No Harm, No Foul

This is the design on my favorite T-shirt. I found it at threadless which may possibly have the coolest T-shirts on the planet. I thought of this T-shirt because:

A) I was wearing it yesterday

B) I went on a ride this morning

C) Someone I know came perilously close to running out of gas this morning.

(I would like to point out that I was sympathetic and not at all smug about this.)


The wind must have stayed up late last night, perhaps watching The Weather Channel or reading a book by Margaret Mitchell. Anyway, the wind surely slept last this morning. I can just see it all snuggled up under the covers while I quietly climbed out of bed and hit the road for an easy ride bright and early. At some point out on the road I must have made a noise or something, and the wind rolled over, opened it's eyes, blinked a bit at the alarm clock (which apparently hadn't gone off) and the leaped out of bed with a yell and a realization of being late.
Well, it made up for lost time, flying out with a rush and joining me out on the road.

I should have guessed that, having been a faithful companion on so many rides of late, the wind would not abandon me this morning.

I also apparently left the house in a rush this morning. I had a vague idea that I was forgetting something, and that something turned out to be my phone. I don't really like being out on the road alone without a phone, and a parade of past problems danced in my head.

For some reason my brain was especially fixated on times when I had been dropped on a ride. The most spectacular one involved a whole group of us, twenty miles in and going hard. We came to a lovely long downhill and then everybody opened up - big gears and high cadence. We flew down the hill, then we rounded a corner and the road flattened out and nobody slowed down.

Well, almost nobody.

I watched the group streak away over the horizon while I pedaled as hard as my little feet would go. Then I just settled in to ride the fifteen miles back alone.

Now, why I should be worried about getting dropped this morning, given that I was all alone, I don't know. I have never dropped myself on a ride. In fact, I always wait for myself if I'm having problems.

I got chased by a single dog, but this dog had a rough sounding voice and no wind. Perhaps this dog smokes too much. In any case, knowing it's own limitations, it waited until I was quite close before it leaped out of hiding, barking and darting toward me (like a poor imitation of the stealth dog), but all it took was a slight increase in speed to leave it behind.

Other than that, the ride was nice and calm. I did pick a very bumpy road to travel down, so there was a long period during which I had to listen to my water bottle rattling in the cage as if I were riding my own Paris-Roubaix. I got passed by a school bus and had the slightly surreal experience of having to stop for a stopped bus while on my bike. Hey, the law is the law, right?

All in all it was a pleasant ride, and I didn't need the phone I didn't have. I wasn't motivated to get up early, but I did it anyway, and now I'm glad I did.

Another day, another ride.

That's the life.

See you on the road.

And I'll bring my phone.

Just in case.