The Groundhog Lied

We have had a crazy few weeks here in Tulsa. The last weekend in January was full of beautiful, 70-degree weather, and we went to a local garden store (run by a crazy hippie woman) and picked out my Christmas gift: a full-size chiminea!

Then a snowstorm swept in on Monday night/Tuesday morning, and we were left with snowdrifts a few feet high in some places. The City of Tulsa is not prepared for this kind of snow (we don't have nearly enough plows or people to run the plows), so the whole city pretty much shut down. What we didn't realize is that another snowstorm would sweep in the following week, meaning that some people were stuck inside for almost two weeks straight. 

Chandler exploring the canyon that was our front walkway

Jon making a futile attempt to shovel our driveway

Our back deck (you can see the chimi on the left)

The other side of our back deck

City Hall was closed on the first Tuesday of the first snowstorm, but the Mayor decided that we should report to work on Wednesday (despite the fact that most people were trapped in their neighborhoods). Being young and crazy, Jon and I decided to dig our way out of our street so that I could go to work. Most of the major arterial streets in Tulsa were passable on Wednesday morning, but we didn't count on the fact that downtown Tulsa would be a post-apocalyptic snow kingdom. 

I made it to work, but Jon ended up having to turn around and drive the wrong way down a one-way street in order to make it back out of downtown. There were abandoned buses everywhere, skewed across multiple lanes, trapped in snow banks.

 

2nd Street, Downtown Tulsa (Top: apocalyptic snow kingdom, bottom: summer 2010)

 The groundhog was right about early spring for at least a week. Last week was beautiful again, with temperatures in the 50s-70s every day, and plenty of sunshine. I bought a new (to me) bike right before the big snowstorm hit, and so I decided that it was time to try commuting to work by bike. I only live about 5 miles from City Hall, so it is not too challenging of a ride. Thus far, it has been a very successful experience. I haven't even had a driver honk at me! Which is quite shocking, because Tulsans are really in love with their cars.

My first day of bike commuting. Helmets are inherently dorky, but I don't want brain damage. 

My new bike is a very smooth ride. Surprising, considering that it's a very low-end road bike. 

Part of the bike trail that I take to work (I ride a different way home). It's not much to look at now, but it's actually really beautiful when everything is green. 

You'll have to pardon the crappy cell phone pictures. The iPhone takes high-res pictures, but the color is usually a lot more heavy on the red-spectrum than things are in real life. I think I'm going to start taking my camera along with me whenever I ride my bike, because there are some really beautiful moments that you miss when you are driving. One of my new favorite blogs is called "Photos from the Saddle" (http://cyclecommuter.wordpress.com/). There are no words, and you aren't told anything about the author (man, woman, where the person lives, etc.) It's just photos that the person takes while riding around on their bike. There is a whole section dedicated to abandoned gloves that I find amusing/interesting. 

We're back to cold weather again (lying groundhog). I'm ready for some warm weather and hoping my new bike lights I ordered get here soon! Pretty soon I'll be set to bike commute almost full-time (at least 3 days/week). Bring on the $5 gas!