Some people have class.

I'm currently taking grad school courses on Saturdays. One is online half the time, so I usually do that class from home in the morning and then drive in to school after lunch. Last week, though, was one of our few face-to-face classes for my morning class, and it was a beautiful day, so I decided to try biking to school for the first time.

But here's the thing: to get to my school, I have to cross a river, and there are only 2 bridges I can take unless I want to ride like 12 miles out of the way, which is not happening. One bridge is in a bad part of town (although during the day it's usually fine), and the other leads to a busy rotary/roundabout that doesn't feel safe.

I decided to take the rotary, since I know my way around in that part of town better, only to be confronted with this:

I know it's a little hard to see, but that sign is showing "no pedestrians, no bikes, no horses" basically. Oops. I took that way anyway and made it to school fine, but I knew I couldn't go back that way, so I rode home through the bad part of town known as "the flats". And of course I got lost. Thank goodness for brothers, though - I called my brother and he looked up a the route I needed to take to get home. I didn't encounter any trouble in the flats.

Funnily enough, it was when I was almost home that a guy yelled out his car window at me "It's called a sidewalk, a**hole!" On a road that has a designated bike lane. Sigh. Some people just don't have class.

Snow Day

What with the Snowpocalypse going on all over the US I took some time to read last week. Living with my sister and her fiance is sort of like having my own mini library. They both read a lot and their taste in books, while similar to mine, is different enough that they own things I wouldn't normally buy. Thanks to that I'm currently reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. Liking it so far. Anyway, here are just a few of the bookshelves in our house:

But even with the snow I did get some activity in. We shoveled. A lot.
And then Joni and I decided to go for a snowshoe about town. It was my first time snowshoeing and it's not easy - I thought I would be more prevented from sinking into the snow than I was - but it was certainly a good workout! And a good was to get around without a car in weather my bike can't handle.
As you can see the snow was quite deep. And we just keep getting hit! It snowed a lot again this Tuesday and Friday, and I heard we're getting more this coming week. I want it to melt so I can bike again.
Now, I certainly am capable of biking now, the streets are cleaned up and not that wet, but because of the sheer volume of snow we've gotten, the snowbanks are sticking out into the road more than usual, which forces me to bike more in the road since the shoulder has all but disappeared, and I feel less safe in traffic now.
But we had a great time nonetheless and I will try to enjoy the snow while it lasts instead of lamenting it.