Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Brisk Ride after a Long Week

By noon today, I had put in way more than the usual 40 hours of work. We wrapped up the migration of 29 UAL sites in terms of connectivity to the mainframe in Atlanta today and I am bushed. All this in a period of less than two months!

Lots of late night calls since most of the sites were overseas in airports where UAL flies into or reservation centers maintained by UAL.

So after lunch, I went for a quick ride before the "10% Chance of Snow Showers" evidenced itself. The skies were heavily overcast and it "felt" like snow. The temperatures did not get above 32 degrees according to Maria's thermometer. So much for a high of 40F°! Still, it was enjoyable riding.

I found this neighborhood park near the intersection of Orchard and Tower Roads and this lone tree caught my eye in terms of its natural symmetry. I'd often admired the artful balance of trees and this is a good example:


I continued my wanderings and made it all the way down to the town of Parker by way of Inspiration Drive. The weather was looking worse and the approaching storm had blocked all view of the front range of the Rockies.

As I type this, it's snowing pretty good outside, I guess that 10% chance turned out to be a bit higher! I hope that it does not dump a lot of snow and the storm moves right on out to the plains. I got home about 10 minutes before the snow hit, with just sleet coming down.

Wow, I just heard thunder, I've never heard thunder in the middle of a snow storm! Dang, and I have tomorrow off too, I hope we do get that forecasted high of 42, otherwise I'll just be shoveling and not riding.

Photo Update: 20DEC08: Short ride today, bank thermometer said 19°F vs Maria's thermometer reading 24°F, so I guess the onboard thermometer reads 5°F high? It was quite chilly, ran into wet roads south of Parker, turned back after some nerve-wracking time on them, ended up the ride with not much in the way of pictures. However here's a picture of the lone tree above but in today's sunshine:

2 comments:

Jack Riepe said...

Dear Charlie6:

The sleet is tapping at my office window, and I am getting a telepathic message from the meatloaf in the fridge that is louder than anything I can hear coming out of the garage.

I cannot bring myself to ride when there is even the remote possibility of ice or snow on the ground.The closest I came to this was a four-state tour last year in late November, when frozen puddles and icy spots were encountered in western Maryland.

I didn't think much of this either.

Fondest regards,
Jack Riepe

redlegsrides said...

Jack, the snow riding I do is the couple of blocks to get to the cleared main roads....my tires are nowhere near the task of riding long distances on snow.

Hope you get some good road clearing weather soon.