Area cyclist undaunted by cold

The truth is, I’ve been driving my car for three days. Eeek. Ok well not for three days without stopping. Let me rephrase that: I have not wridden my bike (or ritten about it much) for three successive days. I have driven my car on two of those. For about 10 miles each. But before you jump on your hairy horse about it, just wait a cotton-pickin minute. Obviously, I have a good excuse – as you might presume if you are a regular reader.

I felt a cold coming on. This started Saturday morning when I woke up with a sore throat. So instead of biking, I drove to my hideout, which is across town from my house -- a gnarly nook in a basement in between a furnace room and a laundromat (if you must know). Anyway, it’s toasty there. No danger of a single cold air molecule approaching me, so why not go work on writing projects?

Sunday on the other hand I didn’t even budge that far. Cancelled everything, stayed home by the fire reading a book. That is the cure, in my experience: Don’t move, drink like crazy (yes, I’m afraid the choice of beverage does matter, don’t be ridiculous), read a good book, stay warm, eat good stuff. Feed a cold, starve a fever, the saying goes. So I did all those things, and the cold ran away.

Alternatively, I could’ve taken the tough guy route, which is to ignore the cold, pretend it’s not there until it clobbers you so hard you’re felled into the nearest bed, where you lie miserably for days without even the energy to read. Instead I had a fabulous excuse for three day of bliss without the suffering.

Today, after only three days of car-mindedness, switching back to biking was tough. Bundling into the nice warm little rolling cocoon seemed infinitely more appealing than climbing onto a few welded-together sticks and casting myself into the elements. I did it, though. But this is exactly why the biking thing only works if you make the full commitment. If you think you’re going to make this decision one day at a time, the decision is going to be NO except in the best of weather.

More thoughts about weather tomorrow – and I know that’ll be majorly exciting to my Midwestern readers, for whom weather is THE never-ending topic.
Hint: We’ve had snow. And I have one those micro-lenses on my camera.
(Canadians, prepare to laugh.)