Last night I was once again banished to the Chamber of Farts: the guest bedroom where Wifey forces me to sleep when my digestive system decides that it wants to spew forth noxious gas time and time again for eight to twelve hours (which is pretty much every night). So I was pleasantly surprised that Wifey chose to enter my stank chamber early this morning for some snuggle time. Sadly it was NOT an early morning booty call, but it was pretty delicious that she braved the heavily scented C.o.F. to be with me before flying out to D.C. later in the morning.
Initial snuggles were followed by a failed attempts (by me) to turn the snuggle fest into something more, which was followed by chatting about the coming day and week. “What do you have planned today?” she asked. “Nothing much, I’d like to get a mountain bike ride in, but with you gone I might end up sticking closer to home.” We chatted a bit more and discussed how I could probably get in one big lap at MMCC and B would be OK. Then I farted, Wifey got pissed off, left the room, I confiscated the extra pillows, waved the eye watering stink away with the sheet and went back to sleep for another hour.
Once I was finally awake I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. My heart and mind just wanted a ride anything, but my balls were craving singletrack goodness. I have learned over the years that when it comes riding–always trust your balls (or lady type sex bits of equal trustworthiness). I trusted my balls and (for once) they did not let me down. Hooray for balls (and lady type sex bits of equal trustworthiness)!
After a cup of coffee and my customary three to four dumps of feecus I bid Wifey farewell and safe travels, told B not to do anything stupid while I was gone, and headed out for a quick lap at MMCC on the Superfly.
I had NO expectations from this ride. I assumed it would be like every mountain bike ride I’ve done in the past two years; filled with back pain, self loathing and regret, followed by a day long depression. Fortunately I was wrong.
From the get get-go I felt good and the trail was in PERFECT shape. All the adjustments that I made, unmade and made again to my bike in oder to make it more comfortable seemed to be correct, my usual back pain was nearly non existent and I was actually having a good time riding singletrack. And THAT made my day.
Well, it made my day for a couple of hours, before I headed to Deerfield Park with B to ride bikes and do some quick fishing…
B does well at school (straight A’s and honor roll, no thanks to me) and digs sports (dude LOVES his soccer football and is quite good at it) but he also LOVES playing on his Xbox; something that I don’t get all that much, but given our thirty-two year age difference I think that is understandable. However there are very, VERY few times that I suggest we go outside and do something together that he is disappointed and says he would rather keep playing.
B has been getting more and more interesting in using his bike to commute to his friend’s house, and riding in general, so I thought today would be a good time to take advantage of that interest with a lap of the somewhat tame trails at Deerfield Park.
A lot of friends and family ask me why I don’t push B to ride his bike more. My answer is always the same: I’ve been riding, racing and exploring on my bike for over twenty years. I’ve always feared that pushing him to ride would just freak him out and we would develop one of those fucked up, overbearing father/son relationships that kids love so much. There’s nothing not to love about riding a bike (especially on dirt) but I want him to find that out for himself, not hate me for wanting him to ride a bike and therefore want to go Menendez on me later in life.
In any event, we went, we rode, we had a good time and B killed it on the trail. I taught him a bit about when and how to change gears and he was a perfect student. It was so awesome to see him out riding his bike in the woods and to see how stoked he was when he got things right. I’m sure I’ll be a bit more eager to ride with him again and I can only hope that the feeling is mutual.
Aside from Wifey having to split town for the week, today was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. A day that featured sixteen miles of pain-free singletrack, two bike rides, hanging out with B, making up some good food and a tasty beverage or two.
Later.