Retirements And A Remedy

Barry Vig had his retirement party yesterday afternoon at Celts Pub in Farmington. It was a nice turnout of both people from the workplace and his friends outside of work. I arrived just as Keith and Tracee were getting there. I apologize for the fuzzy photo. I was using the panoramic feature on my phone in marginal light conditions. You can maybe make out Barry toward the back right of the photo wearing a gray sweater and sipping a drink. I totally forgot about getting a photo with him.

It was interesting talking with some friends I used to work with and to hear how they're managing with the continued exodus of controllers opting to retire. Staffing levels are down considerably from a few years ago and at levels not seen since the days of recovering from the PATCO strike of August 1981. They expect staffing levels to bottom-out sometime in the next 18 months. There's a ton of training to do and Minneapolis Center currently has the highest washout rate of any similar facility in the country. That hurts.

Several other controllers also retired this past month: Jon Otto, Todd Amerman, Kim Bowe, and Danny Reinders. Come on in...the water's fine! (Ha! I'm just barely wet myself but I believe I'm qualified to say that.)

I think I may have solved my dilemma of frozen toes that result from riding for 90 minutes in sub-zero temperatures and no, it doesn't involve staying inside. (I can read your minds!)

I went out to Gander Mountain to pick up some toe warmers to go with my Vasque boots. The salesman who was pointing me in the direction of the warmers suggested I consider some heated insoles. Say what? Gander Mountain sells them? I had heard about something similar several years ago for cycling but at around $600 I figured the pain to my wallet would be significantly worse than the pain of frozen toes. He showed me a display of ThermaCELL Heated Insoles that go for around $180 and added that he sells hundreds of them. I took his word for it, found my size and made my way to the checkout.

When I got home I went online to Amazon to see if they had any reviews on what I'd just purchased. They did and unfortunately, they weren't all that good plus the price through Amazon was considerably cheaper. I opted to return them before using them, possibly making a return more difficult. I instead bought the insoles through Amazon where I think I'd stand a better chance of getting a refund after using them should they not live up to the hype. Did I mention they were considerably cheaper through Amazon? (Yes, I'm somewhat conflicted about deciding to use Amazon and stiff a local store but $45 is $45 to this newly minted pensioner.)

Anyway, I was able to try them over the last few days and while they aren't the game-changer I was hoping they'd be, their benefit is noticeable. I was out this morning in temps ranging from -10ºf to -3ºf (-23ºc to -20ºc for my metric friends) for not quite two hours. Between my heated insoles and disposable toe warmers, I had no problems whatsoever with frozen toes. In those temps I'm usually more than ready to pack it in after 90 minutes. I don't think that either the heated insoles or the toe warmers by themselves would've been enough.

Surprisingly, I didn't have the trails to myself this morning. There was one other fat-biker and his dog as well as two runners taking advantage of a beautiful winter day.

I've been riding a lot lately; 15 of the last 17 days. I remember how before I retired I'd often dream of being able to wake up and get out on my bike in the morning with no reason (such as work) to have to hurry home for—to be able to take the day as it unfolds and shape it the way I want to. This is nice.

Where will tomorrow take me?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

David Crowder Concert, NWA188 and Photo Review

Image
I got up from laying down after the all-night shift Thursday morning and figured I'd better get a ride in while I could because the forecast wasn't looking so good. The temp was just above 40 with a northeast wind steady at 15 mph under overcast skies. 40 degrees is very reasonable cycling weather but the key is to be somewhat chilled when you start out. Being warm and toasty at the beginning leads to being sweaty, cold and clammy before the ride is over. While putting air in my tires before leaving I could tell that I needed a lighter top layer. I'm glad I made the switch. I loved the ride  ( Strava link ) and would like to have gone further but David Crowder was playing at our church and I didn't want to be late getting in line for some good seats as it was general admission. I considered a quick detour by Hosanna on the way home to get a pic of their tour bus but I figured I should really act my age. The concert was worth every penny and better than any of the o...
Read more

Riding, Retirement and a Home Revisited

Image
I skipped out of work a couple hours early today to take advantage of some mild weather. I took the pups for a walk then headed west on my bike putting my heart, lungs, and quads through some paces. It felt so nice to be out there. I'd have stayed out longer but I had to be back to take Rachel to dance class for 5:00. It's possible that today will be the last time I'll have to take her to class if she passes her road test this Thursday. I'd like to have taken some time to hose down my bike. It's full of road salt and that can't be a good thing. Every large vehicle that went past me had a cloud of salt dust trailing in its wake and settling on me. I'll spend some time cleaning it tomorrow and have it ready for a ride on Wednesday after work. Speaking of work—I've been kicking around the idea of bidding on a staff job. Believe me, it's not something I want to do. It's about self-preservation. I want to work another five years to get Rachel thr...
Read more

My Bicycle Ride to Babbitt

Image
Wow, what a trip. In planning for this ride, I figured I’d have only two weekends this summer when our schedules could come together to give it a go. The first of those two times came and went two weeks ago when a steady north wind kept me grounded. There’s no way I could have gone the distance into the wind, and what I was really hoping for was a stiff southwesterly breeze, but that wasn’t in the cards either. After looking at the wind forecast on Wednesday, I told Tammy that it looked as though we were looking at another no-go. I’d been watching the forecast the previous 5 days, and they consistently said to expect a light wind from the southeast. It wouldn’t be a headwind but wouldn’t be much help either. I came home from work on Thursday morning and looked at the forecast again, but it hadn’t changed. I got a couple hours of sleep, then woke up to work in the yard. Then, I decided I wouldn’t let the lack of a tailwind keep me from going…just so long as it wasn’t a headwind. I tol...
Read more