The WWZ Lifestyle

It’s still October. There’s a thick blanket of snow on the ground in Saskatoon. Readers, it’s time to talk about That activity – the simplest winter life improver Saskatchewan has to offer, but also one of the hardest to get into, the one we all have a bottomless list of excuses for not doing. I’m talking of course about becoming a Winter Walking Zealot.

I personally self-identify as a Winter Walking Zealot, or WWZ. I am here to admit: it’s terrible. It’s 100% terrible in the moment like 95% of the time, unless you happen to hit the sweet spot where your winter clothing choices overlap with the temperature, humidity, and wind speed at the exact intersection of legitimate outdoor winter comfort. The perfect winter walk is what we WWZ’s strive for yet rarely achieve.

So yes, admittedly it’s terrible most of the time, but the benefits are many. It prevents cabin fever, spares you from sitting in a cold car and/or saves gasoline, exposes you to the various good things that are associated with exercise such as improved physical and mental fitness, recharges your energy, gets you some vitamin D and fresh air, and in general will just make you feel ALIVE. It is is a bit like joining a fight club where the members are you and Mother Nature.

Yes, it truly is one of those old-fashioned "character builders." (It's not lost on me that many of the activities I recommend on this blog are things that many people would rather gouge their eyes out than participate in; "saskatude" is perhaps is an unintentional euphemism for character building and maybe the dads really did know what they were talking about all along.) It’s uncomfortable and awful in the moment but when it’s all over the sweet comfort of a heated grocery store or your own living room is a high reserved especially for the WWZ. You did it! You winter walked and made it back to a temperature-controlled environment in one piece! Reward yourself with an impulse buy from the candy section or a hot cup of Sleepy Time Tea.

Now, after that EXTREMELY CONVINCING and fun-sounding argument with zero holes in it, here are the steps to become a WWZ:

1. Commit to not driving anywhere within a radius of your choosing (for me, this is anywhere I can physically see from my house or workplace)
2. Obtain weather-appropriate clothing*
3. Put on said weather-appropriate clothing
4. Go outside and walk where you’re going instead of driving
5. Repeat

*I’m talking: Parka! Toque! Mitts**! Scarf***! Boots****! Long johns! Ski pants! If you’re going to WW at night, get some high-viz armbands, they are cheap to order on eBay and drivers will thank you.

**not gloves, they make your fingers cold

***maybe two, one for under the coat and one for over

****rated for -40, natch, do not be That Guy trying to WW in Converse runners

It is VERY! important to note that one cannot truly ascend to WWZ levels if trying to WW without adequate personal protective equipment; I’m not being tongue-in-cheek or making a joke because I’m a safety profesh, I’m legitimately begging you to be safe out there. You know who you are, Bare Ankles McGillicuddy, suck it up and put on some gosh darned long pants. A second important note is that none of this clothing need be exorbitantly expensive. If you’ve bought into the extremely false narrative that the only way to be warm in winter is to buy a coat that costs $900 and rhymes with shmanada shmoose, I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but spending thousands of dollars on winter layers ain’t one.

(The Gap appears not to be currently advertising styles appropriate for the WWZ, but this can be remedied with ski pants and/or high socks.)

If you don’t actually have utilitarian places you can walk to in your non-driving radius, you’re going to have to set some sort of alternative walking routine. Is it around the block every night by yourself? Can you find a WWZ partner who lives an acceptable distance away and walk over to each others’ houses on alternating evenings where the other is waiting with a hot drink? Do you have to do it anyway because you have a dog?

Having a library and grocery store open up about 1km from my house was the kick start I needed to become a WWZ, and it’s always easier when the walk has a purpose. But the habit is pretty engrained now so I usually WW at least 5 times a week whether I have a destination or not. It absolutely makes me feel better, even though I curse it the entire time. It’s not TOO cold yet – don’t wait until it’s -40 to give it a try.

(I'm not joking about the high-viz armbands. They stay on my coat all winter long.)

Why didn't I do this sooner: Duolingo

You know how sometimes you just feel like sitting in a chair and swiping around on your phone but then it accidentally makes your life worse? WHAT IF you could do this, but not come out more depressed and anxious than before?

I’ve mentioned a few times how stopping with the excuses has been a life-changing mind shift for me. For the record I’m not strictly against making excuses, as long as one knows that’s what they are doing. For example, if you don’t want to go for a walk because you have a cold and just want to veg out and watch TV today, own it. If you say you CAN’T go for a walk ever because you don’t have time and then you spend that time watching TV and swiping around, that is where one runs into trouble. All this to say, I used to complain that not being able to grow up somewhere with a school French Immersion program prevented me from being bilingual. That, friends, is an excuse that needn’t fly in the Future in Which We Live.

I’d heard good things about Duolingo for a while and one day when I was bored and swiping away at my phone making my life worse, I decided to download it. I was and continue to be very impressed! I’m working through the Spanish course because I think unless you are going to spend a lot of time in exclusively-French speaking Quebec or France, Spanish is probably the more practical language for most North Americans to learn.

I’m not sure how fluent I’ll become even if I work my way all the way through the Duolingo “Tree”. Internet people all have their various preferences for language learning software and one major critique of Duolingo is that the learning style is mostly direct translation, so you can’t really start to think in Spanish. I don’t know if I should switch to an immersion program instead, or just supplement Duolingo with Spanish immersion in the form of TV (or the Duolingo podcasts) as well as a textbook for getting a better handle on all the grammar rules.

