New Year’s Day Ride @ The LBS – the hourly forecast said the ride start would coincide with the start of some freezing rain. In spite of that a few people (100? 150?) turned out for this 19th annual ride and the rain held off until I arrived home.
Caught on film -
As always the conclusion of the ride involved free chili, cheese and oyster crackers from Wendy’s. Also on hand was complimentary Jittery Joe’s coffee. Nice!
I rode and spoke almost exclusively with The Pastor which never fails to satisfy. He’s in the picture above in a Waldian sort of way. Also in the picture is a former 24 Hours of Afton Race Day Nemesis of mine.
And the ride? Best Ride Ever? Best Ride So Far This Year? There was snow on the ground for 80% of the ride. Not enough snow to make the ride effort anything extraordinary, just enough for some traction and some crunchy sounds. The wind was from the north for the east/west ride and the temperature was 30-ish.
Oh, and the Balance/Universe/Wheel guy’s parents rode on a tandem.
New Year’s Eve – we participated in the 2nd First Night celebration. It ended up much more multicultural than I expected. We learned a bit of Irish drum. The leader called it a boron but I refuse to accept that as a way to pronounce Bodhran, even if it is Irish. Mariachi, and Native American Hoop dancing added to the mix.
Caught on film –
That’s a cheap Bodhran not a pizza box. Interestingly, having all those clean pizza boxes around made it pretty plain that a high percentage of the scent of delivered pizza involves cardboard.
Conversations – I took the long way home on Wednesday and as I was stopped along the local trail to put my lights on along came a bicycle commuter. He stopped to chat. He asked about studded tires and the New Year’s Day Ride. I’d never seen him before. He rides to work often.
The day before, a very cold looking African woman asked me about riding the bus downtown. Oh how I wished I could tell her to walk over to that road and stand there and within 30 minutes a bus will come by and pick you up. But I had to tell her to go to that street and walk against traffic until she sees a bus stop because they only pick up every four blocks. I told her I thought it was a sheltered stop which would make it easy to identify (I was right that it was sheltered!). The transit company phone number is now stored on my phone so I can call them if this ever happens again.
Christmas – was spent with family and was very nice and very normal. I’ve got some new books to read. I’m going to try to knock three of them down before the end of January.
That’s it. End of story. Thanks for reading.
Glad to hear you unthawed.
ReplyDeleteI should have worn booties.
I think TheOwner and I figured out that approx 200 did the ride.
It was a good time.
Thanks for telling. Although, I'm sad to say, the guy with the drum had it right (or as close to right as us non-native speakers can get it).
ReplyDeleteCheck out http://www.answers.com/topic/bodhr-n for the detail.