Bike Rides

As I'm sure I have stated many times on this blog. I love riding my bicycle. I get to see things at whatever pace I want. Over the weekend, I got invited to friend's farewell party. It stretched far into the night. Eventually the host offered the use of his car and driver to get us all home. One of the people going lives just three doors down from me. I wasn't going to accept on behalf of my beloved bike until I realized just how late it was. Time forced me to relent and take the offered ride. I let my beloved bike stay over in the parking lot of my friends apartment building for two days and then decided I should go back for it last night. One mistake I made first though is that I stepped on the scales. I realized that I've been putting on a bit of weight lately. Genius me decides that walking there and biking back would be a good idea. I wasn't quite sure how long it would be but I was guessing somewhere around 5 miles since it is 6 miles to Esther's house. The fact that I was guessing 5 miles should have been a good clue of just how silly I am sometimes. So I threw a chicken roast in the oven on a low temperature (figured it would take me two hours and I'd be hungry when I got back) and started walking. I started doing the math in my head while I walked and realized that walking would take me at least 1.5 hours at a brisk pace. I decided to jog a bit of the journey to reduce this time somewhat. Nothing too crazy, just two stretches at a reasonably easy pace that was about twice as fast as my walking. In the end that paid off as I reached my destination, 5.2 miles later after an hour and ten minutes of walking. I was covered in sweat but felt like I had accomplished something as I walked into the parking lot. I talked to the guard who told me where he had put my bike and I went to retrieve it. When I found my bike, I pulled it around to the front gate and then realized that the back tire was flat. I looked outside and saw that it was dark which meant that there would be no fixing it as all the guys who do these things on the side of the road go home as soon as it gets dark. The last time this happened to me on the road, I ended up walking home 3 miles or so in the dark. I was furious in this moment. I felt a very strong temptation to just throw my bike in that moment. I hated the stupid thing.

I took a few deep breaths, walked in a circle as I thought about the situation then set my bike back where it had been, walked to the nearest bus stand and got a bus home. As I sat on the bus on the way home, I couldn't help but think about how this was just how my day had gone. Crappy thing after crappy thing happened. Nothing major, nothing life altering, but always crappy. Once I got past this, I began to think about how I had a delicious roast waiting for me at home and I felt very good after a long walk. Those thoughts are leaving me to ponder repeating yesterday's feat today only leaving early enough that I can get my tire fixed which probably just goes to show that my mind isn't all there.