24F, 12 with windchill, some spitting snow. Unfortunately that windchill was in my favor on the way in - will be in my face on the way home!

Before terminating my employment last week, my employer paid for me to attend a two-day professional seminar. On my last day, I asked if I could still attend, and the boss said yes. So Tuesday I traveled to the Boston area. Thanks to their graces, I stayed at the home of [MENTION=190941]jimmuller[/MENTION] and his Sweetie. We had a really nice time together, and I got to see Jim’s bikes and his commuting routine.

So I’m pretty upbeat, because I’m learning stuff that could help me at my jobs, and just learning stuff is good stimulation, preventing me from feeling low.

I also commuted from Jim and Sweetie’s (that’s not her real name) home to the seminar yesterday. It was only five miles each way, and the weather was fairly nice, though it was windy in the morning and cold in the evening. The suburban streets are heavily trafficked, but they’re well marked. I asked Google Maps to guide me, and I had one ear in so I could hear turn-by-turn directions. It was a breeze.

This morning, it was so cold that even Jim decided against riding to work. Weather doesn't often keep Jim from riding. But I saw this as good judgment, so since I’m heading home from the seminar, so I just drove the car.

A nice uneventful commute in this am with the temp at 28 f degrees and mostly clear skies.

Good policy and having been there I can't emphasize enough, do not let yourself get discouraged no matter what. I was laid off from a good job once, and for a couple of months every job offer fell through at the last moment. I found out years later that background checks were confusing me with people living in states I'd never even seen. I'd get offers, to the point of showing up to work to finish the paperwork, and get sent home. So a few repeats of that and I gave up. It was a mistake by those services, a mistake on my part to get discouraged, and I could have fixed it had I known but the discouragement was crushing. It was years before I tried again, and found out. People get discouraged for lots of reasons. Don't let that happen.

Sorry to hear that you lost your job, Tom. Take some time off for and then git 'er back to work!

33F, freezing fog, both kids wiped out leaving our block on their way to school and I am home w/ them on a pretty loose concussion watch for my son (the older, who went first, and hit way harder; my daughter, who left after he came home bleeding, took the corner much slower but still went down and since it wasn't a big school day for her let her stay home to keep big bro company).

Cold and windy on the way in, but hopefully that will mean I'll get that elusive tailwind on the way home.

I have a lot of experience with turf burns, and it's the same story: trying the find the balance between protecting it and giving it enough air to crust over. Where is it on your leg? Can you leave that skin exposed to air during the work day? Yes, your co-workers will be saying, "gross" every 5 minutes, but who cares?

Gotta say that these cooler temps are pretty nice in the morning. No worries about sweating too much. Today I had to drop something off with a client about 20 away from my office, and it was really enjoyable riding.

The best thing for road rash is Tegaderm bandages, which seem to be basically Saran wrap with adhesive stolen from post-it notes. They are expensive as **** at the drug store but cheap enough in bulk from Amazon. You do NOT want to let it dry out when it's half healed, it will peel like a sunburn from hell. @ptempel Might be too late for yours but for the next time or the next guy who's reading...

Please dont go around the censor. Thanks.

Expensive as heck. Sorry.

Thank you.

Yay for Friday! A very nice uneventful cold commute with the temp at 26 f degrees this morning.

Really? I read this as "expensive as 4 asteriks".

You should have been given notice about any arrest records found that may have factored into the decision of your hiring. The Fair Credit Reporting Act covers this. You should have had an opportunity to dispute the records, proving it's the wrong person or whatever. I'm so smart about this because I work for a background check company.

Some rain overnight, but only spitting a bit this morning for my ride in. Not even all that cold yet at 42F. But the rest of the day is supposed to have more rain, colder temps, and possibly snow this evening.

I left at 6am this morning to go to the gym on the way to work. Oddly there seemed to be a lot more traffic than normal at that time, and a lot less when I completed the trip at 7:30. I guess everybody decided to be early birds today.

Nice commute this morning, -5C/23F, with a bit of snow falling. There was about 5cm/2" of fluffy snow on the ground, some of the paths were pretty well cleared, others were not, some brown sugar on the residential streets but not a lot, all in all, a fun quiet ride.

Our city got good news this week, we received $1.12million for cycling infrastructure and I got my photo in a news article about the awarding of the money.

I know But what Federal laws say they should do, and what they actually do, were two different things 15 years ago here in GA. That all ended when I had a contract gig with LexisNexis, who deal with that sort of information, and they got it straightened out somehow. It took weeks and weeks.

My point is that it's easy to get discouraged in a job search, and sometimes it's not really about you or anything you did. It's a trap and I don't want to see anyone get caught in it.

"Naw it's not that bad." I really did consider getting the heavy gloves, goggles, balaclava and better layers, but the rain/ice was barely coming down and it wasn't that cold, so "not that bad". But it could and did get worse

As they say in ""Game Of Thrones"-- "Winter is Here"..

Not commuting in winter time, but at least snow and ice is not yet here, so, the commuting season is still ON.

I put on the CVS generic equivalent of Tegaderm just this morning. It looks like plastic wrap with a lot of little holes in it. It is pretty pricey. The CVS brand costs a little over $7 a box of 3. So ~$2.33 a piece. Almost want to take plastic wrap and make a ton of little holes with a pin. All of these plastic wrpas are nice, but I also still have to put on sergical tape to help keep them on. They never stay on well enough by themselves...

A company that was considering hiring me told me they'd be doing a background check on me. I figured it would happen at other places, and I was curious what my records, if any, said. So I paid for a background check on myself. I think it cost $50. It turned out to be clean, and I'm glad I checked, just for peace of mind. Errors like yours are less likely for me, as my name is unusual. It's so unusual that I'm the only person on the whole internet with my first and last names. There are one or two others with my name, but they're not on the internet. I guess it's because it's a Catholic first name and a Jewish last name.

That's double-cool! 14F with a bit of a headwind. I wish you Canadians would keep your cold fronts to yourselves! As I got into downtown there were fire trucks everywhere from a downtown building fire. Apparently both fire and police don't care about cyclists because while all car traffic was being diverted I rode right through saying hello to the fireman as I did.

By way of comparison, steak is only 3 asterisks per pound.

Easiest day of commuting I've had since Monday when it snowed. Sill on the slow winter bike due to the snow pack/ice still covering about 30% of the roads and MUP. Had a 8 mph headwind. 27 degrees.

Not sure why it was easier, but it was.