Good morning, my fellow earthlings. I say that only because I just saw the page view stats for this blog and was astounded! I have an audience! That astounds me!
But anyway it's March now here in the Maine Highlands (as well as elsewhere but especially here) where March is doing its thing like crazy, like it's cabin fever insanity season. The sun needs our encouragement! March here started off cold and windy. This week we had morning temps colder than minus twenty Celsius, one morning with strong winds and a dangerous chill factor. It was nice enough to take the time to warm up enough to snow, then sleet, then rain most of the day, then freeze back up fast enough so I regretted not working in the rain that day. I did clear the snow bank on one driveway but left the other one to freeze up. Yesterday was the first day warm enough for me to feel like spending time outdoors so I chipped away that frozen slush snow bank for the second driveway.
It hasn't been very much like maple sapping weather yet but the forecast for the week is for days above freezing, nights below, so it could be a week for maple syrup making. Should be good light syrup this time of year.
So cabin fever got the best of me last week. I had a breakdown. Well I mean while fighting off a breakdown from the winter blues I broke down and bought something expensive, something I didn't really even know I needed until I discovered it on Craigslist. It's a Fatboy bicycle with big fat tires in excess of four-and-a-half inches! The bike feels huge to me, like if there were frame sizes for these things for small medium large and extra large, this would be an enormous. Actually I think it's just a medium frame but it's enormous! The weather's been too icy to do any riding. I had it up the street one time and discovered I needed more tire pressure (up to 8 from 5 psi) and the front brake pads needed cleaning. I haven't had the bike out since I did those two things, just too wicked cold and icy! I also had my eye on a few motorcycles. It would be fun to have one I could ride all the way across to the West Coast and probably back again. BMW police bikes have an appeal and the older ones are wicked affordable, and reliable. But that fire went out when I bought this fat bike. I now have a learning curve way too steep to compete with the learning curve of motorcycle touring. I do need something more practical, though, if I'm going touring with this fat bike, like an old Caravan or I've been looking at early four cylinder models of the Vue. Old cars are always a risk so I want something with a reliability record, easy on gas but roomy and comfortable. I did see a PT Cruiser on Craigslist this morning with shiny black paint, chrome moon hubcaps, and fire stenciled on the side in bright colors. Now that would make a real statement in Banff or Vancouver wouldn't it!
Dear Lord please keep making the days longer until it's finally summer!
me
