October

Last Tuesday I caught some of the BC gang at Forest Meadows for a moderately paced loop of about 15 miles then met Bob Marley at TB Wednesday for a pleasant roll of 9 miles. Saturday Rupe and I stopped by Higher Ground to pick up some new jerseys and get a little work done on my bike before we hit TB for another 10 miles. Then back to TB again (solo this time) with the BC group on Sunday for a little over 11 miles. Throw in a fire department meeting on Thursday night and I was getting a cold stare from Bunky when I left the house for that Sunday ride. When the weathers like this it's just hard to say no to a ride.

The guys at Higher Ground do a great job getting to my stuff quickly and putting up with my mechanical retardation but I'm still surprised how much money I'm spending on cycling. I know I'm buying for 2 usually but it seems like it was almost as much money to run a moto program as it is cycling. Once again I'm not really complaining cause I wouldn't spend it if I didn't enjoy it but still. After breaking the 5th nipple/spoke on my rear wheel I added a new wheel set to my wish list. This goes along with the other 7 things that were already on there. I get the feeling this list is never going to end. This doesn't even include Rupe's list which now includes a new bike since he's convinced he's out grown his.

I wonder when I'm 85 (which is closer than I want to admit) and living out of a trailer in the woods if I'll regret the money I've spent on our two wheel toys? I know people who seem to have built quite the asset base with lake houses and property but those folks don't have hobbies that cost as much as mine either in terms of time or money. Ah but there's no guarantee about tomorrow is there? At least that's my rationalization. As a line from one of my favorite movies goes "rationalization is more important than sex, try getting through one day without a juicy rationalization".

I hope to get to the gym this week, I do miss my routine and I can tell when a week goes by that I don't go. I plan to start putting some running back onto my regime. I have the 1 mile Pumpkin Run in Havana this Friday and that should be a wake up call on how weak my legs have gotten. Saturday is the Pumpkin Festival and I've got fire truck duty from 10-3. We set up the truck downtown and let the kids go through it and then let them pick out a Halloween prize. We've had 200 kids go through that truck in years past and I still get a kick out of it. This is really a great time of year isn't it?