Today's the official release of my website widgetpro.io, and it almost didn't happen! Read the story to hear about the epic adventure I went on today to ensure I could make this happen.

Today was one of the most important deadlines I’ve ever set for myself–the official public launch of my business and this new website. I had everything planned out to launch in the afternoon today, but had a few unexpected obstacles that almost made the launch be delayed. Those obstacles amounted to a rather fun and very ridiculous adventure, so I wanted to share the story!

The challenges began yesterday when our family car got a nail in the tire and needed a patch. I was down at our mountain town’s co-working center working through my queue of modifications required before going live with my site when I decided to head home for dinner and to continue working at home. I discovered the low air in my tire and had to make a decision to try driving home and risk damaging the tire, or to have the nearby auto shop patch it up and pick it up the next day. I chose to go with the latter. Unfortunately, that meant walking home a few miles up a mountain, and returning back down the mountain the same way. The plan was to bike down the following morning and pick up the vehicle then head back and comb over widgetpro.io prior to launch. But another unexpected event made that a bit tricky! (Below is a picture of the trail I took home up the mountain yesterday–before the snow.)

We woke up this morning in Nederland, CO to a beautiful snowy landscape and along with it, winds whipping snow across the sky at what must have been 50+ mph. The bike ride had to happen, but I figured I’d wait out the storm. But then our power went out. It wasn't clear if it would be a short outage, or something much longer, so I decided to brave the ice fest outside and bike into town.

If you’ve never biked in the mountains when the wind was whipping snow through the air at 50 mph, I’ve got to say I don’t recommend it. While I was covered adequately head to toe (I’ve been a winter bike commuter for ages), the wind was so intense that it would roll me backwards back up the mountain. I’d luckily thought to wear my ski goggles, so I was bracing and journeying onward, but had to stop when a particularly strong gust of wind swept through as it would knock me off of my bike. The bike ride, which only covered 3 miles, took about 1 hour because of the winds. Total piece of cake any other day, but not on days like this where Christmas trees escaped the grocery store lot and rolled across the town streets, or where I even saw a poor ground squirrel get swept from under his feet momentarily by a particularly strong wind (I made sure he got back to the dried roadside shrubs). 

But in the end I made it! And I wanted to share that story to let you know that I will always ride my bike through a winter storm for you as well and follow through on my commitments. Thank you for checking out my brand new site and reading about my adventure today. I’ll be adding content steadily through Jan. 15, so all CSS tips, tutorials, and other resources will be free through then while the library is a bit slim. :-) If you are curious about my other services, you can visit this page. My widget shop is live, but I will not be processing new orders on "Coming Soon" items until Jan. 1. Please schedule a meeting on my calendar if you'd like to have a quick chat, just to say hi, or to see if there's anything Widget Pro can help you out with.

And if you’re at all curious about winter biking, this was my bike gear:

• Insulated sleeves (Bike-specific gear to cover your arms)
• 1 heavy-weight wool shirt
• 1 sweat-wicking shirt
• 1 down jacket
• 1 raincoat
• Warm underlayer pants
• Water-resistant pants
• Warm helmet-friendly bike cap
• Safety vest
• Shoe covers (Protects against wind and water)
• 2 pairs of gloves (1 liner, and 1 heavy duty)
• Wool socks
• Ski goggles
• Neck bandana