Back on the bike!

Leaving Floyd in hallway to dry up

After not riding for a few days last week due to the brutal cold weather, I'm back in the saddle!  I don't think that there's any shame in carpooling for few days when it's -35 windchill outside. I had all the right gear, but I only rode for 2 days.  I almost had an interview with CBC Daybreak about Deep Winter Chill bike riding, but it's hard to do that during work as I'm not near my phone. They do know about me, so I might hear from them in the future.

December happenings

Christmas splurge at MEC

December was a month of adventure.  I made a trip down to Vancouver and area to visit with family.  It was rainy, but I had a good trip.

The Lost Art Of Letter Writing - Prince George Correspondents' Club

On Monday, I rode my bicycle over to Book's and Company for their first Correspondent's Club event.  As I love writing postcards, I thought that I should attend it and meet other letter writers.

Baxter frolics in the Snow

It was a real snow day today, and the snow is still falling.  Despite being very hesitant about getting him dirty in fresh snow, I took him out today.  I rode him to work and back, and then I rode to the Post Office with him to get more stamps for my Postcrossing activities.

Bicycle surprise from Rhode Island

No, it's not a bicycle in the mail, but I did get another bicycle related postcard in the mail today.  This one is from Rhode Island.  Funny enough, I was thinking of visiting this area one day and have been researching online.  I've been told a good way to explore the island the area which is NOT an island (my bad!) is by bicycle.

Love this custom made stamp

Missive Maven was the sender and she has her own website, all about writing, etc.  It looks very special.  I remember always looking for special stationary when I had pen pals, and I find myself now looking for special postcards whenever I travel!  It's like sending art!  Missive Maven's website is located at http://www.missivemaven.com/ and I think that her website is special enough to add to my general blogroll

I'm amazed at what bicycle themed postcards that people are finding!  Postcrossing is already exciting, this makes it that much more.  Thanks for sending the neat card, Missive Maven.

Mailbox surprises

Cute postcard from Nolleke

It's been a while since I posted about Postcrossing.  I stopped doing it during the Summer as I was away from home for quite a bit of time and I couldn't register any postcards if they came while I was away. You actually have to put yourself as inactive a month ahead of your holidays.  I slso wanted to save some money, especially for a little bit after the trip..so I didn't send any out right away when I returned.  But I'm back at it again!  What a fun way to spend your time.

Beautiful postcard surprise in August

When I arrived home after my Summer Bicycle adventures in the middle of August, there was a nice bicycle postcard sitting in my mailbox!  It was from my good bicycle friend from the Netherlands congratulating me on my ride.  I love the flowers, it's such a beautiful postcard!  My Postcrossing friend, Nolleke, has good taste.  I wonder if those are Basil bags on the bike?

Thanks Nolleke!

I really need to get back into Postcrossing, I've just been trying to save money this month after having little income for the last while. I have set my status there though to active so I am good to go!

Spring colours

Received another Postcrossing postcard from Netherland friend.

I love Spring! Finally the leaves are out and the blossoms are on the trees.  There is the sweet scent from the blossoms which is so enchanting.  I only wish that it wasn't so fleeting.  One must savour every moment of it.

Good Postcrossing week

Postcard from Belgium

It was a good Postcrossing week.  It more then made up for the week before's lack of any postcards.

Bicycle themed postcard from Taiwan

Today, I finally received a Postcrossing postcard in the mail, this one is from Ivy, who lives in Taiwan.  It's been over a week since I last received one.  This one also features a bicycle, from Taiwan.  The wording below says "Ride around Taiwan Island".   I wonder what it would be like bicycling around Taiwan?  I bet it is nice, although I wonder about the amount of traffic on the road.  I can't imagine the country having dedicated bicycle trails/routes, but I could be wrong.  Maybe I'll get to try it one day.

There is not much written on it, basically the sender hopes that the card is alright.  It's wonderful!  I wonder how easy it is to find bicycle themed postcards?  I wonder how many more will have a bicycle theme?  I love surprises!

This is my second postcard from Taiwan.  It's been a good postcard week so far.  I look forward to checking what's in my mailbox daily, if I got to do errands, I tend to go home first to check and see if I got anything interesting.

Holland Dreams

I received a special surprise from Nolleke who lives in the Netherlands, a extra bicycle themed postcard.  She already sent me a bicycle themed one from France recently and another apologizing that she hadn't sent one out right away.  Wow, this one is so pretty!  I love flowers on coloured bikes....

