Winter Doldrums

Not much to report lately, as you've most likely surmised from the lack of anything new showing up here.  It's officially become winter here in the Boston area, due to two decent-sized snow storms hitting within 3 days of each other.  There'd been talk of another one hitting us tomorrow but that has apparently dwindled to just a dusting - which is fine by me.

I don't expect to have the bike out any time soon, due to the road conditions.  There's a lot of ice and slush around, although I am hearing that tomorrow will be above freezing so that should help melt things a little bit - and every bit helps.

Let's see...what else.  I ordered an N-Ferno (brand) balaclava off of Amazon and it arrived yesterday.  It has two layers (one for the lower half of my head, covering the face and neck, then a hood-like covering which pulls down over the front), so the pictures showed it doing a much better job of covering exposed skin than anything else I'd seen out there.  I tried it on last night and while the material is thin, it does feel like it would do a good job of keeping the skin warm.  The only potential problem is that it doesn't fit snugly to my face, which means when I breathe; the moist, warm air flows around inside the thing and escapes via the only opening; the gap for the eyes.  Is this bad?  Not at all if you're not wearing sunglasses (or clears), but since this purchase was for riding, I would have eye protection on, and they fog up quite quickly.

I'll have to do some tinkering and see if I can come up with a solution.  Besides, when I'm moving, the air flow may do a good enough job of keeping them clear on it's own.  It would just be the stops at traffic lights that might pose a problem and that exists now fogging up when not moving) and I just pull the glasses an inch or so off my face to alleviate that.

Moving on...the only other thing I have for ya is a repair on my washing machine.  I know!  Riveting stuff!  But hey, when the bike is parked, I'm kinda starved for stuff to put up here.

Anyway; I noticed a while back that the agitator in my washing machine had started spinning freely.  Doing a little research, I found the culprit to most likely be worn teeth on the agitator dogs.  (The what?)  Yep, 4 little plastic things inside the agitator that spin out to grab and lock into the inner wall of the agitator, to spin it.  (When the teeth wear out, I guess they just gum the inner wall and there's not much holding power in that.)

So the new dogs arrived last night (with the balaclava) and I'll probably install them tonight when I get home.  I'll let you know how I make out because I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat.

Ok, that's it for now...

Winter sucks.