Well yesterday there was a 37 °F difference between the high and low temps for the day. Welcome to Minnesota. Definitely one of the colder days of the year as it barely got below zero. The high temperature for the day was 36 °F and by the end of the day it was at -1 °F. Freaking insanity. And on top of the temperature change it snowed all night, which has made for an exceptionally interesting Monday. Luckily didn’t fall at all on the way in, but there were definitely some wobbly moments. The forecast for today calls for a HIGH of -1 °F. Biking it this morning it was around -5 °F and snowy roads. So as you can imagine the ride in was pretty brutal. It’s never too bad as long as you’re covered up well enough, but baring the cold again definitely makes me more anxious to get out to Portland. I keep feeling like we’re going to get out there at the end of January with temps like 40° when we’ve been used to temps around 0°. I’m picturing us riding our bikes in t-shirts and everyone looking at us like we’re out of our minds. It should be a nice sudden change in climate though. Just when we think we can’t take any more of the Minnesota winter, we won’t have to.
Speaking of Portland, for all of the good people that like to keep up with my blog, we’ve got some exciting news from this weekend. We’ve got a place to live! Laura actually just mailed a signed lease and check for the a deposit and first month’s rent on a house in St. Johns. It’s a nice little house as we’ve seen from pictures. We had one of Laura’s friends that lives in Portland check it out to make sure it looked kosher. It’s a pretty sweet area (as far as we can tell). We’ll be about 7 miles from downtown, which isn’t super close but definitely bikable. We’ll also be just across the river from Forest Park, which is amazing. The woman renting the house to us is a social working going back to school for her Masters in Social Work, and will actually be living in the basement apartment of the house. I guess she’s normally lived in the house and rented the basement, but as she’s going back to school needs the extra money and has decided to rent out the house. She’s in her mid-30’s, seems like a very nice lady, and has a 12 year old dog named Blue. We’re definitely very excited about the house, but nervous at the same time. It’s a pretty big commitment for a year when we haven’t actually seen the place, but sometimes you’ve just gotta jump. We’ll be paying rent both in Minneapolis and Portland for January, which sucks a little, but it’s nice to know that we’ve got our new home figured out. Next step is figuring out how to get all of hour shit out there.
Well it’s been a little while since my last post. My excuse? I got really drunk and Ben’s bachelor party last weekend and have been getting my ass kicked at work. We’re working on a project for “a client” and basically we’ve got about three weeks (now down to a week and a half) to do around six weeks worth of work. So needless to say we’ve been putting in some long hours and blogging has come second pretty much everything else I have time for.
Today I road into work wearing goggles for the first time in probably 8 months. It’s not terribly cold out (50/60’s) but riding a couple miles on a bike can really get your eyes watering, which sucks. Your vision gets blurry, you’ve got cold water running down your face, people laugh and point because you’re crying. So, today I said ‘fuck it, I’m wearing the goggles,’ and I’ve gotta say it was very well worth it. I’ve been feeling a little nippy the past couple of days riding it, but today it seemed like the goggles were actually helping stay warmer. I hate winter biking, but really kind of love it at the same time. Oh, and the goggles (they’re not ski goggles) they’re actually Motorcycle goggles which are great for a little chilly wind protection, but when it’s really cold, like December and January (and February) they fog up like crazy. As soon as I stop moving, instant fog. For the colder cold months I’ve got some ski goggles that work great, but it’s nice to get some use out of the moto-goggles during these in between months.
Okay, time to work…