Blech
December 29th, 2007A couple days ago, I started to understand the appeal of the car-free life.
After digging the car out from being plowed in, I wasn’t able to get it into our backyard parking spot (its snow handling leaves quite a bit to be desired) so I parked it on one of the side streets, across from a sign reading “Night plow route this side of street”. It was towed the next morning when I went to run a few errands.
Turns out that marking one side of the street for nighttime plowing renders the opposite side a daytime plow route; this isn’t marked by any signs, I had to go to a St. Paul web site to figure this out. Having my car towed was a pretty effective hint, though….
Well, I had been meaning to get back on the bike. I more or less stopped bike commuting when the temps dropped to 5° in late November, but the weather this week was pretty nice. I took the mountain bike out for my first ride on slushy roads. Kept it in low gear, took it easy and slow, and … wiped out spectacularly right out of the alley. Only my pride was injured or damaged, and I stayed upright for the rest of the ride to breakfast and then to the impound lot. A mere $240 got my car back, and I packed my $200 bike into the back seat, and went on with the errands.
The bike is still disassembled in the back of the car. I hope to get around to reassembling it in the next couple days. I’ll also try to get some fenders on it — I was wearing quite a bit of road salt from that short ride, so I added “buy fenders” to the TODO list. “Buy Nokians” almost made the list, but I’ll save those for later.
The Schwinn is downstairs again, after a couple enjoyable (if more physically taxing) commute rides. I just need to finish installing and taping the handlebars, and either get some 27 inch knobby tires (not as much variety in that size) and fenders or wait for more slick-friendly weather.
I also need to brew something before I go ack to work. I had been planning a pilsner, but the hops have become hard to get. Another experimental Frankenbeer it is, then 
January 1st, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Hats off to you for riding in the cold and snowy mess. I do not envy you and any bike cleaning you may have to do though.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
It was really quite a pleasant ride. I think it was around 20 degrees that day, so I didn’t even need to bundle up too much. I just wore jeans, t-shirt, light sweatshirt and a windbreaker, fleece gloves, and a beanie under the helmet, and was quite toasty (aside from the side of me which landed in a slush-puddle, which was a bit chilly).
I’m debating going tomorrow, with the 0-10F temps….
(cleaning, of course, is something I’ve procrastinated on
)