A day of waiting. Rumor had it that there would be sunshine. Buoyed by this, I planned on picking up Alpine Blue (my e-bike) from the bike shop (some dozen plus miles away, on the other side of town) and riding it home. Ed would tag along for the adventure of it.
But, the morning began like this:
Breakfast with Ed, still in the gloom of yet another foggy day.
(Hey wait a minute! you're not Ed!)
(that's more like it)
And so we waited.
We should go anyway. It's warm enough -- this from Ed. He regards 37F (not even 3C) as warm enough. I would agree if the sun would be out. Not so much on a gray morning. Maybe we can have it delivered... There is a slight charge for carting the bike over to your place, but I'm beginning to think it's worth it.
We dawdle and pause and resist. By 11:30 I ask -- what do you think? it's now or never. Google estimates the ride back to be 1 hour and 15 minutes, but it's a complicated routing. Half of it is through the outskirts of Madison, half along snippets of a bike path. I have kids to pick up today and so we have to be back in time for me to head out for them.
Let's do it! Ed's up. Somewhat reluctantly I take a scarf, a jacket, my warmer gloves and we drive over to the bike shop, with Ed's bike on the car rack, so that he can ride back with me.
In fact, by the time I've settled the paper work at the shop (new wheel! updated bike! cleaned up and adjusted! all under warranty), it's just past noon, and the sun does come out in patches. But the wind! No one told me about the wind!
Still, it's a great ride for me, exactly because it is a challenge. My face and hands are icy red, but it is sort of special -- to be biking away on the last day of January. In Wisconsin. They said it would be a warmer winter. They were so right.
We park our bikes at home, I drive Ed back to the shop so that he can reclaim his car, and from there it's a hop skip to the kids' school.
One word to describe the two older ones today: absorbed. Sparrow spends the entire afternoon lost in a game with the toys in the playroom. Snowdrop is completely mesmerized by the book we're reading together. She wants nothing else but to make progress with it.
And in the evening I drop them off at the pick up point and here's the thing -- it's just dusk then. The sun barely set, the sky is not yet dark. A month ago, I'd be doing this in inky black light. Today? We are marching straight toward spring.
with love...
