We made our way to one of our favorite local hang outs for dinner last night despite the winter storm that gave us about 5-6 inches on new snow. I actually kind of like going out on a stormy night, watching the snow plows go by, and feeling all cozy seated at the bar.

As we pulled up to the restaurant I saw this bike, tires fresh with new fallen snow. I knew whose it was as the man who it belongs to is a regular at the restaurant also.

The fella that rides this bike is quite the interesting character. I wonder if every town has that one eccentric person that has one wondering their story?  I have a feeling there are many out there.  This guy has quite the different name also, which from town gossip it is said that he re-named himself. I shall keep his name under wraps as I wouldn’t want him to know that I am calling him eccentric.  Not that eccentric is a bad thing, as I like that in a person– when they live by their own set of rules and seem to be happy in their own little world.  But one never knows if he would consider it a compliment or not. So I shall call him Mr. Mystery.

Mr. Mystery always has his white laptop with him which he pulls out of his backpack. He orders either a white Russian or glass of beer. Then he gets lost in his computer, chuckling to himself every few minutes. If someone he knows drops by we’ve overheard him get into some intense political discussions– and let’s just say we stay away from getting involved.

Last night I just had to ask.  I said, “Hey, Mr. Mystery, was it hard riding your bike here tonight in the snow?

He smiled and said, “No, not really. The tires are flat.”

We all laughed.

I may never know his story, but I gave him a lot of credit for riding his bike in the middle of winter in Wisconsin, with flat tires no less!  I’ve been missing riding my bike and suddenly I realized snow was maybe just an excuse for not getting it out on the road. Well, may not be the safest thing to do… unless, of course, I flatten the tires.  Guess I don’t want to be quite that eccentric.

Unbeknownst to me John snapped this picture of my writing cottage this morning. As you might have guessed, we are in the middle of a snow storm. It’s expected to snow all day with 4-8 inches of snow to fall. At this rate I’m thinking we might be on the upper range of the prediction.

John posted the photo on his Facebook page concerned I may not make it out of here for our Wednesday date night. I say, have no fear, dear!  Nothing will stop me from having date night with you. And indeed we have had that mixed bag of weather since Sunday with sleet, rain, thunder, and now snow.

The wonderful thing about living in our small village of 900 is that we have the best restaurants around. It is only a five minute drive to most our local hang outs… so we shall not be deterred by a little snow… err, or a lot of snow! And as you can see, I’m prepared with the shovel right next to my cottage door, as well as have my boots and winter jacket right inside the door.

Have no fear, John!  I will shovel through a blizzard just to have date night with you!

PS:  For those of you who enjoyed the photo of love of Joie and Kylie I posted yesterday, I posted one on Facebook today that might make you giggle.