Today was a first in my time as a commuter cyclist in Memphis: I biked to work in the snow!  Granted, there was little accumulation on the ground at the time, maybe an inch or two, and the roads were mostly clear, just a little slush on the shoulders.  But still, nothing I’ve experienced as a commuter cyclist compares to biking into driving snow.  By the time I got to school, after about 20 minutes on my bike, the lenses of my glasses were almost completely covered in snow and ice.  I should have wiped them off before I got to my office but I wanted to take a picture of the full accumulation.  You can see that picture and a few others below.

What makes me laugh a bit is how days like today create an ever-widening gap between how I see myself and how others see me.  I’ve never been particularly athletic or competitive with others.  The last time I played a team sports was in middle school.  The sporadic exercise that happened in the interim years was largely voluntary and solitary.  For me, biking around town is not a way of proving my manhood or testing myself against Mother Nature – it’s just what I do.

And yet, after I posted the picture of me at the end of my ride on my facebook profile, the responses were overwhelming. “Impressive” read one.  ”You are an inspiration” claimed another.  A former student went so far as to say that he will never be the man I am.  OK, well … maybe, maybe not.  I’m not sure how to quantitatively measure manliness, but I guess biking in the snow bumps me up a bit on that scale.

Whatever the case, here are those pictures.  Enjoy.

[slickr-flickr id="57760946@N03" tag="snowy ride" type="gallery"]