The Winter Solstice

This past Sunday I started my ride exactly at 10:03am. I'll explain why in a couple of paragraphs but the short explanation is that I couldn't pass up mixing a bike ride with an astronomical event. 

The winter solstice occurs exactly when the sun is at it's lowest point in the sky and is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. This is the moment the sun stops getting lower in the sky and starts its journey back towards the equator. The earth is tilted 23.5 degrees to it orbit and so the sun's elevation at noon appears to rise and fall (-23.5 to +23.5). That is why if you took a picture of the position of the sun at noon every day you would get a picture like the one below.

 

Its call the analemma and it looks a figure 8. The lowest point is the winter solstice and the highest point is the summer solstice. The middle of the figure 8 is where the spring and fall solstice occurs (when the sun is directly over the equator.)

This past Sunday (the day of the winter solstice) I had planned a ride starting at 10 am but when I saw that the time of the winter solstice was 10:03 am local time I changed my ride to start then. The exact day and time of the solstice changes because of perturbations in the earth's orbit which I won't go into detail explaining so it was just lucky happenstance that the winter solstice was almost exactly when I planned to start the ride. Laura was the first one to notice the unusual ride start time and because she could not attend we sent her a picture to welcome her to the winter solstice.  

We sent it at exactly 10:03 am of course. The ride itself was fine for a winter ride. It was in the mid 40s so not too cold but it was a little windy at times. We did 33 miles which helped me reach my mileage goal for the year. I'm sure I'll do a few more rides in before the new year. 

I know it will be few more months before winter is over and the weather will be warmer but it is good to know the sun has started it trek back north and the days will now be getting longer.  

Gearing Up for Winter

It has been a cold December so it has not been easy to get out for a ride. The key to getting out in the cold weather is the proper clothing and the right attitude. Riding in the cold sucks but as long as you accept that fact and wear the right cloths you can still get out. 

My wife says that when I come back from a winter ride I have a full load of laundry and she is probably right. Here is a picture of what I usually wear when I go out for a cold ride. 

 

On the left is my bike shorts and long sleeve thermal shirt to provide an extra layer of warmth and wick the sweat away from my skin. On the right I have my wool socks, tights (I have tights with different thicknesses for different temperatures), A heavy long sleeve shirt and then a windbreaker coat. The jacket I wear is a gore tex wind stopper that is really good at blocking the wind and offers some protection from rain. It also has a couple of big pockets in the back to hold extra gloves and other things I might need for a cold ride. 

And because I'm follically challenged I have a thermal skull cap as well as a neck gator to keep my head and neck area warm. Then there is the hand and feet.

I have numerous types of gloves that can keep my hands warms at temperatures down to 20 degrees and for the feet I have a set of booties to rap around my shoes to keep my feet warm. 

Using all this gear I can ride comfortably down to about 35 degrees on the road and 25 degrees on the trails. Even with all this gear there will be parts of you that will be a little cold (like your face) and parts of you that will be sweating (like your torso). I'm usually a little cold when I start a ride but warm up quickly once I get a few miles in. Winter rides are shorter and I don't stop if it's below 40 as I don't want to get chilled. 

The only thing that keeps me from riding in the winter is snow. It is just too dangerous to ride on the road with snow and ice on it. I will do trail riding if there is a couple of inches of snow as my mountain bike can easily plow through that but anything over 3 inches is just too hard to ride through. 

This past weekend we got 6 inches of snow so riding was not an option for a couple of days. My wife and I actually took a ride down to the beach on Tuesday. She wanted to buy her beach badges for the summer and I wanted to see the beach with snow on it. It was 25 degrees so we didn't spend much time by the beach. It was weird to see snow where the sand should be and it was good to know that they clear the boardwalk when it snows. 

I did take my mountain bike out on the roads on Wednesday for a short ride. The roads were mostly clear and at 40 degrees I expect any snow on the roads will be gone in another day. Thursday is going to be even warmer so I plan to go out again. Winter riding is not my favorite type of riding but if you gear up properly and get out on the warmer days you can still get some miles in. 

 

I'm DONE with Work

At 2:26 pm on Thursday December 4th 2025 I left IBM in Armonk NY for home. I called my wife and told her I was DONE with work. I didn't mean I was done for work for this day, this week or this year. I meant I was DONE with work FOREVER!!

