49 Degrees - Brr!

We've had the windows open in our apartment for the past few days. I woke up this morning to a very chilly apartment, and the fish were not pleased, either. The tank sits in our dining room which has the most (open) windows in the whole place. I could see Dude (our Betta) get excited when I fired up the hood lights. Their tropical thermometer registers between 70 and 90 degrees, and it was black, off the bottom of the scale. Sorry, Fishies! :(

Anyhow, I went for the Champion-brand Base Layer this morning. Padded liner underneath, shorts and t-shirt over the top. The first part of my commute was with a hoodie until I warmed into the groove. Then I packed the hoodie away in a pannier for the rest of the trip. For my ears, I wore a light knit cap under my helmet. I took it off about 2/3 into my trip to work. I opted for full-finger coverage this morning as well, with my 180s Enduro gloves, which have to be just about the most versatile gloves I've used. They're comfortable at 50 degrees, and I can wear them well below freezing. As absolutely ridiculous as it must have looked, the whole get-up worked great, but I did have to pace myself a little bit toward the end to keep from sweating too much.

I ran across the Trailer guy again this morning. His name is Brian, so I guess I'll call him that from now on. The last few times I've seen him, he's been on a different bike than the Trek 2100 I originally saw him on. I didn't bother checking out what it was he was riding, though.

When I got to the coffee shop, Lorin was already waiting for his coffee to come out. I guess I left a little later than usual this morning, because my average speed was... average: about 16 MPH.

All in all, it was a great morning. The clouds blew away overnight, so I was greeted with a sparkling starlit sky upon departure. The cold quickly faded away as my legs got into the groove, so it wasn't too bad at all. I'm still adjusting to commuting almost entirely in the dark, though. I really need to get that 15W bulb ordered for my NiteRider. I get paid on Friday, so I'll probably call it in this week and pick it up on my way home Friday, it's a special-order item.

On my way to get to work, I stopped at the silly R2D2-looking mail drop box to send off some mail. I should get a picture of it. It's cool but tacky at the same time. It's a normal mail drop, but covered in vinyl to make it look like R2D2 from Star Wars. Not sure what's up with that.

Random Tunage:
Lisa Loeb - Stay (unplugged)
Blok Party - I Still Remember