Month: December 2005

Everyone – have a happy New Year celebration tonight. But: don’t get stupid. Be safe, too.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

We will have a “kind of” white Christmas since there is still snow on the ground, but it will be raining and in the 50s tomorrow, so most of that will probably melt away.

So – enjoy being with your family and loved ones!

I must not have been paying attention to the weather. But when I left the house on the motorcycle, the temperature on the bike said “24”. Hmmm… Did I stop and circle the block and go pick up the car? No – like a mad-man, I continued. I rode on and on for about an hour until I finally reached my destination in the mountains of Western Virginia. It was 14 degrees. I think.

It was so cold, that my motorcycle thermometer gave up displaying the temperature. The last one I saw was 15 degrees before it went to “- -“. I guess Honda figured that only idiots would ride in weather that cold so they didn’t allow the thermometer to read that low.

So, now that I’m here, I don’t want to leave – it’s too cold out there. Maybe it will warm up by 3pm enough for me to ride home…

I’ve been under the weather today. Seems I have to have at least one Winter sick day every year. So, I spent the day trying to “rest up” and get better. Of course, it’s really cold outside and probably will be all winter long.

I was hoping that riding the motorcycle to work so much in the cold would toughen me up, but I guess it hasn’t worked like I’d hoped. Of course, I seem to get rid of the symptoms when I go outside in the cold – it could be the whole “inside” atmosphere that gets to me. When it gets back into the high 30s in the mornings or higher, I think I can ride again. Otherwise, my fingers will fall off.

And then, there’s that whole ice thing…

Since I have not been travelling much with my new job, I have not been earning miles. So, in order to “preserve” my Continental Platinum Elite status for one more year, I needed to earn 5,210 miles. I just did that Saturday. I found a cheap flight and flew from DC to Houston to San Francisco to Newark and back to DC. Long day that was – especially when the first flight out left at 6:00am.

When I left the house that morning at 4:30am, it was cold. Not just chilly, nor freezing, but bone-chilling, finger-blackening cold. Well, for a displaced Houston boy at least. It was 18 degrees at the coldest point I saw and almost had to pull over the bike to put my hands on the engine to warm them up.

But, all ended up well with me getting to the airport on time and with all extremeties intact. I got upgraded on all possible segments as well – that is ALWAYS welcome.

So – I’m going to be Platinum at least one more year… I’ll lose it next, though.