It may still be November, but my garden gnome is disappearing under the snow even though he sits on a ledge. With all the white stuff, dreary and gloomy November has been replaced by pretty bright white (and I really do need to invest in blackout shades for the bedroom, in town is bright at night).
The onset of winter is bringing a few new challenges to my routine. I need to change to nubbys on my bike, at the very least (though I want studded tires), and put on the rear fender. The other day when I decided to up the rear tire pressure (this was before snow!), I realized that I have a presta valve back there and my pump adapter did not want to communicate with that one. One would think that even a dummy like me could change a tube, but, see, I remember there was a bunch of cussing and a lot of "hold this" when Kevin put that tube in in the first place and I now have it in my head that I can't get that tire back onto that rim on my own. Instead of reasonably trying like a normal person, I of course decided to postpone fussing with it until I had to. Well, apparently, that is now - because yesterday, the rear tire was completely flat. Hmmmm. Now the bike, the nubby tires, a new schraeder tube, the rear fender that I still haven't put on, and the bike tools are .JPG)
hanging out in the basement where it's nice and warm so that if I'm going to be banging around in frustration, at least I will not be doing so with frozen hands.
But lookit this! You too would be reluctant to futz with a bike when this was your other option for what to do on a weekend! That was taken at Highlands Nordic (aka Duntroon) on the weekend - one of only two nordic centres that was open. Duntroon has enough snow to open all the trails, though their trail maintenance hasn't caught up to the snowfall yet. This suited us just fine, since the orange plus a few extra little loops was about all we wanted to do on the first outing of the year (I'm sore anyway). I like Duntroon because it's usually free of both the people who have never been on skis before but also the ones who are *so serious*. The people who ski there, by and large, are very good, much better than Lorenz and I are, but also very laid back. I don't know what it is about that place, but it's my hands-down favourite of the private clubs I've been. And the one with the most snow right now!
And the conditions were great. Even more great, I did not fall at all, probably a first for the first outing of the year... And lucky for me, Lorenz had a camera in the car.JPG)
(which I then insisted he take on the trails, because I hadn't brought one) so there are pictures. Including this one of me poling at the end of a hill. It looks pretty silly, but then, one could argue that it is more representative of my usual expressions than most pictures. I like the way my hair is flying and how you can see just how much snow there is.
As for other things... well, I went to Thunder Bay to visit Marlene and Sebbie, and as seemingly always happens after I play with babies, I came down with some crappy virus shortly thereafter. I know this could be coincidental, but it means I lost a whole day to sweating in my bed, and a whole week of proper exercise. Consequently, my total distance run since November 1 is only at 57 miles. Getting to 100 before eggnog and the like is going to be a bit tougher than I realized (the first holiday party that I plan to attend is December 13 or so...)
I'm having some trouble with thumbnailing pictures, that part of the CMS seems to have disappeared and I am too lazy to do it manually so if you want to see more pictures and/or larger versions of these, you need to go here.
Posted by Johanna at November 25, 2008 07:12 AM