no picture today.
damn, y'all are lucky you're getting an entry at all! ;)

Plus, since it's a day ending in "y", of course I'm sick again. As is the story of my life, I have the same bug that's going around our office again, which everyone else seems to get over in like a day. I've had it for a week, and now I've got the tuberculosis cough again. Waaaah! Whine! Whine!

well, while i'm complaining anyway...
It's damn cold out. No, seriously. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Oh, listen to the poor California girl living in Northern California, and riding her motorcycle around in December. Her poor widdle fingees are all chilly in their horrible 50-degree weather! Oh, boo hoo hoo for the Californians and their poor nippy fingers!" Yes, yes, I know. I lived in Wisconsin for 22 years, remember. I know Cold. But, wait, I will explain the difference.

In Wisconsin, and most other places in the country, people have some iota of common sense when it comes to weather. When it's 10 degrees below zero before you even factor in the wind chill, you know not to do anything stupid like, say, leave your house. Sure, Midwesterners complain all winter because they're not riding, but that's because they're intelligent and know when to call it quits.

California riders, on the other hand, we're not so bright. Because we know it won't snow, our only real winter enemy is rain. Therefore, if it's not raining, we have to ride. And since we live in California, we have no real winter gear (ever notice the reactions that people from CA get when they post on mailing lists, etc., asking for advice on electric vests and warm gloves? Yeah, I thought so.). So here we are, riding home in 45-degree weather, wearing maybe an extra sweatshirt. Hrmph.

I'm biting the bullet this year, though. With every passing hour, the electric vest and silk long underwear/glove liners and scarf-that-doesn't-shed-into-my-eyes-and-mouth rise in priority on Ye Olde Xmas Liste. I have full faith that a comfortable winter ride here is possible, even if I have to dress up more warmly than I did for 10-degree days in Wisconsin. I'm just turning into a weak old California weenie.

other little randoms.
I had lunch with my fellow Wind Dancers co-publicity director, Laureen, on Sunday. It was fun; we chatted about bikes and the WOW group, and came up with some good ideas for membership and publicity. I'm glad I signed on to lead those two positions in the chapter; it's keeping me busy and helping me feel like I'm actually doing something useful. :)

Co-worker Justin got a flat on his way into work today, halfway across the Dumbarton Bridge (the southernmost of the five Bay Area bridges). Oops! He somehow managed to make it the rest of the way into work, and is going to take the rear wheel into the local Beemer dealership tomorrow. Considering he commutes all the way from Berkeley (about 40 miles, all on extremely busy freeways with commuting yuppies in their SUVs), he's lucky that he was so close to work when it happened. The tires are in good shape, so he figures he ran over a sharp chunk of metal or something -- I didn't see it, but he says there's a gash about 2" long as opposed to a normal puncture mark.

Paul's got video clips up on his site now! Check them out here, and be sure to look at the rest of the site when you're done. He and his buddies have done a great job of putting together a fun site for us Bay Area riders. :)

Speaking of fun sites, y'all knew there was a site for riders who work at Danger, right? Well, if you didn't, there ya go. There's not much up yet, but someday I'll squeeze some caricatures out of Justin, and pictures/content out of everyone else (cough, Tony, cough). :)

OK, that's it. I'm going to go cough and wheeze and sniffle my way to bed now. :)