Today is Car Free America Day. I did my usual short commute, but I definitely didn't bundle up quite enough. I needed a couple more layers as all I had on were jeans and tennis shoes from the waist down. My Helly Hansen Parka sufficed but I had a few frozen whiskers that were exposed from my balaclava. It's hard for me to proclaim this, but today was beyond chilly. Today my friends, it officially hit COLD.
Okay, the "storm of the century" has passed three weeks ago. At what point do I get to complain that MY parking space isn't cleaned out? Just as an FYI, I'm parking indoors until the issue is resolved (or the snow melts) as a protest.
Anybody else see the irony of "fair" and -16? There is nothing "fair" about -16 my friends.
...you are in a blizzard warning and a tornado watch at the same time. Right when I thought I had witnessed it all in this crazy state. 
Issued by The National Weather Service
Aberdeen, SD
11:46 am CDT, Mon., Mar. 23, 2009
... BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM CDT /MIDNIGHT MDT/ TO 7 PM CDT /6 PM MDT/ TUESDAY...
A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM CDT /MIDNIGHT MDT/ TO 7 PM CDT /6 PM MDT/ TUESDAY.
Issued by The National Weather Service
Aberdeen, SD
3:55 pm CDT, Mon., Mar. 23, 2009
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED TORNADO WATCH 55 UNTIL 10 PM CDT THIS EVENING WHICH REPLACES A PORTION OF TORNADO WATCH 53. THE NEW WATCH IS VALID FOR THE FOLLOWING AREAS
IN SOUTH DAKOTA THE NEW WATCH INCLUDES 5 COUNTIES
IN CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA
BUFFALO HAND HUGHES HYDE LYMAN
THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF... FORT THOMPSON... HIGHMORE... MILLER... PIERRE AND PRESHO.
I just posted about my new Tandem Bike Rack being installed a couple days ago. The following could either be considered a jinx or a great timing.
Last night Marissa had a softball game in Elk Point. We had a friend's Mom take her down to the game and we rode the tandem. The wind was blowing, not hard, but hard enough where it was all we could do to hold 15-16 mph for most of the trip.
We turned down the street that the ball field complex is at and of course the one she played at was on the OTHER side of the complex. We did a little gravel and off road riding to get to our destination.
After the game and getting rained on just a little, we hopped back on the tandem and was cruising out of Elk Point at 18-20 mph when I asked Laura "What's that noise"? At first I passed it off as a "tandem noise I yet to understand" or "just the noise of the road". Then I realized what it really was...the back tire was going flat. 
This was not a well planned trip by Mr. and Mrs. Brady:
1. No spare tube
2. No Scabs
3. No pump
4. The usual person to pick me up in such a situation was riding with me.
We ended up calling Laura's Mom to go get the van and come rescue us. This of course happens ONE DAY after installing the tandem mount so we had some luck on that side. The downside was that it started to rain on us. By the time I was loading up the tandem, it was raining pretty darn good too!
We only ended up getting about 19 miles of the 30 mile trip in, and Laura didn't get to enjoy the wind-at-our-back portion of the trip, but she never got upset about the happenings. She already has the roll with the punches bicycling attitude. Thus proving once again that she's a good trooper and that she is going to be a great cyclist in time.
Last night CDV and I got out on the Tandem and got in a nice 31 miler after work. We had a planned ride today posted to the group so I decided to clean up/tune up the road bike this morning and swap my pedals out to my new Crank Brothers Quattro Pro SL pedals.
That's when it all went wrong. My Look Keo pedals had probably been on my bike the better part of 10-13,000 miles and didn't really appreciate the thought of being separated. I tried gentle persuasion. They resisted. I tried a little more force and that's when it happened. The big ring attacked my hand. It snarled and barked and ripped my hand wide open. It bled pretty bad too. By the time I cleaned the wound enough to look at it, I knew I had better go have it looked at. I could see the tendon through the cut so I also knew it was not only wide, it was deep. I went into the Doctor's office at 10:30 and didn't get out until 12:30. Killer service. Yeah, that's sarcasm.
It didn't stop me from going on our planned group ride at 1:00, but I'm not going to kid you, my hand hurt pretty bad. Here is a picture of my three stitches:
The ride would prove brutal on the hand and the morale as we dealt with 25 mile per hour winds with stronger gusts. It was pretty violent but no matter what, it was GREAT to be out on the road! 30 miles of riding was a nice first group ride. Let the official riding season begin!
I left home with my light balaclava, parka, and jeans. That's it for layers. March 7th, that's plenty of clothes. Holy-mother-of-perpetual-cold it's flippin -3 out this morning. Thank goodness it's only .93 into work as an 8 mile an hour North wind was cutting through my jeans like I was wearing shorts.
Saving grace is that it is supposed to be 50's Monday and Tuesday to start next week. Light at the end of this arctic tunnel.
