Briefly Thought About Riding

It was sometime right before the weekend, before the one just past, when I actually thought about the possibility of taking the scooter out for a quick run just for the sake of being able to say I did it for the first time in over a month.  The temperatures were going to get warmer for a day or two, into the mid 40's!  Unfortunately, my not having cleaned the alleyway between my house and the neighbor's of snow from the past few storms left an icy mess between the tires of the BV and the street, and on the day when I thought I might get the best chance to get the cycle out,  the ice was still holding up like forged steel to the blade of the chopper.

I sprinkled the ice pack generously with calcium chloride that Saturday morning, thinking that after getting back from visiting my little girl at college I'd hop on the BV and take that long awaited spin.  When I got back late that afternoon, the salt had done its trick, but I was pooped.  A nap won out over the ride and then it was too cold and dark to make the effort worth whatever small, freezing joy I might possibly have gotten out of a quick jaunt.

This past weekend might have been even better, but I was away from Friday afternoon till just today.  Two days ago I was shooting trains in Cresson, Pennsylvania, and in spite of a howling, bigger wind, there was much joy to be found in seeing that most of the moderate snow piles made by local plows were nearly melted completely.

Because I planned to come back today, Monday, I watched the weather forecasts carefully to make sure that I'd not have to cut my trip short.  The forecasts for today were bad, for tonight, but not for the daytime.  Imagine my horror when I awoke this morning, 240 miles away from here, to learn that nine inches of snow had fallen here, while where I was everything was merely wet from some rain.  I can't remember a time when the meteorologists, at every major service, were so completely off the mark!

I did trim my time away by a few hours and headed back earlier than I had planned in order to do most of my traveling during what was supposed to have been a lull in the storm.  My calculations were excellent and I encountered no bad driving conditions except for a few small areas of fog.  In spite of the jokes and complaints about PennDOT, my hat was off the whole time to the crews that clean the highways and byways.  Of course in the summer I'll curse them to high heaven when they close down 20 miles of roadway to work on 50 feet, but today they were in terrific form in keeping the roads cleared!

So, here I am again, not much thinking of getting the scooter out any time soon.  The snow pile right here where I need to turn the front wheel of the bike to get from the yard to the street looks like this.  

Back to hibernating, I guess.  Call me when it's really spring!