Feb 10: 58 degrees

58 degrees was a record for February 10 in Detroit. During the summer we do a Tuesday night ride around downtown. We start whenever the temperature gets above 50. By then the days are long enough to ride. Well, when it was Tuesday and it was above 50, I rode my bike downtown. I didn't do the official route. I rode from work to (and around) Elmwood Cemetary, to (and around) Belle Isle, to Earthworks Garden, and back to work. I rode at noon instead of after work. Since I rode in the middle of a school day, there wasn't much traffic and there was lots of sunlight. As I mentioned before, unlike my neighborhood, all the ice on the roads was gone downtown and most of the snow was melted on the grass. Elmwood was beautiful and riding around Belle Isle was great. There were puddles and there were still Canadian geese and swans. It convinced me that spring was a possibility and I think I know what it will look like. I know winter will be back soon and it will be bad, but I sure appreciated the break.

The next two days were also in the 50s. All 15 inches of ice covered snow melted in my yard. All the ice in my driveway melted. Even my compost heap thawed out. Of course, the rain helped. It makes me wonder why I'm going away to Florida this weekend. That will mean that I won't be processing applications again until next Wednesday, Feb 17. I got some today that I will do tonight, but that will only get us up to 153. I mailed my application on Jan 26 and I'm not in the 153. Unless you mailed your application before Jan 26 there is no way we could have processed it yet. Don't worry.

So far Ellie has mailed back 170 applications with regrets. We really hate doing this, Ellie especially. All of the staff are volunteers who have done this ride for years and really love it. (Ellie's done it 25 years.) To turn someone away from something you yourself love and that you know they would love too is very upsetting. If you mailed in your application after Jan 26, you don't want to hear from us until, say, next Thursday.