meeting yassir

Had to work today, a Sunday. One of the rules on weekends is that out eight-hour shift has to cover the hours from 8am-noon. I started working 6am-2pm, and then one of my coworkers had a childcare conflict and worked 5am-1pm, and got away with it. So those are the hours I work weekends now.

As I was driving home, The Excellent Wife (TEW) was heading up to see her mom in Bergen County, but she told me that it was a glorious day and that I needed to take a ride, so I did my usual 20-miler from home. If you check out the ride page, you'll see I was unusually fast, much faster than my recent rides.

I'm blaming Yassir. I was pedaling along, and saw some rider coming up behind at faster-than-my-pace. I pulled over to let him pass, but it turned out that he was pulling up to chat and ride together for a bit. He recognized me; we've evidently ridden together before, and he knew that I knew some of the Major Taylors.

After a bit, we got into a paceline; I followed him, then I got in front and spent about everything I had, the he got in front and could have dropped me, but didn't when he noticed I was falling behind; we held a pace for a few miles until I turned around.

Before we did, we stopped for selfies. His came out way better than mine, so here's his:

What I didn't think to say to him then, but I'm saying now (I'm emailing him the link to this post), is: consider joining the Princeton Freewheelers. It's the club I ride with, and there are rides for all personalities and levels. Dues are just $25/year... and if you join and come along on rides I do, I'll introduce you to everybody, except maybe a couple of grouches.

Glad I met you again, sir.