consider the good times

At what point do you get tired of recognizing all the obstacles, the impediments, the forces working against you? When do you stop wanting to hear about the differences between you and ...the other person?

A friend once told me – consider nothing of consequence in February. It’s a terrible month and we just don’t think straight then. Well fine, but it’s March.

I had warned my occasional traveling companion that we should not let this Sunday go to waste. It is, in fact, the last weekend day when we will be in Madison together and neither of us has to work. That confluence of good things will not happen again until mid May, at the earliest. And add to it splendid rays of sun. It’s obvious: on this day, we should head out.

But it’s not easy to jump into fun when you have been outside of it for days on end. Many procrastinate when they have work to do. Ed and I so often procrastinate when we have as a goal nothing more than the pleasure of exploring the world. Just let me finish this article... Sure, yes, but first let me ...


In this kind of a mood it’s so clear that we need to work off our pent up ... something. A bike ride? Surely the movement will be good for us.

We pick an easy twenty mile ride. Just a few hills, nothing taxing. There’s a wind out there and it is our first ride of 2010.

We swing by Ed’s farmette to dewinterize my bike and to pick up his. And here you can see that my occasional traveling buddy does have an affectionate side... As demonstrated toward his greeting to Isis...




We drive east. Past the pig farm (greetings from Wisconsin!)...










...then on to McFarland. Yes – the starting point of our last ride of 2009. How different it is now, at the cusp of spring! Oh, it’s still gray and nothing is budding yet, but there is that feeling that we are on the verge of something brilliant. Any day now.





We need this ride. Believe me, we need the reminder.





(Even if every few miles one of us throws out a punch at the other.)





We circle Lake Kegonsa, mount the final hills, pause to watch the sandhill cranes pick whatever is left in the fields after last year’s harvest...










... and face the last stretch against the wind toward the village where we left the car.

Do you have to drive with your knee?

I'm in control...

Oh, how wonderful it is to be on familiar turf again!