Frozen Roads

Wow. The weather has been terrible today... and I have been in the middle of it for the better part of the day. Let's just say that wind chills have been -25F with the wind gusting up to 50mph. Brrr. And I should know about the brrr since I could feel my eyelashes sticking together while I was snow blowing the walk and drive. I'm just lucky I located my ski pants to keep the legs (and jewels) warm and toasty.

Later in the day and into the evening, we traveled a ways for dinner at a friend's house. The roads were all white and shiny. My wife was white-knuckled all the way there... and she wasn't driving! I'm actually very used to slick roads but backed off quite a bit to keep her at bay. If I had a fifth hidden in the glove box, I would have given it to her. On the way back, it was worse. A lot worse. Absolutely glazed over ice. And when we got back into the city... worse yet. The plows just polished the road smooth. No sand down at all. What astonished me was that cars were still hauling by me.

I understand why the Velo City Soup Ride was canceled. Scary.

When I got home, I again just stared at my bikes for a moment. The only thought was that I needed to fix the flat on my FS bike for next Spring. Plus I needed a little time to swap out the rear dérailleur. I am going to test a Shimano 971, XTR for the season. My current inventory of rear dérailleurs is now (2) XTR 952 and a XT 760. The thought of the flat made me forget about grabbing my road shoes to put in the basement so I can properly clip into my road bike so I can spin on the trainer. So far, I have just stood on the pedals with regular shoes... not a very productive workout, I must say.

Anyway, I hope the weather breaks sooner rather than later. This is getting OLD!