Continuation: Errandonnées #1 & 2

The 2014 edition of the Errandonnée is off to a... not terribly exciting start. I ran errands. Woo. Today, I went to the library! Then to the pet food store! Then I saved the world from an apocalypse! Well, I read about it. I assume.

Ahem.

Having been "gifted" with an extra day off by the government, I got to enjoy the fact that, for one brief moment, spring might actually happen this year. I was beginning to think nature had forgotten how to do it, but I was presented with the first evidence that it might be on the horizon as soon as I walked out the door:

I know you're saying "What? What am I looking at?" Exactly. Until yesterday, you would have seen snow and ice. The end of the driveway was impassable by bike and I had to walk the Opus out into the street before I could start riding her. Today? The windrow, it is gone! Huzzah!

It's the small victories.

My first errand took me to the library. The path through Dufferin Grove was clear until I hit the skating rink, where I had to get off and walk across the ice pack created by the Zamboni. I had carelessly thrown off my winter boots and was wearing ... regular heeled boots. So freeing. So slippery on the ice. But after that it was smooth sailing. Until I tried to take a picture of my bike at the library -- my camera is acting up, so instead you get a shot of what I picked up:

The Snark Squad just finished snarking all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which reminded me that I've been wanting to read the follow-up comic books graphic novels. They're fun -- they've kept the feeling of the snappy dialogue, and we no longer have to contend with laughably awful special effects.

After that, it was off to get cat food and litter.

Oh, the Galleria. How useless your bike rack is. By the way, they've taken away the ridiculous stand-your-bike-on-its-rear-wheel stand, but they haven't replaced it with anything else, so we're stuck with the wheel-bender. When I arrived, there was no room for the Opus at either end, and the middle was taken up with another bike and a dog. Yes, someone had tied their dog up in the middle. I made do with my double locks, and I am reminded that I need to put some WD40 in the rear padlock because it doesn't want to close.

Home along Dufferin, which, now that the snow has receeded somewhat, is even more battle-scarred than usual. Really looking forward to the resurfacing!

I realized that this was almost the same errand I ran last year, under rather different circumstances. I laugh now when I think that I complained that -8 C was too cold. Oh, past me. You so funny.

Did I mention it is warm enough to break out the cape?

Oh, and yes! That is a Coffeeneuring button you see there.

Errandonée tally
Library: Bloor/Gladstone (1 km/0.62 mi)
Non-Grocery store: Pet Valu (3.1 km/1.93 mi)

Mileage left: 43.9 km/27.4 mi