First post for me this year

The Holly-daze is more or less over, now, and it's back to work! And, of course, I rode to work this morning.

Discussions over the weekend included whether to buy a different gas-powered vehicle, given the realities of our commuting and other wants/needs. My truck now has something like 225,000 miles on it, and will not last forever. The other car has been out of service since April. We've done reasonably well on one car and a bunch of bikes, but we haven't tried it in winter. Yet. At least, not a full winter.

One alternative idea was that I could get a bike better suited for winter roads, so that I could ride to the store from the end of TARC service lines if things are icy (using yards beside the roads if need be...). I have a set of grips and pedals coming from Ergon in the next few weeks, and this would be a great way to put them to use--enabling me to wear footwear that would be warmer than my usual cycling shoes or sandals, even WITH the Planet Bike shoe covers I recently purchased (more on those in a bit). I could get a really nice mountain bike with larger wheels and disc brakes, and that has room for some manner of fenders and ways to attach cargo racks (or use that Ergon backpack I'm about to receive), for well under a thousand dollars. And that's buying high-end new stuff. If I look around for something used, I could do for less money still. A car would cost several thousand dollars the first year of ownership. I'm kind of attached to the idea of not adding a monthly car payment to the outgoing budget lines!

Oh, those Planet Bike Blitzen shoe covers: NICE! They are warmer than the ones they replaced, AND more comfortable. I'm glad I got them. They are easier to put on over my big shoes than the old ones, too. I haven't tried them with my sandals yet, but will soon (a favorite way to deal with cold weather being to wear two pairs of warm socks with Gore-Tex socks in my sandals, to avoid constricting blood flow in my feet, then put shoe covers over all that for additional warmth). The sandal outsole is wider than that on my mountain bike shoes (Lake MX250 Wides, circa 2002).