Dec. 23

Today it was 11 F (-12 C) and winds 15 mph from the southeast.  My bike ride goes northwest and then southwest (around the lake) so I had a tailwind at first.  Good thing because there was about 2" of snow on the path and it slowed me down.  Fortunately, my bike ride is about 4.5 miles on the bike path and only about 1 mile on roads.  I find it treacherous to ride on the roads in the snow.  You have to ride further into the middle of the street, and even though 9/10 cars are polite, the 1/10 obnoxious ones are scary.  The bike paths are peaceful without the cars.  And the city does a great job of keeping them clear.  The picture shows the view from the start of the bike path.  I leave at about 6:50 am and the sun doesn't rise until 7:30, so it's a bit dark.  Unfortunately it will be this way for at least a month even though the solstice just passed.  The sunset changes more quickly now while sunrise barely moves for a month.  By Jan. 31, it will only have moved to 7:15 am!  On Feb. 11, we'll finally get to 7 am.   Anyway, it was a beautiful ride home after my exercise class.  By then, the bike paths were plowed so the riding was fine even in a head wind.