COLD!

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Wow, Baltimore is cold.  Given my complaints about the lack of winter in Southern Illinois, I don’t mean to complain now.  I like when it’s cold in the winter.  Just saying.  It’s cold.  I’m wearing a scarf in my office, on my lunch break, relaxing with my mp3 player and the internet. My feet are cold. Though, I am wearing socks and sandals.

Shoveling snow two weeks ago when we got the mini blizzard, I was wearing shoes. Wet shoes. My broken toe was killing me. I don’t know if it was the cold, the wet or the shoes. But I do know it feels better in socks and sandals. Too bad everyone stares at me. One bus driver gave me such a look just before the holidays that I was not completely sure he was going to let me on the bus.

My recent injuries hurt a good bit this winter. The non-broken right hand is stiff and painful in the morning. The toe doesn’t like the cold, like the one I shattered pinky toe from 2003. My broken wrist predicts rain, and snow makes it hurt like no one’s business. I was talking about my two metal teeth with my co-worker yesterday, and he said I’m like a roadmap. I think that’s funny. I do need to invent better stories to go along with my defects. My broken teeth? No accident! I defended someone’s honor in a bar fight and got bumbled by three bikers! Etc. Maybe for Baby, when he/she asks why Daddy has metal in his mouth and foot and why his wrist makes noises.

Stab winter for St. Patty.

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I am very ready for winter to be over.  I generally like it.  There are past instances on this blog where I was angry at a lack of winter.  I like wearing sweaters and flannel and cuddling up with the Mrs at night to watch movies, read and sleep.  Cycling when water freezes to your face is exhilarating, if for no other reason, for the looks of amazement you get from other people.  Longjohns are their own unique experience when you have them on under your work pants with nothing under them.
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Maybe it’s barreling downhill for four miles every morning and getting watery eyes from the wind or my being tired of not being able to wear sandals sans socks.  Or of coming home from community meetings at seven or eight in the dark.  Maybe I’m tired of the bleak landscape on my way to work through the Jones Falls Valley and out of my window on University Parkway.  But I’m really ready for spring now.

I haven’t actually gotten tired of winter since 2003, when I lived in Boston and didn’t blog yet.  It was a particularly bad winter, full of blizzards and April snow.  St. Patty’s day that year was 70 degree weather, with students at Boston College sitting around talking in tanktops next to mountains of snow still piled up.  I remember wearing flip-flops and crunching on snow that April and wearing a jacket in May and June a few times.
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There was snow on the ground two years ago for St. Patty’s Day, too, after a January that was so warm that plants were budding the week after New Year’s Day.  I guess it could be worse.  I get to work from home this morning for afternoon meetings and can probably get away with sandals later, if I’m willing to have cold feet, which I am.

I have a fridge full of Irish stout, cabbage, homemade soda bread from the Mrs and Irish music.  What, you haven’t heard the new U2 album yet?  It’s excellent.

OMG, mega cold commute.

The windchill was -2 this morning when I left.  Not counting the chill of riding downhill four miles to work.  Not as cold as some parts of the country.  But very very very cold for Maryland, where our summers are beastly.  It was awesome.  Read more.

Yay, a sinus infection!

I have all my wisdom teeth.  Almost.  One is about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way in.  My bottoms did screw with my “bite” so that my front teeth don’t touch, and I have to cut up pizza usually.  But I didn’t have to do the surgery thing like my former dentist said I would.  Which, I think, is a win.  Plus, you know, reconstructive surgery to fix my bite is nothing I want to do, which I’d have to go through in order to admit that mistake.  Not very constructive in any way, save admitting mistakes, something I don’t think I’m terrible at.  I don’t need a lesson and my jaw broken.

