Rainy Day

It's been an odd week. Thursday morning was cold and windy, and although the streets were still a bit damp I wanted to ride. I really did. I headed out the door, turned the corner and the cold damp wind cut right through my clothes to my skin. It took about two blocks for me to figure out this wasn't going to be any fun at all. I hit the "abort" button and returned to old homestead.

So by Friday morning I was really needing a ride, and I left home figuring I'd probably be riding by myself. As it turned out, we had a nice little group on the levee. It was a nice day with slightly warmer weather and just a light wind, and though it might not have qualified as a legitimate training day, considering my lackluster rides of the preceeding week, it was nice nonetheless. I always tell myself "it's only December" when I have weeks like this. Jeff was out with his Powercranks. Man, those things are just unnatural. Especially when the rider coasts with both feet down. Wierd. Ronnie was out on his new Litespeed time trial bike, and he ended up pushing our pace just a bit, which kind of kept us honest. I think that without him, we would have spend more time going 18 mph and less going 21. On the way back, we picked up Joe F., and I thought about how I'd be lucky to be riding like that when I get to be his age.

The forecast for Saturday was looking none too good - a fitting end to this week. On the "plus" side, there have been some positive signs coming out of D.C. that will go a very long way toward restoring confidence in the city.

Saturday morning I could hear the sound of car tires on wet streets as soon as I awoke, and although I didn't really have to get up and look, I did. It wasn't really all that bad, but the combination of wet and cold is just not my cup of tea. If it had been February, I would have ridden anyway, but "it's only December." So it was a rainy day for me. It pretty much rained all day, and I felt a lot colder than the temperature warrented for some reason.

So I ended up going out to the Sears store with my mother because they were having this big 10% off sale on top of the state's "tax holiday" weekend, which meant a 14% discount even on sale items. On top of that, if you used your Sears credit card, you could get a 10% rebate. The mom needed to buy three refrigerators, two ovens, and one dishwasher to replace the appliances damaged in the flood, so we headed out there for the half-day sale, bracing ourselves for long day. When we arrived, they were giving out numbers. Ours was something like two hundred eight. They were calling for number twenty-seven, so we were looking at about an hour and a half, easy. The place was packed. After an hour or so, my mom was talking to another woman who had been given someone else's ticket when that person gave up and went home. She gave her the number since she didn't need it, and a few minutes later it was called! Nice!! We picked out the appliances, which added up to around $2,000 even with all the discounts. The next available delivery date was in mid-February, so we decided we'd figure out a way to pick them up, and scheduled pick-up for January 5. Anyway, it was an experience! The Wife and I made a feeble attempt to do some christmas shopping, but we just couldn't get motivated and after driving around and wandering through a few stores, we called it a day and stopped at Taquera Corona for a few tacos and a bottle of XX.

The Daughter came home this evening from Iowa City for the first time since mid-summer. Her flight out of St. Louis was delayed for about an hour while the authorities removed a drunk passenger from the airplane. Tomorrow I'm planning on doing the Northshore ride. I'll bet I'm the only one from the Southshore.