no more band-aids
Waiting for breakfast at the Cadence coffee shop/diner in Bowness, while the tech at Bow Cycle put a new tire and tube on my rear wheel. I love this coffee shop – it’s got a great funky/cool/relaxed vibe, and the coffee is really good. I wound up chatting about photography with a guy who was exploring his Nikon D80.
it was a cool, rainy morning ride. actually quite pleasant to ride in. I had my Fujifilm point-and-shoot in the pocket of my rainjacket, and tried to fire a few shots while riding. None really turned out, but I like this one. I had to buy a copy of CardRaider to recover it from the SM card though, because I’m an idiot and accidentally nuked my Transfer project in Aperture after importing and erasing the photos from the camera. Oops. Yay, CardRaider!
Students and staff walking from the C-Train station in the rain.
I passed the 1500km mark on my bike this morning, and stopped to take the photo right beside this sign.
A pair of acrobats perform at the 2008 Al Azhar Shrine Circus, spinning above the ring without a net.
Yet another freak spring snowstorm hit Calgary last night. We were forecast to get 10-20cm, but thankfully nowhere near that much accumulated. It’s May 9. I’m ready for spring to come for real.
a man walks his dog in the rain along the Bow River, in the Bowmont Natural Area.
You can tell it’s springtime in Calgary when you wake up to this:
And then after you get to work, you check Dashboard Weather and find this:
Up to +7˚C today, then up to +22˚C this weekend. At least the surprise dump of white stuff will melt quickly… It was a really fun ride to work this morning. Maybe too much fun. I’ve got street slicks on my bike, so didn’t have much traction. Going up hills was interesting. And I had to stop repeatedly to clear snow from inside the fenders, from off of the handlebars, off of my jacket and helmet. And had to constantly wipe the giant flakes from my glasses so I could see where I was going. I avoided the busiest street portion of the ride, ducking through a park instead. No need to take unnecessary risks…
There’s a big “Bike to Work Day” in Calgary on Friday, April 11. The University of Calgary is running a special event on campus as well. It’s pretty safe to say I’ll be biking to work that day (and every other day as well 😉 ) and am looking forward to seeing how many people get into it.
On campus, they’re going to set up greeting/refreshment stations (with prizes!) on all major entrances, and there’s a workshop being put on by the bike club at the Mac Hall loading dock to show basic bike maintenance.
I think I might even pack the camera as well. Should be fun! I’ve already ridden over 900km this year, on track to hit between 3500 and 4000km by the end of 2008.
Now, if there were more bike-friendly routes (i.e., fewer cycle-homicidal bus & SUV drivers) there might be more people willing to risk riding their bikes to work or school…