A crap ride on Saturday was followed by a day of slack and nothingness on Sunday. By Monday morning I was ready to take on some dirt roads south of town, hopefully before it got too hot.
Tag Archives | Gravel
Rapidly Aging
After a crap ride on Wednesday and a day playing catch-up with house/dad/husband duties on Thursday, I found myself unmotivated to ride before getting tires on the car Friday morning and without enough time to ride after.
Not Great But Great
After a week void of cheeks in saddle time, I was finally able to get out for a ride on Sunday. With the wind blowing steadily from the northeast at 15-20+ miles per hour I was expecting the worst, but it was somehow tolerable. I guess when you’re that hard up for a ride, anything will do.
Am I Going The Wrong Way?
I wasted much of my Thursday morning writing pointless words and posting photos to this digital fish wrap instead of riding. There have been times in the past where I’ve just said “fuck it” and climbed back into bed so as to avoid human contact and find escape in my dreams. But I’ve grown a bit lately (inward and outwards) and instead donned my kit, lubed up the undercarriage and headed out for a quick ride on dirt roads.
More Ketchup
Friday was pretty wet around these parts. So wet that I had to abort a rail trail spin due to the heavy rain. When Saturday came around, I planned on doing Friday’s ride on Saturday; a 25 to 30-mile ride on the paved Jaque rail trail out of Clare. Then I didn’t.
Looks Like I Made It
I finally slept pretty good last night and was up reasonably early this Saturday to make sure B was up and ready to get to his 9 AM referee class1.
I was also up early because it was the first Saturday of the 2018/19 Premier League season AND I wanted to get out for a ride before it got too hot.
Premier League footy + a ride = a great Saturday!
Snoozeless, Boozeless, & Lazy
I’ve been sleeping like complete shit as of late. Even taking my regular dose of sleep medicine leaves me tossing, turning, bloated, and gassy. OK, the bloated and gassy part is pretty normal, but the tossing and turning could stop any time now.
I know over the span of Operation Boozeless™ (which is in day 26 of a self-imposed 28 booze ban, thank you very much) I’ve been drinking more caffeine in the form of coffee and Pepsi Zero Sugar, but I usually stop by noon or so. Yesterday I was up at 6 AM and then worked 8.5 hours at the shop slinging bikes and STILL couldn’t fall to sleep. I really don’t know why I’m talking about my lack of sleep. I should probably move on. Yes, I’ll move on—I rode my bike today.
Creak, Creak, Creak
Friday Morning Preface
It’s currently 52 71 minutes and counting past departure time for my ride. Bottles are filled, chain lubed, camera battery and SD card loaded, and my kit laid out. Yet here I sit drinking lukewarm cold coffee and writing about how I’ve not left yet. Idiot.
Insanity, Stats, & A Ride
I worked at the shop on Monday so of course I came home with a sore back, sore feet and peopled the hell out. As my grandmother always said: “It’s hell getting old.” And as I’ve always said: “I hate people.” I seriously don’t know how full-time shop employees do it without losing their minds and end up never wanting to ride their bike again.
It’s been said that 58.2% of all bike shop customers are insane. 39% of bike shop customers are calling or stopping in shops attempting to buy or obtain free things that have little to nothing at all to do with cycling. And 40% of all customers expect their bike repaired while they wait or by the next day during the busiest time of the year.
I could go into detail about some of the amaze-ball fucked up shit I’ve seen and heard recently, but that really wouldn’t be professional and would violate the Customer/Bike Shop Buffoon Confidentiality Act (C.B.S.B.C.A.) that was passed by a high-ranking, strong-armed, lawyered-up group of dealer/shop officials at Interbike 2007. So I’ll just move on. I will say that bike shops are top-notch weirdo magnets, much respect to those who own or work full-time in shops and have to deal with people every day. People are the worst… except for the good ones.
NOTE: The above statistics were recently cited in the article “What in the fuck made you open a bike shop?” which was published in the May 2018 issue of the National Journal of Bicycle Sales, Service, and Mental Illness1.
On to Tuesday…
After a Week
It took a while, a week to be exact, but I finally got back in the saddle. And it felt great.
After a day spent working at the shop on Thursday, I was up early on Friday to make Wifey breakfast before she left for work and to get some writing and photo editing done before I headed out for a ride north of the Cul-De-Sac-Shack.