Ok,
I realize I haven’t posted in a month!
It’s not like I’ve been slacking off; work has been busy, I’m on a church
committee that’s taken up a lot of my time (searching for a new minister) and I’ve
been working to raise funds for my first charity ride of the year, the National
Capital Tour de Cure for Diabetes.
I’m
working hard to raise $1500 and ride 108 miles to raise awareness for diabetes.
Do you know someone that has it? Maybe you have it yourself. It’s a silent
killer in the US and more people are being diagnosed with diabetes every year. Help
me reach my goal and help to find a cure! As little as $5 can be donated
through this website with a credit card and I’d really appreciate your help. Come on, I’d do it for you!
Scattered
thoughts
Old
man winter is taking bloody forever to move on, here in Central Virginia. We’re a week past the first day of Spring and
the night time temperatures are still either side of freezing and I have to
scrape frost off the windshield before heading to work. It seems unusual to me;
my birthday is the day before the first day of Spring and I know I’m usually in
short sleeves around this time of year, at least occasionally.
MB
and I decided to watch the late news the other night and the local weather guy
came on to tell us that, “The high for the day was 37 degrees which is 22
degrees below the normal for this year.”
Aha! No wonder it doesn’t feel right, it’s not nearly as warm as it
usually is. He then went on to say that, based on the long range computer
models, the temperatures would remain about a “month behind” where they should
be on the spring warm up, at least for the next four to six weeks. So, it feels like February right now, and
it’s going to feel like March next month although it’s really April. Great!
I
was hoping to start bike commuting a couple of days a week this month but I’m
going to wait till the low is in the forties. I realize I’m a fair weather
biker. Please don’t hate.
Some
people complain about the weather, others just observe it, some work in it but
no one does anything about it. (Although depending upon who you believe,
humankind has been doing something about it for about 100 years – mostly
causing it to change for the worse.)
My
dad was a bricklayer, and for him the weather was mostly about getting a
paycheck. When the temperature gets too
low, it becomes difficult to make mortar which is used to lay brick. If it
freezes, you get weak joints and houses fall apart. If it’s raining, the mortar becomes too wet
and you get weak joints and houses fall apart. But for the worker, the bad
weather means “I don’t work so I don’t get paid.” I would have made a lousy
bricklayer; I hate other things having an impact on whether or not I get to
work.
At
least, I’m working….
On
the bright side, the last two weekends have had at least one day where the
temperature snuck up to 50 degrees or so. That’s warm enough for me to ride and
I even talked MB into joining me for both rides.
While
having been very happily married for the last 12 years, MB and I have not really
had any hobbies to share. I’m completely open to it, in fact I’d welcome it! We’ve
talked about playing golf together from time to time but she says that she’d be
intimidated playing with me because I’m so much better. I keep trying to
explain to her that golf is the hardest game in the world, that it humbles
everyone who plays it, and that you have to really work just to suck at it. Perhaps after we retire when my game is
completely gone…….
Admittedly,
I have a secondary motivation for getting MB into cycling – more gear. Nearly
every cyclist that catches the bug becomes addicted to the gear. Clothing, gadgets, energy gels, and magazines
are all on the shopping list. Bike shops understand this and send emails daily,
touting the latest deals.
 |
| Constant temptation |
And
bikes are the worst. I recently read that the number of bikes any of us need is
expressed in an equation B=n-1, where B is the number of bikes we need (want)
while n is the current number currently owned. The corollary to this equation is B=SO-1,
where B is the number of bikes we need (want) and SO is the number of bikes at
which our Significant Other will leave us.
These same equations transfer over to most other addictions – classic cars,
guns, pool cues, tennis rackets. I think the B integer is inversely
proportional to the price tag of the addiction, too. As the price rises, the
quantity decreases.
I
also recognize that MB is immune to all this stuff. She is truly a rock when it comes to handling
finances and sticking to a budget. Don’t misunderstand, it’s not that she won’t
spend money and won’t let me. She just won't allow us to spend it
needlessly. Dammit.
So
any way, we took some rides…….
Back
in the day, MB was a bicycle commuter up in Northern VA/DC. She used to commute
to her job in downtown Washington from Arlington, and back, nearly every day.
 |
| DC - Where decisions are made with no thought given to consequences |
Cyclists didn’t get a whole lot of slack back then, particularly from taxi
drivers. She was taught to carry her bike lock in her left hand while riding so
that if she was squeezed by a driver, she had something to rap on their car and
get their attention. (Cars were made of pretty stout sheet metal back then; if
you tried that same trick today, you might shatter somebody’s quarter
panel. How cool! Note to self: buy a
lock when the next bike shop email comes out!)
The
first ride we did together was on the roads near our house. We live out in a rural suburb with lots of
two lane blacktop and there are lots of cyclists out here. As a result, drivers
are pretty aware and give a wide berth most of the time. I wanted to make sure
she got her legs under her more than anything, before we tackled bigger rides.
We
ended up riding about 10 miles or so, on a wider road nearby; it has really
generous shoulder and since the road is only a few years old, the pavement is
excellent. MB got to practice her pedal
stroke, try to ride in a pace line, albeit a small one, and generally get
comfortable with the gearing systems of today by riding my Trek hybrid. It was great fun and a wonderful start.
The
second ride was in a completely different spot.
MB works for one of the largest employers in the state and their HQ is
situated in an office park called West Creek that has a really nice road system
with wide lanes, shoulders, and great vistas.
RABA, the Richmond Area Bike Club to which I belong, has a group ride in
the area every week with something for everyone. MB suggested we ride those
roads the Sunday following our first ride.
Now,
I hate to drive my bike someplace in order to take a ride. Seems counter to the entire cycling thing to
me, somehow. But the ride over there and back would be longer than the first
ride we took so I agreed. We loaded up the bikes and drove over to West Creek,
offloading in one of the parking lots of her company. MB took the lead as we pedaled onto the road
since I had no idea where anything led.
We’d
traveled just over a kilometer when one of the security guys pulled us over,
asking for ID. We’d left everything in the car, of course, including MB’s
company badge. After offering to return to the car to show him, he just asked
for the make and model of the car along with the plate number to check on us
and then sent us on our way. The only downside to the exchange was that I’d
failed to downshift before stopping and this lead to a rather sketchy start but
I quickly recovered.
We
settled into a nice smooth pace as we rode back and forth along the one section
of road, along with a large number of other cyclists. Our ride totaled just
over 13 miles and we completed that in an hour. I’m pretty impressed with MB’s
ability to hold a decent pace on that hybrid. We’re planning to do a couple of
group rides in the next 6 weeks or so, including one of 50 miles, and I’m
confident that she’ll be ready to get after them!
Now,
if I could just get her thinking about new bikes………