Sunday - 45-48 degrees. Road bike ride. Beautiful day. February paradise in South Dakota.
Monday - Rain - freezing rain - strong north wind. On the way to the dome to teach cycling class I thought I was being shot at with a pellet rifle. It was still warm enough to be "ridable" outside.
Tuesday morning - NOT warm enough (18 degrees). Schools starting late. Roads are a SHEET of ice. One of my slowest commutes EVAH as I didn't want to "pull a kErnEl". That poor dude has had a long road to recovery from his broken wrist.
This craptastic weather needs to end soon. Even Mr. Bite is getting crabby about the weather towards the end of a recent post.
Here is hoping that this weekend's South Dakota Bicycle Summit will cheer us all up, get us excited about cycling, and also begin the warming of the weather.
The aforementioned weather hit hard. After two big days of melting, now this. Imagine where the water had pooled from melting and what it's like this morning....yup...icy.
I was cutting across the park (which needs better care in the wintertime, but that may be saved for a later rant). I was being super careful as even where the new snow was blowing was still quite icy. When I hit the driveway going into the park and went to turn, the bike said "see ya" and went flying out from under me. Luckily I felt it going and had time to do a less-than-graceful abandon ship sequence, but I still fell because of the ice itself. It was like sledding, minus the sled.
Only a dozen or so people seen it happen. I'm sure every one of them said "Look at the fool on his bike in this weather". One small set back in my Get Out the Bike campaign.
They're here! They're here! I don't know why I'm excited other than any accessory for cycling is fun to get. I'd been looking for some sort of handlebar mitts and thanks to a post/cheap shopping tip on MnBicycleCommuter I now have an extremely ugly pair of mitts (camo) from a VERY unorganized Cabela's (ordered online, had shipped to the store for pickup, store had them in inventory and they shipped to the store anyway...hmmmm). Anyhow, they do feel warm and should allow me to wear a much lighter glove underneath. I picked them up cheap ($14.95) and really wanted them in black, but they were $5 more in black. Can't figure that one out. Apparently even the hunters wouldn't buy the camo mitts. Anyhow, here they are in all their glory:
ALSO: For my wife's Uncle that lives in Tuscon, AZ, but formerly of Spearfish, here is a picture for your buddies who don't understand the cold up here. As requested, here is a picture of not only the handlebar mitts, but the studded snow tires. You're welcome.
The weather has been just insane. Last Thursday, as reported, I rode to work in -21 degree temps. This Sunday I rode outside in 40 degree temps as was the case today. Tonight "the front" hit. The winds are out of the NW at 31 currently and the temps are starting to fall. Still 38 now, but tomorrows high is supposed to be 10. You do the math. Wind chill at 10 degrees with NW winds at 32. I don't WANT to do the math. It will be a good test for the handlebar mitts!
This quest for 10,000 miles is starting to be painful. The days are shorter, I hate riding inside, and I'm stubborn enough to ride outside for the most part. Today I took two different rides to amass a little over 27 miles. I got rained on the first time so I stopped at about 10 miles. Then I got another 15 in, came home and got the grocery getter and headed to the store with Laura's grocery list.
By the time I was done getting groceries, it was raining pretty hard out. I called Laura to have her check radar to see if there was going to be a break anytime soon and she said that it didn't look like it. It's a little less than two miles from Hy-Vee to home so I loaded up GG in the rain and away we went. By the time I got home I was pretty soaked.
Hats off to the Pearl Izumi Barrier Jacket though. Underneath my jacket, I was dry except from sweating slightly. It appears that the jacket might get a workout too. Below is what I'm currently seeing with my weather.com addin for Firefox (you may have to click on it to appreciate it):
By the way, I'm still holding pace for 10,000 for the year, but my margin of error is getting smaller. Harder to take a day off and I can't have too many days that are of meager miles. I have an 87.7 mile cushion right now and I need to maintain a 27.40 miles per day average for 10K (currently 27.67). I can foresee many boring, sweaty trainer miles ahead in the closing couple of months.
In other news, I haven't sent an updated "GG" update, mainly because it's pretty much the same stuff I have been hauling. I'll post pictures of different stuff I haul from time to time. I'm thinking of new things to post for next year, like number of days I've ridden my bike and number of days I've driven a car (trust me, the bike wins EASILY). I like to showcase the fact I don't (and don't need to) drive much so I'll figure out ways of keeping y'all up to date.
Had it all planned out: Get home from work, take a quick nap, head to Austin's last baseball game and do some night riding to get over being nervous on the bike at night in preparation for the Gut Check. On the way home from the game a little lightening started and it was starting to sprinkle. A quick check of the radar changed my plans in a hurry.
I'm so happy to see rain that I don't even care that it's keeping me from the road. It's been a very dry summer here and what few thunderstorms have come through all seem to miss us. Maybe it's God's way of saying I need a little break anyway!
