Walking back from the grocery store I begin to realize how warm it is. Freakishly warm. Gloves off. Hat off. Jacket unzipped. And even more amazing is the fact there is no wind. None. New Mexico is windy, as is much of the west, so anyone who rides a lot knows just what this means.
I speed up and unload at the house, open the van, retrieve the bike, assemble the bike and start the great hunt for my kit. I’ve ridden once in the last few months, and that was a strange combination of ride and photo-recon. Today will just be pushing the pedals.
My legs are sore from the run/hike so I set no expectation for myself. Just spin. Enjoy it. But the feel of the bike comes back and on the horizon, in front of me, I see the faint outline of another rider. Will I catch them? Three layers plus wind and I’m set. Gloves are good above thirty-five. The bike needs a lube but I’m out. The chain making a light rubbing sound.
Out, down, over and up. The same route I’ve done hundreds of times but it feels SO good. Dirt under my wheels. Muddy ruts in the bottoms and dry powder at the tops. This land is harsh, it takes, and there isn’t anything any of us can do about it other than respect and enjoy.
These breaks in the winter can’t be overlooked or underutilized. Tomorrow the low is ten degrees and the high twenty-four. There will be no biking. So when you get the chance tell those little lazy voices to stay inside.
Comments 2
Gettin’ after it! And that’s just enough of a comment where I can segue. I know you don’t read NYT, but I just read a special section or whatever you call it that I think you’d find fascinating. They’ve been doing a long look at the cyber surveillance state, especially the main culprit – the phone we carry every day. The whole section is titled One Nation, Tracked. It’s stuff we know, things we think of in passing when we remind ourselves to turn off location sharing or something – but it’s sobering to see it all together.
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Scott,
And that is just the above bar stuff. You should look up the medical app market and see how invasion that stuff is. Something like 12% of the apps, just upon download, will take you contact database and beging contacting those people without your permission and without you ever using the app. The tech world is evil.