It's been a terribly busy month. No real reasons, just a lot of excuses for not posting. Mostly because I haven't been writing. Yes, I've had some good ideas. Yes, I've wanted to write. Just not enough time. Too tired in the evenings to get my mind around the ideas. So I've decided to scrap the old posts and start fresh.

My Bill Jenson post of yesterday is important. It's how Mr. Jensen starts his book, at least aside from his prologue. Get the book. Read it. Do something about it. I am.

I started today with big plans. Walk the dogs. Ride my bike. Golf a little. Do some carpentry. Go see a movie. Well, I did get to three of these things. It's impossible to avoid Champ. He is my four-year-old yellow lab. He love walks. When I'm home in the morning after 8:00 the simple act of putting on my shoes just about drives Champ crazy. He starts to run around my bedroom with great enthusiasm. Getting in his way during this phase can get a person knocked down. It's happened to me more than once. Seeing it happen to someone else is much more enjoyable, often creating a light-hearted laughter from everyone but the victim. So Champ got his walk.

The bike ride was easier to avoid. I got distracted for a while. I sat in my big, comfortable chair and put my feet up for an extended period. I thought about how many articles of clothing I'd have to get into for a ride on this sub-freezing day. I just about decided to forego my ride. Then I decided to not be such a slug. It took a good 45 minutes from that point to the time I was standing over my bike, resetting my trip meter, ready to ride.

There was a thick fog hanging in the valley. I had hoped that it would clear by noon. My ride began about 12:30. It was still foggy as I began. The heavy, moist cloud I rode through was very cold. Extremely so. I was surprised. My first two miles were downhill. Not much effort. Lots of wind. I stopped just after 3 miles to put on my neck gator. Also, my sunglasses were fogged over and frozen. Something to do with condensation, I suspect, though I don't know the specifics of the science. I do know that I couldn't see. It's amazing the power that fog has to confuse. I was on a road that I've ridden many times. It veered to the left. Earlier than seemed possible. I proceded straight and wondered why the road had changed to dirt. That didn't seem right. I stopped just in time and avoided a nasty spill. The foggy glasses had to go. I seriously contemplated turning around and getting back to my warm, cozy house.

Not having fogged spectacles helped. It helped a lot. The gator was of great comfort, also. I continued my ride. The oddometer on my bike computer was resting at 2332 for the past week. I'm happy to have traveled that far on my bike since acquiring the computer last June. It was always my goal to get past 2000 miles before I stopped riding for the year. I'm now trying to get to 2500 before the end of December. It's a real possibility, but not if I go home just because of some blinding fog and freezing cold weather. What's that all about?

The next five miles were the toughest. With my new ability to see I noticed ice crystals forming on my sleeves and legs. That condensation things is really cool and, in this case, just plain cold. Finally, at about the 8 mile mark, I did break into some sunshine. The glasses went back on and the ice went away. I checked my mileage total just in time to see 2344 on the computer. I watched as the display changed to 2345. That was fun. It's a cool number. The sunshine helped me to get in a few more miles than I'd planned. By the time I'd finished the ride the computer stopped at 2367. I'd traveled 35 miles for the day. A good accomplishment considering that I really wanted to turn around 32 miles earlier. I had lost touch with my left foot by the end of the ride. Peeling off my shoes and three pairs of socks I felt some very cold toes. It took a good 15 minutes before full feeling returned. Nothing is black, thank goodness. I really need to do something about foot warmth on these cold days.

I finished the day at the local, small, uncrowded movie theatre watching a newlly released flick. But that's a different story........
10:06:12 PM    comment []