crazy here today. 8-10 inches of snow, -5c after a night below zero, and more snow falling. of my 9k ride, i rode for the flat 2.5k on the far side. the rest were either walking, or ride-2-feet-hit-clump-of-solider-slush-skid/wobble-step-off-walk-2-feet-try-again. or ride-10-feet-see-car-get-out-of-the-way-till-they-pass-try-again. or find-a-good-tire-rut-to-follow-ride-12-feet-and-be-led-into-the-kerb. and/or find another slush clump. a stronger rider than me might have managed a little better, but i just couldn't get up enough momentum to carry me consistently on such uneven ground. as for the cars, this was no day for assertiveness. i hadn't a clue what the drivers would try or what their cars could do, and not much more of a clue wrt myself and my bike. the first few k were just six inches deep in grainy slush with the texture of sand. the bridge was 8 inches of snow, made impossible by the potholes of people's feet. the main roads on my side were cleared to the slushy-sand-soup stage, but i had no interest in riding on them since the kerb lanes were full of the cleared snow. on the far side it was more of that slushy-soup stuff and i did ride, but even then i kept hitting divots of hidden solider ice and catching a swerve or a wobble. not worrying in itself, but it was pretty clear from the way drivers followed and passed that they just didn't know that the 'clear' road might hold hazards like that for cyclists. i took a lot of lane today i stopped to let one huge truck i'd been holding up on the 2-lane road get past me, and discovered that he'd been following 3 feet behind.

even so, i got to work with a wraparound grin. it was cold for here - about -5 - but it didn't feel like it to me. the road situation was so clearly extreme that i just didn't see the day as a regular working day. as it turned out, barely half the company made it to work, so i didn't feel at all bad about showering, changing, eating somethign, printing a few documents and turning right around to come home before it got really cold and the windchill picked up.

apparently my ride home was about -12 when you count the windchill, but it was easier. i took a different road, which had been driven over so much that most of it was full solid ice - the kind that shines with the streetlights on it. my schwalbes and i had a blast, and my only regret is that the drivers who were all so careful in the morning had reverted to type by the evening and are all acting too crazily for me to go to work at all tomorrow.

i saw one other cyclist - just playing around in the snow, by the looks of him. tracks of two or three other bikes over the bridge. passed someone waiting at a bus-stop who gave me a huge grin and called out 'you're tougher than me!' as i went by, so i guess another bike commuter. lots of waves and cheers and thumbs-ups from drivers as i went in; nothing at all on my way home. my favourite was the older dude who ran me off the bike path by starting down an ice-hill as i was on my way up, and gave me the lordly 'thanks for making room' wave. and a stern reprimand from a 4-year-old playing in his front yard: 'hey! you're Not Supposed to ride in the snow!'

last i heard, it was a region-wide travel advisory for the evening rush hour due to icy roads, and a windchill of -19 forecast for tomorrow, so i'm staying here. i hope jarery made it home safely.