Note to Weather God

I am putting this message out into the ether to try an appease the weather god, Jim Cantore, or what every divine force that controls the weather

I get it you are angry at us. Between our dumping of toxic chemicals, deforestation, and flooding the air with CO2 we have totally mucked up the environment. I guess you are now trying to punish us by burying us in heavy wet snow that gives us a heart attack as we try to clear our driveways. And even when we do get out on the road we can't see over the 20 foot piles of snow so there is an accident waiting at every corner.

If the constant snow wasn't bad enough what is worst is that our thermometers have spent a lot more time below 20 degrees than above. I don't think colder than a witches teat is even a valid comparison any more.

I am tired of the cold and snow and am looking for an offering that I can give so that I can get out on the bike again. If you need me to sacrifice a virgin that may be tough since there aren't many in these parts. But I am a computer professional so as long as you don't need a virgin of super model quality I may be able to find a shy. slightly unkept, computer professional virgin who is female-ish.

 If you don't answer my plea's then I will have no choice but to take my case to the Flying Spaghetti Monster because we all know he is the one that really controls what goes on in this crazy world.

Penny Pack 2014

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It was a tough week at work where I spent way too much time getting almost nothing done. So I was glad to see that the weather warmed up enough to be able to get out for a ride. Trying to ride during the winter months means toughing it out in the cold, riding trails or spending time on an indoor trainer.

Yet the winter also brings some unique opportunities to see a different side of the outdoors. Although winter can be a stark and barren it has its own special beauty especially after a snow fall.  The past couple of weeks brought a few significant snow storms and although the roads had cleared enough to ride on them I wanted a more scenic ride in the snow so I went to Pennypack park.

Pennypack park is in north east Philadelphia and has a beautiful paved trail along the Pennypack creek. This is not much to this park there is the creek, a few trails, a couple of parking lots, and small nature center that's it. But the park really doesn't need anything else. Pennypack creek and the surrounding woods have a simple timeless beauty. Although Pennypack is a nice place to ride in any season my favorite time to ride here is in the winter.

Because they actually plow the paved trail when it snows this is one of the few places you can easily ride when there is a lot of snow on the ground. I rode here last winter after a snow storm and remember how cool it was riding through the snow but this year was even better. Because of the single digit weather we had this past week parts of the creek were still frozen over. The contrast between the frozen creek, flowing water and snow pack landscape created one of most scenic rides I have done in a while. It was the perfect way to recover from a frustrating week.