It's been cold out.
Chicago has had a relatively mild winter, especially compared to last year, but, coming from Alabama, it has been harsh enough to me. The last two years, I lived in a place where it rarely dipped below freezing, frost was rare, and it never snowed. This year, I managed to escape to San Francisco during the worst month of winter, but came back to some snow and damp cold. We've had a number of days over forty, even flirting with fifty, but wind and clouds and the lake distill the chill into the bones.
Through it all, I've struggled to keep biking. I have two jobs; three days a week at the ReBuild Foundation, about five miles from home, and two days a week at ReBuilding Exchange, about a mile and a half from my apartment. Both require a good bit of physical work, and topping the day off with a bike ride can take the last bit of energy out of me. However, it is faster, more satisfying, and reasonably better for the environment for me to ride the bike instead of fight through traffic in the 'rolla.
In a nod to the weather, I did pick up some new gear back in November. I got a neoprene face mask, good for robbing banks in a pinch; neoprene gloves, warm and waterproof but also clammy and weird; and a thin merino-wool hat that fits under the helmet. The hat and face mask are key, because the sub-freezing wind will drill into your brain, creating an ice-cream-headache-like effect that can be quite distracting. For Christmas, I got a sweet hoodie -- it appears to be plain cotton, but the fibers are treated somehow, so water beads up on the surface. This has been fantastic on the bike, as it blocks the wind and damp while staying breathable. Lastly, glasses of some kind are essential, be it sunglasses or goggles, to keep the wind out of the eyes -- it dries out my contact lenses and makes them prone to blinking out, which is dangerous.
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| Geared up! |
