(sn)Oh, Joy!

Last night, I took a detour from my usual route to meet my wife at the dentist. A strong headwind and temperatures still in the teens made ice form on my eye lashes. This trip only added about a mile to my usual route home, since I had to throw my bike in the back and run some errands with my wife.

I was up pretty late last night working on a rather mischievous project -- two of them, actually. I may disclose the nature of these projects later, but they're not cycling related at all. I just like tinkering. This morning, I intentionally woke up a bit late to make up for some lost sleep. It wasn't until right before I left that I checked the weather and saw light snow in the current conditions. Usually, this means frozen mist or transient flurries, but there was actually accumulation on the street -- less than 1/4" of it, but accumulation all the same. It didn't slow me down at all, but it was kind of fun to ride in.

The real sucky part happened while waiting for the bus. I was appropriately dressed for riding at 14°, but not for standing around for 20 minutes waiting for the bus. I could have hopped back on and rode laps in the parking lot to stay warm, but I was too lazy, plus my backpack was extra heavy with the next few days' worth of lunches topping it off. Mostly it was laziness, though.

As far as the snow goes, I love when it's just lightly dusting while I'm riding. The brilliance of the DiNotte's least-distracting strobe pattern catches snowflakes in its beam and lights them up. If you're not going too fast, you can actually see the shape of actual snowflakes, which I find fascinating. For some reason, the halogen beam on my NiteRider doesn't quite have the same effect. It probably has a lot to do with the signal the LED light gets from the controller.

Random Tunage:
Oasis - Wonderwall
Laguna Seca - The Flow