SSAD Season

It's only been a couple of days, but it seems like forever since I've seen the sun. This is always a tough time of year for me. The weather is often uncooperative, the holidays disrupt my routines, and the short days seem to confuse the hell out of my pineal gland. I think I went to sleep last night before 9:30, and that's just strange. It's a good thing I don't live up in Alaska or I'd probably be a basket case by now. On the positive side, I was wide awake when the alarm went off this morning!

It was still dark outside, and with the temperature way up in the upper 60s, I knew it would be foggy, a fact that was easily confirmed by a quick glance out the window. I was prepared for the fog today, but what I really underestimated was the amount of water it had deposited on the roads. I was only a couple of blocks down the street when I realized I probably should have taken the Pennine with its full fenders instead of the Orbea, but it was too late. Arriving at the meeting spot on the levee bike path, I was glad to see that the fog didn't seem to be significantly thicker there than it had been on the way out. On a scale of one to ten, where ten is too thick to ride safely, I'd say it was only about a 7 today. Rich was there on his mountain bike, and John and David were there as well. Along the way we picked up Erich and Taylor, so for most of the ride there were six of us. The road was really wet, though, and I was doing my best to stay out of the spray zone which meant being out in the wind a bit more. Since we weren't going all that hard, and there was practically no wind, that worked out pretty well, actually. Erich, of course, was surprised that more people hadn't shown up, so to make ourselves feel better we called them all a bunch of lazy slackers who were afraid to get their bikes dirty.

So I got in a decent ride, arriving home soaking wet and generally covered with road grit, but thanks to the warm weather I wasn't cold at all. For a mid-December ride, you really can't complain about that! The bike, of course, was a bit of a mess, and I took a little time to wipe it down and clean the chain before hitting the shower. While I was doing that, down in the basement, I noticed that a rat or mouse had gnawed at the piece of wood I use to block the bottom of the door. The last couple of days I'd noticed it had been moved a bit, so last night I put a paint can next to it to see what would happen. So I guess the creatures of the night are back in full force, and looking for a nice place to spend the winter. Hope they like peanut flavored warfarin.