Last night my commute took me through the great wilderness of the Land of Overdecorated Houses.
Even after so many years of cycling, I still can't get over how much brighter and gaudier those lights and combinations of green, red, gold, silver tinfoil seem when you don't have two feet of glass and two tons of metal between you and them. And the cold, clear night made them glint and glare all the more, or so it seemed.
We're supposed to have more of this bonechilling clarity through the next week. I hear even Santa's reindeer don't want to come out in this weather. Hmm...I wonder...How would the world be a different place if Santa and his helpers rode bicycles instead of sleighs pulled by reindeer.
I've tried to get Charlie and Max interested in cycling. But they aren't interested in the hard work: They like to supervise.
Max, at least, makes an effort at looking busy. (Is that something like acting sincere? I actually heard someone say that.) Of course, there's no contract, but there are no rules about sleeping on the job. Charlie knows that very well:
It was below freezing and, with the wind chill, about fifteen degrees colder. I got on my bike to go to work. Now you tell me: Which species is more intelligent and evolved?
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| From Utility Cycling |
It is undeniably winter now. Or, at least, it feels that way. The winds of yesterday doth blew today. Hey, I'm teaching a Shakespeare play in one of my classes. You have trouble with Shakespeare's language, you say? All right: Ou sont les neiges d'antan?
What made today really strange, though, at least climatically (No, that's not the word you thought it was!), was the fact that the temperature varied almost not at all. It felt that way and the recap I heard of the day's weather said as much: High temp 34 F; Low Temp 30; clouds but no precip; wind speeds from 20 to 30 mph. Not a day fair and excellent, as the Bard would say.
It's time to get myself out of denial. Time to take out the wool gloves, the wool shirts and such. The week I'll spend in Florida will be a mere interlude: the cold will precede and follow it.
At least there hasn't been any sleet or slush yet. I don't mind the cold, and I don't mind precipitation. Both together, though, can make for miserable cycling and can be simply depressing. Fenders and the proper clothing make such conditions endurable, if not enjoyable.
I'm not about to stop riding, though. I never have gone on "winter break" unless I had some health issue or another that prevented me from cycling. That hasn't happened often, and has never kept me off my bike for more than a couple of weeks every winter.
At least winter rides make hot chocolate and soups taste really good!