I’m also kicking myself for not doing this earlier when I was sharing an office with native Spanish speakers, or doing even a few weeks of Italian before going to Italy (two times! What is my problem). After starting the program about a month ago, I just progressed out of the introductory level and definitely can’t hold a conversation but know a variety of greetings, pronunciations, and essential phrases (donde esta el bano, how ignorant have I felt for not even knowing how to say that the three times I’ve been to Mexico).

Maybe Duolingo isn’t the tool to get to total fluency but it’s definitely a very easy way to prep oneself to be decently respectful if traveling to a place where English isn’t the first language, and a much better use of screen time than social media.

Manitou Beach

Last weekend we spent a day/night in Manitou Beach. This charming and sad little resort town, just minutes from Watrous and about an hour from Saskatoon, is very near and dear to my heart for several reasons. It is a place my family frequented as a summer day trip when I was a kid, and the spontaneous Plan B when Brahm’s and my very first “getaway” as a couple (camping at Greenwater Lake) got torrentially rained out. In recent years it’s been a nice place for a mini-escape in fall or winter.

On my first childhood encounter with Manitou, one of my parents had heard it was a neat place to visit so we decided to make a Saturday trip in the summer. My mom shared the plan with one of her co-workers, who told her that the pool was the best ever. I am not sure what pool the co-worker was referring to, but my mom interpreted it as being the Watrous public pool, so on the way to Manitou we stopped and spent a few hours at the outdoor pool in Watrous. Suffice to say it was nothing particularly special. We continued on to Manitou and immediately regretted wasting part of the day at the crowded pool in Watrous, as stepping into Little Manitou Lake was one of the most amazing experiences of our young lives! With a higher salinity than the Dead Sea, it’s impossible to sink, and what could be more relaxing for an adult, or fun for a kid, than to float the day away?

We eventually concluded that the pool my mom’s coworker was probably referring to was the Manitou Springs Spa pool (WARNING - link autoplays a video with sound), which filters and heats the lake water. As kids, we always just went to the free lake rather than the “expensive” pool, which we assumed was just for rich people who were staying in the hotel and wearing their hotel robes right down to the pool. Oh, what luxury. We could only dream! As an adult with disposable income I can and do stay in the hotel, use the robe, and generally prefer the heated, shrimp-free pool over the lake. Relatively speaking, a night at the hotel is a pretty good deal as it includes swim passes and a hot breakfast buffet. Our recent hotel bill, which included supper and ice cream at the unexpectedly excellent poolside cafe, came in at just under $200.

Some of the charm of Manitou Beach seems to be that time has forgotten it a bit. There are no franchises and a lot of the signs and storefronts seem like they’re from a bygone era. I don’t really feel like I’m in rural Saskatchewan when I’m there; it’s got a bit of an island vibe. It’s a truly unique community, and in my opinion a local gem that everyone in Saskatchewan should visit at least once in their lifetime.

Why, if it’s so great, did I also describe it as sad? A couple years ago, we noticed a lot of prime-looking lakefront properties for sale, for shockingly low prices. As we drove around looking at the various properties, we realized what was going on: the water level in the lake wasrising and a lot of the community was threatened with flooding. Every time I visit, I really never know if it might be the last time.

If you live in Calgary or Vancouver, a one-hour getaway to the mountains or another world wonder is pretty easy. In central Saskatchewan the options are a bit more limited, but Little Manitou Lake and its community of Manitou Beach are one-of-a-kind. Please visit this special place while you still can!

I want to ride my bicycle

It seemed like winter had arrived in Saskatoon, alas it was only the annual "tease freeze" - one hard freeze and a bit of snow before the weather warmed back up to 15ish for several weeks. I'm glad for many reasons (though as always, annoyed I had to take my tomatoes out when it's going to be sunny and warm for a few more weeks), but the top one this year might be that I wasn't ready to stop riding my bike yet.

I have owned my current bike for about 10 years but it's gotten most of its use in the past three, with an exponential increase in 2019. I began to realize how empowering it felt to not have to be tied to a car on a couple occasions last summer, and used my bike to get to most routine locations over the summer this year.

I love the feeling of using my own body for relatively fast transportation, and getting fresh air and exercise while in transit. I feel like I'm maximizing the efficiency of travel because I'm getting from A to B while also improving my physical and mental health AND increasing my energy levels. I have grown to dislike driving a lot in recent years; to me it is a high risk/low reward activity that also totally drains me of energy.

I won't go on a rant about the lack of good cycling infrastructure in Saskatoon because that's not what this post is about. I've been able in most cases to find routes that stick to lower-traffic streets without sacrificing more than a minute or two of the commute. It's still a learning process for me to take up space on the road and figure out how to maneuvre some confusing infrastructure situations but overall, I don't feel particularly unsafe biking on the road with cars. That said, I'm not ready to become a winter cyclist, and likely will never be. I will enthusiastically walk in -40 (post forthcoming) but my saskatude has its limits.

What was the secret to cycling more? As I've previously mentioned in another post, once I stopped making excuses about why I couldn't ride my bike around the city I just... started doing it, and realized it was awesome. Here's hoping for another few weeks of roads free from slush and snow.

(I have no pictures of me on a bike as an adult, so here is a picture of my dad helping me learn to use my first tricycle.)