One of Those

I knew something was out of sync when I woke up early this morning. I might have, indeed should have, rolled over and gone back to sleep, but didn't. So I ended up down in the basement cleaning the dirt off the Open Pros under a single bare light bulb and waiting for the first hint of dawn to peek over the horizon. Finally, I rolled the bike out the door, turned on both blinky lights and pedaled off down the street in the direction of the levee. It felt colder than it should have, and I could feel the weekend's strong wind still blowing in my face. I was tired of that wind. Something was amiss.

I got to the levee and of course I was the only one there. It was still pretty dark, and with my motivation lagging, I rode easily out to the bridge and decided to call it a day early. I was already thinking about a hot cup of coffee, and beating this dead horse was not going to get me anywhere anyway. Sometimes, it's just One of Those Days, and you have to roll with the punches. Today was one of those. The Wife has been so stressed out at work that she's taking the week off. Last week my co-worker announced he was leaving in a few weeks to take a better offer. I have a few deadlines looming, the LAMBRA meeting coming up, two long trips in November, and all I want to do is escape it all for a while. Just to twist the knife, I'm already detecting the threat of Christmas in the air.

As life goes, this time feels like the last quarter mile of a very long climb in a very hard race. Stop pedaling now and you'll quickly come to a stop and fall over, so you may as well girt your teeth and hammer your way over the top and hope there's a downhill on the other side, eh?