Cold Giro

It was down in the 30s this morning when I left, and although I was pretty well bundled up and I felt fairly comfortable on my ride out to the lakefront, my fingers got really cold as the Giro ride started because, as usual, the pace for the first few miles is really slow. One thing that I really noticed today was the increased amount of traffic, especially in the areas that were badly flooded like Lakeview and New Orleans East. This was the first time since the hurricane that the ride through Lakeview at 6:30 a.m. wasn't like a ride through a ghost town. There was at least some traffic everywhere. Meanwhile, a 50-person delegation is heading to The Netherlands tomorrow to learn about the impressive storm-control system that the Dutch have developed.

Thanks to the cold, the group was smaller than usual, and most of the time the pace was fairly controlled. Apparently Todd was somewhere up the road most of the day. I don't think I ever saw him, though. As usual, it got fast along Chef Highway, and after taking a couple of pulls I dropped to the back as the pace ramped up into the upper 20s. I was determined to stay in low gears and spin today, and it was a little easier to do that on the tail end. I think I ended up in a 53 x 16 toward the end, so I guess I cheated a bit, but at least by then my vest was in my pocket and my fingers had thawed out. It should be warmer tomorrow for the northshore training ride. In fact, it's looking like the weather will be really nice.

The Wife and I spent most of the afternoon installing electrical outlets at my mom's rental apartment. It took a lot longer than I had expected. One reason was that the Brother-in-law had rewired the place with a rather heavy gauge wire so I couldn't make the connections the easy way. By the time it got too dark to see what we were doing, we had both cut our hands a couple of times. When we arrived, we met one of the students who lives in the upstairs apartment who had arrived early. He was hoping that the electricity would be turned on soon. I checked the breaker box, and could see that the electrician hadn't been there yet to install the breakers and connect up all of the wiring. That's supposed to happen this weekend, but I'm thinking it won't. He did say that the gas was working and so he had hot water. Luckily, he has someplace else in town he can stay until things are working again. Classes start on the 17th. It'll be tight.