38 degrees and wet

It was another cold wet day. The wind from yesterday had let up a little bit. My bike was trashed from my last ride in the foul weather. Sand was in everything. My chain looked like some kind of industerial cutting tool. The gears and derailers did not look much better. I had to do a quick clean. It took an hour! Then it was a 1/2 way job to. It was 11 AM and I had no ambition to go out in the day. The day that was now starting to blow again. I checked the weather and the forcast was for 30 to 40 MPH winds with gust up to 50 MPH for the rest of the day. Crap, I was going to get hammered. It took all I had to get on the bike. The temperature felt like 20 something it was so damp in the air. Now it was blowing a storm to. Crap! It took me till Noon to get up the stuff to go out in the day. I planned to ride a short 35 mile course to. Normal is 40 to 45 . So I pulled it together and got on the bike and headed out. The temperature had got to 40 degrees. It still felt like the sub Artic, only with wetness in the air. I had on all my cold weather gear. 2 jerseys, arm warmers, thermal tights, a heavy wool vest "custom made by me" 2 head covers, 2 pair of gloves, clear riding glasses, helmet, wool socks, and neoprene booties over the shoes, my riding jacket over it all. I was a marshmellow man! Off I went on the short course. Feeling a little guilty I was not riding the extra 5 miles. I got over that fast.
The ride it self was hard. Just grind you down hard. The hills seemed steeper. The roads seemed dirtier. The wind was blowing tough. It never seemed to be at my back. It pushed me and pulled me, did it's best to make a thrill ride out of the desents. It did to. Doing 40 MPH with wind at your side is an all together frightning event. One of the really fast desents was just so out of control I slowed the bike down. There was a fast 110 degree bad turn with sand coming at the bottom of a 40 MPH desent. I slowed it down a bit for that one. Then after the turn I was in the wind on the nose. Just relentless. Man did it make me feel old. 10 MPH and that was all I could do in that wind. The ride as I have said was hard from the first mile. The wind was blowing much harder on the last half of the ride. The gust were just horrable. So those few less mile today were more than given back by the wind conditions. It would have taken 50 miles of nice weather to equal this ride. I took the last turn to home and I was whipped. It was all I could do to wash off the bike, now coated with sand. It was all I could do to stand up. I re-oiled the chain so no rust would form. All I wanted to do was drink hot sweet coffee with lots of 1/2 and 1/2. Then have some chicken soup. Go take a hot shower for about an hour. Come out and eat everything I could find in the kitchen. Then get ready for the next adventure the Island weather has to offer. A little less wind would be nice. Maybe just a little warmer.