Fingers Crossed

We've dodged the bullet for quite a while now. It's already December and the only snow we've had so far this season, is a one-day heavy dusting back in October (which thankfully disappeared later that same day).

All that may change though...the weather reports are calling for snow later today. Originally they were saying just a dusting, but as time dragged along, those reports have been upgraded; first to a couple of inches, and now to maybe even 4 or 5 inches. The end of the world? Certainly not, but it may be the end of 2009's riding season. Time will tell...

But instead of pining the time away, I figured it was better to hit the road and roll up some more smiles before the white flakes had a chance to visit. A few errands after work, a bit of time spent at the gym (to work off some of the ice cream diet I've been on lately), and it was the open roadways for me. I was hoping the late hour (look at the time-stamp on this post to get an idea) would equate to paths of pavement free and clear of most traffic, and while this proved to be the case in many instances, I did encounter something I hadn't prepared for; traffic control. See, most of the lights around here seem to set to switch back and forth between red & green at the most inopportune moment, leading to many rabbit starts, followed quickly by rapid decelerations. Damn these infernal colored contraptions!

The temps were floating around 40 degrees and the clean crisp air did much to alleviate the stress of the aforementioned stoplight interruptions. Pacing myself, and with no real direction or destination in mind, I purposely got lost several times. I'd take educated guesses and just keep going until I came across something familiar, be it an interstate highway marker or a town line signpost.

Eventually the temps began to wear on my fingers (I forgot to bring my heavy gloves, dammit) so I headed for home and just pulled in about a half hour ago. Final tally; a few hours and maybe a hundred miles or so. Not a lot, granted, but most of the paths I traveled were inter-town roadways, complete with posted speed restrictions, so all in all; not too shabby.

Time to get some sleepy-sleep and have dreams of bright sunshine, bored-out motors and wind-whipped faces. I would say "with any luck, we won't get much snow", but we've had tremendous luck so far and it would be arrogant to expect more.

But there may be more riding to be done yet this year, so I'll still be keeping my fingers crossed...

Ride Hard, Take Chances.