Today was ****ing cold. My finger tips are just now thawing out. They hurt for the last 2 miles. It was 29F (-2C) when I left the house. I guess I should have worn the heavy gloves today. The glove liners didn't help much.

Got my toe covers in the mail yesterday but they didn't help much either. They fit on the shoes nice and snug but they were beginning to work their way off my shoes as I was heading for the door so they stayed home. I don't understand it. I have the same brand on my road shoes and they work fine.

I don't know if it's the cold weather or the phase of the moon or what but today I got cut off 3 times. That usually only happens about once a week.

Brrrrrrrr! Actually the ride was cold, but I wasn't (except for my hands OUCH!). The REI rain jacket I bought a month or so ago does a real swell job with keeping wind out, my core wasn't cold at all.

And as for cold toes, I can't recommend steel toe'd CATs enough.

It was 29° this am and by the time I ride home from the pub tonight, it's promising to be back around the same. I like this cold weather riding!

I do this mainly because I wear contacts and I don't want them drying out on me.

I have amber and yellow lenses which seem to make dusk and dawn and cloud covered days brighter than if I used clear lenses. This morning the yellow lenses worked very well for me.

I do this at the post office. Just waiting for the day when they say something to me so I can ask them the status of the bike racks I've requested there as well. Just hope they don't go postal on me...

Ahem...I think you owe us a Friday haiku...

Ride in today was awesome! It was also the usual. See previous posts for my definition of "usual". It was 35F when I left this morning which meant the Old Navy wool coat over my t-shirt and Eddie Bauer gloves I got on sale, all of which kept me warm enough. The sun was out and I was catching the lights and riding fast which made the ride more enjoyable and too short. Before I knew it, I was already at 42nd St. and had to turn. Lots of ped dodging today so I zig-zagged a lot while riding at them so they would freeze and I could sail past them. If I just aim to go behind them they stop and if I aim to go in front of them, they keep going. Zig-zagging confuses them so they stop and I can pick a line around them.

I always wear glasses when commuting and on my weekend rides. Whatever the season, they keep wind, cold air, bugs, dust, etc. out of my eyes.
I'm cheap so I always go for the inexpensive brands. My commuting glasses (dark and amber) are low priced safety glasses. Can't remember where I got them but they were ~$6 a pair. I have some cheap Performance brand clear, amber, and dark glasses too.

If you want to be stylish and look like LA (or maybe George Hincapie) try these.

I also use safety glasses, about the same price, that I got from the hardware store. Mine are slightly tinted so they work for day or night.

I've been wearing Smith sliders for years so I can swap out the lenses for the conditions. They fit great, and enhance my already formidable handsomeness.

FAST ride in today. I had a 40 km/h tailwind most of the way in [Chinook, methinks], so I rode pretty damn fast without getting too sweaty. It must have been +12C by the time I got downtown. It's supposed to get colder as the day goes on, but it's warm again tomorrow.

Woke up this morning to a pleasant surprize, it warmed up to 29F/-2C over night (it was 15F when I went to bed). Yesterday I woke up to 7F/-14C, so I could shed some of the serious winter riding stuff. I even took the long way in. It's going to be a great day.

Some Mensa member in a blue Explorer made a supremely dangerous move on the road I was on this morning. Kind of hard to explain the intersection where it occurred but the upshot is that the guy was driving up an overpass the wrong direction, right towards me, so he could go back down the offramp. This happened a 100m or so in front of me so I was in no immediate danger, but what really steams me is that as the Explorer completes its turn in front of me, I can clearly see a toddler in a child seat in the back!

What is wrong with people?

Can't say I've never seen that happen before although it was more dangerous for me since I was in a car driving highway speeds and not on a bike. The drivers in questions overshot their exit, pulled over, then drove backwards to the exit while cars flew at them. I've also seen the reverse, drivers accidentally exiting, then driving in reverse blindly around exit turns to get back on the highway. Not only are they Darwin candidates, but they're also menaces to people who actually know how to drive safely. Can't say why they would do something clearly stupid and illegal rather than just drive to the next exit and double back or get back on the highway and continue on.

had an exceptionally fast ride in today... I kept a better cadence than I usually do, plus my first class was cancelled so I was able to take the "flat" route (meaning the one with only one uphill climb instead of the two I usually deal with) in to my second class... cut 7 minutes off of my time in

the commute back was alright too even though I wasn't quite as fast as I was going in

winter temperatures have finally come to Maryland, so I broke out some of the winter gear and layered up today

39F on the way home. Ahhh...bracing! Lovely ride home, had some shmuck honk me for some reason so I took more of the lane so he couldn't pass. Dumba$$ was from out of state. Who's he think he is? This is my town!

My ride in was about normal... overcast, a little foggy, and a little below freezing. The streets were damp, so I was careful about cornering in case of ice. Once I got to work, I began to realize I'm probably coming down with the flu so I did what needed doing, and then bundled up, rode slowly home, and took a nice hot bath.

Good thing it's Friday, anyway.

wow! 76degf yesterday on return trip, 28degf on the way in this am = chilled difference, but acclimated in route to work. traffic seemed lite and focused, even more so on return trip, +/-38deg. 5/5 commutes this week!

