You, my friend, are a man after my own heart! (Except for the Friday the 13th mask, that is...)While waiting for a comic to post, Opus the Poet wrote:Yep, bored again. can't work on projects because the noise disturbs the inmates/roommates... Latest project is turning a Friday the 13th Halloween mask into a winter face mask to keep my face warm while I ride my bicycle to work/church. I cut the top off the mask to not catch my helmet, added hardware to hold an old pair of glasses to the mask so I could see, and some foam rubber baffles to the inside of the mask to keep my hot, humid breath from fogging the glasses. Then I took it all apart and painted everything that wasn't glasses or foam, gloss black.
Still no new comic?
So with everything painted black I no longer look like the guy in the hockey mask, but I'm still pretty scary. And warm, that's the important part, it does keep the wind off my face and keeps me from getting cold as fast... I look like a low-budget Darth Vader though.
It's 0135, where's the comic...
So for a total cost of $3.24 for the mask and the rest of the supplies coming from previous project leftovers I managed to get this all done for a song. The song is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, but what the heck, it's still a song, right?
After I started bicycling again last year, after having lost much weight, I had a so-so bike, and no real clothing I could use for biking late into the season... and I looked at the cyclists on the road through the late fall/winter, and I was surprised to see that I envied them!
This year, I have a much better bike (bought it over the summer, to be able to go on a trip from Québec City to Toronto, last August), and it has good tires (Shwalbe Marathon Extreme - 700X40c, which are described as "expedition" tires...) I also have read more stuff on clothing and, for now, I use a t-shirt (¾ sleeve) , a windbreaker as a vapor barrier to keep me warm and prevent gettting cold sweat (don't be mistaken: I sweat, but it won't turn cold, as it stays in what's described as a "micro-climate" next to me, though I can regulate it through using the jacket's zippers, so I won't actually sweat too profusely), and a polar fleece jacket. I use the windbreaker's thin hood under my helmet, and that works fine for now (though I will probably want to invest in a balaclava or something to cover my face).So far, so good. It was -5°C this morning (23F), and I was just fine. My feet were a little cold (currently using two pairs of socks and some running shoes), and my fingers were OK (using no-fingers bike gloves with a pair of regular leather gloves on top, but I have a pair of mitts I can use later). I was happy to notice, a few weeks ago, that my Sorel winter boots will fit in my toe clips, so I'll be able to use them once I start needing them, to continue biking later on. This was a concern, earlier on, as my work boots have steel toe caps, which won't fit in the toe clips on the bike, so I thought I was stuck to running shoes and ending the season soon... but the Sorel boots I have don't have steel toes, so they are slightly smaller in that area.
So I still bike to work regularly (though not always, depends on whether I have time or if I'm in a hurry). It's not very far (5.1 km - 3.2 miles) and it takes between 11 and 14 minutes one way, and between 12 and 15 minutes coming back (there is a slight hill along the way...) My average speed is between 25 and 27 km/h (15.5 - 16.7 mph), except when the wind is strong, then it comes down to between 22 and 25 km/h (13.6 - 15.5 mpg) with about 30 or 35lbs of luggage (my work uniform - I'm a bus driver for the city of Montréal, Québec, Canada; my work boots - I can't stand driving heavy vehicles in anything other than steel-toed work boots; my seat cover - wooden beads, keeps you from sitting in someone else's 'juice'; a bag I carry with me everywhere, that contains an assortment of things - tylenol, tums, some small tools, pen, paper, Montréal road map atlas, stuff to read, etc. )
I do like my Suburban truck (1991, last year with the square body style), but I sure do like my bike, too! So I don't know how long I'll keep riding it (I may or may not do the winter - winters in Montreal can be harsh...), but I'm enjoying it, that's for sure.
But I won't use it to go to church: the way I bike, I end up sweating profusely, and would have to get changed once I got there. Just not convenient.
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