I have broken the 2023-2024 winter...

I spent a lot of time pondering buying a new road bike.  New as in used.  There's a lot of inventory out there.  But sitting in my personal backlog was this inkling that I might want a winter bike as well.  I was fairly safe because a.] every year I go to a tech conference at the U of MN which is almost always subzero [F not C] and I see students who have to bike looking miserable, b.] I had as specific bike in mind, c.] that specific bike was not cheap [by my standards].

And then, end of October, the price dropped enough to cover the taxes and more.  I caved.  I went over to Angry Catfish and picked up a Surly Wednesday Fat Tire. It is a thing of beauty.  It sounds cool.  It rides cool.  It is NOT anything like my other bikes beyond the bikey configuration of two wheels, handlebars, et al.  It feels like a different beast.  I even knew before I got it via a bit of research that the size would fit me almost perfectly.  And when I got it professionally fitted last week [part of the Angry Catfish service for buying a new bicycle] we didn't adjust a single thing.

What I didn't count on was both cars having issues/accidents immediately after my purchase resulting in an expense pretty much equivalent to the cost of the bike.  In retrospect, I should have expected that.  It's been the case with every big purchase/bonus I've ever received.  At least now it doesn't hurt the same way it did when I was in my twenties and the Caddy would go on the fritz right after I spent a windfall. There's got to be a law of economics somewhere that says whatever you spend from a [earned or unearned] windfall you should expect to spend twice as much, so carefully focus on spending no more than half of your found money.  You can name it Nod's Law if you like.

Anyway, my goal was not something to replace my road bike / sport bike in the winter.  I'm not under any illusion I'll go 60 miles on this thing.  Probably not even 15.  But for rides to the liquor store, local brewery, movie theater, burrito, grocery store, and down in the river valley if I drive it down there on a rack...perfect.  Amazingly fun in the snow.  Except we have no snow.  Until yesterday, and barely.  I've taken it for a spin a few times, but yesterday was the first day I got to play in the snow, and even then it was because the plow came through and left little drifts on the sides off the road.  So all over my block you can see icy trails along the edges next to the mailboxes where I shot up and down my street looking for the deepest drifts.

Maybe it'll convince me to go visit my folks on a roadtrip so I can take advantage of sand instead.  That's not quite as susceptible to climate change and, if I find myself riding on glass because of the weather, the bike will be the least of my [our] worries.

My new gear baby [if you can have a fur baby, I can have a gear baby] nestled up for the ride home.

This is the end of October, 2023.  Two days before Halloween.  There are still trees that look like they're in bloom and full on green grass.  If it weren't for the incredibly short days I'd still be out doing long rides end of December.