This week has been a blur of riding, hiking, drinking, self-pity, anger, and resentment. I know I rode my bike once (Monday?). I also know that Tuesday was spent at the bike shop getting a crap ton of stuff done to the Boone, and that Wednesday I rolled down the driveway, into the cul-de-sac, said “fuck it,” rolled right back up the driveway into the garage, changed out of my kit and went to find peace and solitude with a walk in the woods.
In my last post I recounted going out for a hike walk in the woods on Thursday with my camera. I was finally starting to rid myself of the cold and flu shit that I had going on, and I was happy to be goofing off in the woods. Still, I longed for a ride. Thankfully after spending my free time on Friday mowing grass (for the last time?), I would finally get to ride on Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday. Thrice as nice!
As I mentioned in my last post I was sort of sick, then that turned into balls out sick for a day or so, then by Friday the illness went away, and I was stoked. The snow we got on Wednesday had melted, and I got out for some muddy dirt road rides on Friday and Saturday and felt really good. Then on Sunday we spent the day freezing our asses off in Bay City watching B take part in a one day soccer tournament (they won it, yeah). Then around 3 AM on Monday I woke up with all sorts of sludge in my sinuses, and full on body aches. Oh yeah boy, the illness that had been gone, was now indeed back. There was much mental cussing.
Most, if not all, of the dirt road rides I do north of town take me on North Crawford Road at some point, especially now that I live spitting distance from the paved portion of Crawford; a portion that I am on for just a nugget hair over a mile until it turns to blessed dirt.
The week thus far has been a three day blur of riding, house shit, chores, heat, humidity, traveling, soccer practices, and AC repairmen. None of that is all that bad except for the AC needing repaired during one of the hottest summers I’ve experienced in my almost six years here in Michigan. Thankfully we had some sort of appliance, warranty bullshit and that covered the cost of the repair. Now just to hope that the thing holds on for the summer without having to have the unit replaced!
I affectionately call buildings like the one above “dirt road hump shacks.” Barn meets shack, meets shed, meets place where farm boys and girls run off to with their significant others to snuggle and cavort on the sly.
In my life I have been known to make grandiose statements and decisions that I was 100% certain of, only to change my mind later.
The life of a crap cyclist is all about choices. These choices can make or break even the crappest of planned rides.
Knowing full well that most of my Friday ride time window, would be taken up with the closing on our new crib, I made sure to sneak out for another quick spin on Thursday. It wasn’t the greatest of rides, and I was feeling sluggish from being a slug, but it got the job done.
I woke up Friday rocking some sort of allergy/head cold thing. I was less than thrilled, but it’s not too bad and hasn’t slowed me down too much. Of course it’s hard to get slowed down when doing nothing. Saturday morning we got a dusting of now, so I figured I’d wait it out and see if it would melt. The sun came out and the snow did indeed melt, but with the temperature struggling to get into the low thirties, and the wind gusting out of the north, I had no desire to be out freezing on my bike. Instead I grabbed my camera–so as to take some crap photos–and did a short hike around one of our local county parks to get out and blow the stink off me.
