Saturday, November 12, 2011

First Snow

We had our first snow last Sunday. It wasn't all that cold - hovering around 0°C - which meant teh wet snow was quickly packed down into ice by cars on teh road and feet on the pathways. It was a bit of a scramble to the the Schwalbe Ice Spikers back on the Yuba.

Amanda got a few pictures of us as we loaded up and rolled off to Irish dance class...


It's not so much the snow and cold and ice that I dislike about winter, it's all the extra junk to deal with when we get to a destination. Where in the summer when we get somewhere we have to carry three helmets and a couple pairs of cycling gloves and sunglasses - we now have to deal with three helmets, three helmet liners, three pairs of mittens and sunglasses, two parkas, two pairs of snow pants, two fleece jackets, my jackets, three pairs of winter boots, scarves and other sundry items... ugh...


And while the snow and ice does slow me down a bit... the time spent gearing up for every trip outside adds far more to the travel time.


Ah well... it's fun once we get going...

4 comments:

  1. Here in The Portland the rains have started to make their inroads. So now it's a matter of "staying dry". Wool is great for light rain, but when it gets on the heavy side and/or I plan to be outside for a bit, I want something extra. I managed to score TWO new rain-preventative items this week: for the old school, a Carradice waxed cotton rain cape, and for the new school, a Showers Pass jacket. The Carradice I got from a friend for "trade", the jacket I picked up at a warehouse sale for only $10 (but the zipper will need to be repaired.)

    How long you think you're going to stick it out this year? I know in the past you stopped during the "dead" of winter.

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  2. Last year? I think I rode with the kids all winter last year - which was also the first year I really rode with both kids. I had rode for a year with Finnegan in the chariot trailer, but once there was two it was just too much to pull in a trailer through the snow drifts and, moreover, they were so small I had to deal with ALL of their junk (mitts, jackets, snow pants, helmets, etc...) carting it about when we got to where we were going and dressing and undressing them... so for two years when the snow flew I pushed them around in a chariot-stroller-cart-type-thing. Not that there was much less stuff in the cart... but at least there were no helmets to carry!?

    Amanda's the one that packed it in and rode the bus for a couple weeks through the worst of it.

    Mind you our activities wrap up early -mid december and don't start up again until the first or second week of January, so we had three full weeks of not really having to go anywhere... except the grocery store...

    At least it's a DRY cold here!

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  3. Hey Tim, while I got you on the phone, you should check this out since it's up your alley:
    http://fullhandsx3.blogspot.com/2011/10/introducing-cargo-bike-love-t-shirts.html

    ReplyDelete