Temperature rule ignored

Today dawned pretty chilly but forecasters predicted that the afternoon temperatures would reach to near the average for the day. Which unfortunately is now only 46.

Brrrr.

But the winds died down quite a bit from yesterday, the sun was out, it looked pretty. I have the gear. Further I am not likely to get a chance to ride either of the next two days despite predictions of above average temperatures. Today I needed to ride.

Yesterday was the so cold that it hurts kind of cold. Today was only just really cold. The wind was mostly north, a little west and much reduced from yesterday's punitive blasts. Costume adjustments included heavier weight wool socks, a vest underneath the heavier jacket, fleece beanie underneath the balaclava, and the two layer inside layer wool mittens. And the balaclava, which stayed up for about 95 percent of the ride. I pulled it down at stoplights, I have to or my glasses fog up, and I pulled it down to get a drink of water. I had it down for maybe a mile after the temperatures warmed and when I was riding with the wind on the way home. Other than that, pulled up covering my nose and cheekbones. There is a lot of heat escaping out of the respiratory vent there on the front of the human face, the balaclava does a good job of capturing and retaining that heat.

How was it? Cold. But only cold, not painfully cold. What parts of my body were cold? Pretty much all of them. But which were uncomfortably cold? Nothing was terribly uncomfortable, the worst was the usual suspects, toes and thumbs. Fingers are OK bundled together inside the mittens, the thumbs are still hanging out on their own, and in the most common of the hand positions on the bars for me (on the hoods) the thumbs lead into the wind. They get cold.

Today's picture is on Priscilla Avenue near Raymond in Saint Anthony Park. I just happened to turn onto the street and I thought that the light through all of the oak trees on that street made a really nice display.But wait you say, isn't that street south from where you live? And didn't you say the wind was from the north? Both true. I wanted to ride a bit to get warmed up before I turned to face the north wind. I started out by going west into the wind because I can do that easily, west from my house is downhill. I rode down past the golf courses and caught Larpenteur coming back. It is slightly uphill but with a good tailing wind it was pretty easy.

Then I wanted to dip just a bit farther south to get a look at this:See, I told you it was cold. There is also bicycling content there, something I never noticed before. The street is named for Tour de France commentator Phil Liggett. Maybe.

Priscilla Street is just out the other side of the Fairgrounds, an easy loop.

In other meteorologic news here is what the morning newspaper reports for available sunshine as of today:

Sunrise 7:56am.

Sunset 5:55 pm.

Yes indeedy, only 9 hours and 59 minutes of day. *sigh* And it is still getting worse.

In Nantes this evening FC Nantes has broken its string of 4 consecutive draws, a good thing, and has kept alive its streak of games without a loss, also a good thing, by scoring a 2-1 victory over hapless Nimes Olympique. FC Nantes rises to 7th in the table. They remain outside the inner circle but at least they are hanging around within range of the top three. About one third of the season has gone by, there is much football remaining to be played.