It’s the end of another summer. Do you know what the first sign of that was for me? I went out for my morning bike ride as usual and I was cold. It wasn’t freezing or anything but I was in my usual shorts and T-Shirt for my ride and it was only about 60ºF out there. That’s not shorts weather when you are on a bicycle. There is always wind chill on a bike so things get chilly and fast. After that day I knew that I couldn’t take the weather for granted any more. I’d have to check the thermometer and dress appropriately before heading out. That and I would also have to buy a new pair of sweat pants to go cycing in.
I don’t have any fancy cycling pants to wear when I ride. I’ve never wanted to blow eighty bucks on pants just for cycling. I’d rather buy art supplies. I sure could use the tight cuffs like on a pair of cycling pants though. I’ve always ridden in sweat pants when it’s cold out. The problem with them is that the right cuff can get chewed up. There is no chain guard on my bike so that the loose fabric at the ankle of my sweat pants can get caught up in the chain. It was no big deal for years but somehow my new bike (from 2008) chewed my pant legs worse than my old bike.
I think it was last year that I noticed a rip in my sweat pants. It was just a small one near my ankle. Of course this made the pants stick out a little more so they got caught a little more. The rip got bigger and bigger as time and bike rides passed by. The weird thing was that the sweat pants also started absorbing grease. After a month or two the bottom part of the sweat pants was beginning to resemble a greasy rag. My solution was to cut the pants off mid-calf. No more fabric down there to get caught. I just rode with one pant leg shorter than the other. This was last Spring so I could get away with that as it was getting warmer each week. Now it’ll be getting colder so something had to be done.
Out with the old and in with the new. I bought a new pair of cheap sweat pants. I think the last pair was twenty years old. It’s amazing how some things just hang around in your life almost unthought about for years and years. Some small thing, like sweat pants, that get used every now and then but you don’t really care about. Pick them up and they’re there then put them down and they’ll never cross your mind until they’re needed again. The sweats had even reached the stage where the elastic waistband was no longer elastic. Only the drawstring held them up. That’s when you know your sweats are old.
The new ones that I bought are okay but its the first time I’ve bought ones without the elastic at the bottom of the ankle. I didn’t even know that they sold them that way since I never paid attention to new sweat pants but I figured I’d give that style a try. I’m not sure how I feel about them yet but I got them that way because I wanted to try something new with how I wore them.
In order to keep my pant cuff out of the chain I’m going to tie it down. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tie it down when I ordered the new sweats but I wound up using a sock. I cut the bottom off of an old sock and am using the elastic top part to tuck the pant leg into. I put on the sweats and then pull up the sock top over them on the bottom part of my calf. It was a little tight at first since there is a lot of material to tuck but it loosened up and I got used to it. It’s kinda goofy looking but so is the rest of my cycling outfit. I don’t have the matching cyclist’s gear that so many others wear. The sock I used is green and the sweats are black so that even adds a little bit more to the goofiness. It’s a good thing that I like goofy.
The other sign for me that summer is coming to an end is the start of football season. It’s the one sport that I follow so it’s an event when it starts up again for the year. It always makes Sundays a little more interesting and exciting for me. I’m a Giants’ fan and it’s a little annoying that they have played two of their first three games at night. Sure it’s good that they won the Super Bowl last year and have a good team but that also means more primetime night games. I hate night games. They end too late and I lose sleep when I watch them. It’s even more annoying because their first game was on a Wednesday night and their third game was on a Thursday night. That’s no time to be watching football.
I like my games on Sunday. When the Giants played on Wednesday night it seemed like forever ago once Sunday rolled around. I was all ready for a Giants game that Sunday but it never happened. They had already played for the week. Thursday night game used to start around Thanksgiving but this year they are playing them all year long. I know the NFL likes them because that means they make more money for them but I have a hard time caring about football on Thursday night. Football is an event sport and Thursday night football makes it less of an event. It’s annoying for us fantasy football players too because it forces us to make decision way too early in the week. But such are the signs of Autumn. Here we go with the falling leaves.
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