17 February, 2006

three below

well, i made it to work this morning despite the cold. the national weather service website says it's three degrees below zero (F). while that's not the coldest weather i've ridden in, it's the coldest of the 05-06 winter season here in the twin cities.

it's a wonder i made it, as i think my clothing was "out to get me." yesterday i pulled out the heaviest pair of shoecovers i own as i knew what was coming. i wore them to work yesterday and, on the way home, one of them tried to kill me. really! i was track standing at a stoplight and unbeknownst to me, the reflective strap that goes around the top of the shoecover had quietly come unvelcro-ed. (hmm... is that a word?)

anyway, this was on my right foot. yeah, the chain side. then the shoecover quietly slipped the end of the strap between the chainwheel and the chain as i was rocking the track stand. when the light turned green, i noticed a little resistance on my right leg. i was part way into the intersection when i noticed what the problem was. because i wasn't the only one who wanted to use the intersection at the moment, i felt it was best to just pedal through it. yep, tore the end off the strap. useless...

dang... and i knew i was going to need that shoecover to make it to work with all 10 toes this morning. well, i just stuffed the strap into the top of the shoecover before leaving home this morning, which... DIDN'T WORK. a similar incident almost almost went down just a couple of blocks from work. ha, but i had the last laugh... got a pair of scissors out of my desk and fixed that.