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 With all the white stuff, dreary and gloomy November has been replaced by pretty bright white (and I really do need to invest in blackout shades for the bedroom, in town is bright at night).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.
I want I want I want...
I want studded snow tires for my bike. They make Schwalbe marathon tires with studes (they, of course, being Schwalbe). Nokia makes a whole range of studded tires. And I have none of them. All I have is a fear of riding to work on icy-snowy-slushy days like today. Walking along Park Street getting sprayed by salt slush? Not quite the same start to the day as a bike ride.
I want new panniers for my bicycle. Waterproof ones, without a gazillion extra compartments. I know, I *have* panniers, but the one I use to ride to work is warping already, and they have way too much space and weight devoted to extra zippers and zipper pulls and pockets and stuff.
I want a new bike rack for my commuter. The one I have, it bugs. I want someone to install my rear fender, too, but I suspect I can do that myself without too much cursing if I just get down to it.
I want gloves that keep my hands warm in the winter and still let me shift gears.
I want a new tent. All of my tents are tired. Actually, I want two new tents, or perhaps three. I want one that is suitable for winter camping, with a snow shedding profile and zip up everything options. I want one that is super light, so that I can hike with it. And I want a regular kayaking tent, one that is not so light as to sacrifice durability, not so winterized as to be too hot. And while I'm at it, maybe I want a sleeping hammock too. It might come in handy.
I want about 20 pairs of Smartwool socks.
I want winter cycling shoes. Or, more realistically, just a pair of flat pedals. Probably, that is the most affordable item on my list so far!
But I want new winter boots! My heel has worn through the liner on the ones I have...
I want another kayak. A pink romany would be good. Or any colour romany, really.
I want there to be enough snow that I can start skiing.
And just so it doesn't get too outdoorsy oriented, I want a pink bamboo fiber throw blanket, to go with the lime green one I already have thanks to my sister. Those two colours would look good together. Anything looks good with pink.
What? Just doing my part to keep the economy going. Well, in theory, since I have no concrete plans to *get* any of these things.
And what I really want is to have interesting, outdoors-oriented plans. I am going stir crazy.
Sigh. Halfway through November.
Thing about being in a new town is, I don't know very many people and I don't have my set patterns. Thus I accept pretty much any invitation that comes my way. This is how you end up joining a curling club when you've never really curled before. I mean, how hard can it be - you hurl some rocks down the ice, you holler "sweep" every now and then, you drink some beer and feel Canadian.
Except, of course, I am very very bad at the curling thing. It doesn't help that I was recruited to my team as a result of someone dropping out (yes, they were desperate) and thus I had no opportunity to take any clinics. It really was a matter of being tossed out on the ice, and instead of naturally gliding like all those other ladies do, I fell on my butt a few times to start the whole thing off. There is this slider thingy that goes over my shoe when I throw my rock, and it's easy to forget about and it's, as you would imagine, very slidey.
Lest you think I am kidding about how bad I am, well, let me tell you that last week, the opposing team stopped the game and offered to give us some basic coaching. The one who worked with me really was a curling coach, so that was pretty cool. Of course, after the game, we were chatting with our generous coaches and the skip from the previous week came up to the group and made a really big deal out of extensively thanking these ladies for teaching us something, since we so sorely needed it and wasn't it incredibly generous to take the time to help us out. Because, like she said, we're really really bad. Worse than that, etc. (Hi? Me, I'm right here! I can hear you! This is how you encourage people in this club?) Last night, at the post-game beer, the opposing team's skip told me I should invest in Curling for Dummies. I think those anecdotes pretty much illustrate just how very much I suck at the curling thing, and the post-game beer is not making up for it. The ladies are nice, but I'm ... well ... I'm just not that happy about being so glaringly bad at a sport. I'm not *good* at any sports, but I can often manage to fly under the radar enough that I'm at least not discussed in terms of, can you believe someone who sucks this much comes out... (most of the ladies are really nice, but still, it bugs me. )
Fortunately, not everything is going this badly. I'm running better than I have in a long time, for instance. On November 1, I decided that I would accumulate 100 miles before the holiday parties started and my focus shifts to eating baked goods. I'm at 22.5 so far. Me, I do well with goals like that. Just like having a bike trip to get ready for in the spring made it kind of easy to crank out those 1000 early season kilometers, having that artificial finish line in mind helps too.
November is hard. Even when the weather is as good as it was this week, it's a tough month to get through. The days are getting so short that I have to remember to take bike lights with me in the morning, because there is a good chance that it's dark when I return. My weekend friendships from the summer disappear once there is no kayaking to do. My life gets kind of quiet and lonely every November, and that's not been made easier living in a town where I have so few friends.
It will get better. When the snow flies. Until then, I have 77.5 miles to pound out.