Ouch
Posted by Jim Zeiser on Saturday, November 3, 2012
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of experiencing my first finger defrost in a long time. Get the sarcasm? My car is in the shop-again-and I had to get to work on Galileo, my big scooter. During the day the temperature was hovering around 50 degrees and there was a light drizzle. As I got ready to leave for work I discovered that my heavy gloves were still wet from the day before. I had to use the 50cc bike to do some shopping and it had been pouring rain. Yes, the car was in the shop then too, and I had to do some heavy shopping requiring not just one but two runs into town. You would think that after a soaking ride like that I would have tossed the gloves in the dryer or at least left them near a heat source, but oh no, I left them in the cold garage thinking they would magically dry by themselves.
I had two alternatives as I prepared to leave for work. Either use my light leather riding gloves or winter mittens. No problem, I thought, it's almost 50 and I've ridden in cooler with these gloves. Why use heavy mittens at 50 degrees? There was only one problem with this Master Plan. Yes, it was 50 degrees-then. I spent nine hours at the job and it was nine o' clock at night when I left. The roads were still a little damp but a new wrinkle had been thrown into the scheme. A light snow flurry was falling in spots in the 34 degree temperatures and I was riding into the wind. Start figuring in wind chills and I was now riding in sub-zero temperatures even at a modest pace. My hands, in a word were freezing, On the darkened highway, with snow flakes coming at me like stars at the Millennium Falcon in hyper-space, visibility was compromised and the wind was moving the scooter around as I held on with cold, clumsy digits. Not fun.
The second best part was getting my helmet unstrapped through the metal rings as my fingers began to decompress from the cold. A normally two second task that now took five minutes. Lastly I was experiencing the utter enjoyment of my fingers defrosting and the ache that accompanies that. A hot cup of tea and a hand rub by Sara helped relieve the pain. Note to self: Take heavy gloves along and use them when it's dark in November. It's much better than frozen fingers.
I had two alternatives as I prepared to leave for work. Either use my light leather riding gloves or winter mittens. No problem, I thought, it's almost 50 and I've ridden in cooler with these gloves. Why use heavy mittens at 50 degrees? There was only one problem with this Master Plan. Yes, it was 50 degrees-then. I spent nine hours at the job and it was nine o' clock at night when I left. The roads were still a little damp but a new wrinkle had been thrown into the scheme. A light snow flurry was falling in spots in the 34 degree temperatures and I was riding into the wind. Start figuring in wind chills and I was now riding in sub-zero temperatures even at a modest pace. My hands, in a word were freezing, On the darkened highway, with snow flakes coming at me like stars at the Millennium Falcon in hyper-space, visibility was compromised and the wind was moving the scooter around as I held on with cold, clumsy digits. Not fun.
The second best part was getting my helmet unstrapped through the metal rings as my fingers began to decompress from the cold. A normally two second task that now took five minutes. Lastly I was experiencing the utter enjoyment of my fingers defrosting and the ache that accompanies that. A hot cup of tea and a hand rub by Sara helped relieve the pain. Note to self: Take heavy gloves along and use them when it's dark in November. It's much better than frozen fingers.
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If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
