January has finally wobbled off into the desert, sunburnt and mumbling to itself.
“55 degrees? Seriously?”
When last seen January was clad in short sleeves and knickers, with one half-full bidon, which will not be enough as the Colorado River Basin states squabble over how to divvy up the water that isn’t there.
I mean, shit, it’s already 46° here in Duck!Burg as February starts applying the SPF 70 and it’s all of 10:15 a.m. The Year of Our Lard 2026 looks like a long, dry ride for some of us. Maybe all of us.
In the Carolinas, meanwhile, my man Clyde DePoynter reports snow and wind and a lack of natural gas that has him feeding the wood stove like Casey Jones’ fireman shoveling coal, trying to get the mail to Mississippi. He was keeping toasty by watching the UCI cyclocross world championships in the Netherlands via VPN.
No spoilers here — but if you missed the live action and would like some recorded highlights, well, FloBikes and YouTube have ’em.
Mad Blog Media 
Patrick, ICYMI
https://www.kunm.org/show/lets-talk-new-mexico/2026-01-26/lets-talk-traffic-fatalities-and-vision-zero
Thanks for passing that along, señor. I did in fact miss it; haven’t been paying much attention to public radio lately.
Winter in Arizona? What winter? Not even under Arizona standards for winter. Gee, I can hardly wait for July. Wadda mean rolling blackouts to keep the data centers running?
John Fleck says 2026 is starting off as a grim year, in terms of snowpack above Lake Powell, p’raps the worstest since 2002.
Nothing like some good news to start the week, hey? Time to start hoarding jugs of water. I mean, sheeeeeeyit, we have a high in the 60s forecast for today.
Ahhh POG have some good news to report. After jellydickin’ all day with various trials and trips outside in the insulated Carhartt it was discovered there is apparantly some moisture in the tank/regulator and by using a heat gun (boy that felt safe) to render solid to liquid we now have gas flow. The wind continued to howl all day and temp was below freezing, as it is this am. We have warmth, stove, and hot water thank goodness. Now the trick is to get the propane truck up here to fill / purge and completely resolve the problem. Kudos to our builder for spending a bunch of time on Sun with various tradesmen/me to figure out the problem. We are clean, fed, and warm. Looks like some thawing later in the week may get us off the hill. Today is 11 days up here for me! All work and not play…..XXXOOO
Oho! Well done, sir, well done indeed. Kudos to you and your builder.
The getting the propane truck up to our place outside Greater Cosmopolitan Weirdcliffe in CrustyTucky was critical. Lots of people lived up nasty, steep, unpaved, poorly maintained, shaded, greasy, icy roads in them thar hills, and sometimes the dude would be all like, “Nope.”
So we tried to stay topped off, like a paranoid in an old car rocketing through the desert, hitting every gas station along the way for a pint or two of go-juice “just in case.”
We also kept a shit-ton of one-pound canisters for the two-burner Coleman stove, a closet packed with water jugs and nonperishable grub, and snowshoes, cross-country skis, and firearms in various calibers. Also, a woodbox on the deck and a big ole woodpile back of the house where we parked the trucks.
Well, I watched the 2026 UCI Cross World highlights video. Damn, those are some skinny ass hard boys there! Riding up those steep muddy pitches in a high gear without dabbing or running is insane power. Would I do cross. No. Do I get the attraction for doing. Hell yea.
And the descents! Chiiiiiiiiiiihuahua. I wet myself just a little watching that action. What a cool course.