We’re in the deep freeze here in Bibleburg. It reminds me of the bad old days up in Weirdcliffe, where Herself and I passed many a winter day huddled in our bearskins by a blazing woodstove, sipping whisky from CamelBaks with our fingers buried in the ample guts of a freshly killed Republican to prevent frostbite.
Saw a hand surgeon today and the good news is he will not need to rewire my port-side communications network. The bad news is I get to enjoy three weeks of intense physical therapy and am probably looking at three to six months before the left birdie regains full flippage.
Adding insult to injury, as I was leaving my first PT session I set my keys and cell phone on the driver’s seat of the Subaru and commenced to knock ice and snow from its windows. As I let the driver’s-side wiper fall to the windshield the security system hooted once and there I stood, locked out of my ride in 8-degree temps with a light snow and a brisk wind from the east.
As I told a colleague earlier, next time I lay it down I’m gonna see to it that the head hits the deck first. Brain damage is not a handicap in our line of work — it’s a prerequisite.
Mad Blog Media 
Patrick:
I hope you and your hand feel better soon. If not, as a doctor (well, a PhD, at least), I recommend immersing the damaged limb in ethanol, from the inside out. That oughta’ help.
All the best,
Dale in Mid-MO
Well, obviously you got going again, dear Narrator, who bailed you out? They deserve a large flask of green chile salsa smattering on some chicken with a side of cornbread (or some such delicious feast). If not that, then at least a few liters of the red vino from lands to the East and/or West if you.
All right O’G, what the hell does the wiper hitting the windshield have to do with the car locking? Details, man.
Yes, we too are headed for some real winter here in NorMn. 5-9 inches of snow, then temps down in the singles. El Nino is sleeping on the job, or waiting for Al Gore’s instructions…
Now if you had ridden that spiffy new (re-purposed) blue bike to PT none of this would have happened.
Second day or a 1.5 inch snow. Just enough to kill any idea of sharing the road with drivers too out of it to realize that it started to get dark at 4:30 a month ago and they should turn on their lights. Mix it up in the ice and slush with them? No way.
Tis the season to clean drivetrains, etc. in a nice warm basement.
Got back in time from a quick trip to Chicago to miss the big blizzard on the drive up from Omaha back to SUX. We’re gettin’ it now but can’t much care since a) we don’t need to go anywhere in the next few days and b) we’ll escape to Santa Barbara to sponge off the in-laws very soon. So instead of snow and ice we’ll enjoy one or more of the four SoCal seasons — fire, earthquake, mudslide or riot. Sounds like the mudslide season is in full swing right now but eventually it clears up and most of the mud is cleaned up pretty soon so we should (I hope?) be enjoying some cycling in the sun soon. Too bad you can only give me a symbolic finger with one hand, O’Grady!
Larry,
Not sure how long you’ll be in SB but dress warm. Contrary to what they show you on the boobtubes, that town is one damn cold mofo in the winter. Or at least compared to other parts of Cali. It has snowed there on the beach in the past El Nino years. And with the freeze in deep here in SacTown, I’d be willing to bet that dudes are surfing Rincon in 4/5 with a hood and booties. Coldest SoCal winter I ever dealt with was a weekend in Goleta. Frigid on the beach. Enjoy the change of weather though…if it comes.
It’s minus 3 this morning on my porch, while my unheated “sun room” (an enclosed deck) where I normally ride on the trainer is a balmy 28 degrees with ice on the inside of the windows. Yes, there’s a room in my house that’s ten degrees colder than the inside of my ‘fridge. I think I’ll be doing the “Tour de Nowhere” in some other room today: I think it would defeat the purpose to ride the trainer while wearing legwarmers, a long sleeve jersey, long finger gloves, booties and a skull cap.
I’m just glad I “work” from home and don’t have to deal with the cold except to whine about it on some weird guy’s blog.
Been sponging off the in-laws during the holiday season in SB for 20 years now, I bring a long sleeved jersey or two and a pair or two of bib-knickers along with my regular cycling kit. We enjoy riding a couple of Campagnolo Athena 8-speed equipped Bianchi’s we keep out there. Some years the cool weather gear gets worn a lot, others not so much. No matter what the weather is like, it’s better than here in SUX where it’s ZERO degrees, a foot of snow’s on the ground and the wind chill is probably 25 below! Not so sure about my in-laws, but yours truly can’t wait.
Okay. Mid-Wisco over knee-high wet snow this morning, 4 more inches to come by tonite, when it will drop to around 3 degrees for 48 hours with winds predicted to 25-45 mph, so if I don’t want to clean the sidewalks and driveways with an ice pick, I’ll need to use some vaca time to buy myself a little daylight snow removal time this aft. Plus I still have 100 feet of sidewalk to clear at the other house (which has been on the market for a year and a half) which has to be done within 48 hours of the last snowflake or the local gendarmerie starts tossing tickets around. Got new XC skis, tho! Life is good.