last ride for the year.

 

When I get a picture like that, it leads. Thanks, Mike.

I work in healthcare, and even when we get holidays (and we don't get many), somebody's gotta cover, and their holiday gets moved. Today was New Year's Holiday for me, and yesterday, The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I both decided that it would be a good idea for me to ride with The Old Guys (which is what we call 'em), Team Social Security (which is what they call themselves), the folks that ride together three times per week on weekdays.

Mike, above, notwithstanding, there weren't a lot of the Old Guys on this ride; there were a number of the B and B+ riders from the club, looking for a ride on a day that several of us had off from work. Joe's ride was capped at 10, and all the spots were full. But skies were grey and temps were raw at the start, and there was a half a drip of rain. We decided to see if it passed.

Why can't I get a decent picture of Jen O?

 

The half-drip of rain seemed to pass, but the weather was still raw, if not actually freezing. We took off on Joe's route to the Jackson Wawa, and maintained a pace that was perhaps a smidge higher than the advertised. It didn't seem to matter, everybody kept up, and there was conversation much of the way.

We got to Jackson in good order.

...but it was remarked that the corner of the parking lot that always seems to be sunny was in shadow today.

(Hey, it's my blog. OF COURSE there are gonna be bike pics.)

O the way back, the sun came out... but one of our number had a flat, and rather than fix it on this cold day, he called his wife to pick him up. The remainder of us went back to the start at Etra Park.

We'd had a headwind coming out, so I counted on a tailwind on the way back, but Aeolus didn't cooperate when we were on Herbert Road. Laura pulled me much of the way. "Nice pull, Headwinds", I remember remarking at the intersection. It was, indeed, a nice pull.

We got back. Go look at the Ride Page.

If you're not a regular reader of Laura's blog, you might not know that she's blowing glass, of all things. She got a haul of colored rods for Christmas to play with at the glass works.

 

She doesn't think she's very good. I say that with messing around with rocks, fire, and wind (because what do you think blowing glass entails?), she's treading on the coattails of magic, and any time she actually gets the stuff to do anything close to what she wants, she's succeeded in taming the elemental forces. I'm right, of course. I'm eager to see what she does with that handful.

So, with that last ride, I've got 4200+ miles over 155 rides (some of which were only about three miles long), for 296 hours in the saddle for the year. Not bad, for a guy who works full time and doesn't commute on his bike. Good enough for me.