Thursday, January 31, 2013

January in review

January 2013 was the coldest we've had in quite some time. (And they talk about global warming like it's a bad thing!)  But on the bright side, we're ending up with more normal temperatures.  Amazing how warm 35 feels, after a few days of 5!

Commute Log... I ended up riding the bus in both directions on two days.  On another five, I rode the bus to work, then was able to bicycle home.

Much to my chagrin, I became reaquainted with the ground on two occasions, if ya know what I mean.  We had a freak rainstorm a week ago, which left a quarter-inch of ice glaze on everything.  I was wheeling my bike when my feet went right out from under me and I was on the ground immediately.  Ouch!  I was sore for a couple days after.  (My dear mother fared worse - she fell and broke her arm!  Adding insult to injury - she reports that three neighborhood dogs immediately ran over and started "slobbering" all over her!  I'm happy to report she's recovering nicely from both injury and insult!)  About the time I was feeling good again, I was bicycling to work - a dusting of snow hid an icy patch that caused the wheel to slide out, and I body-slammed that frozen ground yet again!  Other than a nice shiner on one knee, and the accompanying torn britches, I'm okay.  I mumbled, got up, and rode on.  But I'm getting too old for that kind of action.

I ended up riding more miles on the old "beater" than on the #1 bicycle.  The brick saddle was okay, except on the days when I took the scenic route home... after 45 minutes, it never failed to make me wonder how I enjoyed it for so many years.  (I've only ridden the An-Atomica one time in the interim... I barely even noticed it was there!  Looking forward to dry roads.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You really need to invest in some studded tires! My schwabe marathon winter tires are great in the slickest ice! We've had similar weather here in Michigan, and I don't worry about ice patches at all.