POST-HOLIDAYS ON ICE

the temperature had risen to well above freezing by the time i left the house this morning, so the wetness on the front stairs (which was of the standard rainy january variety) didn't pose any slipping hazard, but i was cautious nonetheless. the scrapes on my left ankle have only just healed from the last time, and those same stairs had been decidedly slick when i carried my bike up them early this morning.

the weather forecast had called for tuesday afternoon to evening snow since sunday. i was hopeful until mid-afternoon, and apparently there were actual flakes at slightly higher elevations away from the river and downtown, but by the time i left the indoors to get on riding at 6:45, whatever snow had been falling had turned citywide to the "ice pellets" that the online weather services were broadcasting as the current condition, the reality of which was stung into my face with every pellet that hit it.

having flaked on her on friday, i felt under incontrovertible obligation to visit a friend where she was working at the concordia ale house and headed there after a couple of hours respite from the weather in the kitchen over the stove and next to the oven. not that i needed an excuse for hot chocolate and roasted dinner, but the old gas furnace has to work expensively hard when the outside temperature gets to freezing, and i needed something in me for the three and a half mile push to 33rd and killingsworth.

it wasn't snow, and it didn't warm up by midnight like the weathermen predicted, so when caroline and i left the ale house to ride each other home i found my bicycle completely frozen over. so it wasn't snow, but it had the effect that the snow does to some extent anywhere but especially in cities like portland that don't usually experience it, which is just to say that the ice made things different, and despite the danger it posed for cycling, it was also a detour from the routine, and as such brought with it a feeling of calm at being resigned to the limitations of the weather.

most of the rest of the city had let itself be limited, too, and the streets were all but empty, so caroline and i abandoned walking and braved the roads -- but didn't abandon our plan to stop inside somewhere on the way back to the neighborhood to warm up. forward momentum and no sudden turns. only two cars passed us on alberta between 30th and 11th, and i wished that they'd been more discourteous, or at least more exacting in their judgments and not slowed down when they came up behind us, because despite the calm and our world on hold lightheartedness, still neither of us wanted to be slid into by a braking car.

whiskey seemed warmer, but sticking to beer seemed more advisable, and the bye and bye has a cascadian dark on draft now. they have unique and delicious hot cocktails too, but what's more freezing midnight in the pacific northwest than a roasted malt ipa? but just one; and, yes, we'll be safe, we're professionals.

it didn't seem likely from the state of the roads on the second leg of the return trip that morning driving would be easy if even possible, most of the parked cars having been completely frozen over -- as had been our bikes, again, and down to their chains in the forty-five minutes we spent at our waylay. be careful on the hill, it's probably better to get off alberta before 7th, mlk, williams and vancouver; and be careful going up the front steps. even if we wouldn't get a snow day (which we didn't; though neither did new york, and they got another proper snow), the moment was enough to make me want to find coffee and stay up all night reading. i made it up the steps, carefully, and made it to my book. zone is one of those that demands (or elicits the desire for) unbroken stretches of serious engagement. but there wasn't any coffee. and apparently i fell asleep.