Welllll, most of our talk here is dominated by the weather, as you might guess. For the first time in many years, we have serious snow & cold before Christmas. When my wife & I reached Ottawa this past Monday afternoon--I had been away for a month--there was a difference of 55 degrees between Rio de Janeiro, which we had left about 24 hours before, and Ottawa. (I don't complain too much about such these things -- don't get much sympathy for the rigours of visiting Brazil...)
So this weekend, we're having two winter storms, which will make four already this year. We have had some cold weather--earlier this week, the morning temp was -28, windchill of -39. Our line on All This is that we're agin global warming, but a little local warming would be fine.
There are a few cyclists on the streets these days, but I'm not one of them--the roads are too slick, and the snowbanks mean that there's even less space than usual. And car drivers all too often exceed their radically reduced safety margins in these conditions.
But there's plenty of snow on the trails in the Gatineau Hills, where I was cycling just before I left Ottawa in mid-November. So I'll get my X-country skis tidied up in the next few days. And with the cold weather, there's a good chance chance that the Rideau Canal, our long (8 kms) outdoor skating rink will be open before Jan 1. It's magical on a cold clear night.
And, early in January, I'll take my Raven frame & forks, plus my Rohloff and SON28 hubs, with various other parts, to my LBS, TallTree Cycles, to begin the build of da boid. This is likely to be named "Osibisa", a nod to the Ghanaian band and their anthem, "Woyaya" -- "We are going, heaven knows where we are going. We will get there, heaven knows how we will get there. We know we will!" Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QM3_fguB8
Best to all of you and yours for the holiday and the new year, with my thanks for your information, wisdom, uncommon sense and courtesy over the past year; and especially to Dan, for shepherding us so generously. Safe riding over the holidays.
J.