:rofl: rode my bike to work especially to get out of haiku duty, but oh well, 3-for-5 for the week probably counts under some other rule.

laurie anderson
forgotten in kitchen; bah
today my job sucked

had to make do with bruce cockburn all day. adequate, but just not the same thing when you're in an anderson mood.

perfectly, incredibly beautiful morning. the orange juice did the job, i took my time this morning getting up and getting ready and not leaving until i felt okay, and i was more careful all day today about eating a bit more adequately. took more oj with yogurt with me, and some other things.

the morning ride was cold. damp air, something almost-but-not-quite a fog hanging around. hazed up enough that you could look directly at the sun through the grey, and cold enough to have that wonderful freezing-air smell - left over from last night, i guess. absolutely my favourite smell in the world. it almost looked like okanagan-girl might have been right after all in predicting some snow (nope). tuque, tights, fleece, snowboarder gloves; wore the shell but left the rainproof pants in the bag. i left so late that traffic just wasn't there but the lights were; another massive bonus. only bad thing was that i located the anderson cd and all, and then on the other side of the bridge started to get that sneaking feeling that i couldn't remember actually putting it into the bag. eh. that's what you get for paying attention to packing a lunch.

evening ride was also great. left really late and didn't feel like going through the whole full monty to change. i kept my working jeans on (mistake; seams; ow) but put the rainpants on over them for reflectiveness and wind-breaking. nothing hurt!!! not enough to be a problem anyway. god what a relief. had to detour to the grocery strip for provisions, so i spent some time eyeballing braces etc in the pharmacy before i went home. i dunno; maybe. see how it goes next week. broke the other zipper-tab off my bag trying to close it over too much stuff so gee. i'm almost at the point now where i can justify getting myself a real biking bag

no conversations at all in the health club today; too late in the morning, i guess. but coming out of the hotel complex and heading to work i passed one of those conference-attendee types hanging around outside. he had a great big Hi-My-Name-Is type of sticker on the front of his shirt, only it said

Wounded Heart

and yeah. i did a double-take and looked back, and it was positioned on the left pec. that hotel is really starting to fascinate me.

songs: mincing wi' chairlhi, michael marra; wild mountainside, trashcan sinatras. guess we're in a jacobite mood this weekend.

[/QUOTE]
Thanks...glad to be back.

Only rode three days this week because of time commitments. I had to be somewhere after work taht I could not get to in time on my bike. Those three days were really good. The weather here in Portland has been great.
Funny thing: One morning, as I was walking from my bike to my machine a guy called at me, "Hey, how come you didn't even wave when I honked at you this morning?"
"I didn't hear you honk."
"Well, you were on the bike path and I was on the freeway, and I slowed down and honked."
"It wasn't me because I don't go that route to work, I was nowhere near the freeway path."
(Insert here a bunch of conversation trying to convence the guy that I really did not go on the freeway bike path and he honked at some other rider.)
Then he said, "Well, this is kind of scary then. You have a twin out there somewhere because the dude looked just like you...clothes, bike and all."
My daughter thinks he must have been on drugs at some point in his life.

I got you covered here:

Driving in my car
Is not as good as my bike.
I can't feel the wind.

Weekly report"

3/5 commutes. Slowing down due windchill. Traffic as normal. Peeling - adding layers as needed. Sweaty back with 25 degree farenheit.

No ... I am not buying panniers yet.

Today was a good ride into work. Mid 50's, little wind; it's rides like this that make we wish I worked farther from home. I like working weekends, no traffic. My co-workers have finaaly realized that riding to work isn't something I'm going to stop doing. I had to laugh at them today, they were all complaining about the COLD. It wasn't cold but they all had on jackets. That's California for you I guess. I didn't even bring a jacket to work. What will they do when it gets down to the 30's? I'm only averaging about 14 MPH on my way to work on my MTB due to lights. Is that bad? I'm still running knobbies because I like to ride offroad too and I only have the one bike, so no slicks for now. I'm willing to take any other suggestions. I'm picking up a rear wheel trainer in the next few days to work on my speed. 14 MPH is just slow. I'm no roadie but I gotta go faster. Ttfn.

What, everyone can't be Monday-Friday except for me, can they? The ride in was 45 degrees, perfect for really pushing for a higher average speed. The city and the state fixed the traffic sensors at the intersections I told them about, so I just had to slow down, not stop and wait when there isn't cross traffic. That made for a more enjoyable ride. Ride home was nice too, 55 degrees, light traffic, really felt the burn keeping my cadence up, but still cool enough not to sweat. Waved at the the guard at the courthouse as I flew through the courthouse/jail complex. It shaves 2 blocks off my commute, but its fun to weave through and my speed stays up. When I got home I got an email about a free Magtrainer, so I can ride even when I watch TV. Some days it all goes right.

A great morning for a ride. Had a sunrise as I crossed the Missouri River. 36F but little wind.

Hooray for Nikwax. As it started to rain last night, I remembered that last time my pannier rain covers soaked through. So I rummaged through the work bin and found a spray bottle of Nikwax "Tent and Gear" proofer. Sprayed on liberally, wipped off excess, and hung to try. This morning it was still raining and my stuff was dry the whole way in.

I am a little disappointed that my headlight bulb decided to sputter out in the driveway. But otherwise a fine rainy day commute. And picking up my new Mungo bars from the shop on the way home.

West Kentucky - 36, North wind 10-15, gray skies, kind of dull. Yesterday was nice, partly cloudy, upper 50's, 0 wind. Did 40 miles around the county.