Hey y’all,
With winter here in full force, my bicycle commuting life continues on. Well the winter hasn’t come quite in full force. Besides the couple of really cold days in early December, the rest of the month was fairly mild and it was one of the warmest Christmas’ I’ve experienced (+2 C). As I write this we are sliding back into the frigid cold that gives Winnipeggers the chance to hurl out the winter adage “Why do I live where the air hurts my face?”
I sometimes tell people that biking on these face-hurting days (-30 and below) sometimes feels like “you are out on a spacewalk.” Not only because you are venturing out into this cold harsh environment that isn’t really conducive to any lifeforms being exposed to it for too long, but also because the way I suit up before my bike ride feels like an astronaut. If I forget to tighten my cycling jacket’s cuff I can start to feel the cold slowly creep in up my arm. If I don’t adjust my cycling goggles just right, I’ll be able to feel the -30 wind rushing to the small exposed bit of skin, ruining my ride.
If I may be so bold and cliché, I feel like starting a new year is sort of like that. Instead of going for a walk out into the vastness of space, there is this vast emptiness of future time, with everyday slowly revealing the shape of our lives. We venture out bouyed by the rope of everything that came before us, our friends, our family, our community, our sense of self, our sense of place. Here is to 2025 and I wish you love, peace and ultimately courage to all of you as you venture out into this upcoming year.
.
.
.
December was pensive, grounding, but also unmoored. Looking back it was full of:
Nachos for supper, new studded bike tires, birthday party art, creating personal art posters, wedding social, Costco run, chats about the future, having new friends over for supper, creating Christmas trivia, breakfast at the Nook with dad, family faspa, getting distracted by Neighbourhood project, COVID, sleeping through Wicked, running work errands, solstice walk to Portage Meats, sauna and ice bath, family winter walks, watching elf, raclette, multiple Christmas gatherings, the Holdovers, Winnipeg history walks.
Enjoy the photos,
Michael, not Mike
Some nice warm looking portraits really in opposite to what you’ve been encountering weather wise there. Takes a lot of courage to cycle and conduct your day in temps that low. Fair play.
Happy new year 🥳