Today marks my new personal latest day in the year riding the motorcycle. Previous best was set just last week, and the best before that was a few years ago on December 4.

The weather is cold, with temperatures ranging from highs in the thirties to daytime lows in the twenties. Overnight it dips into the teens. Since the skies are clear, there's little chance of precipitation, 'though a storm is working its way east. There's still a little risk, especially in the morning, of frost, but by the time I leave home the roads are mostly clear.

The ride to and from were mostly incident free. I'd dallied a little in the morning, so the hazy sky was bright with the rising sun. The sun set a couple hours before I left the office, however, so it was dark on the ride home. The roads were still clear, but the dark made some of the dimmer parts appear more perilous than they really were as the headlights spread across the shinier parts of the pavement.

There were more than a few surprised drivers as I blended in and around traffic. I think the worst about early or late riding is the (probably accurate) assumption by drivers that there aren't any more motorcycles on the road; when they don't expect them, they don't look for them. In the morning, one fella noticed me as he drifted into my lane, but before I needed to react he wobbily jerked his wheel and pulled his car into his own lane. On the way home another dunderhead drifted into my lane, despite my front wheel aligned roughly next to his door, but he didn't stop.

As always, I peer at cars I'm slowly passing, which is usually due to the other lane going a little slower than the rest of traffic. I clearly saw the fella glance at his rearview and then start pulling over without glancing at his side or out the window. He wasn't wasting any time in his merging, either. He got a couple bleats from the horn, but didn't really stop drifting. He got continued horn as I drifted a little more left and throttled ahead. There was, as always room in front of me as I tend to not tailgate. There was a little more room behind me, but there was also a lot more of his car behind than ahead. Not until I was fully in front of his window, probably caused by the long horn bleet or my tail lights flashing past, did he react. He reacted by pausing his merge briefly, but continued once I was clear. I gave him a friendly wave and shook my head.

The rides were otherwise uneventful, if just a little brisk.

On the way home I passed my "fill 'er up" ticker; when the odometer flips 00 I put more gas in as I have no fuel gauge. I stopped and put probably the last tank of gas in for the year, added some fuel stabilizer, turned my fuel valve to "off," and continued home. I turned the choke open and let the bike idle a while to try to drain the carbs. I'm not sure if the conditions will be right for another cruise tomorrow. If so, I'll turn the valve back on and give it another whirl.