"Snowmobile"

We all know that weather predictions are almost never 100% accurate. That's the beauty of nature, after all. Things can change very rapidly, and sometimes we humans need to acknowledge that we're just along for the ride.

Yesterday for example, there was a moderate chance for some light snow in the forecast, nothing that looked like it was going to heavily impact my normal routine. Even so, something seemed a little off when I pulled up to the office in the morning:

These racks and sign posts are usually packed with bikes on weekday mornings. I mean, it was pretty cold and breezy yesterday, which probably accounts for most of the absenteeism. The second factor was likely the impending snow, which 8 hours later, had become a lot thicker and heavier than I thought from looking out my window:

Needless to say, the commute home was interesting. I thought about waiting another 45 minutes until I could put my bike on the train, but instead chose to venture. The snow was powdery and only about an inch thick at that point. It really wasn't that bad of a ride, but it did require a lot of patience and technique. I'd say it took me close to 30 minutes to get home, well over my average commute time of 10-15 minutes.

One of my favorite moves in this instance is to get behind a bus - they create sizeable tire tracks which are better for riding, and cars are less likely to get annoyed with how slow you're going because...they can't pass the bus that's directly in front of you. Of course, keep your distance as much as possible in the event of sudden stops.

By this morning, things had thawed considerably. I took a brief jaunt over to a coffee shop to do some mundane adult tasks (paying bills, writing Christmas cards, etc):

We're just over halfway thru December, and I can say with certainty that we have seen much more Winter-like weather already this year than all of last December. Even though I've gone this far without incident, I may need to bust out the studded snow tires before too long...

#bikeyourbirthmonth