There weren't many people at the beach today, though it is a beautiful day by most standards. It is Christmas Eve after all, and most people are busy getting ready to spend some time with their families.
Blizzards, freezing rain and frigid temperatures just seem so unfair.
I did a circle of Sunrise Park first, and went back to the house for a sweatshirt before continuing on to the Hava Java Grill, just down the street from Jimmy's Grill. (The sign for Jimmy's Grill is visible in the photo if you look closely.)
It is a breakfast/lunch place, and my mission was to pick up their menu. While I was there I bought a cup of coffee, double cream, to drink sitting outside at the white table in the photo. It was a little cool, but pleasant to be sitting outside today. And I think that I have checked off the last of the mileage goals I had considered possible or reasonable for this year. Not a record year -- 3rd best of 8, I believe. One and two were the first two TRAM years, as you might expect. But a pretty good year, none the less.
By the time we got back to the house, the sun had set, and the sky was already too dark for decent photos.
I believe that today is the shortest day of the year. From here on out the hours of daylight expand. So why is it that the coldest weather of the year is still ahead of us?
It was 58 degrees when I left, 63 when I returned. I wore the same gear as on my last ride, and this time I was a little bit too cold. It was 10 degrees cooler, and there was a wind from the north which always seems to feel colder. Mostly I'd have to say it was sunny and nice, though it always takes me a while to get used to the fact that there is no shelter from the wind here -- no big trees, no sand dunes. So I should just deal with it and don't whine. It's December 20th, and I took a bike ride. No one should complain under those circumstances.
I rode out towards the Myakka River this time, and was gone for an hour and a half. It will take a while to work back up to the two hour bike rides that I considered standard before it got so dang cold at home. It felt good to get outside on my bike, and even though I am still getting used to the obscenely heavy bicycle that I ride here, it is all starting to feel familiar. And I didn't get lost. Always a bonus here.
It was just a shake-down ride to the beach and around the various neighborhoods. The pool was full of seniors doing water aerobics, a few people were walking the beach and there was some fishing boat type traffic at the boat launch. A typical morning at the beach.
And catch the reflection of the pinks in the western sky and on the calm surface of Spring Lake.
The tires are pumped on the Fuji, and if they hold their air until tomorrow, I hope to get in a few December miles.
Along the Pine Creek Trail. Really more brown and white than black and white.
Only the flag flying on the other side of the bay has any color to it at all. This winter lighting is very odd. Not to mention very dark. Why do the geese stay?
Edit #2. That is snow on the beach. The wind at the top of the bluff was strong, cold and bitter, like bad coffee. Added November 5th.
Edit: Photo above was added on December 4th, the first real snow of this season.
Sunrise? 7:02 am. Sunset? 5:34 pm. Length of visible light? 11 hours and 22 minutes. Where? Not here. But I will be broadcasting from that location at some point.