Does a moral handicap count when it comes to reserved parking? Asking for a friend.
I had time to sneak in a quick ride around the Elena Gallegos Open Space on Friday before motoring off to the Sunport to collect Herself, who was inbound from Tennessee after spending a week helping her sisters give bro-in-law Bill “Wild Man” White a proper sendoff to The Source.
And now things are more or less back to what passes for normal in these parts, if you overlook the rain. “Normal” precip’ for September is 1:15 inch; we’ve already gotten 3.12 inches and the month ain’t even over yet.
Mind you, I’m not complaining; just observing.
Anyway, the deluge made a pedestrian of me for three days last week and two this week. I got carried away and put fenders on the Soma Double Cross, which was both unnecessary (I had three fendered bikes already) and unsmart (the short wheelbase means some serious and unwelcome toe-fender overlap).
So that poor decision will get reversed directly and the DC will once again sport some bare-ass 42mm Soma Cazadero knobbies, which are better suited to riding trails, especially now that they’ve been guttered all to shitaree.
There’s more time for this sort of aimless wankery in the mornings these days because the sun doesn’t show its face above the Sandias until around 8:30 and it won’t be much longer before I greet it wearing pants instead of shorts.
The sliding glass doors remain closed until sunrise because our friendly neighborhood bear is back. We finally caught him on our trail cam at 3:08 a.m. on the 22nd, dropping a deuce by the butterfly bush.
This may be retribution for my bringing the bird feeders in at night and storing garbage in the garage until pickup day. If we won’t be his restaurant we will be his restroom.
The skunk is likewise back, rooting around in the yard for tasty morsels. So is the Cooper’s hawk. As for the hummingbirds, they’ve never left. It still looks like the Battle of Britain out there every time we refresh their feeders.
And Miss Mia Sopaipilla has found herself a new sweet spot for naptime — a scattering of fluffy bits and bedding that we’re calling The Pile. Just the place to sleep off a medium-heavy breakfast, treats, and thyroid medicine.
Sure beats watching His Excremency King Piggy the Sticky-fingered waddling along the red carpet alongside the Red Menace, who looked as thrilled to be there as an OYO Rooms C-suiter tallying pecker tracks on the hot sheets at a Motel 6 in Chlamydia, Nevada.
“No, I don’t care to see your ‘ballroom.’ I can smell them from here.”
Aye laddie ye must have a bit o rubber left in the auld joints to be riding so many drop bar bikes at yer ripe auld age. Good on you for not given in to the Itis Brothers. Burse, Ten Don, Neur and Gingav.
O, them Itis Bros. pack a wallop. I may be getting close to reconsidering the riding of cyclocross bikes with 33mm tires on the rocky trails hereabouts. Even with gel gloves and gel bar tape the old paws do take a pounding.
Got in a good ride down to Eldorado and back today on the Rail Trail in anticipation of being grounded by rain for a couple days. Or, I suppose, I could exercise the Long Haul Trucker with its big, fat fenders and 26×1.75 Schwalbe rubber. Coupled with some ancient Protogs woolens I have carefully hoarded from the nineteen-eighties. One has to ride with the weather you have, not the weather you want.
Well done indeed, sir. I managed a couple hours on the No. 2 Steelman Eurocross yesterday. Mostly foothills side streets and a short stretch of Tramway shoulder.
But I did drop into the Elena Gallegos for a bit, riding one of my usual loops but clockwise rather than counterclockwise. That’s always a wakeup call, especially since the late monsoon power-washed the trails. Keeps them synapses popping!
Polo coming here. Not the storm, just the water. We shall see. Water from these things is sometimes a “fit” instead of a dump. But, I have also seen them roll trash can size rocks down the Garden Canyon wash.
We have a flash-flood watch through Tuesday and rain forecast for another day or so after that. The Bloon Feast management must be gnawing their knuckles. That starts up Saturday, I think.
Anyone catch the Harvest Moon? We saw it just as it cleared the Sandias and it was a beauty.
Saw that moon up here. Was lovely.
Well, you knew this was coming.