Arctic Apocalypse is upon us

This morning it was all smiles. 18 degrees but warm inside my layers of clothing. It was another perfectly-dressed ride. There were a few spots of snowy stuff that had been pushed out into the street, but for the most part this was just hardpack snow, not ice. The grimy saline crud on the ground was actually drying up. As I rode through the dried salt residue on the road, my tires became contrasty: a pale grey color for the blocky treads, while the sipes remained black. Under the high-frequency strobe of halogen streetlamps, the tires seemed to dance with a hypnotic persistence-of-vision pattern before me. If I kept a certain speed, my tires appeared blurry but motionless, if that makes any sense. This same thing happens every morning, but it's more fascinating when the tread blocks have a lot of contrast against the rest of the tire.

Some weather outlets are saying 100% chance of precipitation this afternoon. NWS has upgraded our winter storm advisory to a full-blown ice storm warning. A fellow kansan on BikeForums is already lamenting ice woes and having trouble staying upright even with Nokian studded ice tires from this weekend's weather outbreak. They must have gotten it really badly out toward Salina.

We'll see what happens tonight. There's a pretty good chance that I'll end up driving my wife to work tonight and picking her up in the morning. Even though we own a nice 4WD SUV with decent tires for such occasions, she isn't comfortable driving on ice. If she's forced to stay at work late (as she often has to when it's bad outside) then I might not have a chance to catch the bus. This could mean a driving day or just a day off tomorrow.

Random Tunage:
Vengaboys - We Like To Party (Trance 2000 Mix)
Seal - Killer