minus 8

that's the temperature outside as i set out for work this morning. it was day one of my commute to work by bike and i was thrilled to finally be able to pedal my way to work again. there have been some major developments on the bike front though.

my bike guy BUILT me a bike. he had an old hybrid style frame and he added some parts that he had laying around, including a bunch of parts from my last 2 bicycles, and he put together a forest green beauty that rides clean and smooth. forest green is my colour and i couldn't contain my excitement when i realized it was going to happen. i had taken my old garage sale bike in for tuneup and i inquired what it would take to do something like this if i managed to find the cash i needed for it. Colin didn't bother to tune up my bike, he just built me a new one. as i stood there in his garage and he explained to me what he had done i very literally said, "y'know i've resisted the urge to hug you several times". he appreciated the love but i don't think he was that interested in the hug.

last year one of my biggest complaints about my commute was how i would always freeze my fingers in the morning. my big heavy winter gloves were too sweaty to wear and wearing nothing on my hands would mean that i'd spend half the time with one hand in a pocket trying to warm it until it was the other hand's turn. on one of our trips into MEC (that would be Mountain Equipment Co-op) i decided to get some riding gloves so that i could address this constant problem that i face in wonderful Winterpeg Manitscoldout. my new riding gloves sat and waited for me to break them out of the package this morning for our inaugural ride. i had also broken out one of my longed sleeved riding shirts, a T shirt, a sweatshirt, my riding jacket, long johns, my workout pants and a thin touque under my helmet. I STILL FROZE MY FRICKING FINGERS! seriously, i wandered around work for 10 minutes trying to warm my hands up. i was thinking that maybe i'd have to cry as the circulation returned to my hands.

and it was only minus 8 outside. i can do minus 8 in my sleep, in fact i have done minus 8 in my sleep. it wasn't comfortable but i had a decent sleeping bag so i made out just fine.

well, i'm at work now. i have a hot cup of joe and i'm about to start my workday.
i had a great ride to work other than the frozen problem.

by the way, Andrew if you're reading this i don't think i can sell you the mountain bike after all, it seems that Wendy wants to convert it into a winter bike for herself. how crazy is that? she'd be so much more careful than i would be in winter so i'm much less worried about anything dismal happening than i would be if i were winter biking.