Thank you Nolleke!!  I sent her a special card out that I think she'll like.  :)

Here is the bike stamp on the back...  I would love to visit there one day, it seems the country is in love with bicycles.

Patience needed

Snow is melting slowly

Not much to post about today, but I took another photo of the area that I took last week to show you that the snow is melting.  It's not melting very fast, but I suppose that it is better then flooding.

Some of big potholes that I was biking by have been temporally fixed, so I don't have to worry about trying to miss them.  I should take some photos of the potholes that I have seen in my travels.  :)

No postcrossing postcards arrived this week, but the one I sent to Brazil, FINALLY made it!  It took 34 days to get there, but when I look at the other recent cards that the person had received, mine didn't take too long.  There was one card that took 60 days to travel to Brazil from the USA, can you imagine?  I just sent out one to a city in Russia that is 500 kms south of Moscow.  According to the person's stats, it'll take 38 days to get there from Canada. It would be nice if it got there as quickly as the one I sent to Moscow did, but I just have to accept however long it takes.

Just as life is slower on a bicycle (no so fast paced), so is snail mail versus e-mail.  We are so used to instant replies, with cellphones and emails, that we forget patience.  Snail mail and bicycles I think, teach us to slow down a bit..be patient and not expect things to rush around quickly.  You get a chance to smell the roses. I guess the same could be said about the slow melting snow, it's certainly not rushing to melt away.

Sunny Saturday on bike

While doing errands I noticed Mr PG was holding a special flag.  Yeh for the City's support!

Today was errand day. And it was an enjoyable one with the sun being out.  We had some rain last week, so the snow has been disappearing.  I rode over 10 kms just doing errands, it's amazing how many miles I do a day. What's better is I don't even notice!  I can tell Spring is here, there are tons more people out on their bicycles now, which is great to see.  I miss that in Winter.

Lucky postcard in basket is going to Poland!

Bikes on Lace

Yeh, I got my second 'Bike-themed' postcard today and it was so special that I thought I'd make a post just about that.

Parking woes and other Saturday Ramblings

Not one place to lock a bike up.

Yeh, it's another weekend!

As I am going out for dinner at a restaurant in the above hotel, I decided on my way to the grocery store, that I should stop along the way and scout the new hotel and restaurant out for places to park and lock my bike up.  I wasn't expecting a bike rack, but I found the results much worse then that!

Changing of Seasons

Roads are bare and dry in many parts.

It's been a good week.  The sun has is out and the snow is melting fast.  Despite the roads being wet and sloppy in parts, I rode my Rocky Mountain around today.  I just had to watch out for all those potholes.

I took her in to the shop this past Tuesday to beat the rush and it was ready to pick up after work next day! It need some new brake pads, cable, etc.  I know the weather is much better then it has been as I have biked every day to work this week, with both bikes.

The end of hibernation?

There may be still snow, but it was a nice day to take out Pura Vida.

Many of my Winter Saturdays consisted of taking my sweet time to leave the house.  Today I was just itching to go outside! It is 6C outside, perfect weather to take my Rocky Mountain outside in.

Since there was snow still on the bike rack, I found another good place to lock it up.

A Postcard Quest - By bike of course!

My Sunday Quest for Postcards was a success!

Ever since I have got into Postcrossing, I've been looking for interesting postcards.  Prince George is not a touristy place, but I have seen postcards for sale, mostly in the Summer.  I've had a problem finding some good ones that represent where I live.  Sure the cute animal ones made by Canada Post are neat, but they don't need stamps put onto them, and some postcrossers like stamps!

The neverending snow story...

Just what did the Groundhog have to say about Spring/Winter?  He must have said that Winter will go on for a while still, as it sure looks like it's doing just that!  It's been a cold and snowy week, we've had a record dump of snow again.  I feel better in the fact that it's the same in a lot of places including Edmonton, Chicago, Seattle, and Vancouver.   A friend in Burbank said that they had snow down there!

Ok, tired of Winter!

The sun was out but it was -32c!  Hard to want to leave the house.

I'm so done with Winter.  During the last week the temperatures went up to about 0C and then down to -32C yesterday.  I've been walking to work and taking the bus home as I haven't felt like taking the bike out.  It's a good thing that I had bought some bus tickets so I can use them whenever needed.  It was actually nice walking to work in the morning as long as I kept moving.  My mp3 player though, lost power the other day on my way to work and I thought that it had died.  I had taken it with me when we snowshoed at the Ancient Forest and I thought I damaged it doing that as the snow was so deep.  But after plugging it for a bit, it started charging and the screen turned on! Whew, I guess the subzero temps sucked all the power out of it.