Life.....

Funny how life can throw things at you, can make it all wonderful one day and the next.......
I'm not laughing.
Here's to the worst day of my life, no really, the worst.

It's the Little Things

November 7, 2006, 8:35pm. My wife and daughter are on our bed going over my little girls reading assignment. They are both dressed for bed. My wife in laying on her stomach half covered by the sheets with that half smile on her face, the one she has when she is pleased with her student. Miranda sitting Indian style on my side of the bed, deep in concentration. I'm at the door watching, drinking in the moment, this perfect little moment. They don't know I'm there. I savor it as long as I can and try to etch it into my memory. This is one of the little things that make life so special. These little things are ever so important, but usually forgotten, pushed aside for something "BIG". The Big stuff gets all the attention, but the little things ARE important. The big stuff can sometimes take care of itself. It's the little things that need the attention or you may miss something very important and that would be a very bad thing indeed. These moments are fleeting, enjoy them while you can, because you blink and they are gone.

Fixed in the Mountains

Well, it's been a while since I did the Spartanburg Freewheeler's recruitment ride, I've been distracted. It was a cold Saturday morning around 34 F. I got up early and put on my gear, slung my bag over my shoulder, turned on my blinky light and headed out my front door on the DeathTrap to meet Dan. It was a short ride to the meeting place and it was cold. I was thinking that maybe I was making a mistake. I got my bike loaded on Dan's truck and we were off. We chatted about being a state employee in South Carolina and came to the same conclusions about our respective agencies. As the sun came up we could see the color of the leaves, our conversation turned to hunting. In no time we were at the meeting place, the middle school in Tygerville, near North Greenville College. We get our stuff ready as others begin to show. When everyone was ready we had a quick briefing and we were off. It was a nice slow pace for the first quarter mile, then the road markers were visible and the fast crowd took off like a shot. Dan gave chase and so did I. I didn't have a chance to warm up and I was struggling to keep up. Then Dan eased up ad said he wanted to cruise not race.

We went from 20+ mph adverage to about 16-18mph, much better. We rode on back roads until we found ourselves in Marrietta. We turned on route 188 and something tickled the back of my head, I've never ridden a bike on this road, but it was part of a stream sampling run from a former job. We tuned on Moody Bridge road and passed the waste water treatment plant that I used to sample, there is nothing like the smell of industrial waste water in the morning. By now I'm warm and the terrain has been mainly big rollers with some hills, just enough to kill me while I'm cold, but once my muscles are warm and the blood is flowing, it's not a problem. We take these scenic back roads that are absolutely beautiful and the leaves are not quite at peak color, but still fantastic.