Warm weather, holiday without a date

Another day of weather-related firsts: First ride of the year without a jacket and wearing knee warmers! It was windy today, but otherwise a great day for a lunch ride. I know I still have a few more roller rides ahead of me, but I'm getting the sense that my days of indoor rides are numbered, and that's a beautiful thing. I'm hoping that tomorrow and the rest of the week will bring more of the same type of dress.

On a somewhat down note, I broke my rear SRAM Force shifter yesterday on The Derby, leaving it without any detents. Needless to say, this is quite a pain in the ass, and left me with only a couple gears to use on today's lunch ride.

Fortunately, the shifter is still under warranty, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get a replacement soon, but, in the mean time, I've brought an old friend out from the storage rack to ride.

Although my old Scott Addict is tired after tens of thousands of miles, it's always been a great bike and I'm thoroughly looking forward to getting it out for a few miles this week. However, I'm not looking forward to cleaning the bike once the ChampSys rig is back in working order, as I'd never be able to store a dirty bike -- much less a dirty, white bike. For anyone who ever asked why I kept around the hardly-used bike -- this is why.

In other news, today is Valentine's Day. In celebration, now that I've confirmed my status, yet again, as a bachelor, I did nothing -- save enjoy a "man date" with a friend at a local watering hole. Two beers later, I'm still single. So it goes.

Enjoy this collection of love-related posts from other writers.