It's getting cold

It's that time of the year again - I have swapped over from my summer fingerless gloves to my winter ones that keep my little pinkies nice and warm.

The real reason for the change is that after I got back from a trip, I couldn't find both my fingerless gloves. I left them on the BBQ to dry out, and I figure a cat must have liked the smell of them and taken off with one. I normally wash them once a week in summer, which is about six days longer between washes than they should really get. After a week, they are manky enough to pull every horny tomcat in the suburb.

But it's probably about time to change over anyway. I am not the usual sweaty mess when I arrive at home or work, so it must be cooling off. In a few weeks, it will be time to pull on the leggings and drag out the thermal undershirt. I haven't seen any of my fellow cyclists in leggings yet, which must be a sign. Plus, it is after 11pm, and I am still pretty hot - almost sweating. Clearly, the thermometer has someway to go before cold weather clothing is required.

One thing that is bugging me though is the sun, pictured above at around 5pm. I normally ride with the brown lenses in my sunglasses, but when it starts to get a bit dark, I have to stop and switch to the halflight orange lenses, and then the clear ones for night riding. Why not just take the glasses off altogether? Well, because they have corrective lenses in them, and I have a bad habit of riding into swarms of insects or flobs of falling tree nuts when I am not wearing glasses, and copping a big dragonfly in the face at 30km is no picnic. Getting it in the eyeball would be like being poked severely with a big winged insect.

So I find that I have to split the office at the moment by 4.30pm at the latest if I am to make it home without having to change lenses. That time is going to drag back further as the days shorten and twilight descends faster. I will have to find both of my blasted clear lenses - I have lost one of them, and don't fancy riding home with one clear lens in and one orange one. Might be a bit of an odd look.

One thing that hasn't changed though is that I still need to wash my riding clothes after each day. Even in the depths of winter when one is shivering with the cold, the blasted lycra still needs a scrub to get the stench out. Some couriers look like they never wash their kit - they look dirty and manky and just plain yuk. Never put your logo on a courier - it would be like sticking it on a dog turd.