In Which Here Comes the Fall Sun

Morning Ride, pond on C Avenue at Collins Aerospace covered in snow and ice, but pretty morning sun, and dressed OK, it was an OK morning for a ride on The Fancy Beast.

Hold my beer. Well, I wish I had a beer for you to hold. Did I do something crazy? I wrote earlier that this week was a total loss from a biking point of view—and I am pleased to report that I have been proven wrong.

It was hazy yesterday, and the quiet residential streets (I checked my bike route driving in) were too icy for an old man on a bicycle. But by the afternoon commute (checked again) the day in the 20s had started to work its magic. If nothing falls from the sky and there is any sun at all, a day in the 20s, while still below freezing, will warm pavement enough to reduce the snow and ice on it—at least where it has been cleared.

There were a few icy, dicey spots—the streets south of Kenwood School on my commute, between the school and Zach Johnson Drive, are always the challenge in winter--I think of it as The Land Snowplows Forgot. Indeed, there was snow and ice there, but in patches.

And early this morning, the sun was just too tempting. I got out the mountain bike, put my work in a backpack, and rode The Fancy Beast to work.

Oh, Fancy Beast. Gift of Microsoft to my oldest son more than a decade ago—you’re still quicker than your clunky looks suggest, and I appreciated your wide tyres this morning as I navigated those icy spots.

The winter parking lot, Warde Hall, Fancy Beast old bike locked to an old  microwave.

There were no mishaps, I'm happy to report. For the most part, the ride was fine. Of course, I was all bundled up for winter—and I may put the long johns in the backpack for the ride home.

It should be in the 30s. Heat wave! Take it, fab four: