Dang, I was all fired up and feeling hopeful yesterday when I looked out an office window and could hardly see the building across the way. The air was thick with snowflakes. Yesss! Finally, the first snow ride of the year. Snow is the consolation we get for what is otherwise about 4 months of grey, gritty, clammy horror known as a Kansas City winter. Seriously, winters down here are the pits. The whole city just looks so pitiful and filthy, and you feel chilly and dampish for weeks on end due to the high humidity. The least the season can do to compensate for its otherwise aesthetic lacking is dump a few feet of snow over the whole shebang for a little, temporary Extreme Makeover.
But yesterday’s storm really failed to bring it. It was more bluster and fluff than actual accumulation, and by the time I got off the clock, most of what had hit ground (at least as regards the streets) had melted into a disgusting, muddy slush. Since the ol’ Trek is currently out-of-commission, awaiting some improvements to make it an even better winter-beater-and-foul-weather-commuter, I rode Big Brown, my Monocog 29er, and it scoffs (Ha! Ha!) at the notion of clip-on fenders defeating its mud-slinging capacities. I had one of those downtube mud-guards velcroed on, so flingback from the back side of the wheel was minimized, but wouldn’t you know, a steady stream of slush flew off the front of the tire about 4′ into the air, to plaster my glasses for the entire three-and-a-half mile home. The back tire was a little wider than the fender had been designed for, too, and so I got a fairly wet, muddy ass out of the deal to boot. Blech. What a bummer. This morning was similarly gross, with slush-a-plenty, plus some doofus in a station-wagon passed me really close and sloshed slush up to waist-high all down my left side. I was damn glad I keep a couple of changes of clothes at the office.
Well, here’s hoping the next snowstorm doesn’t suck (and that I have the T-Trex back by then). I was really looking forward to the test of skill that deep-snow riding provides.