My First Time

The cool front that came through yesterday dropped the overnight temperature into the 50s, and so, as I had expected, this morning was my first time riding in long tights this Fall. It was also the first time I rode in full-finger gloves. Granted, I could have survived fine in shorts, but I would have been cold for the first half-hour and that's just not a good way to ease into winter, at least in my book!

Accompaning the cool, dry air, was the usual strong northwest wind, and I wasn't too surprised to find only Joe F. up on the levee. Joe just got back from a couple of weeks in Vermont, so while I was all decked out in long tights, arm-warmers and gloves, he, having already acclimated to the cool weather, was in his usual shorts with just a long-sleeve jersey to keep the chilly air at bay. Come to think of it, I have rarely seen him wearing long tights. Riding this morning made me think about what I was doing this week a year ago when we were just preparing to move back from Jackson into our house permanently. I have a feeling that this whole year will be defined by comparisons with "a year ago today." I find myself making those comparisons frequently.

My legs were surprisingly sore this morning, no doubt a result of battling the wind all weekend on the Giro rides, and although I was planning on an easy spin, today's wind demanded a bit more effort than I would have liked. Just holding 19 mph for the long headwind stretches took a little pressure on the pedals, even though I was staying in the light gears and trying to keep it easy. On the plus side, the weather is really beautiful today with a clear blue sky and really low humidity. People who live where this kind of weather is the normal fare can't possibly truly appreciate it like we do this time of year.

The "real" cafeteria at the Medical School finally re-opened last week, and it's been very popular. It has been a long time since we could get a nice selection for lunch that hadn't been wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for four hours. Meanwhile, on the Microsoft Exchange front, I switched two more people in the office over to the Exchange server last Thursday. Both of them use Blackbery handhelds, and one of them keeps having problems with his BB getting shut out from his Cingular server until he re-enters his password. Apparently they are "working on that." Also, since Tulane didn't buy the Blackberry Exchange Server software, they can only sync their email, not their calendars or anything else, without plugging into their computers. I think there are some 3rd party solutions for that, but I haven't had time to investigate yet. Turns out the President uses a Treo. I'll bet it'll sync with those!