Negotiating ice

Winter has come. Yesterday, a white blanket of snow covered the land, hiding paths, tracks, nasty puddles from the last rain and turning all bicycles into lookalikes. The city had enough residual heat to melt some of the snow. That did not matter, the frozen water crystals kept on dancing, plummeting and finally resting on the ground, until they consumed all the warmth and buried the streets beneath themselves.

The clouds dissipated. Night fell. Countless students cycled home (after some initial confusion which exactly snow-covered modern art masterpiece represents their bike), leaving a myriad of tracks in the soft water-snowy slurry. Morning came.

I had to go out to the lab to help a friend of mine with his experiment. First surprise: the cycle roads were not cleaned up. Apparently, winter managed to surprise the municipality once again, even with the early warning it received several weeks ago. Never mind that. My bike has new strong grip tires, I said to myself, a little snow should not be a problem. I would have been right, save for the fact that there was something else besides the little snow. Ice. All the beautiful criss-crossing bike tracks from last evening had frozen during the night, adding some excitement to the show. Usually, ice is not that big of a problem by itself. The actual problem was that both my tires had their own opinion on which of the thousand tracks they should follow. This turned the whole trip into a rope-dancing kind of experience, with all my muscles strained to keep my balance. Not a very pleasant thing to do. Even less when you consider the speed limits. Any velocity greater than that of an enraged garden snail would inevitably lead to my fall. And I do not like falling. Dropping down flat on your nose from 2 m height is definitely not my idea of pleasure.

Speaking of ideas, I had a really bright one. I adjusted my course and started cycling on the street instead. Boy, was that a mistake. Yes, the street was cleaned and it was significantly easier to propel myself forward. However, I had to share it with some actual drivers. Most of them still having their summer tires on. Not a nice view, considering how close I was to the action. This sort of thing is best watched on YouTube, not when you have to struggle to avoid participating in it. Luckily, I was spared any incidents. I wonder what will happen next, when I have to go downtown. Literally. Karolinabacken, here I come...