fri commute and fixed ideas

Temps in the low 30's for my 10 minute commute. The cold air livens up the ride.
Went to the bank on the way home. Cutting through parking lots and neighborhood streets. Riding instead of driving just has a good feeling about it. Commuting by bike is more psychological than physical, imo. Plus it helps combat cabin fever which I've seen in others already (house cabin to car cabin to work cabin or store cabin doesn't cure it).

Late Friday night I ran across the offroad fixed gear site - 63xc.com. It went to maintenance mode after 5 years and 20 issues. Imagine my surprise when after riding a ss for a year now, there is an article on how ss is dead. Come to find out, it's not dead, it's just not cool anymore. And I thought cool went out with the 70's.

Anyway, I am playing around with the idea of trying a fixed gear for commuting and mtb'ing this winter. Pre fixed experience, I'm thinking the freewheel is a more significant development than the deraileur. But before I tried ss'ing, I thought gears were very important. Probably like ss'ing, fixed gear has its positives and negatives. As ss is slower than multigears (at least for me), fixed will be slower than ss. But speed isn't everything. As a rigid ss has made me a better biker in certain ways (picking lines, getting off the saddle), I think fixed will probably do the same. At least my trackstand should improve.