Bugger....

A lot has happened the last few weeks and I've found myself strung out trying to do more than I've had the energy and motivation to accomplish.

A group of us traveled down to White Springs in January to participate in the IDIDARIDE, which is 50+ miles of mountain biking and well suppported each year. This year we had cooler temps than last and liquid sunshine to accompany our start and finish. We did enjoy ourselves as always no matter where we go and how high or low the temperature go, and for the first time I brought out the surround sound system to accompany our outdoor movie festivities. One camper stopped by to comment that we don't play when it comes to entertainment. That would fall into the "No Shit!" category from our side of things. And, we drank some of the finest beer Stone Brewery has to offer as well as ate home made lasagna to fill our growlers.

A few days after the IDIDARIDE, I developed one of the most aggravating colds I've had in some years. Started out as bronchitis, turned into a sinus infection, and then hung around for the next 2 weeks. It took 3 weeks to get over that crap, and unfortunately it is going around still. The good news is that since my body is steadily repairing itself from that cold of sorts, I've actually been able to get in some decent miles on the bike the last few days.

On Friday of last week, Diana and I went to Thomson Trails in the afternoon since I wanted to get in at least 2 laps of riding. I only got halfway on one lap before my body said "whoa boy". The next day, Jesse, Nikki, BK, and I did the Rolling to Roberta route. I rode from the house to meet Jesse and Nikki, and we took off to meet BK in Byron. I was surprised that I felt stronger than usual given I'd been off the bike for a long time except for the day before. Once we were about 12 miles outside of Byron, BK was getting a little tired so we eased up a bit and let Jesse and Nikki carry on at a decent pace. This was BK's first time back on a bike in a while as well, so there was no reason for either of us to hurt ourselves. I wound up with 71 miles that day and felt great. I think I could have ridden at least another 20 before getting real tired, so I was extremely pleased with how well my body felt. One thing was still lingering from the cold, however, and that was constricted bronchial tubes. It was like breathing through a straw, and not the 4-barrel kind McDonald's has.

Now the funniest thing that has happend to me in a long time occured the very next day as I ventured out once again from home to ride between 40 and 50 miles. The wind wasn't terribly bad at the start, the sun was shining, but neither Jesse nor BK made it out to join me. I decided to do the Tuesday A+ route solo, crunk the iPod up a bit, and enjoyed the ride. When I got to Bible Camp Road, life got weird for me and a mini-van driver. I'm tooling along getting ready to start the first riser on this road and notice a mini-van go by me in the opposite direction. Nothing strange there. Well, the driver turns around and goes by me, then stops 30 feet in front of me in my lane. Now I'm thinking trouble is brewing. After all, we've had some really strange stuff happen in this area with motorists. Being the experienced and defensive cyclists I am, I reach for my most full water bottle as I begin to pass the van. A woman starts saying something to me as I pass but I can't understand her since my iPod is running, so I stop to hear what she has to say and pause my iPod so I can hear her say:

"You should have your ass in church!"

"Excuse me?" I say.

"You ought to have your dumb ass in church instead of our here riding a bicycle!!" she says.

In an instant of looking at this Tammy Faye Baker wanna-be double-wide of a woman who is spouting good Christian advice and language at me, I just couldn't help myself. So I squirt water at her and give her the Signum crucis and say, "bless you." Not exactly the trinitarium formula as designed and perhaps blasphemy on my part, but IMHO it was tit-for-tat. At that moment she had the look of someone who'd been shot at and missed but shit at and hit. She was completely dumbfounded. I was laughing so hard I could hardly clip in and peddle away from what was surely to become a head-turning, green vomit ejecting, gargoyle of rage and hormone filled wrath. I was worrying she'd flatten me with the mini-van to be honest, but she never did and turned around to go pray in church for my dumb cycling ass no doubt.

Another important thing to make a note of is the song that was blaring in my headphones at the time I was being given advice on how to live the straight and narrow. It was the band God Smack.................... and the song was I stand alone.................... Now that is some kind of funny coincidence, or perhaps someone is trying to tell me something afterall.