Sunday Night Ramblings September 21, 2008

I don’t have a specific subject in mind tonight, so I thought I’d just post some ramblings from the weekend.  Nothing of great importance, yet I always feel the overwhelming desire to write…

It was a good weekend, and as always, I’m sorry to see it end.  Friday night I went out with my one and only single girlfriend.  We headed over to downtown Fort Worth and tried out The Pour House (crowd was way too young, although the band wasn’t bad) and then the Flying Saucer (a little bit better, but by then it was late).  Got home around 1:30 and slept for a few hours.  Melina and I went riding Saturday morning at River Legacy.  Thankfully, no old ladies tried to mow me down or flip me off.  HOWEVER!!!  I did see this HUGE snake slithering across the path that totally makes me rethink my idea of getting a mountain bike for off-road riding. I kid you not, this snake was as big around as my forearm and about 18″ were on the path and many more were still in the shrubbery.  That got me to thinking, if this HUGE snake is brave enough to cross the path with all the traffic out there, how many other HUGE snakes are living in the forest, waiting to show themselves to unsuspecting off-road cyclists?  I think I’d rather brave traffic…

So after a decent 26-mile ride Saturday morning, Melina and I went to lunch at at Mimi’s cafe and then I headed to Dallas to see Doug and John.  What was exciting though was that our friend from college, Bradley, was in town and he was there waiting when I got there.  We haven’t seen Bradley since 1991 – so 17 years – and it was great to see him.

When Doug took the kids to lunch on Saturday, Amy immediately noticed a transsexual who had obviously had a hard night, so I’m sure we’ll be talking about that more in the near future.  Thankfully, my kids are both very accepting, and I really think Amy was more worried about her fashion sense than anything else.  I’m honestly glad the kids are exposed to different walks of life and aren’t growing up thinking that everyone is like them.

Saturday night was an early night (I hear that makes me BORING), but I got TWELVE hours of sleep. 

Today the kids and I took the greyhounds to the dog park.  Dixon tried to eat the other dogs, and Tucker was scared and wanted to find a corner to hide in.  We didn’t stay terribly long…

It was beautiful today though and I got a nice 30 mile ride in. When the kids are home, I ride a 10-mile loop repeatedly.  It’s kind of boring, but it ensures I’m never far from them in case they need me.  Today I was thinking about what I like/dislike about this little loop…

I like riding by the horse farms.  They make me feel, at least for a short time, that I’m not living in the suburbs.  I like this one too-short downhill ride on Harris where the road is wide and there’s no traffic.  And I LOVE riding Park Springs between Sublett and Green Oaks.  So fast and easy to maintain about 21 mph without much effort.  It’s not even really a down-hill stretch of road but so smooth and little traffic.  I wish it was longer.  And then the scariest part of the loop is Green Oaks, a VERY busy four-lane road and people here don’t seem to like cylcists.  But I haven’t been run over yet, so I think that’s promising.  And I dislike riding in the subdivisions; so very slow.

I’m starting to think that maybe I need to develop a spreadsheet (ugh, did I just type that?) for tracking my mileage.  Spreadsheets pain me; numbers pain me, but so much of cycling seems to be numbers – distance, avg mph, max mph, total time…ugh.  At least though, when I ride, I can write in my mind…

Ended the day with a few beers with the neighbors, one of which I tried dating for a very short time. I’m just glad that didn’t get weird when it ‘t go anywhere, especially since Amy and his daughter are great friends.

Oh, and how about this – my baby turns 12 in one week – next Sunday.  I can’t believe it’s been that long.  She’s gotten to be such a beautiful, grown-up little girl.  Sixth grade already.  I don’t know where time goes…

This is going to be a busy/thoughtful week.  Adam is getting a great award at the Mansfield ISD school board meeting on Tuesday, and the 25th is the two-year anniversary of my last mastectomy and the awful complications that ensued. I’m having issues getting that out of my mind, and I may end up blogging about it just as a type of therapy.  But at least I’ve come a long way since then…

Anyway, I should close this entry out as it’s honestly pointless rambling.  But the words have to go somewhere…

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