The only Ride I regretted

Is the one I didn't take

This was the ride I missed for the second year in a row. The Third annual Viking Biking Ride.

The other day was a rough day for me. The good part of the day was that I got to spend part of it on my bike. The bad part of the day was the fact that I was on my bike so I could get to work to spend my day working on mandatory overtime instead of going on one of my favorite group rides. The Viking ride and Pot luck lunch.

It made for a rough day. I kept looking out out of the window, seeing the sun shine and knowing that weather, while chilly was clear and fine. My urge to be out on my bike was an actual physical need. The ride in the cold morning air from where the weekend bus dropped me off and  down the hill to the Montour trail that would take me to my work served only to whet my appetite. All day I worked as my gaze was taken, over and over again, back to where my bike stood mocking me.

Six hours, The longest six hours I have experienced. When the time finally past and I was able to get back on my bike and head back up the hill I happily rode down that morning, I did so with great joy. Until I started back up that hill.

I really don’t like hills.

Still up the hill I went, off to the bus stop and back into town. After the short ride back into town I found myself on my Big Orange Bike headed through Station Square and on my way to riverside park on the South Side. This was the day of the Third Annual Viking Biking Ride and Potluck Picnic.  I was too late for the ride but I would be in time for the Picnic. A quick stop at a Grocery Store to pick up my part of the potluck and then down to the Park.

It was my welcome that reminded me, almost painfully, why I value these people (my friends) so much. Before I was off my bike I was welcomed as a member of the tribe. Not an exclusive tribe, but as a tribe that includes everyone on two wheels. I was welcomed by people I didn’t know, by people who were simply riding through and joined the ride. These people were part of us, were part of the tribe by their very action of choosing a bike.

I missed the bike ride and that I regret. but I didn’t miss the most important part of day. That part where people I think of as friends (old and new) stood around the growing fire and marked themselves and each other as members in good standing in one group.

A group I am proud to be a member of.

Thanksgiving, - family - otherstuff

Thanksgiving was yesterday here in the States and as usual I got together with my Family (most of them) and had the requisite Turkey, Stuffing, Wine, and Pie.It was all tasty and I am thankful that I could spend that time with my Family (most of them). But as you can , no doubt, tell from the first couple sentences I miss the members of my family that couldn't make it. A comedy of errors and a little bit of mis-communication on my part led to me not getting to see my daughters yesterday, as well as some hurt feelings. So while I did have a good time the night was, for me at least, bitter-sweet. 

It would have been easy for me to allow this to ruin my thanksgiving. I am thankful that wasn't the case. Something happened that refocused me away from feeling sorry for myself and back to being thankful. A friend of mine whom I have gotten to know through Flock of Cycles and Bike Pittsburgh posted on face book (and had been posting on Facebook all month that she was cooking a huge thanksgiving meal and anyone who didn't have family to share thanksgiving with were welcome to come over and join her for thanksgiving.

Yes this made me appreciate my family even more

Yes it took some of the sting out of not being able to see my daughters.

I also wished I could have been there as well. I didn't exactly want to ditch my family but the idea of sharing a meal with what would of been the friends I have found through cycling was tempting.I found that this made me remember yet another group of people in my life that I needed to be thankful for, and a little ashamed that I had forgotten them

So dear readers, for you I am also very thankful for, I hope you will take a moment now that turkey,stuffing,pie, and wine have passed and think of those you may have forgotten. We all are guilty of this and so we are all forgiven as well. 

Thank you.

FatGuy

Quite Upsetting

Photo Credit: Turkinator

My last post ‘little of this’ I talked about how surprised I was when a teen girl told me she believed that she couldn’t ride a bike for two miles. I have been thinking about this a lot and trying (without much success) to understand how this could happen.

Today I found the answer. Karl Marx is quoted as saying “Religion is the Opiate of the Masses” I have always taken this as meeting that Religion (not faith) is what keeps people docile, controllable, predictable. While I am willing to admit that there still is an ‘Opiate of the Masses’ it is no longer Religion. Today as I sat in a booth at a local Eat-n-Park with my sister and her family (daughter, son-in-law, grand babies) I walked back to the salad bar and passed a young family with two young kids. Both kids sat staring into portable DVD players with headphones on.

My friends, you would of been proud of me. I wanted to slap the parents and call CYS and report a serious case of Child Neglect. I paused only long enough to realize that both kids were watching the same show, at a table, in Eat-n-Park, on DVD players.

These are the kids who are raised to believe in not what they can do, instead they are raised by what they can’t do. After work I usually head out, either going for a walk, or taken my bike for a ride. What shocks me about my time outside isn’t what I see, but what I don’t see.

I don’t see any other bikes outside.
I don’t see any one outside.
No kids playing.
No one walking.

Parents won’t walk the mile to the drugstore and take the car instead, this teaches the children that they can’t walk the mile. This teaches the young pretty fit teen aged girl at shop and save that not only is she incapable of riding a bike two miles to the store but there is no reason for her to ride those two miles.

After all that is what the car is for.

Bike Trail

Photo Credit: Dbacklover

Last weekend I went riding on the GAP (Great Allegheny Passage) Trail and to make things even better my sister (who hasn't been on a bike in 40 years) My son and daughter, as well as my nephew and his son all went along. The day was a pretty perfect day for a bike ride, sunny without being too hot, and the trail is mostly shaded (as you can see from the photo).

We rode 12 miles total, rested when we felt like it and spent a good amount of time sitting at one of the rest areas half in the shade and half in the sun. One of the things I noticed while on the ride was the amount of talking that went on while we were riding. As I bounced from the front of the group to the back of the group i could hear the conversations all around me. My son talking with my nephew, my daughter talking with my sister, and on and on.

By the time we got back to where we rented the bikes we were ready for the ride to be over but as we returned the bikes there were smiles all around. My sister told me flat out that she would be happy to do this again.

I for one was just happy to out riding and surrounded by family.