The past few days were a steady whirlwind of driving, soccer, more driving, visiting family, and more driving. Finally around 2 PM Monday my world calmed down, and around 4 PM the first of many beers were cracked as I mentally decompressed from it all.
These days, it seems that I find myself typing things about busy schedules, traveling around Michigan for soccer, and a subsequent lack of quality riding more and more. This post is no different. Last week I got out for a few rides, including one hell of a fun mountain bike ride at MMCC, but then the weekend came and that meant two days of 5:30 AM wakeups, driving, spectating, cheering for, and photographing B’s soccer games. Not going to complain about that, that’s all great stuff, especially since I watched B’s U13 team make it the whole way to the Michigan State Cup U13 D2 Finals on Sunday. They lost 4-3, but to make it that far was a hell of an accomplishment, and B had excellent games in both the Semifinal and Final playing as a winger and a right back at times.
It was nearly a full week since I last rode my bike. The break was not planned, nor was it enjoyed. It was five days of rain, high winds, cool November-like temps, a busy travel soccer schedule with B, and a nice bout of “who gives a f*ck?” ennui. However, per usual, just when I thought that I might never actually ride my bike again, I found myself rolling out from the cul-de-sac onto the roads of rural Michigan.
There has been little time to get any miles in on the bike for a variety of reasons, including a home tournament for B-Man over the weekend that had us at the fields most of the weekend.
Tuesday marked one week since I last rode my bike. It also marked the last day I broke a sweat doing anything other than breaking a fever (or wind). The days that weren’t marred by illness were marred by heavy rain, high winds, or traveling for B’s soccer matches. And the days not marred with any of those things, were marred by a much dreaded, mentally crippling overnight trip down to Chicago to hang out with Wifey for a night while she was away at a work conference.
After last Tuesday’s ride, the rest of the week was lost to illness and shit weather. Thursday night I finally got more than 2 hours of sleep, as a result I felt the best I had in days on Friday. Not “let’s go for a ride” good, but good enough to catch up on some adulting, then hang with B-Man and Jake (the dog) in the yard of the Cul-de-sac Shack, capturing some of the backyard nature that can be found around our home with my camera. Due to a complete lack of doing anything, all of today’s images are from that afternoon of backyard slack.
After an OK start to last week, the riding sort of petered out; first due to weather, and then to a hectic soccer schedule that included two games on Saturday, lots of driving, and 14+ hours away from home. All that stuff was good of course and I eventually got out to ride Sunday, and both soccer and riding allowed me to bag a few firsts.
I can guarantee you that when I look back on 2017, this week will NOT be in my top ten. Since Sunday the week was spent indoors as rain, snow, and high winds swirled incessantly over Michigan like the tongue of a weather making cunning linguist.
That’s not to say SOME good didn’t happen.
Last Friday Wifey and I went out for a couple of beers before dinner at a local college bar/pizza place. It was fun to hang out with her, talk one on one, and catch up on stuff at the end of the week.
In my last post I was riding the high of coming off an excellent (enough) month of riding. Because of that high I thought I was mentally prepared for the predicted drop in temperatures, rain, snow, and lack of outside riding that the rest of this week would surely be offering. I was wrong.
