Surprise Attack

Today's ride started off partially sunny. So much so, that I thought I may have overdressed when I left the office. A couple miles out the sun went away, and it got really dark. And then near the top of the climb it started to snow. It was a happy snow though as you can see from the picture. Just light, fluffy, and non sticky.

We had a good downhill run, but near the bottom, the snow became a near whiteout. The flakes were huge and wet, and my glasses started getting all blurry. My vision was distorted and I was having a hard time with depth perception. I tried taking the glasses off but was immediately pelted in the eyes with snow. I think we would've all laughed at our situation, but our faces were frozen, preventing the smile muscles from functioning. Still better than hanging around work or going to the buffet though...

In other news... I got a call from the boy on my way home from work. He told me that somebody dumped a blue bike in front of our house. This might have concerned me at one time, but this is the fourth derelict bike to be dropped off in my front yard. I'm pretty certain I know where the first two came from, but this one and the last one I'm not sure. The bike is a WalMart Mongoose that looked like it was exploded. I sent my bike sniffing dog in for a closer look. He gave me the clear signal, and I carried all the pieces into the garage. If you look closely at the picture by the sprocket, you can see a separated valve stem. As if I could reuse it again... The one thing the bikes all have in common is that they are all severely abused and broken. There isn't much to salvage on them, and they're not worth fixing up with new parts. So out they will go into the backyard with all the other derelict bikes, waiting for some idea to come along on what to do with them. I know a guy that cuts up bikes to make choppers, or there is the Reno Bike Project. I think they collect parts and stuff like this to make whole bike for people...