Introduction written on March 24, 2003
I'm dreaming of biking. I'm dreaming of touring...
It's been a long winter - cold and wet. Boston tends to have relatively mild winters, but this one just wasn't normal. The National Weather Service just posted their statistics for the 2002-2003 winter - through the end of February. For Boston, the average temperatures were 4 degrees (Fahrenheit) colder than normal. The snowfall total for the season was 60.5 inches, which is 27.9 inches more than normal (I know, I know, 60 inches is nothing for those of you who live in real snow country, but it's a lot here. And since Boston proper gets less snow than the surrounding area... Enough!) Of course the big contrast was to last winter (2001-2002), when Boston had a total of 13.4 inches of snow for the entire season. No wonder I'm ready for spring! I usually bike year-round (even though my winter riding is normally pretty light), but this year I have a two+ month gap. I rode outside on New Year's Day, then didn't take a bike out on the road again until March 8th. My bicycles were screaming for some exercise. (What, you don't think bicycles talk? Mine do!) I spent quite a bit of time riding a bike on a trainer in my dining room - going no where fast! I'm ready for a change, and I hope that the weather cooperates.
I'm working at a start-up company, so long trips are our of the question right now. A couple of short trips will have to do this year - so I've been dreaming about where I should go. Having more places to go than available time to travel is a good problem to have...
I'm sure that friends and acquaintances think I make my decisions about where to go next very quickly, but the truth is that I tend to mull things over for quite a while, researching different options, and going back and forth between my dreams. Once I finally get to the decision point, it looks like I made a snap decision. That's usually not the case though.
There are two places that I kept coming back to as I dreamed of my next vacation - Ireland, and Hawaii. I've never been to Ireland before, and I've been to Hawaii a number of times, so for a long time I was leaning towards Ireland as my next destination. But last week I realized that I was longing for sunshine and warmth, and I'm afraid that Ireland just doesn't reliably supply either.
So the non-snap decision - Hawaii now (in May), and Ireland later (the first two weeks of September)!
I'm dreaming of biking...
Friday, January 23, 2009
Table of Contents
For now, please use Blogger's list of posts in the sidebar to follow my trip in reverse sequence. I plan to flip this blog on its head so that the posts flow from oldest to newest (like the table of contents in a book), adding a real Table of Contents and a Page by Page sidebar entry, and adding (better) next and previous links at the bottom of each post.
I probably won't be able to make these changes for the next several weeks.
...Denise, January 23, 2009
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