Category: Winter

The white and gold

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 6 Comments
Whiskey on the ... snow?
Whack for the daddy-o, there's whiskey in the jar.

Well, we knew it was coming, but that didn’t mean we were ready for it — our first snow of the 2010 multiple-car-pileup season.

Naturally, I seized on last night’s weather event as the perfect excuse for a beaker of Gaelic brain eraser to forestall croup, pneumonia and whooping cough. Herself even had a wee drop.

That was the fun part. The sucky bits commenced this morning, when we had to take Herself’s 2002 Subie to one mechanic and my 1983 Toyota truck to another on roads that were glazed like a copper’s donut. For my trip I dumped six tubes of traction sand in the bed, locked the hubs, slammed it into 4WD and stayed in second gear the whole way.

The good thing about having a 27-year-old rust-bucket like this, of course, is that people in nice cars get the hell out of your way. It fairly screams, “What makes you think I won’t hit you?” And “Hell, no, I ain’t got no god-damn insurance.” Possibly “I’m still half-hammered from the whiskey I was guzzling last night.”

Anyway, it works. Everybody waited to tailgate me until I was behind the wheel of my Forester, inching home from the Toyota mechanic. Some mighty small hat sizes here in Bibleburg, and the body shops love ’em.

Footloose redux

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 2 Comments

People sometimes ask me, “Mr. Mad Dog, dude, sir, why on earth did you ever abandon the spectacular high-country beauty of Crusty County for the gritty unreality of the clusteropolis known as Bibleburg?”

The answer lies (or rather, jogs) here. A few more years on that wind-scoured rockpile outside Weirdcliffe and I’d have started running barefoot in the snow, too. What the fuck, it was only 10 miles to the liquor store, and most of it was on pavement.

Call of the not-so-wild

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 14 Comments
A dog and his desert, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Photo: Peggy Sax
A dog and his desert, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Photo: Peggy Sax

One week ago I’m in sunny Tombstone, Arizona, getting set to enjoy the final leg of the Adventure Cycling Association‘s Southern Arizona Road Adventure, an easy 23-mile spin into Benson. The high will be 64 degrees, and there will be a light tailwind for most of the ride.

Today I’m marking my 56th birthday in gray, frigid Bibleburg. There is snow on the ground and more on the way. The high is expected to approach 42, with a north-northwest wind of 30-35 mph augmented by the occasional 45-mph gust.

Some years back I began mimicking the practice of John Wilcockson of VeloNews, who rides his age on his birthday. But not even Jack London would tackle a 56-mile ride in this crap, unless he were Belgian, in which case we’d have had to read “The Call of the Wild” in Flemish (“Argle bargle Buck schmecka lecka John Thornton.”). No, thank you.

So instead I’ll do 56 minutes on the trainer. That’s almost the same, right? Riiiight.

Snow fun

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments
Six inches of snow — and since I'm male, you just know that looks like a foot to me.
Six inches of snow — and since I'm male, you just know that looks like a foot to me.

Well, there you have it — six inches of the chilly white stuff. We got bupkis all winter long, but as soon as spring arrives it’s time to break out the rubber boots and snow shovel. The Lord works in mysterious ways and has a twisted sense of humor to boot. Consider the platypus, for instance.

The forecast is for more of the same and then sunny on Thursday. Then we’re right back in the icehouse through Saturday before the sun returns — just in time for me to clock in at VeloNews.com on Sunday.

Meanwhile, we’re looking at highs in the 70s for Tucson and Fountain Hills. I haven’t unpacked my camping gear yet — if I can just get over Raton Pass with the rubber side down I bet you I can be in one place or the other in under 24 hours.

Birthday blues (with a white overlay)

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 10 Comments
That snow up there will start marching down the hill here shortly.
That snow up there will start marching down the hill here shortly.

The snow won’t be limited to Pikes Peak much longer, according to the weatherman — we’re supposed to get another heaping helping of winter here in Bibleburg either tonight or tomorrow.

The festivities are supposed to commence this afternoon with rain, then segue into wind and snow tonight and tomorrow, just in time to FUBAR our plans for a shared birthday celebration in Crusty County on Thursday with our friends Hal and Mary.

Herself turned 49 on March 12, Hal hits the half-century mark on Thursday and I will be 56 on Saturday. The plan was to meet up in their neck of the high-country woods on Thursday for food and drink, but we may wind up eating snow cones down here in the flatlands.

• Late update: Well, the weatherman was right, damn it. Looks like we’ve got maybe three inches already at 8:30 p.m. local time. If this is spring, you can have it. Instead of riding my bike I’m gonna be shoveling snow, cooking posole and serving as a heating pad for cats. Feh.