Thursday, December 2, 2010

riding in december in the pre-winter blasts

the rides are suddenly sketchier courtesy of the snow and then too the evening temperatures that drop below the freezing mark rendering any free-flowing liquids into thin films of barely visibly ice.

to put it simply: in the murk of an early-morning ride, clarity (especially in terms of the road surface and conditions) is a critical and essential quality i look for in the information entering my eyes!

by the end of today the roads had dried somewhat due to the one degree above zero temperature we hit
as well as some well-placed sunshine.
so i got to ride home.
i was so truly and deeply happy!

at the end of my ride are the fields.


i leaned my bike against a pile of yesterday's snow.

this is what i call my commuter bike.

this bike has seen me through four years - over twelve thousand kilometres of riding - so many beautiful rides, so many rides through the most torrential rain, thick fogs, roaring winds, snow squalls,
sunny days without compare.

i love this bike!!

3 comments:

  1. Last week I tried to go for a bike ride after a looong period of being inactive,and not knowing what is actually going on outside I did not put my glows on,can you imagine my complete shock when I realized that my fingers almost went frozen when I touched the metal,it was -16 and I did not know, :O) The ride was short as you can assume,I went back in and started thinking of homeless people.But Im not givin up specially when I read that you are still biking over there! Take care
    Aleksandra

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  2. aleks you are one crrrrazy girl! it's that cold in holland?! wow! i've felt the pain you describe here a few times and it's a deep searing won't go away for a while kind of pain. i remember getting home one night after my gloves got soaked and i had to knock on the door with my knee because my hands wouldn't uncurl from the shape they'd been in wrapped around the handlebars. i've got better gloves now - my dad bought them for me just minutes before he flew away!! what a good guy! steven

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  3. Ooh...how beautiful story about gloves and your dad,Im glad he did that for you before he went away.I can picture it all,you knocking on the door with your knee and curled up hands of yours, :),i had similar experience ...
    And yes,I know Im crazy girl,these days Im listening carefully about the weather forecast before I go out,it is not that cold anymore ,it was just that day and evening,first around -6 than dropped fast under, thats why I did not expect it :O)
    And when I was burning my lavender candle I left it to close to the little tv I have,there is almost a hole burned on its side,but I found out on time.Sometimes I look and feel like a nutty professor or something like that!
    Bye!

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