Snow...and ice

What a great ride! At least, it was this morning.

This morning was such a pleasant ride. I think I've finally found the right combination of clothing and gloves that works in Kansas cold and Kansas weather.

I ended up with an aborted trip to work yesterday. Not more than a mile away from home and I had to turn around because my goggles fogged and froze over. That was not adequate. I turned around and headed back for home. Not my plan. Not my hope. Not my desire. But, it ended up being the best thing in "life terms." Things happen for a reason...and this one did too.

Today, I headed out at my regular 6 am to the frosty tunes of snow. A great morning. Not much traffic, not any ice, not many problems, and not the incredibly bitter cold of yesterday morning (even though it was only 1 degree when I started out my journey this morning, it was -16 with windchill yesterday).

The gloves were right for the first time in cold (two layers, cheapo-PC-version mittens on the outside and Planet Bike Borealis on the inside. perfect.

My raincoat (Illiminite) on the outside (even those its been way too hot on most mornings, it wasn't these past couple)...and much better than the slightly lighter Vagabond II.

Tonight, a nice pleasant ride home with little traffic. A great nice. A great morning.

This must be Kansas! Yesterday, a nice cold day in the morning; a nice cool day in the afternoon. Today, a nice cool morning and an amazingly warm day (for December) overall. Tomorrow? Well, not so much.

It looks as though I'm going to have to break out the cold weather gear while also balancing nice, temperate (relatively) weather. But, I do get to try out my new winter gloves (after trying out yet another pair this weekend that utterly failed). We'll see. I'm skeptical.

But seriously, Folks...

Seriously. There has to be a "better glove!" We've "been to the moon!"

For the past couple days, while trying dutifully to make my way to and from work ten to twenty degrees below zero Celcius, I have frozen! Not quite literally, mind you -- not quite. All my nice, wonderful layers have kept me quite warm and toasty. Ok; perhaps sometimes too toasty. But toasty!

My legs? My arms? My face? My core? Yes! Yes! Yes! and Yes! My fingers, however? No. Not only "No," but NO! Not close! I have but a short commute. Not far. Not long. But yet, barely a third of the way towards destination, and I feel the unmistakeable feeling that the cold is breaking through the barrier; that it is rapidly piercing the layers meant to protect so that very soon the ache will start that lets me know that I'd better be at work soon -- very soon.

It's not as if I haven't tried. I feel I've sought advice from every corner and space. But every time I think I've found that Answer, I find that others have trod the same path only to find something lacking, wind resistance, water resistance -- cold resistance, so critical to merely adequate gloves when pushing forward into a headwind making more of a headwind.

I've now tried light gloves, heavy gloves, windproof gloves, liners in heavy gloves, and leather gloves inside heavy gloves. All I've found out so far is that my hands can sweat while my fingers freeze (which is not something I didn't already know).

So this weekend it's off to another round of stores searching the Holy Grail of Warm Toasty Fingeredness.