Cold ride in today 
Ten degrees according to the app on my phone this morning. I wasn’t going to ride in but I had work to do and wanted to get in earlier then the early shuttle, and it wasn’t like I was that willing to fire up Big Red to get into the office early.
Coffee is much better when you’ve abstained for a few days, 
though I didn’t get milk to put in the coffee as I figure I’ll get it this evening I’ll get milk at the grocery store. I used to be a die-hard consumer of milk from Stewarts’ as I liked supporting local dairies 
in Saratoga and Washington Counties but lately I’ve just been getting it from the grocery store, as most of it comes from the milk plant in East Greenbush and is still locally sourced, in part to save a few dimes. 
I know it’s kind of silly one way or another, but I’ve not noticed that much difference in taste. Plus, it’s just one trip. I’ve also been putting off getting milk, 
as I’m tired of all those plastic milk jugs accumulating in the trash, as I haven’t been to my parents house or transfer station to drop off milk bottles nor have I had any fires lately. 
I do miss summer. 
I won’t say it was the most physically active weekend, as Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday was bitterly cold with the wind 
but I’m hopeful now with the improved spring weather 
I will be able to ride in more. I am definitely looking forward to the bike trail being free of ice, 
I hate the bump-bump of the rough ice and the necessary speed reductions. Of course, it will probably also mean more drinking beer 
and smoking pot up in wilderness, but also all that fresh produce that is cheap and plentiful 
come summer. I used to walk out in the cold all of the time, but nowadays the cold bothers me more, indeed my hands were swollen and cold by the time I got in to the office after riding this morning, 
despite the warm gloves mom got me, and the lack of wind. It just was only 10 degrees. I’m ready for spring, if I haven’t mentioned that enough.
Just a cold and blustery weekend 
For a brief while on Saturday, things were quite nice outdoors but it didn’t last long as I spend a good portion of Saturday working on the bike, first pulling the repairing the tire where the metal roof screw went through it earlier in the week, then later I ended up swapping the shift lever from my old bike onto my new.
It wasn’t a terrible work week, 
but i put a metal roofing screw through my tire more than 30 miles ago earlier in the week. Thanks to all the fix a flat I had in the tires didn’t have a leak but I pulled it and patched it lest the screw work its way out. But i needed to fix that, and Saturday was the day to do that. I didn’t want to get stranded out somewhere in middle of nowhere, or for that matter on the way to work with a flat tire.
While I had the wheel off I figured keep servicing the bike. 
Gave it a good wipe-down. There have been been issues with front derailleur not reliably going between high and low. Figured it was mud, ice and road salt gunking up the mechanism and I needed to clean it but then I discovered the internal gear is cracked in the shifter ratchet. Probably from abuse, you know hard shifts and said mud, ice, road salt. Under $20 part but it’s a bit annoying that you have to pull the full cable to do it. I was worried about pulling the cable and having to reinsert it but then I decided to take the leap, and pull the shift lever off my other bike and replace the frayed cable from existing stock I have. The old shift lever from the other bike isn’t in perfect shape and is missing the dust cover but it works well enough for now. I have a spare chain to replace it soon but I want to wait until the road salt is done before changing that over.
Other then that, yesterday was a lot of reading and wasting time on social media and same today. 
I’ve been quite tired all weekend, and not ambitious. 
Been doing a bit of cleaning, some cooking, made up rice and lentils with lots of tumeric yesterday. Baked bread on Friday morning, and have been enjoying that. Skipped my coffee this morning, as I’m trying to avoid Sunday coffee so I sleep better on Sunday night and are more refereshed for the work week.
Mom and Dad are sick again so no visit this week. 
I’ll do my laundry at the laundromat in Delmar tomorrow after work and stock up on groceries. Next weekend I’m holding out for better weather and would like to do some camping if the weather if okay. I am so tired of winter, I am ready for warmer days, turning off the heat and having the windows open. 
We will see but it looks like a warming trend is on the way for the middle of the month. I want to get out before the burn ban is in effect, as while campfires are exempt, you know with the high winds and dry grounds, you can’t be too careful. Come April and snow gone I plan to go up to East Branch Sacandaga, but there is way too much snow up there at this point.
Made it through another winter’s week
Again another weekend too cold and nasty to get out of town, so I’ll be sticking close to home tomorrow, maybe doing some riding if it’s not too windy out. I wouldn’t mind going out to Five Rivers again so I can get accosted by some woke bird watcher for not having my bike locked up again as I sit quietly at the pavilion observing nature.
The month is coming to a close, and I’m looking for books to read and listen to before my monthly borrows expire. I like audio books especially when I’m riding back and forth from work, and this upcoming month should hopefully be warmer, and that will provide more days for bike commuting. Today I rode in and back home, including up State Street Hill and then walking the 17 floors back on up to my old office on the 17th floor of the Alfred E Smith Building. 
It’s funny, that bike rack I called and asked OGS for behind the building is serving it’s purpose.
It wasn’t a bad week, though it had it up and downs. 
Computers systems worked and failed, new code was developed, met with a dozen different people, got to ride in well two of the five days. Stayed late two of the other days to walk laps in the Plaza 
and the days I rode in did it both directions. Today was Buy Nothing Day for the Trump administration protests, but I ended up wasting my money as I normally do every two weeks with automated investments. I know I’m overpaying for various stocks, and I’ve moved more towards bonds, but it’s impossible to get ahead if you aren’t constantly buying both at the highs and lows. It’s only a matter of time before things are much cheaper.
I was abusing caffeine today again, and I’m sure I’ll regret it tonight but I’ll stay up late and read. If don’t sleep much tonight, truth is my plans for tomorrow are pretty laid back 
– maybe ride or go to the library – but mostly do some cleaning, maybe work on the blog and read. Need to come up some new concepts for map for the blog, and maybe some new content. I get tired of the same old stuff. 
Blog traffic has been up a bit, I think the re-design and increased ads help with the revenue. Trying to strike the right balance. I know the blog will pick up once things get a bit warmer out. Plus I’ll more things to blog about.
Final Friday in February
In like a lion they say, and at least February is roaring it’s self away and looks like it will continue tomorrw into the start of March with even more wind, along with some rain and snow during the day on Saturday.
I wasn’t planning on biking in with the wind roaring around 
but then I stepped out my door and saw how mild it was. That helped change my mind, and I figured if I needed to get early into the office, might as well get my exercise in the process. The bike trail is still quite icy in parts, but not so slick. Going to bus it home at the end of the day, as I have my laptop with me and don’t want to beat the shit out if it riding home on the icy trail. 
It’s a nice morning, but still very much winter. 
I was up early, and going. Banana whole-wheat oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. 
I forgot how good and sweet banana pancakes really are. No carrots as I used up the last of them earlier in the week. Today’s average high is 40, as we move towards the warmer part of the year, though I’m not sure it will reach that temperature today, and will be even colder come the weekend.