So done with winter...

perhaps it's
almost over?

Winter’s cold twilight
With Spring’s lightly fevered dawn
Summer can’t be far…

Mid-winter Bhaiku

brrrrrrrrrr...

It ain't over yet:
temps at 6 degrees below,
where are my thermals?

Bikewinter haiku

take a deep breath

Darkness retreats now
Temps are rising slowly too
Bikewinter pauses

Winter bhaiku

so damn cold

So damn cold, my beard
Freezes snotty hard - that’s my
Crusty bike winter...

So done with winter

another b/haiku

Rims crust, chain rusts, salt
Stain'd streets under blue, black skies:
So done with winter.

Pothole haiku

and an explanation

YIKES! We getting another 6 inches of snow today. That makes a little over three feet in so many weeks. One result is that we're having the worst pothole season I've experienced in 10 years. Last week, our local CBS affiliate reported:

Here's one measure of just how bad this winter has been. Byrne said on February 7 last year, the 311 system had 160 requests pending for pothole repair. As of Thursday, there were 5,649 pending, with 415 calls having come in Wednesday night alone.

Potholes wound asphalt.
Covered in white salty puss,
once true rims go THUNK.

We're also battling record ice this winter. The city's Streets and Sanitation Department uses calcium chloride pretreated salt as well as a calcium magnesium potassium acetate blend, or CMAK, when the temps drop. The latter is particularly effective but it leaves a sticky white film all over your bike. While it doesn't appear corrosive, it does hides the rust %)

So damn cold %(

bike winter
bhaiku

So damn cold, my beard
Freezes snotty hard - that’s my
Crusty bike winter...

Bikewinter bhaiku

It ain't quite over:
temps fell forty degrees, so
where are my thermals?

Bhaiku

Winnipeg's Haiku Cross

hey cats bring a theme
compose and ride, memorize
race the course with speed

next sunday, march 11th ... the course has been determined. race will be 45 minutes plus haiku. racers will be responsible for counting their laps and composing their haiku. nobody said this would be easy. mechanical devices to record your haiku while riding; pens, paper, voice recorders etc. are not allowed.

Being on the wrong side of the Canadian Border I won't be able to ride. But the idea of bike haiku is intriguing. I sent my own contribution, Rio-kuruma, to Dave Larsen over at One Gear One Planet. It's the Samurai term for slicing through the middle of two human bodies simultaneously. YIKES!!!!

Rio-kuruma
(Pair of wheels): Samurai wields
Lethal lug-ged steel

He's going to include my humble, if bloody, bhaiku as an honorary entry next Sunday.