GRAVITY 1 – ZEKE 0

The winter rust was quite evident yesterday as I worked on meeting my goal of 30 in 30 during April. I rediscovered what happens when all forward motion ceases to exist and you are clipped into your pedals on a 15 percent or so grade…

Gravity pulls ones head toward the center of the earth is what happens in case some of you may have forgotten. Fortunately, in my case, my head was preceded to the ground by my butt, which still holds on to its winter storage of energy. The only thing that really got “injured” was what little pride I have left. Having fallen over a number of times in the past in front of people, this one really didn’t rate high on the embarrassment scale. I’m quite sure that I won’t be blamed for causing any earthquakes in sunny Southern California due to having bounced off of the pavement.

I made a couple of rookie mistakes and paid for it with loss of momentum. I was zig zagging across the last grade before my home at the end of today’s ride and managed to get my rear wheel off into a combination of gravel, decomposing leaves, left over acorns, and who knows what else. I was also standing on the pedals and, rather than sit down and weight the rear wheel, I stayed upright until, well, I wasn’t upright.

This wasn’t an epic ride by any means but it certainly was a nice break in what is almost summer like temperatures. A balmy 79 degrees made my lightest weight winter riding clothes almost too hot for the day. I’m going to have to dig out that container with my summer clothes if this keeps up. Of course, we may have snow by day after tomorrow the way this winter has gone.

Additions to the family…

Some of you are aware of the fact that this cycling blog is named after my late great Labrador Retriever Zeke. We lost Zeke when his journey ended on Valentine’s Day 2014. We were able to enjoy his sidekick and close compadre Orla, our yellow Lab, until she too came to the end of her time in September of 2014. My life, for the vast majority of it, has been shared with dogs. I grew up with dogs, had dogs with me at Appalachian State, and have had the pleasure of dogs in our household except for short periods of grieving time.

This spring the Navigator and I decided it was time to bring some more energy into the household so we embarked upon what I shall forever know as the era of “What Were We Thinking?” We planned and researched sharing our space with a Giant Schnauzer and followed through with making that happen through a variety of interesting connections and contacts that included a Barn Hunt, a trip to Georgia, and ultimately a cruise up the Cumberland Plateau to Cincinnati pick up our little 17 pound bundle of feminine joy when she was 10 weeks old. (NOTE: The image in the Giant Schnauzer link is Dilly’s “uncle”)

The week prior to that trip, as I was recuperating from a heart catheterization and not allowed to drive, the Navigator piloted us through Sarge’s Animal Rescue in Waynesville. She was hooked by the cutest bundle of fuzzy joy imaginable in the form of a Border Collie mixed with something big. The pup had the Navigator hooked and landed in all of 30 seconds. Long story made short: we came home with 7.7 pounds of unadulterated love.

Dilly assisting in my office

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beau showing off the eyes that hooked the Navigator

He (Beauregard at Buzzards Roost) and she (Ramahills Cordelia at Buzzards Roost_RW) have become fast friends. They are only 4 days apart in age so, yes, we have two 14 week old high energy puppies in the house now. Rosie, the cat has almost forgiven us… Our lives have been consumed with all that goes with puppies in a home. Fortunately, we no longer do 1:00 am, 3:00 am, 5:00 am, and 7:00 am potty walks in freezing temperatures and snow. We are ALL sleeping until at least 6:00 am now, which works out great except for the weekends when 7:00 am would be mighty fine with me.

So, the Beau and Dilly show runs nightly and daily in beautiful downtown Buzzards Roost and has supplanted most of my riding time. With the return of Daylight Savings however and a desire to meet the 30 in 30 commitment in April, I have enjoyed being back on the Salsa Fargo even if gravity reminded me of the pull of joy for cycling.

For those so interested, here are the stats for 04/02/2014.

What will 04/03/2014 entail? Hopefully, staying upright!

Until later,

- Zeke