Now I'm really glad I went for a ride, however brief, yesterday.
According to the weather forecast, there's more on the way--snow, wind and cold. In fact, absolute temperatures of near O degrees F, and wind-chill temperatures of -20F are predicted for the wee hours of tomorrow morning.
I don't think it's been so cold in at least a couple of years. That, in and of itself, wouldn't deter me from riding. But with winds gusting to 60MPH (100 KPH)--at times blowing the snow horizontally--I don't feel much incentive to go out. In fact, I'm not sure I'd ride even if I had a mountain or fat-tire bike.
I'm such a sissy, right?
I confess...I haven't done a lot of riding since my latest trek to Connecticut. That was almost a month ago!
Since then, I commuted until the end of the semester and, last week, took a ride to the Rockaways with Bill. But for much of the week before that--including Christmas Day--I was languishing with a virus frolicking inside me.
I am feeling better now. I started to notice improvement after that ride with Bill, last Thursday--before a snowstorm.
Today I took another, shorter ride before--you guessed it!--another snowstorm that's coming our way tonight. The coming snow squall, like the one we just had, shouldn't leave us with a lot of white stuff. But the weatherfolk are promising lots of wind and colder temperatures.
So I felt I just needed to get out today. I wasn't going to stop for anything--especially after seeing this:
Noooo parking. No, I woooon't park. And I won't ride sloooow. At least, I'll try not to!
It's here.
I'm talking about the snow. Ever since the middle of the week, the weather forecasters said we'd get the white stuff this weekend. Well, they were right on target: Flurries that fluttered down early this morning have turned into big, puffy flakes. I don't know how much will accumulate, or stay, but everything looks like someone opened up a big box of confectioner's sugar and sprinkled it.
Good thing I went for a ride yesterday--specifically, the ride I took. Although you could have guessed that snow was coming even if you hadn't heard the forecasts, there was no threat of it yesterday. Nor was there a hint of sun: The overcast sky spread a blanket of that particular kind of gray seen just when late autumn is turning into winter--and the pyres of fallen leaves are flickering their last embers of color.
I tried to get those colors and that light without becoming a road pancake. Oh well. At least I managed to capture, I think, the you-wouldn't-know-it-was-the-Bronx-unless-you-were-there feel of that scene.
Anyway, at that point I was about a quarter of the way to what would be my destination:
You guessed it--Greenwich, Connecticut. That's the Town Hall, across from where I sat and consumed some dark chocolate and nuts.
Trusty Arielle, my Mercian Audax, got me there and back. She seemed particularly quick and comfortable today. Perhaps I was simply enjoying my last-chance-before-the-storm ride.
So what am I doing today (besides writing this post)? Reading some students' papers, and making some beet soup. And enjoying yesterday's ride.
