When stacking mileage like firewood, to see how big a pile you can get before the weather really shuts you down, you go out in all sorts of stuff you would pass up in a milder season.
Speaking of mild, this fall has been ominously warm. If things don't turn more seasonable, there will probably be a couple or three nordic ski retailers hanging from the rafters in their empty shops.
I take my mind off it by snatching rides between or during rain showers in the ever shorter periods of dusk that pass for daytime from now until mid-January. Besides, you never know what could happen. For instance, the winters of 1990-'91 and '91-'92 went from bad to worse, two of the worst I can recall. Sure we got a bit of snow, but only a bit. We endured many gray days of rain and mud. Then December 1992 looked like it would usher in more of the same.
Early in January 1993, someone flipped the winter switch. We got pounded with snow well into March. The next winter, 1993-'94, took up where that left off. Buildings collapsed. Snow piled up to the windowsills.
It all turned to crap again in '95. But we've had our years, and could have another one at any time. Or not.
Today's special was a fixed gear ride in the drizzle with temperatures in the 50s. Niiiice. I had the day off, so at least I could wait for the rain to let up around mid-day. Tommorow it's back to dawn patrols. The forecast calls for low clouds, but little falling from them. Good enough.
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