Pam and I are doing something different this year for Thanksgiving. We’re going on vacation! But being gone over Thanksgiving is traumatic for our dear sweet daughter who thrives on routine, so we went all out and did the big Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday instead. Because of all the preparation and cleaning we had to do (just for our two grownish kids, one boyfriend, and one “friend”), Saturday was a waste as far as fun stuff (cycling) was concerned, but it didn’t really matter because the weather was horrible.
Sunday, however, was an entirely different matter. As we headed for church, the sun was out, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the wind was calm. The whole way there, I was thinking to myself, “Boy, it looks like it’s gonna be a nice day and I’m not going to get to ride!”. By the time church was over, the wind had kicked up pretty badly, and as we stopped for gas on the way home ($12.22 for two weeks driving the Prius!), I told Pam that it was probably a good thing that it was so windy or I might just go nuts because I couldn’t justify a ride.
By mid-afternoon, I had the ham on the Green Egg, and was puttering around helping Pam where I could when I noticed that the wind had dropped. At that point, all I could do was look wistfully at the lonely looking road bike hanging in the garage and lament that because of the upcoming vacation it was guaranteed that I wouldn’t have a chance to get on it until at least December 6th. By that time, it will have been just at a month since the last time that bike has been ridden. Bummer….
Ok. Enough of the whining already. This morning was a typical Monday morning. I got up and ran 5k, then hopped on the Marin for an uneventful ride in. The temperature was a little warmer than I was expecting from last night’s weather forecast. I guess the cloud cover kept it from dropping as low as it had been expected, but those clouds did make for a dark and dreary trip to work. Just to be sure I was safe, I used all my lights this morning.
For some reason, on the commute home tonight I had two cars pull out in front of me. I was expecting the 2nd, because it was backing out of a driveway, and another car had just backed out of the same drive and pulled away. The girl was obviously distracted by the what her friend/parent was doing. The first, however, I had a hard time understanding. He pulled out of a side street right in front of me. I’m not sure if he didn’t see me or what…but I had both front lights going and the spoke lights turned on. I would like to think he just didn’t see me or misjudged my speed rather than that he was just being a jerk. Oh well…..
Commuter count today: 3 besides myself
God bless…
TW
