Torrential

Thursday morning fog on the levee blowing past the headlight.

It was another week of unseasonably warm temperatures, high humidity, and of course dense fog, or not dense fog, or torrential rain, or sunshine. As unpredictable as it was, at least we did not have much in the way of high winds and cold air. That will be coming later this week as an actual cold front finally blows through late on Wednesday, bringing us back to more normal early winter weather. 

The Tuesday levee ride had a nice little turnout. It wasn't terribly foggy, so that was nice. Jess, who has been riding way, way more consistently than any of the other Tulane riders, was there along with a few of the usual suspects except for Big Rich who has again apparently retreated to his hideaway in NC where unpaved roads are considered charmingly rustic rather than glaring examples of incompetent mismanagement like they are here in town. Jess rolled up to the start with a flat rear tire So we're riding up the river at a moderate pace and coming to the little bypass around some piles, and I briefly think about warning Jess about it but then figure she's probably well aware of it since she's ridden the levee bike path a number of times. Well apparently it must have caught here by surprise because right after I go around them I hear someone yelling behind me. Fortunately Jess had just taken a little detour onto the grass and hadn't actually crashed! Eventually everyone turned back around Williams Blvd. except Charles and me. After then turnaround at Ormond we eased up a bit and were riding side-by-side chatting about one thing or another when I made the absolutely unforgiveable mistake of bringing up the subject of tires. As anyone who rides bikes must surely know, talking about tires while on a ride is guaranteed to put a jinx on the ride, anger the tire gods, and inevitably result in a flat tire or two - which of course it immediately did. So we spent a little time fixing Charles' flat and rode easy most of the way back. Unfortunately the tire gods were not quite done with us yet, though.

The WeMoRi was pretty normal but with a slightly smaller turnout than usual. As was the case every morning this week there was a dense fog advisory posted, but the fog wasn't really all that bad. That afternoon I left work early so I could finish up at home and await an expected call from Bergeron Volvo that my car was finally ready. I'd dropped it off the prior Thursday and it had remained untouched until Monday when I got the $2,000 estimate and a promise it would be ready by the end of the day on Wednesday. I texted the service guy around 4 pm and he eventually got back to me to inform me that they had been shipped the wrong part (I assume the emission test pump assembly that had triggered the "check engine" light) and now it wouldn't be ready until Thursday. Sigh... Later that evening was the annual WeMoRi Christmas party that was at Toe's house this year. There was a great turnout along with copious amounts of food and adult beverages. I stayed until around 10:30, just after Kenny showed up on his way back from a high school football game.

Jess took a little detour around the pipes.

Thursday morning it was foggy enough to consider not riding, which of course I didn't really consider. As we were about to roll out Jess appeared with a flat rear tire and no pump or inflator. That precipitated a big collaborative tire-changing effort that got us rolling pretty quickly. Then, just after we had started back from The Dip (some negotiation had been required to get people to go even that far under the damp and foggy circumstances), Jess flatted again. So we checked the tire, pulled something small and sharp out of it, and got going again. That didn't last too long, though, and soon the tire was almost flat again. We were still quite far out, not even back to Williams, so trying to nurse it back with more CO2 wasn't really feasible. We put another tube (tube #3) in it and that one did the trick. Later I did an autopsy on the last tube that had leaked, which was one of my patched tubes, and discovered that it had a slow leak where the valve stem it attached to the tube. Back at work, I got the call from Bergeron in the early afternoon that the car was ready, so headed back home where I decided to ride the cyclocross bike out there to pick it up. I took the long way around, going all the way to the lake trail and then back down Severn. That ride reminded me why I don't ride much in the city after 7:30 am! I also discovered that at the last cyclocross race my saddle clamp must have slipped a bit, leaving the tip of the saddle pointing a bit upward. It wasn't too bad, but it was a bit of an annoyance. Anyway I threw the bike into the car and drove back home with everything in more or less working order.

Saturday's Giro was pretty nice once the fog lifted.

Saturday's Giro Ride started out with must a little fog and a slightly smaller turnout than usual. It was nice and warm - like 67° - with practically no wind, so it was a nice ride. It was pretty fast, and I did a bit of work, but the combination of warm temperatures, a decent enough sized group, and virtually no wind made it seem easier than you'd have expected. That afternoon I decided it was finally time to fix the screen on the porch door. That's a job that you would think would be easy but actually isn't. I needed to add hardware cloth behind the screen because the damage I was fixing had been caused by the dog jumping up and pushing the screen out. Add to that the fact that it's an old wooden screen door that has been worked on numerous times over the past thirty or forty years, and you have more of a job than you'd think. I decided to take it off the hinges and work on it in the basement rather than try to deal with it in place. I just have removed a hundred rusty staples and brads before I could finally put in the new hardware cloth and screen. Then I had to replace some of the trim and finally slap some paint on the whole thing, so it wasn't actually finished and ready to be re-installed until Sunday afternoon when I also balanced precariously on a ladder placed on the front steps in order to replace the screen alongside the door. All of that left me with a back that was even more sore than it had been before!

On Sunday there was a huge line of storms heading our way and I knew the timing would be hit-or-miss regarding the Giro. Staring at the radar at Starbucks before the ride I had the idea that we might just barely miss the worst of it, and thought that even if we didn't stay dry, it would just be a light rain. We headed out with a smallish group with the idea that we would re-assess at the end of Hayne Blvd. At that point the sky still looked good out to the northwest so we continued on to the usual turnaround at Venetian Isles. The weather for most of the ride was actually pretty nice. Any time you can ride in summer kit in December it feels like a gift, but as it would eventually turn out, the ride wouldn't be without its cost. By the time we got back to Hayne Blvd. it was starting to rain, and moments later the rain went from normal rain to torrential downpour. Will, who was stationed at the front, seemed intent on pushing the pace despite the conditions and as we got closer to the Casino overpass people started dropping off the back. I made a quick decision to stick with him and Norman, who was in from Biloxi, mainly because I didn't want to end out there alone. Regardless, I was thankful for whoever invented daytime-visible LED bike lights because soon the rain was coming at us horizontally from the northwest so strongly that it was filling my right ear with water. The last few miles featured some street flooding and gusty crosswinds, so I was happy when we finally turned off of Lakeshore Drive. When I got home, completely soaked, I emptied about half a cup of water out of my shoes and wrung nearly the same amount out of my socks. My new phone seemed to survive the dousing in good stead, as did the other electronics that now adorn my bike, so that was at least a silver lining. I spend the rest of the day fixing the screen alongside the porch door and then finally re-installing the minimally re-painted door. Annual mileage is up over 12,500 miles now so I guess I should end the year with around 13k.