So Much Colder

"Damn, I should have worn my windstopper jersey," said Donald. He was riding alongside me, inexplicably wearing shorts, as we pedaled into a gusting north wind at the start of the Wednesday morning ride. Perhaps I was just a bit overdressed, but I was wearing shorts plus long tights, shoe covers, a base layer of an old jersey, a long-sleeved jersey over that, a windstopper "bib", and Pealizumi Kodiak jersey over that, plus a skullcap and long gloves. Even so, my arms and feet were cold by the time I got back home. The temperature had dropped fairly significantly since Tuesday and the wind was strong and gusty, so I hadn't skimped on the clothes this morning. There was only a handful of us on this grey overcast day - Donald, Jeff, John, Keith. Much of the ride was in a crosswind, and there were times where staying in the sweet spot of the draft meant having my front wheel in front the pedals of the guy in ahead of me. It required a fair amount of concentration as the wind occasionally blew riders off their lines. At one point near the turnaround I was riding alongside Donald chatting and suddenly found myself too close to the edge. Rather than try and save it (which almost never works), I just bailed and took a little cross-country ride down the levee for a bit before I could safely get back up onto the asphalt.

The area where the tornado came through yesterday morning is still a disaster area. It is really sad to see some of the big old homes from the 1860s that have survived all of the hurricanes and floods, ripped to shreds like that. Some of them just don't look to me like they can possibly be repaired. There are homes where the entire roof and a whole wall are simply gone as if they were neatly sliced off with a knife. A quarter mile in another direction and it might have been me.

So the tooth is still rather painful and I would have gone back to the endodontist today so he could correct the bite, but The Wife had the car tied up at a meeting all day so I couldn't. Now it will probably be another week because we're supposed to be driving up to Iowa this weekend, and of course Tuesday is Mardi Gras, so nothing is going to happen until Wednesday at the earliest. Hopefully the problem is with irritation and isn't bacterial.