Loving February Weather
Don’t let a little slush deter you, the main roads are all clear and ready to be ridden.
February has given us some fine riding weather and I have kicked myself for not taking advantage of more of it. So on Monday I made it a point to get out and ride.
It was pretty cloudy so we didn’t have the benefit of the warmth from the sun but the temperature was in the 50s so how bad could it be? The only cold weather gear I wore was my electric vest. I never go anywhere at this time of year without that.
But I hadn’t gotten far at all when it became really obvious that it would have been really nice to at least have put on long underwear under my jeans. It was darn chilly! I could have turned back and layered up more but I don’t like doing that. Once I leave the house I’m gone. And then as it turned out, the sun came out and the sky was full of blue. Not bad at all.
A lot of times when I go for a ride I don’t have a destination–I just ride, following any impulse. But sometimes I have a destination–heck, sometimes I manufacture a destination, just to have a place to head for. This time I was headed to a couple places down just off South Broadway at about County Line Road. I wanted to go there but couldn’t justify driving all that way just to make these two stops. But I could totally justify it for a bike ride.
One was the Wilmore nursery (Wilmore Outdoor Living Center) where I wanted to buy seeds. It’s late February and that means planting will begin in my garden in the next month or so. I frequently buy seeds from mail-order places but looking in the Gurney’s catalog I was shocked to see that seed packets that used to sell for $3-$4 each are now listed for $8. Nope, I’ll go see what I can find at Wilmore. And that made the whole trip worthwhile because I paid between $2 and $3.50 apiece for seed packets there.
Next I wanted to go to the Goodwill over on the west side of Broadway. I had been in there a week earlier when I was in the area for a doctor’s appointment and had time to kill. At that time I noticed some absolutely beautiful champagne flutes, for $2 apiece. These things were gorgeous and I would bet that new, at some fancy shop, they had cost at least $40 apiece. But I knew we had more glassware than we would ever need already so I was tempted but did not buy them.
Then after I left I thought about it and it occurred to me that I could buy them and we could get rid of some of our less nice glassware. But antique stores and thrift stores are places where if you see something you like you must buy it right then because if you come back for it it will be gone. I knew this, which was another reason I couldn’t justify driving down there, but in this case it worked to stop by again. Of course the flutes were gone. Something that gorgeous and worth so very much more is not going to stick around for long. And they didn’t.
No matter, it was a really nice day to be out riding. Then as I was headed home, I was coming north on University and as I was coming through an intersection a westbound car made the turn north onto University and — Surprise!! — started moving into my lane–with me right there. The lady did see me in time and scooted back into her lane but then she saw the lane she was in made a right turn just ahead, and she didn’t want to turn right. So she started moving back into my lane, and by now I was even closer.
I wasn’t going to get myself hurt but I made up my mind not to just cede the lane to her, and I did not drop back. She finally accepted that she needed to yield to the vehicle already in the lane she wanted–what a concept!–and just let me get past before changing lanes.
So I got on home, and by then it had clouded up and the temperature was dropping again. My timing was perfect. And I had a nice February ride.
Biker Quote for Today
You might be a Yuppie biker if when you buy your bike you start calling everyone “bro.”
