April Weekend

Saturday

Lovely Lake Stepford on a damp, breezy day

Late last night I finally completed a deadline task that has been hanging over me like a black cloud for the past few weeks.  I should have had it done two weeks ago, but there’s been a lot that’s got in the way.  Although I made my best effort, the final product was not my best work and I am not happy about that.

Yesterday afternoon I took a short break and rode for about 16 miles.  The photo above is where I stopped at Squatter’s Point, down the road from Bushwood Country Club to snap a picture of Lake Stepford.  No public access for this small lake, a fact I find galling.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride in the cold, damp, and occasionally drizzling wind.

When I got home, I got back to work, then spent some family time with my wife and son, and then got project finished.

Sunday

My 1985 Razesa w. Sunday School stuff on the rack

Even though I slept unconscionably late yesterday morning, arising about 7:00, I made it out the door in time enough to ride to the congregational meeting place early enough to make coffee for my Sunday School class.

Something you might not know about me is that I’m an idolater – I find myself all the time looking at Craigslist ads and the inventory at www.oldbikesbelong.com for bikes I’d like to own, reading about bikes, thinking about kayaks and canoes, reading about them, and so forth.  About a week ago, I came across a Craigslist ad for a 1986 Bianchi Trofeo in almost new-old-stock condition down to the original sales slip, catalogue, and other promotional material.  Last Sunday, at church a friend and I had been talking about bikes – years ago he was an every day long-distance cyclist – and he mentioned he was going to start looking for an older road-bike.  He’d just purchased a like-new Bridgestone mountain bike, but hadn’t put it together yet.

I posted a Facebook message to my friend telling him, “Check out this bike.”  A few days later I got a call from him saying he’d purchased it and was going to pick it up Saturday.  Without really thinking about what I was saying (he lives about 20 miles distant), I said, “Dude, ride it to church to Sunday.”  And he said he thought he would do that.

Yesterday morning, he showed up with his new bike, riding on the original Michelin tires.  He’d removed the toe-clips, raised the handlebars and was still working on getting the seat adjusted correctly.  It’d taken him maybe an hour and ten minutes to ride the distance between his house and the congregational meeting place, most of it uphill.  The look on his face was one of pure, endorphin-charged joy.

“I tried to take it easy,” he said, “but this bike just made me go faster.”  He said it is the best bike he has ever owned and compared it very favorably to an expensive custom-built bike he had many years ago.  I got to take it for a spin, didn’t go far because the frame’s too big for me by about three centimeters and the seat’s adjusted way too high for me, but, briefly, it is the smoothest piece of machinery I’ve ever operated.  All it’s parts sing-together in rapid, clear silence.  Click on the images above for full-sized pictures – I realize only now that I never did take a picture of the entire bike – just these detail photos.