Change and Adaptation

"Lakefront first or City Park first?"  The response to my query came at 4:43 am. "Lakeshore first ,....after that ...there was no consensus??!!!" It was the first WeMoRi since the Wisner bridge was closed and the flurry of mostly smart-ass emails in the preceding days had done little to settle the key question of how the route would adapt. Not having everyone on the same page for a fast group ride in the dark on city streets seemed like a recipe for disaster, but I went out anyway, meeting the group near Marconi and Lakeshore Drive. I really had no idea how the group's route would change, and apparently I wasn't alone.  As I soon came to realize, they were kind of making things up as they went along. We crossed Robert E. Lee and continued down Marconi, past Harrison and under the interstate, over the broken up concrete, finally making a U-turn, amid cacophonous warnings, just before City Park Avenue. From there it was all the way back to Lakeshore drive, then east around the fountain, and back to Marconi. At that point, any form of consensus that might have existed earlier apparently expired. Nobody had really thought through the rest of the ride, or perhaps they had all thought through it and arrived at different conclusions. A few people turned right. I waited for the rest of the group and the decision was to turn and take Wisner down to Harrison and then back around to Marconi, which worked out fine. As expected, there were a few cars backed up behind the group, which was already in cool-down mode, by the time we got to Marconi. I'm sure it will take a couple more weeks for the new route to stabilize.  Change is hard, especially when nobody's in charge.

The somewhat shorter route had me arriving at Starbucks few minutes earlier than usual where I was surprised to find the outdoor patio cleared of furniture and with a freshly applied new floor finish. I wonder if we'll see new furniture too once it's all put back together. Inside, I heard someone say, "Hey Randy" and looked over to see Pat Farrell. He had to run off right away so we didn't get to talk much, however. I stayed just long enough to finish my coffee, making it home well before the first pre-cold-front rain shower started. There's more rain in the forecast, especially for this afternoon, and then of course the temperature will drop again, but this morning I rode in just summer shorts and jersey. When it was time to head to work the rain had stopped but the streets were wet and, in consideration of the forecast, I took the car.