Even Better Than Walking On Water

I don't remember whether I heard or read this bit of advice: Never ride through water if you can't see the bottom.

I'm sure most of you have heard something similar, perhaps in a parental lecture.  Yet, I'm sure most of you have gone against that admonition at some time or another.  I know I have on numerous occasions, with and without fenders and raingear.

It's almost inevitable that you'll ride through some inundated pothole, or slosh through some area where water has backed up because of a stopped or overflowing drain, especially if you use your bike as a vehicle after a storm like Sandy or the Nor'easter that's raging up this way.  If you've spent any amount of time riding off-road--especially if you ride cyclo-cross or  cross-country, as I did--you're almost certain to slice across a stream or muck your way through a marshy area.  And you more than likely won't know what you've gotten yourself into until you're soaked or covered with mud!

A British cyclist in the Lake District took the challenge of riding through a (visually, anyway) bottomless body of water.  Sixteen-year-old Matt Whitehurst claims he rode across 75 foot-deep Lake Buttermere last July.

He claims that Photoshop was not involved in any way, shape or form. 

What's that lump under his rear tire?  Could he be on the back (or head) of the Loch Ness Monster?  Hmm...If that's the case, does his feat qualify as cycling--or surfing?

No Shopping This Season?

It seems that since Hurricane Sandy left, the weather has been colder than I can recall it being at any time last winter.

Of course, I don't claim to remember every single day about last winter.  (At my age, it's hard to remember every day last week!)  But I do recall that it was an exceptionally mild season, and that we had our only snow well before the winter started and a couple of cold days after it ended. But in between, the only signals of the season seemed to be the bare trees and short days.

So now I have some winter clothing I bought last year but never used.  Mainly, I bought wool undergarments and socks, as well as some insulated waterproof boots. 

The good news is that I don't have to buy those things this year, and that even if I do no clothes shopping for this winter, I'll still have some things I can donate to the hurricane victims.

Somehow I suspect this winter won't be so mild.  

Light At The End Of The Storm

I don't mind cloudy days.  Actually, I like them, especially for cycling, particularly along a seacoast.

However, during the past few days, clouds have spread a thick gray curtain between us and the light of the day, even though Sandy had passed.  

Today, though, those clouds gave way to the less ominous overcast skies one often sees in coastal areas.  And we saw something that might have been reported as a UFO, given recent conditions:  the sun.

In fact, near the end of my ride this afternoon, I saw a sunset that caused me not to rue the fact that it came so early as a result of turning the clocks back an hour:

I captured the light as best I could with my cell phone from the Unisphere.