Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1337:

I could hear the wind howling all night. That never leads to a restful sleep, as my mind starts dreading the morning commute.

My wife's car tire was flat yesterday morning as she was trying to leave for work. She arranged alternate transportation. Today, my job was to get her tire fixed. Oddly enough, her car came with a jack but no spare tire. I pumped it up last night hoping it would hold air long enough for me to drop it off at the shop. By this morning it had dropped to 10 pounds. That gave me hope that I could get it there, so I topped it off with air again, threw my bike in the back and took it to the shop. After dropping the car off, all the guys at the shop were pretty amused watching me put on all my winter bike gear.

Yesterday they were predicting a temp of 0°F. The good news is it was warmer than that at 2°F. The bad news is they were spot-on with the prediction of steady 30 mph winds with gusts of over 50 mph. That makes for a -23°F wind chill, not accounting for gusts. The wind was coming out of the northwest, and I had to ride straight into it. Yuck.

My next stop was the hospital where I had my regular six week blood coagulation appointment. The lady who does mask checks at the front door is normally somewhat surly, but once again I must have been amusing to watch as I tried to remove all the different layers of gear I was wearing. She actually was pretty pleasant today.

After my appointment I was out at the bike trying to get everything back on and situated for the ride to work. When I unlocked my bike, the coiled cable had frozen in the stretched position. It wasn't cooperating as I tried to roll it up and stick it in the normal backpack pocket where I carry it. Finally I just jammed it in my main backpack compartment and figured I'd coil it back up when I'm at work and it has a chance to thaw out.

I was almost ready to roll when I couldn't find my neckie. Ugh. I figured I must have either left it in the coagulation lobby, or dropped it somewhere in the hallway as I was walking. So I undid all of my preparation and re-locked my bike. As I walked back into the hospital I started to explain to the surly lady why I was returning when I reached up and realized that I couldn't find my neckie because I had already put it on. That made the surly lady laugh. Frustrating, but at least I brightened her day.

Hit a giant rock that I didn't see with my front tire. Was worried that I would have a flat, but thankfully it stayed up the whole way to work. That's good, as trying to repair a flat in these temperatures is not a recipe for fun.