Wind, Like a Welterweight

[thisnewday]

It was 14 degrees above zero, out on the track this morning, and the wind gusts hit like the quick, sharp jabs of a fight-tuned welterweight. They hurt, but you could walk through them, at least for a while.

I told myself that I'd ridden for miles in weather this cold, through all the late falls and early springs that I'd been a bicycle commuter.

I'd start out thinking that I might be cold. But after a mile or two, I'd be sweating, almost wishing that I could peel off a layer or two but without stopping. Because, if I stopped, I really would be cold.

Today, though, the wind gusted hard across the south end of the track, west to east, near the gate, and I wished I had the mask that I'd sometimes worn to keep my face from freezing.

My water bottle has one of those valves on the top that you pull up with your teeth to open and push back down after drinking. And each time I went to drink from it, the valve would be frozen. Didn't need any ice cubes in the water this morning.

On the track, I followed my usual routine. Starting in lane eight, I walked a quarter mile lap and then moved in one lane. By the time I finished lane one, I'd walked my two miles. (Otherwise I seem to have trouble, these days, remembering which lap I'm on.)

It was on the walk home that my fingers started to bother me. When I was a rider, I had a pair of "lobster claw" mittens by Pearl Izumi. The thumb is independent, as it is in ordinary mittens. (I don't care how cold it gets, I'm not giving up the opposable thumb.)

But index and middle are together as are ring and little fingers. The idea is that the paired fingers share warmth while still allowing for manipulation of shifters, hand brakes, etc.

So, yeah, the mask and the lobster claws would've been nice today and will probably be with me tomorrow. Funny thing, how I've been walking for sixty-four years and apparently still have some things to learn.

But I do appreciate, that much more, the possibility that I might make it out there again tomorrow...