My jaw was hurting early last week on the upper side of said not-all-the-way-in wisdom tooth.  I got worried.  Finally got off my ass to look up “impacted wisdom tooth,” and I read that if it’s half out and you have room and it’s not biting your cheek and your gums aren’t infected, you’re good.  I thought I’d read something in the past that said they were impacted if they were not out all the way, but I couldn’t find anything to say that.  It’s been years; maybe the research changed or something.  Whatever.  My teeth never actually hurt, and my usually sensitive teeth were not more sensitive than usual, so I assumed all was well.

So I thought maybe I pulled a jaw muscle or whatever.  Played with the inside of my cheek so much that I made it bloody and tender for two days.

Then I realized that my sinuses have been poopy lately.  I had a bad cold two weeks ago, and I spent last week throwing up in the morning when I brushed my teeth, from a dripping nose.  And my head was hurting.  Duh, I think I have a sinus infection.  Turns out jaw pain/cheek pain is a big symptom.  Doh.

At first this was great news.  No digging a big tooth out of my head.  (Knock on wood!)  But this weekend, I felt too crappy to move.  I stayed home all day Saturday and only left Sunday for a short ride.  In retrospect, I should have stayed home, but I was very excited to ride with my buddy.  Fatigue is another big part of a sinus infection, and I want to stay home, read and watch movies all day.  But I have a community meeting I don’t want to miss tonight and some stuff to get done.  So I’m going to work.  Hopefully the four-mile-downhill ride there will help a little.

I am finished bitching for the day.  At least I have a job I really like, and I don’t have to suffer through a sick soul to boot.  I am a lucky guy with a cute neti pot.

Thanking the Hanes gods for longjohns.

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I got drenched earlier this week riding my bike to work in all that rain. I mean like hanging my clothes to dry drenched. It was awesome.  My new fenders kept most of the slosh and slush and sludge off of me and off of my drivetrain.

But I was still looking forward to the sunny, clear and cold weather of yesterday and today. I had on very warm winter cycling gloves, a puffy vest, scarf, flannel or sweater and LONGJOHNS. Yes, longjohns. Rather than getting home with pink and chapped and stingy legs, I get home toasty and warm and happy and full of fuzzies because they are new.  And my hips smell like ink from the dye.

Of course I also sit in my office with very warm legs, which is very strange.  Especially if you’re a hairy man like me.  And you know you’re not supposed to wear anything under longjohns, right?  When your underwear touches your socks, it feels like you’re (to quote Ned Flanders) “wearin nothin at all!”  I’m not exactly into that, uh, ahem, lack of support.  It’s very odd.

Totally worth it to be able to cycle through a winter which is certainly colder than some places, but not quite New England or Upper Midwest either.

Rider status indicates that there are still in fact some cyclists in Baltimore who are, uh, brave/crazy enough to ride through the winter.  I’m not alone, and I don’t want to be.  Even when it’s raining and 35 degrees, there were folks out.

Possible fun joint ride Sunday.  If you’re in Baltimore, comment here and come!

Must always carry cash.

Last Wednesday, my co-worker and I spent literally all the cash we had at lunch time, after dropping off a grant application.  We went to a place called The Cozy Corner, which was, in fact, cozy.  I had a grilled cheese, kettle chips and a root beer.

On the way to the cash machine and back to the office, we passed a young woman carrying a folded up blanket who asked if we could “spare anything” — without stopping, as if no one ever bothers to answer her.

What a shitty time to  be without cash.  Whenever I think about the defeated look on her face, I wish I could find her again.  I tried to pass it on to a youngin Friday who needed cash to buy lunch at the B&O Museum, but it wasn’t the same.

Cold early this year?


Geez, it got cold quickly! I just started wearing shoes (not sandals) last week. Fall came so early this year that I feel like I missed it. But I’m glad to have some winter. It started early in the Dale three years ago, but then the winter was warm and depressing afterward. Maybe we’ll get some nice winter wonderland this time around in Charm City? I’d better get some better fenders for my bike!  My storm windows are closed at home, and I actually wore my scarf at lunch yesterday at a nice cafe’.