After Sunday’s ride, I entered a two-day period of nothingness. Other than catching up on some stuff, getting some house chores done, and another doctor’s appointment there was not much going on. Well, I guess there was the rodeo on Tuesday night. Yeah, you read right, Mr. Artsy-Fartsy, Smiths listening, left winger, shaved legged bicycle boy went to a rodeo.
The promise I made to myself to get back into the routine of riding and writing was short-lived. The riding part held up, but I fell short with the writing. I got caught up in processing photos from last Thursday night’s Alma MTB Time Trial, riding, taking and processing my own photos from rides and a rainy Saturday hike. There was also some bitterness and depression, too many beers, and bidding farewell to my friend Mike at his memorial service on Sunday.
Monday morning’s schedule had a variety of crap that needed done and I was content not to ride. Until I wasn’t. I found myself caught up and feeling guilty for not riding, so I kitted up for a rare late afternoon ride on dirt roads and pavement north of town.
This summer I have truly lowered the bar for this blog. I know, I know, that’s seemingly impossible, but I’ve done it. Having said that, I have a list of excuses (and rebuttals) ready to go…
It seems like it’s been forever since I headed south of town to ride. I got in the routine of some northern loops, and then with all the flooding we had a few weeks ago, many of the roads were jacked up and impassable, so I continued riding north of town, or worse yet, not riding at all.
Fun fact for you (not really a fact, more of a story), about 3 years ago I bought a white button down shirt at a local department store to wear for a job interview. Or maybe it was a funeral? Either way, it was for something un-fun. Anyway, I bought the shirt, got it home, took the 2,000,000 pins and plastic clips out of it, tried it on and realized that the sleeves came up to my elbows. Shit, I need to return it.
I gathered up the shirt, the pins, and the plastic clips off the bed, shoved it into the bag and headed back to the store.
The past week has been a blur. It started well enough with an awesome dirt road ride last Wednesday, then we started getting nightly thunderstorms and things went pear shaped. Continue reading
After a very rainy and busy weekend, I looked forward to getting out on Monday morning for a quick ride. Mondays are by nature busy, but I needed some saddle time to blow the weekend slack off of me and burn some calories.
I took the day off the bike on Thursday and headed down to the shop to fetch the PrOcal that was getting some wrench love. The day off also gave me a chance to rest my left calf which had been giving me some issues while riding. The rest of my Thursday free time was spent running errands and doing summertime dad stuff with B.
After that day of sloth, I was anxious to get back on the bike on Friday morning.
I was proud of myself for getting up early to do some work on Wednesday so that I could get out for a ride before it got too warm and windy. Then just as I was filling my bottles I could hear the distant sound of thunder. Shit.