Finally able to ride again today, I wasn't prepared for ice and snow on Seattle's hills with the drivers here, so I (gasp!) took the bus the past couple of days.
Bundled up pretty good this morning and promptly almost bit it on a patch of thawing snow that had frozen pieces in the middle and was hidden around the far side of one of the round-abouts that plague many of the intersections in the neighborhoods here. Realized I was still moving too fast for conditions and slowed it down. The side streets still had a lot of snow and icy patches and chunks hidden under melting snow.
On the busier streets I had to take a/the lane because in most places because although the streets were bare and wet, the bike lanes were filled with several inches of frozen snow. Crossing highway 99 (Aurora Avenue) as well 85th Street, I have to use the crosswalk button because the lights don't sense me. This was pretty tricky as the handi-ramps from the sidewalk were largely blocked by frozen snow. Nearly biffed it on one of these on the way home.
My commute takes me around Greenlake. Normally I have a pretty nice bike lane here. Today it was actually clear of snow, but completely filled with joggers who didn't want to brave slip-and-fall injuries on their icy trails! Again, I was forced into the road and the cars just had deal, and get around me when they could. Some of the joggers tried to be nice about it, but I'm afraid I felt about them being in the bike lane probably about how most cars probably feel about bikes being in the road. I could understand why they were there, and I was willing to grant it to them, but I didn't like it, and I grumbled to myself in my mind at first, and I didn't smile back, much less wave as some of them did.
All the above I took as a challenge and adventure and was cool with. The 21mph headwind and my ass hurting like a newbie this morning I wasn't so cool with! Wasn't saddlesore on the ride home, so don't know what was up with that. Thinking of chalking it up to not having enough time to sleep in-between 12 hour shifts.
As I left the parking garage it was raining, but I started out by only going two blocks to an ATM to get some cash. By the time I came out from the overhang at the cash machine it was only raining very lightly. By the time I made it to Dick's Burgers on Broadway maybe a mile away it wasn't raining at all, and that held for the rest of the commute home.
Not the healthiest meal, but I had been hungry for the last couple of hours of my shift in the ER, and if I waited until I rode 7-ish miles home and then fixed something I knew I was going to be grumpy. Dick's is not only very fast, but they have a stand-up counter to eat at, so I can put my kickstand down in a parking space right there and have a quick meal before I can get cold without going to the trouble of locking up and pulling my saddlebag and lights off. Seattle only has a few places where you can get a bite to eat late at night anyway...