Bait & Switch

When I got home last night, I was kind of chomping at the bit to hit the trails. My wife laid down early for a nap (she works graveyards) and so I took off to Shawnee Mission Park, gear in hand. It was 55 degrees outside, partly cloudy, and already dark. My NiteRider was all charged, and I had spare batteries for my DiNotte. The trail layout is somewhat confusing at night, so I had the GPS with me. Key points in the trail (including trailheads) are marked as waypoints. Indeed, I was ready to rock.

No sooner did I get the bike off the back of the Explorer, my phone goes off. My wife wasn't feeling well and I had to take her to the urgent care doctor. This is basically a cheap after-hours walk-in clinic. Bait & Switch #1: No trails for me. I was right there. I could taste it. It kind of sucked being that close and having to turn around, but it was certainly more important to get my wife to the doctor. She got the advice she needed and she feels much better this morning. That's a good thing.

I woke up and did my usual routine of averaging the forecast between 3 different weather services. The reults were strikingly similar. 42 degrees currently (at 5:30 AM). Hellacious wind out of the north (tailwind!) High of 42. Low of 26 or so. What the heck?! So, I had to do something interesting: Pack warmer clothes for my ride home than my ride to work.

I stepped outside with just a knit cap, long-sleeve tee shirt and cargo pants on. Should work, right? Well, no. Bait & Switch #2: Between 5:30 AM and 6:00 AM, the temperature had fallen 5 or 6 degrees, into the mid 30's. I rode to the bus stop as-is, but had to layer up once I got to the bus stop. It was simply too windy and too cold.

At this rate, I hope that the temperature doesn't get any lower than the mid 20's for my ride homw, because I'm simply not prepared for anything much cooler than that. They say we have a chance for a little snow. That will be welcome in my book, but with the warm-up later this week, it looks like tomorrow and into the early parts of next week will be full of grimy, cold rain. Rain and temperatures in the 30s are a very real possibility for tomorrow's commute. Heebie Jeebies.

Also, not so much bait and switch but similarly disappointing: I forgot to grind more coffee and bring it in today. I depleted my supply of brown, aromatic grounds yesterday morning. I refuse to imbibe the toxic swill from the communal mud trough in the break room. This is going to be a very long day.

Random Tunage:
Dynamix II - Machine Language
Paul Van Dyk - Nothing But You