Seriously, will this winter ever end? I honestly don't remember a winter like this since I've lived in Nebraska, which has been 28 of my 33 years. Usually in the winter I get bummed at seeing the yellow, dead grass all winter - this winter that has happened. I haven't seen even the yellow grass since November! We've been buried, buried! underneath this crap for too long, and it's worn on me. Usually about this time of the year it's warming up, heck over a year ago (Feb 10th, to be exact) I was basking in a glorious 61 freaking degrees! Now it's cold! And I'm grumpy! With lots of exclamation!
Heck, looking at the weather outlook is depressing. Yesterday my brother commented that we haven't been over 45 degrees in two months and I laughed. Then I hit up weatherunderground, and.. he's right! The last day we had above 45 was December 1, when it was about 60 degrees... wow. It's not so much the temperature that's a problem (okay, it is..), but the snow and ice that just refuse to go away. I hate ice, and I hate riding a heavy mountain bike with heavy studded tires almost as much - but as it looks, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Maybe not until May at the rate we're going.
Not to beat a point to death, but this winter has been tough. It's been the brutal end to a brutal year. I'm ready to be done with 2009 completely, the year, the winter, all of it. I'm ready for 2010 to be decent, not great, just decent. Right now I'd take decent, I'd take 50 degrees, and I'd take the LHT on a long lost ride somewhere to reset my brain. That'd be all-right, as they say.
If you ever wonder, yes, sometimes it's very difficult to compose thoughts into a blog post. But.. not today. Today I'm furious, annoyed, and just.. opinionated. I watched this, but I'm not furious at it, kind of.. sort of.. well not at the little English dude. Just watch:
Done watching? Okay. Why am I furious? We live in the greatest society, arguably, to ever grace planet Earth. Our impoverished citizens live in more comfort than most nobility in the middle ages, hell let's make no mistake, than most other country in the world. We have beautiful homes, amazing technology, and have reached - to this point - the pinnacle of humanity.
But we're all dying. Fast.
We're dying because we have a healthcare system that is failing us. We have a healthcare system run by the robber barons of the 21st century, men and women who will stop at nothing to ensure their million dollar bonuses are safe, that the profits to their shareholders stay intact. They don't give a damn about you and me. We're customers, we're items on a balance sheet, and they have been posting record profits while we're all dying.
We're dying because we are fed food that isn't even food anymore. It's sustenance designed and chemically altered to make us want to buy more of it. Food grown on land no longer owned by the farmer, but owned by huge corporations, with seed that carries NDA's to even use it, genetically altered so that a plant - God's creation - somehow became owned by Man. Restaurants that have become corporations, no longer concerned about what's healthy but rather what tastes best, and what gets the consumer to come back.. until they too die.
We see television shows, pills, supplements, devices and gadgets all designed to help us lose weight, but they don't. Our hope plummets because society tells us these fancy gadgets and devices and supplements and fad diets are the only way to lose weight. We become derailed and do what everyone else does. We listen to the talking heads on TV who tell us healthcare reform is bad for America.
Dammit, STOP LISTENING! Jamie talks about angels walking the street, what concerns me isn't the angels walking the streets of earth. No, today the streets of heaven are crowded by angels, angels who gave up hope or just couldn't change. Angels who were denied care, who couldn't afford to go to the doctor, who couldn't afford to cook healthy meals, who didn't think change was possible. Today the streets of heaven are crowded, and I'm sick of it.
I've given up. I've fallen off the wagon. I've thought it's too hard. I've succumbed to the ease, convenience and "affordability" of fast food all in the past month. I'm sure I'll do it again, or maybe I won't. That's why I do this, that's why I write this. That's why I tell you when I fall off the wagon. I'm not superman, I'm far from it, I struggle with the same thing as everyone else does.
The only way that is going to change is if we change us, and the only way the world will change is if we change us. Healthcare companies stop making record profits if we stop having to go to the doctor every day. You'll start seeing healthy food at restaurants (real, truly healthy food) when that's what we as the consumer demand. We do live in the greatest country in the world, and we can all change this. Maybe we won't change it in time for our generation, but we can for our kids.
You know, it's weird to say, but I think I really truly enjoy winter commute via bike over the commute via car. Maybe.. crazy is a better term but! Seriously! How awesome are the early morning commutes on a little bit of fresh snow, flyin' down the MUP (Multi-Use Path, aka "bike path" or "jogger path" or "ninja dog leash path") and jamming to some good tunes? So awesome they hurt.. kind of sort of literally sometimes.
Looks like this week will, finally, be a full week of bike commuting. I think my last full week was sometime in October of 2009, maybe November, but it's been a really long time. It's easy to forget how enjoyable it is, how enjoyable that hour every day to reset the brain is. Even if it's cold as Antarctica and ice so gnarly that even the studs slip - it's awesome. It will be more awesome in the summer, of course, but I'll take what I can get for now.
In other news, for the record, it never ceases to amaze me how much different 60psi than 25psi. Please, please, please mother nature no more crazy ice blasts. I can get used to the nice roll.. on studded tires. Wonder what it's goona be like when I can jam on regular tires @ 85 pounds? Probably awesome. Until then, I can handle the view, I think..
Punxsutawney Phil, you and I are goona have words, amigo.
I've lived in Nebraska for 28 years now, and I honestly can't remember a winter with this much snow, and this much cold. Saying it has been trying puts it mildly, it's been downright disheartening. I've not been on the LHT since November, which feels more like a hundred years that over three months. I walk by it every day, running my hand across the brooks saddle, or stopping to just look at it. To think about the sweaty summer days grinding up some hill somewhere that is more like nowhere. Grabbing the bottle to take a swig of water, and getting a little bonus Vitamin G with it.
You know it's bad when thoughts of slugging off a water bottle covered with gravel dust are downright glorious.
Coming back to the land of reality, the Nokians got their first real workout today and man oh man - they passed with shining colors. Above is a sight that will make any winter commuter cringe, or soil the pants - wet glare ice. Heck, you can barely walk on this stuff but those Finns sure can make a tire - didn't phase 'em. Like, not at all, it was like I was on dry pavement. Seriously, the last time I had this big of a revelation on the bike was when I got the LHT, or more like the Brooks saddle. It's that big.
Next winter I think I'll pick up a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Winters for the LHT, and just throw 'em on at the first snow then leave them on until April. Only thing that has been stopping me from riding the LHT is the lack of studs, last winter all of my falls were slow speed ones on ice that just "snuck up" on me. The Nokians, well, at one point I was standing up a hill, and they didn't slip. When I was traversing some icy ruts on a side street they slipped, but it was weird, kind of like what you get with a 4wd, or with anti-lock brakes. They slip for a second or two, then grab and you're back in business. Really strange, and really awesome.
I have a lot more on my mind but for now I'll have to stick with the thoughts of a certain rodent out east, and how him and I are going to have a meeting by the bike racks.
Heck, looking at the weather outlook is depressing. Yesterday my brother commented that we haven't been over 45 degrees in two months and I laughed. Then I hit up weatherunderground, and.. he's right! The last day we had above 45 was December 1, when it was about 60 degrees... wow. It's not so much the temperature that's a problem (okay, it is..), but the snow and ice that just refuse to go away. I hate ice, and I hate riding a heavy mountain bike with heavy studded tires almost as much - but as it looks, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Maybe not until May at the rate we're going. 
