After B’s soccer match on Saturday I stuffed my ever-expanding body into my ever shrinking kit and headed out for a quick 25 mile ride before dinner. As I rolled along dirt roads in the crisp air that qualifies for spring in Michigan I realized that I had ridden right through the Boone’s 1 year birthday last month without any acknowledgement whatsoever. I believe we were moving that day, so I guess I have an excuse. However I hope to make up for all that here today.
I, er I should say we, are finally getting completely settled into the new crib and totally digging it on so many different levels. As a bonus I finally have a desk for my Mac and junk, and it only took me four hours to put together. Thanks Staples! (Not really, maybe next time you could get it shipped in 500 different pieces instead of just 400?). In any event, I have a desk and it looks swell in my office. Even better than finally getting settled in a new crib is getting in two-days in a row in of riding.
The past week has absolutely flown by! It seems that everything has been moving non-stop: house walk-through, house closing, moving boxes, traveling for B’s soccer, moving day, un-packing, sorting, arranging, getting things done to get our old home on the market, picking up a new lawn mower, mowing the small patch of grass at our old hose (15 minutes), mowing the large patch of grass at our new home (45+ minutes), taking B to soccer practices, getting some light “at-large” web work done, and doing all the other stuff that is expected of a father/husband done.
After a crap week of riding, it felt amazingly good to get out for a second day in a row on the Boone. Slightly warmer temps, less wind, and remembering to actually wear the appropriate base layer helped me go a few miles further than yesterday and get in a ball hair under 30 very unimpressive miles. Yeah, my hip/back still hurt a bit, but screw it, I was riding my bike when I should have been home packing, updating the shop’s website, the soccer club’s site, getting a flyer finished, packing, doing laundry, painting the basement, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner.
Spring in Michigan means that even when there’s no snow, sleet, or freezing rain, ride time often greets you with 32˚ temps and a crisp 10+ MPH wind coming out of the north/west. With a heavy sigh into the vat of coffee raised to my rotund face, I reluctantly made my way up to the Chamber of Farts™ to strap myself into Part 1 of my winter riding gear (spring ensemble): wool socks, fat condensing base layer, lined bibs, and Craft WindStopper base layer*. Then down to the big box of bike shit for Part 2: riding jacket, cool weather gloves, vintage Bikeman.com skull-cap and my regular Pearl Izumi kicks. With that, me and the Boone were out the door…
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.
As much as spring tries to come to Michiganderburgh, winter just won’t let it. Wednesday was yet another one of those April days here: snow, freezing rain, sleet, rain, and slush. There are signs that spring is here, but they need to fight through the heaps of wintry puke to reveal themselves.
The past four or five days have been spent dealing with one storm after another: rain, snow, gusting winds, sleet, cold temps, and a bout of the black dog like I haven’t dealt with in a while. Obviously the black dog part was the worst, but the end is in sight, and for that I am grateful.
This week is B-Man’s Spring Break. Sadly, it hasn’t been all that spring-like, nor are we “spring-breaking” anywhere due to fact we’re buying a house in fifteen days’ time and moving in eighteen. However all is not lost, because B has been enjoying sleeping in and goofing off, and he did go on a fun day trip with Wifey and some of his friends yesterday.
After a ride on Saturday which was confined to the paved roads north of town, I was looking forward to venturing off onto the dirt and gravel on Easter Sunday.