X-mas Tree untrimming and Winter Bike Rides

Yesterday was helping take down the parents X-mas tree. This is a several hour project as the tree is about 10 feet tall and is loaded with ornaments, chains and lights. We start with taking down the ornaments, and trying to find boxes that will fit them. Its sort of like a really lame puzzle combined with a hide and seek game with the ornaments. The chains come down, thankfully I just remove them from the tree and done have to wrap them. Then the lights come off. The ornament boxes go into the attic and I am exhausted. But not done. Then we lift the tree (10', remember) let it down gently onto bedsheets (so it does not shed needles everywhere only mostwhere) and try and wrap it in the sheets so that it will fit down the stairs. This part involves lots of cursing and me trying to hold a host of branches so that the sheet (or rope) can go around the tree. Finally the whole thing goes out in trash. Dad swears every year after helping take out the tree that this is the last time he is going to have a large tree in the house. I think he's said that every year for the past 1o years.

I thought of the untrimming as being a depressing activity. But all things considered, it wasn't. It was just work and exercise.

Today I took a nice winter bike ride. I have a winter bike shirt and jacket that I was curious to test out. It wasn't too cold (40 degrees) so I went for a ride down Spring Garden Street and down on Delaware Avenue. The wind wasn't bad and it was a good ride. Unfortunately, I didn't think about the socks and merely wore a pair of bike socks my brother gave me for X-mas. These are not winter biking socks and so my feet were a little numb when I got back. I had to heat up my toes with my hands and throw on a pair of thick socks to get the feeling back. No biggie.