What a difference a week makes! Last Thursday I began my morning commute to work over ice covered roads from Monday/Tuesday's blizzard and a temperature of 2 deg. F. This Thursday, it was still below freezing (25 deg.F) but the weekend temperature of 75 on Saturday and Sunday pretty much made light work of the foot of snow and the light rain from the previous day had ended around 8:ooPM with a setting full moon to greet me as I wheeled the bike out of the garage at 5:00AM. The roads looked dry and the forecast for the rest of the week looked good so I brought out my second set of wheels with my late/fall-early spring Armadillos and swapped this set out for my winter 35mm Nokians. The extra 5-minutes it took to make this wheel swap was easily made up with the lighter/faster Armadillos (this is relative as many would regard the Armadillos as "unridable" due to their weight, steel beads, and stiff casings.) Without the constant "din" of the 106 studs on the pavement I could "actually" hear the early morning birds, as well as the tires of the cars as they overtook me, and as I approached the various intersection. In the morning this isn't a problem as it is still dark, but now that it is light out, it is nice to have another sense to draw upon for safety. With the switch to daylight savings time, it is nice to now be able to see the views along the roads in the portion of the commute that is in the more rural areas of NJ.
The weather looks to be good through the weekend and into Monday but since they're forcasting rain for Monday afternoon that is expected to change over to sleet, freezing rain, and possibly snow, I'll keep the Nokians in the garage next to my bike so that I'm ready. Winter isn't yet over, and in previous years, we've had blizzards in late March and I've run into ice as late as April 16th.
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