Yep, It's Monday

When I went to bed, last night, the weather forecast for today was for noontime snow showers producing maybe one inch of precipitation. So, I loaded up the yellow bike, and went to sleep.

When I got up, there was already three inches of snow on the ground, and all of the weather forecasters were letting loose a collective "D'oh!"

So, I swapped all of the stuff into the bags on the snow bike, and transferred one of the tail lights from the yellow bike. Then, I noticed that the tail light which was already on the snow bike needed batteries. So, I went to unsnap the light from the mount, and pulled the mount off of the sizing shim.

That meant that I had to unscrew the band, and remount it on the rubber shim (changed the battery while I was at it).

Finally, I was able to leave the house, and ride north into what the weather guesser said was a 39 mph sustained wind. As I rode, slipping and sliding on the slushy ice under the snow, I began to overheat from the exertion. I unzipped my outer wind layer a bit, and continued on. Some of the heat I was producing escaped through the open zipper, and I was comfortable for the rest of the ride.

I got to work, after about an hour (everyone who drove complained that it took an extra hour or two to get there), and when I took off the outer jacket, I had about an inch of snow on the front of my wool sweater. I guess the headwind had pushed it down my collar as I rode.

The snow stopped around 10:00 A.M., and the main roads cleared up a bit. Of course, I don't ride home on main roads. The roads I was on were pretty icy, so I took it easy and rode even more slowly than normal. Good thing, too, because about a mile and a half from home I hit a nice little patch of ice with a thin layer of water on top.

This might well be the surface that inspired the coining of the word "slick". Even my studded tires were ineffective, and I fell flat on my face. Smacked my knee pretty well, but otherwise no harm done.

Tomorrow morning's ride promises to be interesting.

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