68° yesterday, maybe 63° today … hoo-lawd, this ain’t no way to run a climate, bruh.
It’s barely February and we already have juniper, ash, alder, elm, rumex, and willow pollen blasting us in the nose-holes like ICEholes pepper-spraying citizens.
This makes for fine cycling weather, of course, as long as you’re not drafting someone clearing his beak. The tuque and tights go back in the winter-duds drawer. Ditto the capilene base layers. Out come the short sleeves and arm/knee warmers because, hey, you never know.
But one of the days we’re gonna twist a faucet to fill a water bottle and get nothing but a fart sound, pffffbbbbbffflllhhhh, maybe a little puff of fine sand.
Boy, is Assos ever gonna make bank selling stillsuits.
“Albuquerque? You’re gonna want the Paul-Muad’Dib Signature Model. How much? Ho, ho. If you have to ask, you can’t afford it. Can I interest you in a Liet-Kynes hoodie and a gallon jug of Kwisatz Haderach sunscreen, SPF 666? And maybe a Kleenex?”
Mad Blog Media 
After three and a half months of “winter” I am enjoying the warmth and blue sky of Albuquerque. But as a person who grew up in Southern Colorado i am acutely aware of the D word and from all I can tell we are headed to a Mo fo of a bad summer. However wearing shorts in February is decadence of a high magnitude but hey I will take it.. I have a packing cube full of Buffs that have sat on the shelf all winter, will use them to prevent redneck disease. Seems to have infected the damn country.
Yeh, this must be a nice change from the Ice Planet of Montana. I can’t say that I miss the Colorado winters.
Winter can be fun in small bites. But when you’re living in an 1,000-square-foot house at 8,800 feet on a rocky hillside facing into the wind whipping down the Sangres, across the Wet Mountain Valley, and straight into your mug as you shovel a path to the woodpile with the electricity out again before strapping on the snowshoes for the long march uphill to the neighbor’s house so you can crank up the communal Dodge 350 with the plow blade attached and carve a bobsled run to the unplowed county road 500 feet below for the ’83 Toyota truck, the one with 4WD and a few hundredweight of traction sand in the bed, well, the shine comes off that shit right smart.
Especially when the day’s “bike ride” is on a stationary trainer in front of the TV with an old Tour tape in the VCR.
In the B-burg it was shoveling out our ridiculous two-house driveway (and the elderly neighbors for a couple blocks around) that had me contemplating the good life in the Southwestern desert. The cheapskates running that town would plow only those streets they deemed crucial to capitalism — none of them ours, of course — and the drifts would hang around forever like hobos at a soup kitchen.
Even on a good rain year, we have to water the yard, esp. the raised beds. Heck we harvested the last lettuce out of the tented beds in January. This year, watering is gonna break the bank, if they don’t ban watering altogether.
This is me today.
Me this coming July.
Some things sunscreen just can’t prevent.
Jeezus POB! Better start hoarding some cheap, watery lagers which may become cheaper than turning on your faucet.
Meanwhile in the Mitten State I woulda set a personal record for consecutive days xc skiing but was felled by norovirus. But still managed 14 days doing the old kick and glide since I stayed local and had to cut my own tracks. Only a scant few of us left downstate who get the skinny skis out. And unless you want to risk it on a frozen, snow dusted lake, forget about skate skis. Although I have newer boards, my go-to’s are 42 year old Asnes wood Veteran (no shit) waxables. But now the snow has thawed and refroze many times and is like ball bearings. One false move on a small hill and …..Hell no…..time to hang em up including the short, stubby waxless backcountry boards I own, supposedly made for such conditions. I’ve seen the saw-bones way too many times in my life.
Great snow and groomed ski trails El Norte so I likely will head up there for a few days now that the polar temps have subsided. Search out the flatish trails and leave the black and red to those with some rubber still in their skeletal makeup.
Herb ol’ kick ’n’ glider, did you ever try the Fischer Revolution waxless shorty-skis in back in the Fabulous Nineties? They were billed as a great way to shorten the learning curve for noobs like me and Herself, and they sure did the trick. Like big roller skates they were.
We still have a couple-three pair here in the garage, with Salomon 811 skate/classic boots. Our Rollerblades are long gone, though. Asphalt is a lot harder and rougher than snow most days.
Embarrassing to admit but I have xc skis galore. Rossingnol, Salomon, Kneissel all shorter waxless and I won’t go into the waxables. Trouble is the boot/binding dims get changed every two years (or less) to make your equipment obsolete. Yeah, just like cycling. But I finally laid in a stash of Salomon boots in my size and bindings so everything lines up. Kinda like you using the Sella saddles on your various mounts to achieve “oneness “ with each.
Welp, Herb, don’t expect any stones to come a-flying from my glass house, which seems to be full of bicycles for some reason.
Well, when my Martin comes back from a warranty repair, there will be 6 guitars in the collection. Help me, help me. Nah, never mind.
Even up here it’s hitting 50/60… the ski trails are brown and dry. C
I have a feeling we’re gonna get winter in March-April this year. I recall a few “springs” like that Back in the Day®, when I was still racing, and it seemed that the first few events of every season got croaked by evil weather.
The Mad Dogs actually put on a cyclocross in Monument Valley Park one March.
Much like the rest of the Western US Charles. It seems we are all 10 to 15 degrees above normal maximum daily temperatures for most of this winter. Wanna bet that 2026 will be the hottest year on record?
One reason I hate Santa Fe is that it is 40 miles from the groomed X-C trails up on Pajarito Mtn. But this year, it hardly matters given the lack of snow. Back in the glory days, the snow kept me from moving to Austin.
https://labikes.blogspot.com/2010/01/support-your-local-ski-club.html