Cold weather commuting...

Commuting a 2 weeks ago was really a good wake up call to cold riding, and it seems to be headed that way again this week with some early snow flurries and sleet. I'll be looking forward to some more of these cold rides soon.

Numbers don't lie and the numbers on my new 1 $ Kroger temp probe say it's cold outside.

I asked Boogy if he wanted to go outside like he often does in the mornings. When it's this cold I usually get some lethargic response and a groan like this.

So it's just me, cold, dark, and my poor attempts at a no shave November.

At least my water never gets too warm now. When it starts to freeze I usually throw it in my back jersey pocket a bit for a quick thaw.

AND...In response to Zac's open letter to warm weather I give you:


An open letter to cold weather:

Dear cold weather,

Thank you so much for finally coming. We've been waiting for you for a while and frankly it's about damn time you showed up. We had been sweating our balls off till now. I too have a lot of work and things going on with schoool/research, and I just wanted to thank you for giving me incentive to resist the urge to go outside and play my life away. It's time to buckle down and work and you know it.

To be honest, I can't count the ways I love you. No really, I can't feel my fingers so there would be no way to feel how high I was counting. But I will say I love how you bring out that alive feeling in my extremities. My fingers and toes sometimes ache and you politely slap them in the face and silence their pains, which ironically only return when entering into man made warm environments, where they are allowed to complain freely. I love the feeling of icycles over my face as the morning wind rushes by, the deafening silence you invoke on small animals along the greenways, and the confused grimaces of people that look onto me through their warm and empty cow eyes at the stop lights.

While we all complain a bit when you show up, we mean nothing by it. After surviving exposure to your wrath and telling the tale, men feel like lumberjacks and ladies like...lumberjacks after a successful day providing for their larger than life American families. No one wants to be a weatherman. Greenway riding is elevated to the next level of difficulty with randomly placed patches of ice and frozen debris. This keeps me from dozing off should I get too comfortable riding in. I know you do this because you care about me, and if I do fall I can always just lay there and take comfort in the instant ice pack that is the ground.

So kick back your feet, and put on your coat. I'll put a nice ice cream sundae out for you. And tell that "tan in a can" brethren of yours, warm weather, to just stay south. I have no need for aussie ladies and they onyl stir up trouble. I just want some snow to build myself a snow fort capable of withstanding atomic fireballs, gale force winds, and a collapsing economy.

Cheers,

Jeremy