The Glaciers are Starting to Receed

After having an unusually cold few weeks the temperatures have returned close to normal which has meant that a lot the snow we got a few weeks ago has melted. It's not entirely gone as there are still big piles of snow around. But the roads are clear and I can see my grass again. 

It has really been hard to get a ride in over the past few weeks. Initially I resorted to just riding around my community until there was enough melting to make the local side roads safe. The main problem was after the last major snow storm they only plowed the roads wide enough to clear the main part of the roads. This meant the shoulders were still covered in a foot or more of snow which made it a little dangerous to ride on the roads. 

Usually it warms up enough after a major storm to melt the snow on the side of the roads but i was in the teens and twenties so there wasn't a lot of melting for the first couple of weeks after the storm. 

The past couple of weeks have been better and I have been able to do short rides on local roads. It's still not that much fun riding in cold and windy weather but it is better than riding inside. 

This past Saturday was my first official PFW ride of the year and my first weekend ride of February. The plan was to start from Etra park and do a 30ish mile loop to Millstone. On my way to the park I got a text and a phone call telling me the gate to the park was still locked. There was no sign on the gate so I have to assume that the person who was suppose to open it was sick or something. 

We decided to park at the athletic lot of Peddie school and though phone calls to me and people passing the word on we all managed to end up together in the Peddie school lot at the appointed ride time. I had a full ride of 10 people plus someone else who said he registered but I didn't see him on the PFW ride list. I knew him so let him join us. 

We spread out a little and had a few minor mechanical problems at the beginning of the ride but no major problems. The roads were a little wet but clear of snow and gravel. We did our usual stop at Wawa before heading back. The group got spread out a little more so I hung at the back to make sure everyone got back to the right place. 

I was happy to see all our cars still there as I wasn't 100% sure we were allowed to park at Peddie but it is good to know that it is there as a backup if needed. 

This has been a cold and snowy winter so it was good to get out with the posse again. Of course it looks like we are going to have another big snow storm but at least we are only a few weeks from spring so hopefully this winter weather will be over soon.  

Cold and Snowy

I had hoped that one of the advantages of being retired is that I could get more rides in during the winter. That hasn't worked out so far. Last year, when I was working, I remember a number of times during the week where the weather was warm enough to ride but I couldn't because I was working. This year has been one of the coldest winters in at least 10 years. It didn't get much over 20 degrees in the past week and has been in the single digits most mornings. We also got 10+ inches of snow last Sunday and there is no chance of that melting anytime soon. It may get above freezing next week for a little while but I think it might be a while before we can get any real riding in. 

Tomorrow is Feb 2nd and I sure that useless over pampered rodent Pucxsutawney Phil will probably predict 6 more weeks of winter. Not that I put any weight against his or any other predictions as the farmers almanac said this winter would be milder and drier than normal. The truth is that a coin flip is as good as any prediction model that tries to predict the weather more than a week into the future. 

My theory as we why we have this cold and snowy weather is that we pissed off Greenland and because of that they turned on their weather control machine and created the Greenland Block (check out the link). Hopefully they will have mercy on us soon as my heating bill is becoming a significant expense. My heater also objected to the cold as it malfunctioned right after the snow storm because of ice and water in the intake. Luckily I was able to fixed it before the house got below 60 degrees. 

Exercise is important to my sanity. I know the posse feels the same way as I got a few emails asking if anybody is using indoor trainers. I actually when to the gym in my clubhouse and spent an hour on an exercise bike. I hate indoor riding but need to do something to stay in some kind of riding shape until it warms up. I have some bathroom remodeling work that will keep me busy but I hope to get some kind of riding in. There are a few places like Tyler State Park, Pennypack and Sandy Hook where I could ride if it warms up and we get some melting. 

The temperatures have been abnormally cold almost 20 degrees below normal. At some point we will have to revert to the mean. I hope that it is sooner than later so I can get back out on the bike again and forget about this cold winter.  

 

 

 

Filling My Free Time

I still don't feel like I'm retired. I haven't had to go to or worry about work for over a month but I have still been pretty busy. I guess I just had a lot of things I wanted to do and now have time to do them. The last week of December and the first few days of January were pretty cold with most days not even getting above freezing. Because of that I had the posse come out where I live and do a hike instead of a ride over the Christmas break.

Luckily we had a warm up this week and I got out a couple of times. The one good thing about retirement is I can now ride whenever I want so can plan my riding around the weather as oppose to hoping the weather is good on the weekends or my days off.  

Part of what I did over the last few weeks is put together list of things I want to do with my free time. One of the things on the list is to go get a few pictures of the seals at Sandy Hook. As the water has gotten clean over the last couple of decades more wildlife has come back to some places along the shore. For the past 10 years there have been seals at Sandy Hook in the winter. So if you go there near low tide on a sunny day without a lot of wind you have a chance to see them.

They gather on the rocks and sandbars to relax for a few hours. We tried to see them last year but couldn't find them. This time they were easy to see. 

 

They usually gather at the top of Sandy Hook by the church and old barracks. There are some sandbars and rock outcropping that they like lay on that are only about 100 feet from the shore. We parked in a parking lot behind the barracks and walked out to see them. 

 

There were probably 35-40 of them laying on the rocks and swimming around. I had my good camera with the telephoto lens so go a few good close up shots even though I was shooting into the coming sunset. 

 

We watched them for about a half hour as they laid there and moved around and played with each other. After that we headed out to a place on the water for dinner. It was a nice relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I have a lot of other things like this that I want to do so it is nice to now have the free time to do them, 

This is My Year

 

Welcome to 2026!!! 

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and wish you all have a good new year. I know people who take this moment to set some goals for the year or create a vision board to guide them to greatness or some other silly stuff. I have never done any of that as most of these goals people set for themselves at the beginning of the year fall away as soon as life starts back up again. 

I'm not saying I don't have some things I could improve upon or that there aren't some adventures I want to go on but I'm more a continuous improvement person than doing a yearly review. However this year is a little different.

For the first time since college I no longer have a full time job. I'm medically and financially healthy so there are no real limits to what I can do with all my free time. This past month I have started adjusting to not working. I have mostly been busy with making calls to get all my benefits setup and taking care of all those small project that I didn't have time for because I was working. 

It is still going to take some time to adjust to my retirement and get into a new routine. Now that the new year has started and things have stabilized I'm going to look for new things to occupy my time. My wife already volunteers at a farm so I will probably help her more with that. I want to do some teaching or mentoring to help keep my technical skills fresh. I'm also going to look for some ways to give back to the community. I have always done some volunteer work that has helped me keep a good perspective on life so I want do continue and do more of that.  

Of course I will have more time for biking and my other hobbies so I look forward to not having a job that will interfere with any of that. I'm excited by the possibilities so am looking forward to the new year. It should be a good year. I know that it is 2026( or 5786 on the Hebrew calendar or the year of the horse on the Chinese calendar). However I'm unofficially naming it "The year of Tom" as this is my year to do as I please and I plan to enjoy it to the fullest.