Wednesday night...rain. Thursday... rain forecast to end in the afternoon but it kept raining into the evening. Yes I can ride in the rain but I really don't enjoy it, especially when it's dark and cool at the same time.

Friday night...clear skies, no wind, temps around 70 dropping to the low 60s. So I went for a very nice bike ride. 17 miles.

Sunset was just before 7 pm. (Our next post-7pm sunset will be on March 8. I have noted this in my calendar.) I was having an easy day at work and thought I'd be able to leave a bit early, but I made the mistake of exchanging pleasantries with someone as I was leaving the restroom and learned the hard way that this woman really likes to talk. It took me 20 minutes to extricate myself from a conversation about cold offices. For some reason I now know that this woman has to leave the drawers of her dresser open otherwise her clothes smell bad. Anyway that was 20 minutes of lost daylight for my bike ride.

Another lesson learned the hard way -- soccer season has started and the soccer parents in this town are clueless and self-absorbed. I was thinking of moving the ride start, and now I think I have to do that to avoid either being run over by their SUVs or crashing into them when they look straight at me coming towards them down a big hill and then step into the street in directly front of me.