I'm from Marquette. I don't think I'll ever be “done for the year”.
Sitting in the hallway at work is my “auxiliary bike”--
I think I've written about this before; it's a 30-year old steel-framed bike that I keep at work in case I need to get somewhere. When it's summer and I want to ride I use my new(ish) Giant mountain bike, but in case I need something at the spur of the moment while I'm at work I have my aux bike.
While I was working yesterday it was snowing out a little. It was mostly flakes in the air; nothing stuck to the ground, and it was more a nuisance than anything. However, after looking out the window, my boss said to me, and I'm quoting here, “looks like your bike's done for the year”. That might be true for some people but, as we all know, I'm not “some people”.
And I'm from Marquette, where you see people riding bikes through even the worst winter snow storms.
Now,. to be fair, most of those people riding during a blizzard are on fat tire bikes, which my aux bike is not. But that doesn't mean there's not some fool out there riding a regular mountain bike all year long. How do I know that? Well, let's say that there's some fool named, oh, “Jim” out there, and maybe—just maybe—that fool named “Jim” has ridden his mountain bike to each and every Harbor Advisory Committee meeting (so far) in 2023.
That's right...the fool named “Jim” took a bike from downtown Marquette to Lakeview Arena and back in January, February, March and April this year, and has plans to do so next week and in December, as well. Why, you ask? Well, I answer, it's quicker than walking, and if the roads are clean (which they usually are) it's just like riding there during the summer, albeit with a lot more clothing needed to stay warm.
Whether or not that “Jim” is a fool...well, I'll leave it up to you.
So no, my auxiliary bike is NOT done for the year. In fact, depending upon how you look at it, it may just be getting started. So if you see a fool named “Jim” on a bike some month soon in the middle of a snowstorm, you now know why.
He is, after all, a “fool”. And this is, after all, Marquette. We don't let a little snow stop us from getting somewhere on a bike.
8-)
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