Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

For nearly a year now, I've been finding myself doing anything and everything besides what I need to be doing, namely reading and evaluating student work. Whenever I tell myself to plop my behind down in front of the computer and start in on the submitted exercises/assignments, a feeling akin to nausea rumbles in the pit of my stomach. Its slimy tendrils spread through my body, turning my limbs to jelly. I'll make it as far as the office door and can see my computer, but my feet refuse to take another step. Only when I turn and walk away, maybe washing the dishes or putting in a load of laundry or going outside to merely sit on the back deck, does the nausea abate. Avoiding what needs to be done has only created a huge pile of work that now seems insurmountable. A favorite pic from the summer. Maybe a hint?   It's time to face the problem. Instead of dancing around the issue, hoping the desire returns to continue doing what I've been doing for many years, a plan ...

Less than three miles into a planned long ride on the I & M path, Hubby's phone rang. Angel Baby was having a problem with his left eye, and he had a headache. Could we please come get him? Honestly, part of me wanted to tell him to suck it up and get back to his classroom. Didn't he realize we'd just spent over an hour driving to get to the path? Didn't he realize I had mileage I needed to rack up? I didn't say any of this, though, because I could tell by his voice that he wasn't his usual perky, happy self. Instead, I told him his sister would be there as soon as possible to pick him up, and we would be on our way home within the next fifteen minutes. So we turned our bikes around, and rather than a day of ambling along the canal lined with purple-leafed vines and trees of vibrant yellow foliage, we hurried back to the truck, quickly removed the front tires from both bikes to load them in the back, then set off for the return drive. Once home, I made Angel...

The pawn shop bike was a great buy. I made a clock out of the back wheel, a picture holder out of the front wheel, and key rings out of the chain. Not bad for a $25 investment. Since finishing the key rings, what remained of the frame and the rest of the components hung in the garage. Until this week. Now I'm onto another project. Rather, I should say projects. In the process, I've begun learning about cranksets, cogs, wheelsets, and tire sizes. I've begun learning how to tighten spokes as well as remove them. I've found myself sitting in the garage for hours at a time, fiddling with one bike item or another. I've been to the bike shops, asking the bike shop dudes all kinds of questions. Ideas, plans, and dreams spring forth in the garage as I get my hands dirty. My first project which will take some time to complete is to build a fixie. I initially thought I would use the frame from the pawn shop bike, but after examining the old wheels as well as the wheels from...

Well, the Bike the US for MS isn't going to happen. Hubby just isn't on board for it, and I can't go ahead with something that he isn't in favor of. I could be petty and snarky and say he does things I'm not on board with, but I won't. Maybe when all the kids are grown and gone, he and I both can do this ride. The upside is not having a two-month ride on the calendar means the summer is wide open for whatever I can dream up. And I like to dream big. First dream: seeking a PR at the Sullivan Sprint Tri. This was my first sprint tri ever, where I got behind some s l o w swimmers and couldn't get around them. The plan is I'm going to start swimming in January and really work on my form and speed. Most of my problem at the tri was my own fault, not having an accurate 400 meter swim time. If I had timed myself prior to the tri, I would have been put into a faster slot, thus avoiding being roadblocked by slower swimmers. Second dream: an event every week...