Coffee and Lies #53 Brown going down

Not a good photo, but you get the idea..

The car told me it was 28 freakin' degrees on the way to the Rendezvous on Capital Hill. My powers of denial are strong and I continued undaunted. I parked and encased my feet for battle with the cold.  I mounted my bike and spotted the sparkling white fenders of Mr. T's commuting tank.  McWoodie rolled up and Big John called to find out if we were really going to ride. 

We opted for a pre-ride "conference at Fuel Coffee to discuss the situation.  Thirty minutes of sunshine should have thawed out some ice, or so we thought. Emboldened by caffeine we elected to avoid the ice slalom that is Mercer Island in winter and ride the south end of the lake. 

Along Rainier the bike lane had a frosting that we chose to avoid to the frustration of more than a few drivers.  I cannot relay how little value I put on their horns. The weather in Guam is of more interest to me than any unhappiness caused by staying on dry pavement. It was still pretty early and traffic was light so the disruption we caused to the greater society was minimal. 

We were glad to turn into the airport and get away from traffic.  We chatted about this and that and recalled some warmer rides. 

The roads were thawing we were glad to see.  We had slowed to five mph on some stretches and felt good about our level of caution.  We were circling back to Seward to add just a couple k's and on a slow descent McWoodie and I went down next to each other like two sacks of potatoes. I hit hard on my right side and lucky for both of us, our slow speed meant there wasn't any sliding; just a solid "thud."

There were two cyclists riding uphill and they asked it we were okay.  After lying and saying we were fine they commented on how impressed they were with our synchronized crashing.  

I took a deep breath and felt a familiar pain on my right side.  The last time I felt this way I cracked a rib or two.  Oh well, let's see how my powers of denial serve me now.. McWoodie escaped with some road rash.  It was the kind of day that deserved a bit of a badge of honor, but something more along the lines of a patch or pin would have been more appropriate.

With El Chefe' tearing his ACL and then having emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage in the span of a week, I'm still feeling pretty lucky.   He managed to get discharged from the hospital the day before he was scheduled to have his MRI.  Maybe his luck is changing.  Maybe..

Chillin' on the bike

It did feel good to get out and ride. I am still chasing the mung out of my lungs and now I have two reasons not to breathe deep for a while.  'Tis the season for zone one and two, so no great loss.  I am ready to be completely healthy.  I'm trying to remember what that was like.  Hottie seems to be winning the battle with pneumonia, though it appears there are still a few more rounds to that fight.  TTFN.