A Break in the Weather

This past week we've had a bit of a cold snap - day time highs below -20°C. Windchills dipping into the -40°C zone...



I've been sick with a cold most of the week, and so didn't much go out in it... I have in the past, when it's been this cold. but not so much this week.

Then on Saturday it warmed up to the negative teens and windchill above -20°C. (today it is -5°C... later in the week it's going to be above zero!) Teh funny thing about when we have  acold snap and then it warms up to -20°C is suddenly EVERYBODY is out riding their bikes.

I couldn't even get my usual "Rock Star Parking Spot" in front of the Francis Morrison Library when I wandered downtown for my weekly errands



(well... SOME of the weekly errands - the Night Oven Bakery was closed for holidaze).



Seriously, I had to park waaaaaay over at the next post.

When I came out someone else had rode up and couldn't be bothered to park so far away and had left his bike right up against the front window - you know right by the sign that says "Do Not Lean Bikes Against Window"..

That First Blast of Winter

Always catches me by surprise... This year even more so because it came so much earlier than it has in recent years! 

We were hit with an early snowstorm this year which started out as cold rain storm and then turned into wet snow. I don't love this wet and cold weather. I actually think I prefer -20°C to this - at least it's DRY!



It's come so early that leaves haven't even fallen from the trees which has lead to a lot of bendy and broken trees and power outages around the city.



This morning we had to get to City Hospital for The Girl's appointment at the Eye Centre. As a testament to the crappiness of the weather this is the least number of bikes I have EVER seen at the hospital's bike lock up - even when it's -40°C it's usually packed full of bikes.



The Girl at her appointment with some fancy glasses to check her prescription. She was pretty excited about them because she's been reading a fair bit of "steampunk" stories this last year and she decided they looked a lot like some sort of steampunky optical device...



After a stop at Night Oven Bakery we headed home through downtown on the Separated bike lane.



It wasn't the awesomest place to be - a lot of snow has gotten shovelled off the sidewalks into the lane and there was a LOT of water draining into it...



But it was still better than it would have been riding out in the middle of car traffic - sop I'm not going to complain too much!



Our awesome, indefatigable  neighbours were out and about today as well.



Snowy tunnel to get into our back yard!

Things That Warm My Heart (Part 2)

A couple weeks ago while I was downtown with the kids at the library we arrived to find the bike rack full - and just about every immobile object within view with a bike locked to it!!


It was a friday afternoon. I'm presuming it was a class trip - which warmed my heart just a bit more because I certainly don't remember taking any class trips on bikes when I was a kid!!

Things That Warm My Heart

...and help me believe that all is not lost for humanity...

It's fall.

It's 5°C.

It's pissing down rain all day.


...and the bike rack at the local Safeway is full...

(Okay so "full" amounts to five bikes... and there were scores of cars parked in the lot... but still...)

Really...?

So I took the kids to Put 'n Bounce mini golf today.


It was for Isaac's birthday party. I haven't been to Put 'n Bounce since I was a kid... A LOT sure has changed...


There's a big cool castle...


There's fountains and flowing waterfalls...


There was... well... an awful lot of signs everywhere telling people to stay off the grass... Seriously...!? The "greens" and pathways were so small that if you were in a group of... well... more than ONE(!?) and didn't want to stand in anyone's way there was no where to stand BUT on the grass...


Oh and there was a new big metal bar fence that looked invitingly sturdy and lock-up-to-able...

hang on... What's that on the fence...?


Oh... okay... well... where's this "bike rack"...?


Ah... apparently they still have the original bike rack from 25+ years ago....

That little yellow bit in the bottom right of the picture is a parking lot speed bump - so even a regular sized bike would have had it's back end hanging out into the main driveway of the parking lot, let alone a 4m bike train. thinking back I should have parked it there with the bike train hanging out the back completely blocking the driveway... It was someone else's birthday and I didn't want to cause a stink so I locked up half a block away.

If it hadn't been for a birthday I would have just left...

This is one of those chicken-egg things... they probably wouldn't even consider "upgrading" their bicycle parking facilities because... well... no one rides their bike there - never actually considering that the reason for that might be that's because there's nowhere to PARK there.

Putting that sign up on the fence makes me think that people have tried and that might have clued them in that their "bike parking facilities" suck...

Library on Twentieth

We rode the bike train over to the new branch Library on Twentieth to pick up a few books I'd requested....


There sure was a lot of space to park cars....


....an important consideration for a branch library in a less affluent neighborhood in the city's center.

There is no bike rack at all... but fear naught!!


.... we found a place to lock up nevertheless...