Riding to work always seems to be interesting. I’ve only missed riding to work once this week, and I should have ridden then. It didn’t end up snowing much Tuesday, but with all the dire forecasts, I decided to drive.

Today was a nice ride to work, but I was fighting 30 mph wind gusts coming home. Then a train stopped in front of me and I ended up turning around and taking another route.

In the dark, riding against the strong north wind yesterday morning, as I turned onto Oak Street in Crowley, all the street lights went out. Down the block at the corner of Pecan Street, where I turn, I could see power lines arcing. As I got closer, some large sparks fell all the way to the ground in a yard. I stopped for a moment to make sure they weren’t going to start a fire. There was no further arcing, it was dark and cold, so I pedaled on.

Riding home in the afternoon, I noticed those power lines were redirected a bit by several limbs of a pine tree. I called TXU after I got home, and reported the arcing. This morning, I noticed the street lights were still out, and this afternoon, it looked like the limbs hadn’t been trimmed yet.

If it isn’t raining in the morning, I think I’ll ride to work tomorrow, too. The Pogues are riding my Peachy Keene permanent again Sunday. I’m thinking maybe I should join them. My mileage has been awful lately and I haven’t ridden a 200k in a couple of months. It might take me 12 hours to ride it.