Bicycle Reflecting Sidewall Tires; Part 2

Yesterday I put my new reflecting rim on the rear of my bike. The reflecting white sidewall tire is still there, but it's hard to see in the glare of the rim.

Raccoon Visitors

Part of the reason I like snow is that it maintains a record of what happened in the night. A family of raccoons stopped by to see if we left any cat food out.

Igloo Rebuilt

Some bad boys smashed my igloo in the night, so I was unable to get any daylight photos of it. Luckily, a team of hard workers volunteered to help me rebuild it. The only requirement was that the new design would have enough room inside for two children to sit in there. You may have to look close to see Bruno because his grey whiskers are the only part of him that shows.

The second photo proves that Evan can crawl through the tiny doorway. He told me, "I'm only eight and I'm as tall as an eleven-year-old."

Notice also that Lillie is leaning on the igloo, showing the strength of the structure. She is heavier than she looks, weighing in at nearly 18,000 grams.

The final photo shows both Evan and Lillie inside the igloo, taken by pointing the camera through a tiny window in the back of the igloo. The window was a design requirement provided by Lillie. (Every playhouse needs a window. It doesn't matter that windows are not typically found in igloos.)

Igloo 2008

I just can't pass up an opportunity to build something in the snow. Here's my contribution for this year: a miniature igloo. It's sized appropriately for fairies and elves, or maybe a cat or dog. Monya wanted me to cover up the opening so a drunk/homeless person doesn't take up residence, but I insisted that the doorway is too small for a drunk/homeless person. Lief and James might be able to identify one of my construction implements by noticing the shape and size of the opening.

Blizzard of 2008

Last night I ventured out into the blizzard to experience the weather, and to get some pictures of the Christmas lights in the park. I dressed in the same way I did when I went out in the blizzard in Midland, South Dakota in 1969. I wore three pair of pants, a sweatshirt, a sweater, two coats, and two layers of hats. It was overkill. I ended up over-heating, because the wind/temperature combination was similar to last week when Lief and I rode our bicycles to work, wearing only one sweatshirt under my rain/wind shell. The temperature then was -7.7C with average wind speed of 15 mph. Last night the temperature was only -7.4 and the wind was blowing at about 20 mph. In contrast, the Midland blizzard temperature was -20F and the wind was 30mph or more. I lasted only five minutes before I had to retreat into Grandpa Noble's house.

This photo of the lights was taken at 1/3 second. I was braced for the photo, but the wind moved me around. The yellow lights on the ground were actually buried in the snowdrift. Blowing snow is not visible at this shutter speed.

This morning there were snow drifts all over the yard. We started with about two inches of snow, but the drifts piled it up to six inches or more in some places, and cleaned it off to bare ground in other places.

At about 2:00AM we got a light sprinkling of freezing rain that put a hard glaze on the surface. So the normally soft, fluffy snow is crunchy on the surface.

Bicycle Reflecting Sidewall Tires

Here's what my bike looks like in the dark. It has reflecting sidewall tires, along with reflector tape on my luggage container, and one reflector in the front spokes. Within a week I hope to have my new reflecting rim on the rear, and can use this photo for comparison.

In addition to this, I have reflector tape on my boots, pants, jacket and gloves. I run two LED headlights; one with a powerful steady beam and the other pulsing, and I have two bright LED tail lights pulsing at different rates. These were turned off for this photo but wouldn't show in this direction anyway. I also have two flashing LED lights in my front spokes that are activated by motion.

All of this lighting is intended to make me more visible to motor vehicle traffic. I suspect the reason a cyclist was killed in Skyway last week was partly because he was not running enough lights in the early morning darkness.