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| Sunday Morning 10:00 Backyard Style 56 degrees |
Yesterday I attended a Kentucky Derby party in Brattleboro, VT and availed myself of the mint julep station with abandon and drank an unusually large amount of bourbon and as a result I am not feeling my best today, Sunday, but I muster the energy to gear up and ride, in fact that's the best hangover cure I know, a hard ride in honest weather.
But here's the thing. It was a real ride, no bullshit, no slacking. I pushed it as best I could and relished the spirit pulse. Unfortunately, my lower back is still problematic, still on the edge of skitching out. I almost feel like I should buy a new bicycle, one with a frame and a geometry that fits me like a tailored suit.
Turkey vultures soared overhead waiting for me to expire on the road side. I did not oblige them.
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| This turkey vulture won't dine on me today |
Birds spotted: blue jay, crow, flicker, chickadee, red-winged blackbird, sparrows, turkey vulture, hawk, mallard duck, Canada goose, nuthatch, mourning dove, house finch.
No road kill today, hooray!
Part of today's ride was stopping by my childhood house (I inherited it, no one is living there) to make sure everything continues to be okay, the house not broken into, the integrity of the structure intact, etc.. A few weeks ago I began to stack the beer and soda can collection I amassed as a teenager against the living room wall.
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| Can Collection! |
Everything was copasetic so I didn't linger. The wind blew, the clouds rolled across the sun, the sap rose in the hardwoods. Flowering shrubs flowered. Daffodils and crocuses bloomed. I rode with the Niceness, my whole being focused on the motion of the spinning circle.
There's still a chill in the air. May 4th and I'm in tights with a long-sleeve fleece top over a regular biking jersey and a windbreaker vest over it all. Full finger gloves. Every plant every animal knows that spring is happening, it's just happening in cool temperatures and limited sun.
The point is that today was a utilitarian ride, a must-do, a determined foray onto tarmac. The knotty & fragile lower back notwithstanding, I felt surprisingly good and enjoyed riding along mostly empty roads, very few cars to contend with. A fine day to be alive and pedaling a bicycle across land you know.
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| Jack-in-the-Dub |
Ride Summary: 24.8 miles (38 K), 13.8 mph (lame), an hour and forty five minutes spinning.
Almighty Dubster - Pretty soon you're gonna be able to pause for a swim. Lovely photos of clouds and landscape, helpful info about the late-leafing maples. I also like the backyard perspective. Your steadfastness in the face of too much bourbon is impressive, and the Kentucky Derby! "TV Benzoid in a drop-dead suit, Dubstoevsky on a downtown train, 2-dollar pistol but the gun don't shoot, I'm in a corner on the pourin rain. 16 men on a deadman's chest, and I've been drinking from a broken cup, 2 pairs of pants and a mohair vest, I'm full of bourbon and I can't stand up." I think the can collection and the inherited ranch would go well in a Tom Waits-like song. The legend of Dubstoevsky ...might be a working title. Gimp knee and slip disk, some good looking roadkill for turkey vultures. Little do they know: The Giant of Lemonstar!
ReplyDeleteTom Waits has nothing on you, you gravelly-voiced bard & Director Sportif, "2-dollar pistol but the gun don't shoot," that's some impressive versifying!
ReplyDeleteSalam, I humbly bow before the meister: the quote is Tom Waits, "Jockey Full of Bourbon", but the gimp knee and slip disk and good looking roadkill and the can collection is all yours and mine! Scrod Waits
DeleteMore fun then a frog in a glass of milk if I do say so myself !
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