March 2010 – Page 4

Ready for spring: Prologue

March 15, 2010

I was actually getting a little fed up with winter in February. We’ve had a bit more snow than usual and I hate riding my bike in the snow. On the road, that is. I remember going out one March on my mountain bike, specifically to do endos and land on my back in cushy snow. That was, admittedly, a long time ago. And there was enough snow to act as a cushion.

The morning of the ride depicted above, I dawdled a bit before going out, waiting for the sun to burn off the frost in the bike lanes. It looked like the coast was clear. When we came outside, a few delicate snowflakes wafted by, sparkling in the sun. Cute, I thought. I welcomed them as little sparkly eyeball treats in my life and thought no more of it. Then, a few minutes into the ride, the sky started to look heavier. Then it got really pretty dark. Then it started snowing. Then I took a couple of pictures. Then I put my camera away because visibility was dropping and a carpet of snow was forming under our wheels.

I was happy, for the nth time this winter, that G was ensconced in her Cargobike cockpit. It’s been that kind of a winter.

(Disclaimer: It doesn’t really compare with what the family had back home, but we currently live in a climate where it’s generally feasible to opt to commute by bike year-round, with a child on board.)

A silly picture of a frozen beer

March 12, 2010

So, what do you do if you live in England and you’re a student and you can’t spare permanent space in your minuscule fridge for beer, but then you decide you want a beer? I can answer that question from experience. You put it in your even-more-minuscule freezer and forget about it until it explodes.

Depending upon your definition of the word “student,” you may ask: “What else belongs in a student’s fridge other than beer?” I say: any food you don’t want to go mouldy. I had no witty response to offer to your question.

Seriously, you should see the fridges over here. I aspire one day to be in a position to have a fridge that doesn’t fit under the counter, without blocking a window, cutting out part of the stairwell that causes the ceiling to angle down at one end of the room, or halving, simultaneously, my counter space and my cupboard space.

But, you say, back to the point: what kind of self-respecting student can forget about a beer? I say: a worn-out old one like me, or alternatively, and if you’re at all reasonable you have to give me this: one who has other beers to entertain her/him in the meantime.

All right, you may continue, as if there could possibly be a hypothetical “you” that’s read this far, but what about this silly picture of a beer and a clementine on a black-and-white counter with black-and-white apples?

I don’t have a good answer to that, either.

Love on a bike

March 9, 2010March 10, 2010

They were holding hands before

I had a surreal experience the other night on my way home from work. It was below freezing, but I was riding hard enough to feel warm, and wondering whether it’s realistic to believe that I might get hot enough to kill some of the germs that are trying to give me a cold. And whether the winter cycling gloves I got this year are really as much less warm than my old ones as I think they are.

A pair of cyclists ahead were holding me off quite well, which makes them faster than the average in this town. I made sure not to slacken my own pace too much, to test whether they were keeping it up or just having a burst of energy. They kept it up.

Then they reached out and held hands.

I still couldn’t catch up.

Note: I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to actually catch them doing it, and besides that there are obvious problems with the photos.Â You’ll just have to use your imagination.

This could be described as, in a way, the opposite of using a tripod.