Biking in a winter wonderland....

Hello all! It’s been a while since my last post. It is not because our life was too boring to share, au contraire: life, once again has shown us a full pitcher’s repertoire of slow balls, fast balls, curveballs, sliders and even dead balls right smack in the face.

Sometimes it was hard to find the 3 moments of happiness a day, often it was hard to find 3 in a week. But once again today I had an epiphany and it came from a very unexpected place. I thought it was a good way to pick up with blogging.


This week has been a cold one. Yesterday the highest temperature was -4 C. Walking down the street your face would hurt because of the cold. For this Friday, they were expecting snow. About 2-3 inches of it. So this morning as I woke up before the crack of dawn, I peeked outside the window to find not a speck of snow. With Joris being away for a few days I had the option to walk, bike, drive or take the bus to work. I opted for biking, as it was the fastest and cheapest option. That in itself is a fact worth mentioning, as I finally feel confident enough on a bike to consider it a viable option for transportation.


At 11:30 I had my lunch break. While eating I saw the first tiny snowflakes dropping outside. An hour later I walked to the window to see how it was going and was shocked to see at least 3 inches of perfect powdery snow lying there. My first thought was: crap, how am I getting home? On the news we heard that there already was 800 km of traffic jams forming.

When I was done working, I walked outside in my extremely pink extreme weather outfit to find my bike covered in snow and my saddlebags filled (lesson learned: make sure bags are closed when expecting snow). The view was wonderful, but the cars driving by were skidding and sliding along quite scarily. My bike couldn’t stay there and I had to get home anyway, so I stepped on my bike anyway and started going home.

It was not easy, and the snow was thick. Heavy pedals, slippery spots, hidden sidewalks under the snow, but I plowed through! This elderly lady waiting to cross the road said as I was going by: “crazy for even trying to bike in that snow!” People were dropping down all around me.


And then it hit me. I fell down so many times trying to learn how to bike, that this for me was more of the same. In fact, I was so experienced in trying NOT to fall down, that this was quite exhilarating and fun, because it was so white and beautiful. For the first time on my bike I enjoyed myself.


And that is the key to my story. This is what I have to remember from the last few months. Just as with biking, you just have to pick yourself up and step back on it and try again. The more often you fall, the better you get at picking yourself up. And after a while, you will suddenly realize you are enjoying yourself. When you do, start the countdown to 3 for that day.