MeghanIsMe

I found my arm warmers this weekend! They're some of the most useful things you can have for Spring and Fall cycling. I rode to work today with those, a light vest, and sweat pants on. It was about 63°F and I was pretty comfortable. Any colder and I might want my knit gloves.

I've ridden 1784 miles over 133 hours this year so far. Here's this morning's ride:

Random bits.

I'm starting to think the white spot that looked like a sore below my teeth is actually a bit of exposed bone. I can still see the incision in my gums too. I'm still mostly eating on the opposite side of my mouth to avoid irritating it. It's not painful most of the time, but the area is easily irritated.

I was flying along to work on Monday morning and got a flat tire about five miles in. I walked half a mile east from Ashland and got on the train at the Berwyn Red Line station. I usually get to work around 6:30 to open at 7 but it took me until ten after. It's wonderful having co-workers who don't mind covering here and there and a manager who's really flexible on time. I brought an inner tube and frame pump to work on Tuesday to fix the flat and rode home.

Erik pointed out that with my work shirts, instead of ties (which I find really boring) I could wear necklaces. I love that idea! I was looking at some colorful ones online, then realized that if I get something on a grayscale palette I could wear it with a lot more things. I ordered a gray/white floral necklace to wear at Danae's graduation tomorrow as well as at work. It was going to arrive on Wednesday. Then it was going to arrive on Friday, which frustated me since I didn't know if it would be here on time. Now it's out for delivery. Supposedly. I also bought a chain and metal-scale necklace in pride colors and matching earrings from an Etsy maker. I'm so excited about wearing some interesting earrings!

My therapy appointments have switched from Wednesdays at three to Thursdays at four. Today will be the first time trying to bike to therapy after work, then going directly to my volunteering at the animal shelter from there. I'll get some fast food for dinner somewhere along the way. Also, I brought cute clothes to put on for talking to my therapist and working at the shelter. I want to be me more often!

I have tomorrow off of work to attend Danae's graduation. Her parents are coming from Hamilton, Ontario and my mother will be down from Kenosha, Wisconsin. My dad is busy with school stuff. Her parents might be uncomfortable about me wearing fem stuff, but I'm planning to do it anyway. A doctoral hooding ceremony is an excuse to get dressed up if anything is!

I'm loving this warm weather so much! I almost made 25 mph on the down-side of the big bridge over the North Branch between Diversey and Fullerton. I'm pretty pleased with a total time under an hour too.

I assembled both bookcases last night! I loaded up the first one with a bunch of my for-sale books and cleared off an entire library truck. I loaded up the second to about 80% full and then it collapsed. Mostly onto itself, though I ended up with a scraped leg. Big medical books are heavier than the typical load for those shelves I suppose. Now I feel like if I breath on the first one it'll collapse, but it seems to be fine so far.

I was worn out after biking yesterday, but I did a bunch of work on shelves and moving books anyway. Even if the expected weather was more cooperative today, I'd have taken transit again.

Multiple things went wrong this morning. I got a mile from home and realized I hadn't brought a work shirt to change into. I went back home and stuffed one int my panniers and left again. Several miles from work, I got a flat tire and had to wait for the bus. I tried to text people to let them know I'd be late and found that my phone inexplicably had no data service.

Before all that, lest I forget, Rufus woke me up at in the morning by throwing up on the blankets. At least Chihuahua messes are small.

It was in the high 20s outside this morning. Winter is here.



A friend asked about what gear I use for cold-weather biking. I wrote a response and thought it might be of interest or use to folks.

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Temperature management is different for different people and their bodies and perceptions. I have an array of things for different temperatures, so here's what works for me.

Down to around 50, I can bike in a t-shirt and jeans.
Below that, I have a sleeveless polar fleece vest I layer on top. If it's a little colder, or there's enough wind, I have knitted arm warmers from Sock Dreams. Arm warmers are some of the best things ever for biking because as you warm up, you can bunch them up or stretch them out if you get cold to manage arm temperature. 40-50 is probably when I start needing gloves too. I have stretch knit gloves for when it's on the warmer side and warm bike-specific gloves for when it gets colder.

When it gets below 40, and especially at freezing or below, that's about the limit for the vest and arm warmers. Below that, I use a heavy cotton jacket with a light quilted lining (that's in my photo from today). Even today, in the high 20s, my arms were warm enough to get sweaty, but there isn't a good way around it other than wearing a base layer. (I have a couple of sports-type baselayer shirts that wick sweat; I have to find them again 'cause I think they're in bags and I miss them right now!)

The bike gloves get swapped for some really nice (and rather expensive) North Face mittens as the temperature drops from there. My fingers are some of the hardest things to keep warm for me, and I have trouble with Reynaud's Syndrome, so I want my hands to be as warm as possible! Sometimes I'll wear some gloves under the mittens too, and/or put a hand-warming pack in the mittens.

Once it gets down to around 0, I switch to a nice ski-jacket that I was lucky enough to score at a thrift store years back. It's a high end thing with taped seams, a powder skirt, pit zippers, an and an insulated two-way front zipper. I've ridden down to around -20 and while my legs and hands get cold, my trunk never has with that jacket. I usually don't even zip up the pit zippers! (Sadly, I am too heavy for that jacket right now, so I might end up taking the train if it gets really bitter this year.)

