2. Wearing it over my mouth fogs my glasses. 3. It's not as thick as my hat so my head/ears get cold. Obviously there's no solution to #3 (besides buying a thicker one or wearing another hat over it). Anyone got a solution to #1 and #2 besides not wearing it over my mouth?

I also saw another commuter on my route this morning. I caught up to him about a 1/4 mile from my building, and we had a nice chat. I didn't say this to him--I was out of breath from riding with the 'clava over my mouth--but he rides a little strangely (to my taste). Before I caught up to him, he rode in the bike lane for a couple hundred yards, then switched over to the jogging path/MUP that parallels the bike lane for no reason I could discern. Then he stopped where the path intersects a company's driveway, waited for all the cars on his left to pass (none of them were pulling into the building), and started up again. Yes, what he did was a lot safer than just riding thru (right hooks), but (IMO) if he'd been riding in the bike lane he wouldn't have had to stop at all--bikes in the BL are a lot more visible than ones on the path. If he rides that way for the entire road, he has to stop every couple hundred yards for about 2 miles!