Klunkerz and E-Town

There's a nice article about Evanston night life in today's Tribune. I wish I took more advantage of the things they describe in the article! Can't imagine why they didn't mention the excitement of going to the gym every night in the winter or the thrill of dodging gaping potholes to go north to get to the north suburban riding routes... or driving by all the fun places to get to the expressway to leave town to go race in Wisconsin....seriously though, I feel like I'm gone so much during the season I don't know my own town. That's kind of sad.

I got a little "present" in the mail. Or at least it felt like a present because I forgot I had ordered it!! My Klunkerz DVD came today! I don't really have time to watch it in the next couple of days but I bet I will stay up late one night because I can't resist! Along with it I ordered Fundamentals, the Mountain Bike Technique Video. I hadn't heard of that one before, I hope it's interesting.

This week I have ridden every day but the rides have been strange. The best ride was Wednesday night. I had intended to go to a women's riding event but didn't go because I would have been late. I went for a ride, realizing when I got out there there were menacing looking black clouds to the north. A lean fast looking racer type guy and I were at a stop sign at the same time, waiting for traffic to clear. I looked at him more closely and saw his bike and realized we had talked once before, but he was wearing a different kit. He made some comment about the clouds and to my surprise, instead of him zooming on ahead, we chatted for the next 20 or so minutes, about all sorts of interesting bike-related topics. The Olympics in China, a bike product he is designing, one his dad is designing, was it going to storm or not?, carbon fiber, and so on. It was really fun, I love geeking out on bike stuff. It started to rain and he decided to turn around. I was a little more prepared for rain, so I kept riding. He only told me his first name, but I know it was Greg LeMond's son. I wish it hadn't rained, the conversation was really interesting. I should have turned around too, I eventually got absolutely soaked to the bone and was freezing. The kind of storm where you can feel your shoes sloshing, you can hardly see, and you wish you could peel all your clothes off before you walk in the front door to avoid puddles inside.

At the beginning of the week it was hard to dress right - it was always alot cooler by the lake than what they said on the radio or the net. So I'd dress for what it felt like, but even then one evening the temp dropped what felt like 10 or 15 degrees during the ride. Luckily I always overdress. I was still cold though. And when I'd dress for the lake temp, when I'd do the detour away from the lake to avoid the Sheridan construction, it would feel 5 or 10 degrees warmer during the detour, then the contrast would make it feel really cold when I'd get back to the lake. Yesterday it was downright freezing. I wish I had put on what I wear in 45 degree riding - because I think it was down to 50 or below while I was riding. The wind made it feel so much colder, I never really felt warm, and I would much prefer to be too warm than too cold. I took the L&M headlamp which was good to have. At the beginning of the ride as I rode through the construction on Sherman, in broad daylight there was a raccoon walking around in the street where the front end loader was and the big sewer pipes were waiting to be installed. He looked drunk, he was kind of walking around in circles. Later that night when I was driving a black cat ran in front of my car. Two animals sightings within a couple of hours, weird... anyone know how to interpret that kind of stuff (beyond the "bad luck" thing?) Supposedly it means something when an animal appears or visits you. The meaning varies with the animal.