Making it through the winter

Just before the snow melted off the paths

This winter has been a challenge for me in terms of living car lite.  I haven't been able to ride the kids to school as often as I want.  Last winter it was just my daughter that I took and her school at the time was on the way home from work for my wife so it was easy for her to grab the bus if it was snowy.  I was free to either bring my daughter in the trailer or not depending on my whim.  True, I was stuck with the trailer for the rest of the day but that's a small price to pay really.

I've kind of struggled with how to reduce my car use ever since the cold and snow came.  I was convinced this fall that selling our second vehicle and buying a Bakfeits was not only the smartest thing to do but the only sensible solution to family bike travel.  Now I'm not so sure.  Would I be riding the kids to school more if we had one?  No.  Would we ride more in the summer?  Probably.  Kind of a hard sell for $3k in bike.  Is this all about bikes or is it about riding?  Hard for me to tease those two apart sometimes.  Is it so bad to use the car to get the kids to school and ride from there?  Not really.  Is it possible to live without a car?  Of course.  Will we ever do it?  Probably not anytime soon.

We lived one summer car free.  It wasn't intentional.  My wife had gone back to school in preparation for a graduate program and we sold our "good" car because it wasn't paid for.  The other one was.  Unfortunately the other one dies a week or so after the sale.  I bought a used bike trailer on the cheap and we used it to lug our laundry and groceries back and forth.  We borrowed a car to go camping for a week and that was that.  When fall came and graduate school started we found a cheap corolla and things worked out fine.  I don't know that we would have done things that way if we had had kids at the time.  It was summer which made it easier.  So, driving the kids to school isn't such a bad thing I guess.  In my heart of hearts I'd love to figure out a way to make living car free work but as a collaborative unit (i.e. a family of 4) my vote is only 25% of the equation. When it's -15 I'm grateful for the car to take the kids to school.  When the winds gust 75mph, ditto.  When it's 70 and sunny on a spring day with the trees a budding and the tulips shining in dewy brilliance I'm happy we live on the bike when we can. Winter is a big part of our climate here but the truly un-bike-commutable days are few compared to the whole

In the end I'm grateful for every minute I get on the bike.  On the bike life's dramas play themselves out.  There is struggle and elation. Moments where the tears in your eyes aren't just from the wind.  Times when the moment stretches into eternity and you hold on to that feeling and bring it out and dust it off for motivation  when times off the bike get hard.  Flashes of brilliance occur within the steady beat of the pedals.  Flashes that pass on once the bike is parked but you know they happened and that sustains me.

Hesitation

Whew.  It's been a bit since the last bit of writing.  Been busy on vacation and then getting back to life after vacation.  We spent the better part of the first month of the year in Australia.  First time I've been there.  Wonderful country.  Hope to go back some day.  So many places to visit!  Anyway, that's not what this post is about.

This morning dawned snowing and cold (5 degrees cold).  Beautiful day really.   Thick snow coming down in torrents.  Cold squeaky snow under foot.  Had to clear 3 inches off the bike rack to get the bike on the car.  Great day for a ride.  In a younger life I wouldn't have thought twice about leaving the bike at home on a day like this because I'd have been going skiing.  It's what I should have done.  Dropped the kids at school.  Gone to the local area and skied until I was numb with cold and my legs were jelly.  Damn, now why didn't I think about that this morning?  Instead I was pondering (hesitating) the bike. 

Normally I wouldn't have given it a second thought.  Heck yea, I'm riding.  There is a certain challenge in slogging through 3 or 4 inches of powder on the roads.  If you can stay out of where the cars have driven it's a breeze.  If the cars have packed it out nicely it's nice.  Once the plows and their magnesium chloride get to it all bets are off.  Salty sludge isn't the best riding material!  But I digress.....I was hesitating because I was feeling a bit punky and thinking the family cold was coming my way.  I was looking at the thermometer and the snow and thinking it would be nice for my wife if I parked the car at my office instead of at school.  Both weak excuses to not get on the bike.  In the end I rode.  It was great.  It was hard.  It was sketchy.  My helmet gave it up when I mashed it over my hat.  Guess that plastic has seen too many sub-freezing mornings.  I'm glad I rode.  It's hard when I hesitate.  It's pretty easy to come up with reasons not to ride.  Today was no exception.  To make things more complicated I would have been riding to a friend's house after work for dinner and meeting everybody there.  Instead I'll be driving.  My wife's bus never came.  In fact three of them never came.  She was left in the lurch with 5 minutes to pick the kids up from school.  I bolted out the door and rode there as quickly as one can in slushy/snow packed/wheel rutted roads.  Wasn't too bad and in the end it was pretty fun riding up there.  I dropped the kids at the house (yes, my wife made it home finally) and drove to the office to clean things up and then it'll be time to go pick everyone up for dinner.  A fine day indeed.  Tomorrow will be even better.  24 and sunny is the guess.  Should make for some nice riding!