thwarted ride

This evening I had to go to the library for a meeting.

With 5-10 cm of snow in the offing, I had taken the bus to and from work. On the way home, the bus almost hit a truck that couldn't stop at an intersection and a few minutes later the bus driver had trouble making a left turn because the road was so icy. Witnessing this convinced me that it might be more pleasant to ride my bike to the library than to drive. 

It's about 3 km away. I made it there -- barely. The first part of my ride was great -- on a shared pathway which had been cleared recently and had only a thin layer of fresh snow. I was barreling along, happy as could be, until I hit a stretch of uncleared path. Uncleared is an understatement -- the snow was about 12 cm deep. I walked my bike to the intersection, crossed the street and rode a few meters on semi-cleared trail. Another section of deep snow and walking followed. Desperate, I turned onto a side street, thinking it might be easier riding there, but no. More walking was required. Finally I spied a stretch of cleared sidewalk and rode on that to the street the library is on. After crossing that street, I had to ride/walk past the police station and fire station -- both of which had uncleared sidewalks, obviously uncleared for a matter of days, not hours. 

As I approached the library parking lot, I saw that the road looked pretty decent, so I rode on that for the last 50 meters or so. 

It was pretty cold out, but I had dressed warmly and was quite comfortable until I tried to turn off my bike lights. I couldn't do it with my mittens on, so I removed them. A minute or two with bare hands was all I needed to turn off the lights -- and to end up with extremely cold hands. 

I felt so miserable that I texted Hubby and asked if he would PLEASE come and pick me up afterward. Without waiting for his reply, I went to my meeting.

By the time it was over, I felt ready to tackle the ride home, but it turned out Hubby was already there, waiting for me. I can't say I was exactly sad about that, although I have to wonder whether the ride back wouldn't have been kind of fun...