Under The Weather: A Rant

Okay, first of all, this isn't a post about me being sick. I'm fine, so far. Secondly, this isn't about why the weather is weird. Too many theories abound on that subject and I'm of the opinion that nobody knows for sure what's going on.

I only know that it is.

So we lost all of our ski-able snow and have reduced the once white covering of snow to a rock hard, slippery coating of grayish ice/crap that you can't really do much of anything with. It looks like that will be the state of affairs out on the trails for some time to come since the forecast temperatures are going to slip back into the freezing zone by the weeks end. Shoot! I was hoping the weather would stay warm enough, long enough to clear out a path through the woods. Hrrumph!

Then there is the gravel. Well, I'm glad to say that at least that has cleared off to the point we can ride it without fear of getting hurt by falling on slippery ice covered rock. So it looks as though we can roll that for the time being.

Then there is this phenomenon called "ice fog". Huh? When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke. Yesterday I found out it was real. Real slippery, that is. Everything was coated in a fine layer of black ice. Great! My commute to work, while fall free, was about as tense a ride as you would have if you were threading a narrow section of single track with a 500 foot drop on either side of you. Well, except that the visual wasn't near as good!

Anyway, ice fog is something new to me. If you had said that when I was a kid, I woulda smacked you upside the noggin and said you were loony. No such thing. Never ever saw it in Iowa. How do I know? Well, for one thing, my Dad's 66 Dodge Coronet would never have been able to drive in ice fog conditions what with it's bias ply tires and pre-historic traction. We never saw such conditions back then. We always got around. Mud and snow tires saw to that. Chains if it was really bad. Ice fog woulda killed that car, and us with it.

Just goes to show ya. There's always something new 'round the next corner.