What a difference a week can make. Last week I was huddled around a block of ice trying to keep warm. This week the temperature is in the 70’s during the day and in the 60’s at night. I did not ride last evening since it was Valentine’s Day but tonight I was out on the trails and streets on my Motobecane 700HT MTB. I have not rode this bike since February 5th. It was great not riding the windtrainer. Even with the moderate temperature I still wore two long sleeve jerseys, leg warmers and a windbreaker jacket. I probably could have made it with half finger gloves but I played safe and went with the full finger ones. Partly cloudy skies and a calm wind were appreciated. when I left home the temperature was 64.9 and at the finish it was 61.6.

Yesterday my Oregon Scientific weather station decided to stop working. It uses solar powered wireless sensors. I have had it for an unknown number of years. I diagnosed the problem to be the NiMh batteries in the solar units. I thought this would be an easy and cheap fix since thy resembled  cordless phone batteries. A trip to Radio Shack was no help. Looking online I found several sources but they were in the UK. A couple of US sources showed a price of $30 per battery. With two sensors down the batteries would cost 60% of a new weather station. I ordered a new and improved Oregon Scientific WMR80A. This one does not use special batteries.

Ride progress as of today:

• February miles 123.58
• YTD miles 341.57

2-15-2011 Ride Summary and Map

Additional charts, weather and Garmin Connect data.

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