Sunday morning I was supposed to get out for the usual weekly ride with Titus, but it was pouring rain. We decided hesitantly to pull the plug. I don’t mind the rain really – it’s terrible for the bikes and means they would require more attention post ride – but when you get pretty much soaked and/or completely saturated within 5 minutes of leaving, it gets to be a drag really fast.
The TLDR version is I should have gone anyway.
The rest of my day went downhill from there – and my day started pretty early. So there was still a lot of downhill left.
Titus texted me later:
Titus: This one time, I'm glad we didn't go. It's still raining and it's cold and I am sore everywhere from farming. Me: If you say so. I wish I'd gone. I should know better by now. Titus: In all honesty, I live by that whole "one corrective action" philosophy... it just so happens that for once it was the right thing to do to stay put. Me: I should have learned, maybe have learned now that whenever I can ride bike, I should ride bike. Rest of my day has been shit. I should have gone even if it was just getting on my stupid bike with a basket and fenders and gone for coffee. Titus: Sorry to hear that.
I have a bunch of bikes and quite the assortment of specialized and technical gear and apparel. Sometimes that all doesn’t matter. I’m always telling people asking me about gear or getting started cycling – “don’t worry about all that stuff. Just ride your bike. In whatever way you’re comfortable. If you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to ride and continuing to ride is the important part.” It’s still easy for even me to get caught up in all the trappings and bullshit.
Titus and I have developed simple philosophy/credo by which we feel most, if not all, of life can be navigated: ride bikes
As evening came and darkness was descending, the skies had somewhat quieted and my stir crazy was at a fever pitch. I basically jumped on a bike in what I was wearing and headed out. I texted Titus from the ride:
Me: Full Dirtbag Hoodride in effect. Hoodie, ball cap. Zero fucks given. Me: Considering an addendum to the Credo: Always. Me: Always. Ride. Fucking. Bikes. Titus: 'struth. By whatever means necessary.
