Today is the kind mauzy, drizzly day in Ottawa where you viscerally recall that you’ve been meaning to outfit your rear bike wheel with a fender for ages. 

Even if you manage to avoid riding in the downpour, the road grit sticks to your clammy legs as you pedal, and vaults off the tires so reliably into a reverse skunk stripe that you arrive home in a muggy day dream, vaguely wishing you’d been washed by a torrent of rain after all. 

As you drip on the stoop, digging for keys in all the pockets except the one where you put them, you remember something wonderful : the apartment is heated and there is food inside. It’s no small thing, and we’re feeling mighty grateful for these creature comforts.