Has Spring come early? It sure feels like it, and I’ll take it as long as it will last.
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We are 38° today and have the windows open LOL … to us, that feels like Spring. 
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My office window is open.
Mrs. Steve_O and I are planning on picking up lunch and heading to the park.
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If this weekend is above 40° I am not going to be in the house.
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That’s pretty funny.
I won’t lie, our lunch in the park was a little chilly when the wind blew.
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49° here today. Spring Fever
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It’s 53°F outside right now, I just got my first Moderna vaccine jab this morning, and it’s time for a bicycle ride. Clients can wait for a couple of hours while I celebrate both the weather and being on my way to COVID immunity. 
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I’m thankful for work, but I want to be outside so bad right now it hurts.
I just got back from that hour-long bike ride I just mentioned. As badly out of shape as I’ve become over the winter, being covered with sweat sure does feel good (and healthy).
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I was able to ride outside on Saturday. It was not a terribly long ride at 27.5 miles, but I did climb a little over 2,000’ in that distance. If it were not for work, yesterday would have been a great day to ride outside.
I saw a guy on a motorcycle yesterday (different guy from a couple weeks ago.)
On the highway, at sundown, hunched behind his windshield. Musta gone somewhere and lost track of time cuz he was wearing only leathers, not wearing a heated suit. It was 37°F without the windchill. He looked cold.
Sorta begged the question, do you go fast to get home and warm up sooner, or do you slow down for less wind chill.
I ride my motorcycle through the winter. The bike has a heated seat, heated hand grips and great wind deflection. Add that to my heated jacket liner beneath my leather jacket and it’s plenty warm down to around 20°F.
The cold isn’t so much the limiting issue as it is ice on the road.
Brings me back to my motorbiking days, I don’t do it anymore, my wife’s sister, her boyfriend died in an Isle of Man TT crash years ago - I gave up the bike after that. Can’t see myself getting back in one these days. I would have loved to cross Europe, from Portugal to Spain, France, as far as I could go. I originally planned to do it with my brother, but we’re no longer on speaking terms, he disassociated himself from the family, and kinda glad he did, black sheep and all that.
Well anyway - the thing is - it’s not that cold when you’re on the bike, I barely felt windchill, but then again didn’t really get cold cold here either, -1 or -2 (what’s that about 30?) at most in the depths of winter, but I never really brought the bike out during ice or snow.
I enjoyed the bike - was amazing experience, but don’t really have the roads for it here in Ireland to get serious use out of a serious bike.
My ex-wife (from 30 years ago) got in a bad motorcycle crash about 18 months ago with her husband. She was riding on the back, and for some reason her husband drifted over the center line and hit an oncoming car.
The combined speed was something like 110 mph. The only thing that saved her was being thrown over the top of the car and landing on the road on the other side. They were both helicoptered into a hospital in critical condition, with multiple compound fractures and internal injuries. Several surgeries later, last I heard, she was still in a convalescent home learning to walk again.
I actually haven’t spoken to her in those 30 years (messy divorce), so all that information is from mutual friends and the local TV news report I found. I’ve been tempted to contact her several times to see how she’s doing, but decided against it. Well, now I’m getting off into personal stuff.
Anyway, I’ve been riding motorcycles since around the age of 14. I used to ride motocross in my early 20s, which was all kinds of fun. Aside from the expected crashes doing that, I’ve never had a serious accident on a street-legal motorcycle, I’ve been rear-ended at stop lights a couple of times, but never injured.
My cycling (bicycle) has landed me in the hospital emergency room a couple of times — mostly just stitches and abrasions. The worst bicycle injury was a rotator cuff tear several years ago when I went over the handlebars and landed on my shoulder at about 30–35 mph. It was looking like I’d need surgery to repair the ligament injuries, but with six months of physical, I finally healed up to about 90-95 percent mobility in that shoulder.
I have plans to move away from Ireland when I retire. Sell up and buy a coastal home in Spain or somewhere. Maybe in a small village near a beach etc. would make more sense to have a motorbike again. Less traffic and congestion, warm breezes.
I actually got into motorcycles when I was 16 and I rented a motorbike from a chain on the street, I was nervous going in, I wasn’t 18, or didn’t look 18, and I had my friends passport, where I didn’t really look like him - but he gave me a bike anyway, I was walking out of the shop with the rented motorbike when it dawned on me -what about the helmet?
I asked, he was shocked I’d asked for a helmet, and I got one anyway. But I got on my bike and cruised up and down the coast of Crete for the day. I loved every minute of it. I never once felt in danger, but you never do at that age.
Sounds perfect and much sunnier than Ireland.
I’ve never been to Ireland, but I imagine wandering all the backroads on a mid-sized motorcycle would be lots of fun.
Depemds where you go. The wild Atlantic way along the Kerry coast is beautiful. The entire West of Ireland, from Kerry, Clare, Shannon, Galway all the way to Donegal is beautiful. I am on the east coast. It’s nice and as you go south toward bday, wexford, Wicklow, Cork. Amazing scenery.
We do well with American tourists in Dublin, well just about anywhere in Ireland.
There’s beautiful lakes in the Midlands, Langford Roscommon etc.
It’s only 4 hours from east to west and about 6 or 7 from north to south.
No matter where you go, there is centuries of history, ruins, sights, endless towns, pubs restaurants.
April 20, and it’s snowing here. Granted, it’s not heavy and it’s melting as soon as it hits the ground, but it’s still snowing. We’ve actually had a pretty cool spring overall — our furnace still kicks in over the evenings, and we have not turned the AC on.
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