Not sure when it happened, but it seems over the past few days fall arrived. Technically it’s been fall for a while now, but today was the first second ride that I’ve done that it actually felt like fall: leaves changing, cool gusting winds, crisp air, knee warmers, jacket, cap, etc., etc.,
Fall usually depresses me more than I already am, and this year is no different. Well, it’s a little different as I am putting my complete faith and belief in weather.com which says that the current El Niño will have Michiganderburgh dryer than usual this winter. You would think that someone who owns a fat bike would have hopes for snow, snow, snow and more snow. In my case you would be wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again. I have no problem with not seeing another snow flake the rest of my life.
Of course I am a realist; a curmudgeon; a naysayer; a dick and a jerk. So I believe that weather.com is full of shit and I will probably be digging out from my fair share of snow storms and freezing my tits off in the coming months.
Fall is the Sunday of seasons, and it leaves me with an ulceric burning in my stomach foreshadowing five or more months of darkness, snow, bitter temperatures and bone chilling Michigan winds. BUT, fall is not winter, and I am learning to accept the season’s handicaps and make the best of it. Like today: the third day in a row of cool, gusting winds. However they weren’t as bad as they have been–coming in at just around sixteen miles per hour–so I kitted up and got out for a couple of hours on the fatty.
The ride’s actual length is unknown since I left the house without my Garmin 500. I’m sure it was crap, but two hours on the fatty in high winds surely does something for the body… or at least the mind. Whether what it does to the mind is good or not is up for debate.
You cannot slow an object too heavy to move. – Buddha (possibly)
Sure, there were times riding into the wind today that I used such phrases as “fucking-fuck-fuck-fucking-shit hole-wind-fucking-fuck ass-wind,” but all in all it could have been worse. I credit a heavy me on a heavy bike. Like Buddha (possibly) said– “You cannot slow an object too heavy to move.”
Today will not go down as one of my best rides of the year, but it will go down as a ride. It was time outside on my bike, rolling miles, snapping some pics and blowing the fall stink off of me as I prepare for the lactation inducing temps of future months. Months that I will learn to accept and deal with as they happen, just like I do every year.
I was pretty happy with a few of the shots I got on today’s ride. I find it funny how where I used to get a kick out of cleaning a climb or rock garden, I now find myself geeked to get a shot of a yellow jacket on a rotting apple along the road or a photogenic herd of cows. Dumb.
Later.