Man Was It Cold

I started the weekend with 4943 miles logged this year. Since commuting is still pretty much out of the question, I'm reduced to being a weekend warrior on the bike. Saturday, I went out on a TCBC club ride. It was slow an cold, about 6 degrees the whole time we were out there. We basically stuck to the paths around Mpls. There was one rider who was very slow, so a couple of us just took off at a whopping 13 mph. After we'd pull way ahead, we'd either double back, find a parking lot to ride in circles, or just stand around and wait. Ended up doing 21 miles that day. When I got home, I hopped in the shower to warm up. I had to hop right out again. My toes were so cold that I couldn't stand in the shower for more than a couple of minutes without excruciating pain. I was wondering if I had frostbite. When I had peeled my socks off, my toes were absolutely pale and numb like each had been shot up with Novocain. When I got out of the shower they were a frighteningly mottled purple. They recovered, but it took me a while to warm up. Sunday was a solo ride, except I rode 31 miles. (Do the math, 5 miles to go until 5000) Greenway to the river, West River Road paths to the lakes, lakes to Hopkins via SW trail, Hopkins back to Mpls via Cedar Lake trail. I probably should have ridden with someone or at least taken my phone with me. It's pretty lonely on the trails west of the city when it's this cold, and there are some stretches where a walk to get help would be quite a hike. At mile 26 my feet were soooo cold and I was sooo tired. Head down, power through. When I got home I was smart enough to take my shoes off and warm my feet up by one of the radiators. Then I hopped in the shower, and stayed in there for quite a while, so long, in fact, that half an hour after I got out, KyKy was asking me why there wasn't any hot water for her bath.

We finally picked up the Christmas tree on Saturday night. Madster was at a sleep over, KyKy was visiting a friend and TOYH was cooking. So it was just the little Christmas elf, 'Nika, and me who went to Home Depot to get the tree. We've been going there for the past few years because they have decent trees for a good price. We got there about 6 o'clock and it must have been about zero degrees, and I was still chilled to the core from my bike ride. Normally picking out trees is an ordeal. We pull one out of the pile, smack it on the ground so the branches fall down in place to see if it is misshapen, and then move on to the next tree. After we pick one out, they kindly cut off a few inches from the trunk, and bale it up in netting to make it easier to carry. Then we tie it to the top of the crapmobile and go on our merry way. It was so cold Saturday night that the branches of all the trees were frozen in the "up" position, so we couldn't see if the tree was nicely shaped or could be used as a stand-in on "A Charlie Brown Christmas." We grabbed one that was the right height, and the guy at the store cut off the bottom few inches of the trunk. There was no need to wrap the thing in netting since it was frozen in place like an unfurled evergreen umbrella. Because it was just the two of us, I shoved the blasted thing inside the van to forgo the 15 minutes of tying down and securing it to the roof. When we got home, I put it on the porch and told the kids if they want it put up that night, they'd have to do it themselves. No takers. It did get put up on Sunday, and it looks pretty nice. Decorations tonight.

Sunday was the last swimming event of the year, the banquet. It was very nice. Lots of people there. TOYH and I ended up sitting with the moms of two of the captains and had a nice little chat with them. The captains gave out goofy awards to all the swimmers. KyKy got the 13 going on 30 award, since she doesn't act like a teenager. Very perceptive on the part of the captains, I thought.