Last night there was some pretty serious fog goin' on; heavy, thick, and opaque. Visibility was very limited. Not a big deal; slow down, leave lots of following distance, spend a lot of time wiping off your visor, and you'll be fine.

This morning, however, the dark side of the fog appeared: when I got up, my thermometer showed 29 degrees, and the fog had frozen into a thin layer of ice all over everything. There are parts of the road where it's been worn away by passing tires, but there are still patches of ice all over the place. I intended to take the Volvo to work, but noticed that there were some Very Bad Things happening under the hood before I'd gone a mile, and turned back.

Forced to try the bike, I took it very slow and easy, but still encountered an ice-driven rear wheel skid. I think the layers on the road are mostly ok, but I had to pull off to check something in my tailbag, and as soon as I reached the shoulder I felt the rear wheel lock up under braking and start to skid. I babied it down to a stop with a very light brake, realized that I should maybe just give the roads an hour or so to thaw, and headed back home.

Lessons learned:

1. Ice is not a good thing.
2. I really need to either fix my car or get a new (well, used) one to replace it.
3. At very low speeds, if you release the rear brake during a skid, you don't get flung into a deadly high-side, the way you supposedly do if you lock the rear at speed and then come off the brake. Still, I'd recommend not trying Lesson 3 at home, kids, and I'll try not to do THAT again as well.