I didn’t bike at all last weekend. John an older guy an old guy made a face this week when I answered his question on Monday in the negative, “Did you ride last weekend?” I haven’t biked during the week for weeks. Barbara, my walking buddy at work had asked me twice this week, “Did you bike this morning?” So Wednesday morning, I got my fat ass out of bed and rode before work.
There was no opossum at the backdoor like there was last time. It was dark, cool, 46 °F, clear and quiet when I launched from home. The quiet reminded me that I needed to overhaul my bicycle. In that eerie predawn hour any sort of bicycle noise is amplified. I’ve just ordered $250 in new bike parts. That ought to help quiet the beast. I didn’t see any other cyclists until I was ready to leave the Park. They then came flooding past me, into the Park. It has been so long since I last rode in the predawn, that I had totally forgotten about making quota, let alone remembering to count coup. It has been too long since I went riding off into the night. I made quota easily. I also got 16 miles.
The pictures with this post show that it was still dark out when I was cycling, but these spots that are bright enough to photograph don’t express how dark the Park really is at night. Wednesday’s near new moon did not shed much light either. I am generally not frightened while riding in the predawn hours, but occasionally I get spooked. I shouldn’t be scared though, because there are generally people about, mostly runners and walkers. A fair percentage of these people are women. Sometimes they run in pairs, but sometimes they run alone. These women are frequently small, young and fierce. When I need it, I take my strength from their strength.
In other exercise news, Anne walked to school on Wednesday. Wednesday was Walk to School Day. The main intention of this day was to get school children out exercising and away from their video game consoles, but Anne is still glad that she did it.
to quote myself from my last visit ‘who’s that guy on the horse?’ tee hee.
and I also saw and admired the sliver of moon yesterday morning!
Just call him Louie
I love this time of year when I can see the dippers and “the rion” (Orion) in the sky in the schoolyard. I get a sense of security from all the regular walkers, runners, and dog-walkers on my [walking] route.
When I use to bike into the darkness more regularly everyone seemed to know my name, even when I did not know them. It was both amusing and disconcerting at the same time.
Oddly enough, when I started working here, I was talking to one of my co-workers about his wife’s early morning walking habits and suddenly I realized that I had been seeing *her* (and her friend) on *my* route for years!!! Now we know each other’s names 🙂
When I meet “Park People” outside of the Park we usually converse, but rarely exchange names.