i'm a roadie, on a steel horse i ride

okay, it's technically mostly aluminium and carbon fiber.

today i wore a pair of ski gloves, courtesy of The Captain. i wore them over my regular long fingered bike gloves. i couldn't manipulate the bike computer, and had trouble shifting, but they were warm! my fingers got a little chill from ambient temp, even though it was 10-15F warmer today than tuesday. but as far as wind-blocking, these things did the job. i took them off at the halfway point, but after 10 feet of pedaling decided that my then soggy regular gloves weren't doing the job. plus, my fingers felt small ;)

i took off the regular gloves, put on the ski gloves, and had toasty fingers the entire ride, even with some 26+mph shaded descents. great!

i almost got killified on this ride, and though i don't remember how many times i've nearly been killified on my bike, this one surely makes the top 2 for closest call. i was pedaling along flea street, in the bike lane, approaching an intersection where i had no stop sign. the stupid old bat (heh) in the car in front of me decided to make a right turn in front of me, no signal, and then slammed on her brakes when she saw a woman standing on the corner, talking on her cel phone, facing away from any and all crosswalks. i had about 5 feet of reaction space. brakes were out of the question. i shouted "jesus christ!!", swerved to left of the stupid old bat's car, keeping as little distance between me and her car as i could, since i didn't want to get hit by the guy behind me.

the guy behind me, fortunately, was an attentive driver. he was driving a very large pickup truck that would have made short work out of me, but he swerved a little. after i'd finished giving the stupid old bat an italian "fuck you", i switched hands and gave the pickup truck a very grateful wave. he pulled over (having arrived at his destination) on hte next block, and i gave him another thankful wave.

i'm off the glucosamine and my joints seem slightly worse but not worrisomely so. on the other hand, the stomach is much, much better -- which is good, because i'm back on the espresso which irritates the hell out of my guts.

yay. picking my poisons.

every time i looked at my speedometer whilst on flat ground today, i was going between 16 and 20mph. this is good news for my flat century.