Open Mikey

i groaned out loud when i looked at the thermometer this morning. seriously. an audible groan. why? i groaned because there was an ugly 16 where the 75 was supposed to be. force of habit alone got me dressed and out the door. there wasn't a single part of my body that wanted to deal with 16 degrees.

i rode north again this morning. the wind was a bit lighter, so i made it to the corner of argonia road and parallel in just under 41 minutes. that's 8.5 miles in just under 41 minutes. at least it was faster by around six minutes than yesterday to the same point. i'd glanced at my speed a few times during this 41-minute trek. i never saw more than 12mph. not once! cold and slow is an almost unbearable combo for me. grrrr!

i turned east and rode to conway springs. my speed didn't pick up much and, if you can believe it, i actually started feeling cold...really cold. the left side of my face, mostly my cheek, started screaming at me. i won't repeat what it said. it was, shall we say, less than gentlemanly in its description of my character. i would've said, "shut up, cheek," but i was pretty sure the rest of the body would've sided with the cheek and i'd have ended up in the ditch.

i made it to conway springs and turned south on highway 49. riding suddenly got easier. the wind was mostly at my back, but still on my left. my cheek was not happy, but what could it do now? it couldn't urge me to turn around. i was over halfway through my planned route.

before i made the turn onto highway 160, the fingers of my right hand picked up where my cheek had left off. they let me know in no uncertain terms, that they were leaving the body if i didn't do something about the current brain. they suggested that said brain was reckless and cavilier in the way it treated the rest of the body. "do you think fingers are expendable?" the little one cried!

when i turned on to highway 160 headed west, the battle was over...mostly. i had wanted to ride a few extra miles, but time and my fingers and a little bit of common sense kept me from spending any more time in the saddle than was necessary to get me home...where it was WARM! the thought of sneaking in a mile or two more made an appearance or two, but it was rebuffed. i turned resolutely onto pine when i reached it and sped south to my driveway. i'm not sure, but i think i might have awakened tomorrow minus a digit or two had i spent even a second more on the bike.

on the bright side, i'm over 8000 miles for the year and i only have 22.65 miles to go to reach my 8040 goal. piece of cake! i'll get it done tomorrow if it doesn't snow (71% chance starting at 7:00) or drop into the single digits. (30.69 miles @ 13.7mph)