The Cutoff for Shorts

original, undoctored photo is at icebike.com

When temps start to drop and I begin bracing myself for winter riding, I always start wearing my long cycling pants a little too early. I end up overheating for a few days and return to cycling shorts soon thereafter. I have found that in terms of covering up in the Fall, my legs are the last thing that need it. I need gloves (or socks) for my fingers, a jacket and something around my neck long before I need pants.

A couple of days ago while I rode in to work, I determined that the temperature was about as cold as I like to go without long pants. In an effort to stop being subjective about the weather and provide a benchmark for Fall pants wearing, I went straight to the Weather on my computer upon my arrival at the office. My personal cutoff for shorts is 4 deg C or 39 deg F. Anything colder and I'll wear pants. When next Fall rolls around, I'll be able to refer to this page for a reminder about when I should make the switch, and so avoid those overheating days.

What's your cut off? Do you just stroll outside and feel the weather, or do you have a Temperature scale like I do now?

R A N T W I C K

The King of Autumn

It is October 30 as I write this. I think I'll probably post it on Monday November 2. On October 28, I stopped the bike and took some video of a tree that I have come to think of as "The King of Autumn". It is not an impressively large tree, but big enough, I guess. Situated near the middle of a small, out of the way park near Wellington Road, this thing had achieved an orange "glow" that I have never seen before and that kind of blew me away. I'm not a full-time nature junkie or tree hugger, but once in a while I'll see something that kind of feeds the spirit, if you will. This tree was one of those things. Despite a thick carpet of leaves beneath it, it still looked nice and full, right up to the top. When I got home, I plugged the camera into the computer and couldn't remember anything notable happening on the ride, so I just deleted all the files. I do this all the time. No big deal.


On October 29, I rode on streets only due to time demands. I still hadn't realized that I had deleted my King of Autumn video.


This morning as I cleared the camera's files once more, I remembered the King of Autumn, and resolved to ride by and take some pictures instead, because they would be more impressive than video. When I got to the tree, it didn't look anywhere near as good. The King had lost his Crown, and was thin-to-bare on all but the lowest branches. With so many leaves fallen, the glow was gone. I was really disappointed, thinking to myself, "damn, I really wanted to post on this. Ah well, maybe next year." I rode away kind of bummed out, without having taken any pictures. I thought about how quickly some beautiful things can pass: Blink, and you might miss 'em.


I stayed bummed out until I resolved to write this post describing what had happened, and to take pictures of the less impressive King anyway, which I did on the way home. I have heard that the colours achieved by trees in the fall can vary from year to year depending on what kind of summer it has been. If the King fails to achieve the same wondrous hue next year, I would have missed my one chance to share it with anybody, and that would suck worse than showing the tree in something less than its full glory. So here it is:

Try to imagine those low branch colours all over the whole tree, although it's a "you had to be there" thing, I'm afraid.

The King is Shed! Long Live the King!

R A N T W I C K

PS - I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on the King of Autumn next Fall in the hopes of catching it at its very best.

PPS - This post ended up spawning a big fat foliage contest. Click here for the 2010 FARATS posts!