For my legs, I have a base layer, or maybe you'd call it long underwear, to keep them warm. Jeans are usually good down to much colder temperatures than you'd think, but I'd guess the 20s are around where I'll start thinking about wearing something under them. Heavy socks help too.

For my ears, I have nice warm ear covers that slot into the sides of my helmet! Nutcase makes them as accessories for their helmets so I'm not sure what options are available for others, but I seriously love mine! Before, I kept trying to wear those ear-covering things that wrap around the back of your neck and the helmet on top and it worked, but was a pain.

For my face, I have a balaclava that covers my whole head with an opening for my face. I usually cover my mouth but leave my nose exposed. I made sure to get one that's long enough to cover my neck and to tuck under my jacket collar. I'd like to cover my nose too, but when I exhale the steam comes out under the fabric and under my glasses and coats them in fog. Then, depending on the temperature, it sometimes even freezes on the lenses! Even if it doesn't, it makes it basically impossible to see, so I deal with breathing cold air directly.

I found a pair of snow goggles in a thrift store a couple years ago and am considering trying them out in below-0 temperature to see if they let me cover the rest of the exposed skin that the balaclava doesn't. That's the key when temperatures are really low; if you don't have any exposed skin for wind to effect, you can basically ignore the effect of wind chill and just dress for actual temperature.

I saw Rufus having seizures (or one long seizure I guess) last night. He seems to still be aware of what's going on around him. He tries to follow people with his eyes and sometimes attempted to lick my nose when I got near him. He was having whole-body violent shivers like he might have if he was really cold. His head and limbs shook and he was unable to move himself around the couch. The best he could do was kind of squirm up against something or someone.

This seizure lasted longer than the last one; a little over an hour. I'd have been terrified if he hadn't been seen by the vet once already after the last one. I was still worried. I called the shelter so they knew what was going on and then talked to him and tried to make him feel comfortable. Eventually the episode passed and he was his usual self again.

Miriam is dropping him off at the vet's office today for a check of his liver function. I'm not sure what the treatment will be, if any. I don't know if his former people ever got him checked out, so they may be starting from scratch on diagnosis. It's probably idiopathic, but there might be some underlying problem that needs to be caught.

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I was up at 4:30 today to give Rufus a little walk before work and he was his happy, wiggly self. I may make this my routine. Bed around 8:30, up at 4:30 for a little doggy time and leisurely work preparation, then on my bike around quarter past five. That felt pretty good today.

I'm remembering my various levels of cold-weather gear for different temperatures. I had them worked out quite well when I was last doing winter commuting. It was in the mid 30s F today, so I wore a t-shirt, light sleeveless vest, arm warmers, and the warm ear flaps that attach to my bike helmet. I think once we get to freezing and below it will be time for the mid-weight long-sleeve jacket. My arms would get all sweaty in it right now. I don't remember how cold it has to be before the jacket isn't enough. Normally I'd go to the ski-jacket after that, but I'm too big for it so I might have to do some other kind of layering instead. It's nice to arrive at work without the bandanna I wear under my helmet being soaked in sweat!

Oh hey; this is my daily commute.

Hmm; I guess the iframe embed from Strava doesn't work. Maybe this link will?

https://www.strava.com/activities/1849679165

The longer the trip, the more delay a headwind introduces. I'm grateful to be able to leave home early without being anxious about wasted time thanks to a manager who doesn't really care if we clock in early as long as we're there for the right amount of time and there's shift overlap.

I left before dawn and the sun rose on the way, as usual. Now, though, it's almost as dark outside as when I left. Heavy rain and clouds are darkening the outside world, though it seems to be moving on. I'm glad I missed it. I don't mind as much biking through rain on the way home 'cause I can towel off and change. Being soaked when arriving at work is more annoying, mostly because of soggy shoes and dripping hair.

Danae and I have started playing Assassin's Creed: Origins. So far there doesn't seem to be much integration with the wider storyline of the games and the main character is not interesting to me. He's a big, tough, sweaty, beardy, gruff fighter-dude. He's not nearly as interesting to me as the less stereotypical protagonists in the other six games we've gone through (AC 1, 2 [parts 1, 2 and 3], 3, and 4 [Black Flag]. The fighting system seems pretty boring so far too, in comparison to the other games. Oh well; maybe it'll get better.

(Though to be fair, the protagonist of Black Flag was quite the asshole for most of the game and I didn't like him that much either. But he wasn't boring.)

I got on the Brown Line train out of the Loop. At the first stop, I switched cars to get away from the loud angry shouting person. At the second stop I switched cars *again* to get away from two loud angry shouting people who I thought at first were fighting with each other but then realized they were having their own individual fights on their phones with persons unknown. At the third stop, I realized I was supposed to be on the Pink Line and got out of the train to get onto one going back to the Loop.

I was only fifteen minutes late to work.

I took the train because after all the biking plus dog-walking yesterday, I am wiped out.