I had been thinking about retirement for a while so when my manager told me that they eliminated my position I wasn't really that upset or surprised. I had told my manager that if he had to lay someone off he could pick me. I didn't really expect it to be this soon as IBM normally lays people off in March so was expecting to work a few more months. This year they had a special layoff in December so lucky me. 

Financially I'm fine as I have been planning for this for years. The annoying part now is working through all my options for medical insurance and other benefits and trying to get the most out of the package that IBM gave me as they don't provide a lot of guidance. It's going to take a lot of research and a bunch of phone calls to figure it all out but I got plenty of time now. 

I'm not going to miss the daily grind of going to work. (Although I mostly worked remote). I did enjoy what I did. I had a good team and we had fun together. It still hasn't hit me that I won't be going to work anymore. It will probably take a few weeks or months to adjust. 

It is strange to look back at my career. I did a lot of cool things from creating guidance systems for nuclear missiles to launching satellites to helping create the framework of the internet. It amazes me how much technology has changed in the 40+ years I have been working. Now we are just beginning the age of AI and it is going to make big changes to the technological as well as the sociological landscape. 

This last job at IBM was one of the longest and most satisfying jobs of my career. I was the lead software architect which meant that I took the crazy requirements from the project managers and executives and tried to work with my development team to turn them into reality. This is not easy as the requirements are never clear and you will never have the time or resources to properly research, design and implement the software. I could go on and on about all the problems with software development but that is for another time. 

The scary and fun part of my job is that I was the guy at the top of the hill that people came to for answers. There were some peers I could rely on if I needed some help with a particular topic but most people expected me to have the answers or at least know how to get and answers. AND for the most part my 40+ years of experience gave me the answers. And if I didn't have an answer I just made something up that sounded good and people believed me. 

For the last 6 months my manager had asked me to start working with some of the more experienced developers and architects to teach them how I do things as he wanted to spread my knowledge to them. This gave me a chance to try and define my style and way of doing things. I actually gave a "TED Talk" like presentation to the team a week ago and which was a good summary about my way of doing things. 

My team likes me because of how calm I am in tense situation and the empathy and support I give them. I remember the awkward person I was socially when I left college so I'm glad I was able to evolve to a point where I can meaningfully interact and support the people I work with and care about. I was very touched by some of the messages they left me when I told them I would be leaving. It's good to know I made an positive impact to the people I worked with. 

And I think that has been my biggest strength is that I know how to build and create good teams. I use some psychology from Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Kahneman, Dale Carnegie and a few others. I also throw in some "Yes And..." techniques from improvisation comics as well as some techniques I learn from reading textbooks for the blind and dyslexic. And of course a dash of sarcasm.   

Concentrating on making the team work better together instead of my own career goals has made me a better architect and leader in general. When you have a supportive team you can do good work and enjoy what you do. In the last few years I have had to work with a lot of younger developers. I know that some people complain about the younger generation being lazy and self centered but I have found the people I work with to smart, energetic and more forgiving and inclusive than I was at that age. They may be a little more risk adverse and anxious but I think they will do great things and hopefully fix some of the messes I left around. I actually hope to keep in touch with some of them and try to continue to support them as much as I can. 

My bike friends who read this and call me the "lying bastard" may ask who is this caring supportive person. But they know that when I bring them across closed bridges, dirt roads and ridiculous hills that I'm not trying to kill them I'm just trying to build character. (Okay maybe a little of it is taking out my frustrations at work on them but let's be honest they are the insane people that keep submitting themselves to this pain)

Not having a job doesn't mean I will just be sitting in front of the TV waiting to die. I could get another job if I really wanted to but I don't need to. I have a lot of things that I have wanted to do. More biking of course but I also want to work on improving my photography. There will also be more volunteer work now that I have some free time. I still want to maintain my technical knowledge so hope that I can use my knowledge and experience to help people and organizations with technical problems.

It's going to strange to not go to work this Monday or ever again. I'm sure there will be an adjustment phase but I'm looking forward to freedom and possibilities of retirement. 

And eating the chocolate I got as part of my going away present.