To Be a Puddle
8 FOLLOWERS
Here at To Be a Puddle read about thoughts on bicycling, randonneuring, and other random things. I was told that I need to put that all opinions are my own and do not represent the views of my employer or anyone else.
To Be a Puddle
1w ago
An Evening Bike Ride
by Gary L. Misch
Race toward the mountains,
Peddle through redbud alley,
Chase the blood red sky.
The weather is to be nice on Saturday and I need to prepare. Dave and I are, yet again, returning to Scotland, this time to ride across her beauty from east coast to west. I feel relatively certain this will be my last trip there, but one never knows. Still, I intend to savor every moment and to do that, I have to whip this old body into some semblance of being in shape. I have no intention of going all that way and then riding in the van rather than o ..read more
To Be a Puddle
1M ago
"Spring drew on...and a greenness
grew over those brown beds, which,
freshening daily, suggested the thought
that Hope traversed them at night, and
left each morning brighter traces of
her steps."
Charlotte Bronte
As always, there is something about spring that makes me glad to be alive, to have survived another of winter of dark and dreary cold, and come out of on the other side. I give a prayer of thanksgiving to God that he has let my eyes feast on yet another spring. Today's ride, an unexpected gift on a day predicted to be rainy and stormy. Instead, the sun ..read more
To Be a Puddle
6M ago
"This thou perceiv'st,
which makes they love
more strong/To love that
well which thou must leave
ere long."
William Shakespeare
When I wake up, I decide to ride and enjoy the last of the unseasonable warmth and the last of autumn's dance. How I love the colors of her skirt as she swirls doing a suggestive strip tease, bathed in sunlight or shade, delighting the eye and the soul. How I love the crackling and rustling noises that serenade and tease my ears as I pass woodlands and cornfields and the sweeping vistas of freshly harvested fields, withered and spent, tuck ..read more
To Be a Puddle
7M ago
"The best portion of a man's life,
his little, nameless, unremembered
acts of kindness and love."
William Wordsworth
As the Medora Century approaches, watching the weather is an exercise in futility and frustration with the prediction changing every few hours. So I decide to just wait until the morning of the ride. The morning of the ride the wind prediction is down to twelve miles with higher gusts (27) out of the west. This is promising as while there will be wind on the way out, there should be some tail wind on the return, always my preference. Also, it is n ..read more
To Be a Puddle
7M ago
"Nevertheless, I will tell you that you
will awake one day to find that your life
has rushed by at a speed at once impossible
and cruel. The most intense moments will
seem to have occurred only yesterday and
nothing will have erased the pain and pleasure,
the impossible intensity of love and its dog leaping
happiness, the bleak blackness of passions
unrequited, or unexpressed, or unresolved."
Meg Rosoff
Wise words, those of Ms. Rosoff, and they play a part in my decision to attend the next century despite the abrupt changes in weather, the distance to the start ..read more
To Be a Puddle
8M ago
"Sensitive people feel so deeply they
often have to retreat from the world,
in order to dig beneath the layers of pain
to find their faith and courage."
Shannon Alder
I am worried that I will not be able to go on my planned vacation to Yellowstone with my daughter for I have been ill. Fever and an attack on my lungs by some passing virus that thought I needed a spanking. COVID tests negative. But my fever breaks and while I am far from recovered, I am able to go and to not worry about infecting her or other passengers. I have never been to this park and it gives ..read more
To Be a Puddle
8M ago
"God give me hills to climb,
And strength for climbing!"
Arthur Guitermen
It is going to be a great day for a ride. The weather has turned unseasonable cool, the skies are overcast, but it is still warm enough for just shorts and a jersey. The course is one I have not ridden for a few years, a course I put together in honor of an old friend, Steve Montgomery, who wanted a ride that went through Bethlehem but where lunch was at LeRoy's in Lexington. Unfortunately, he no longer rides, but this route will always bring him back to my mind. Of course ..read more
To Be a Puddle
8M ago
"A goal without a plan
is just a wish."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
It has been a steamy hot, humid week, filled with ragweed, so once again I steal out of the house quite early to get a ride in before it becomes miserably tropical. Today I pick the Surly though I have no intention of seeking gravel. What makes us pick a certain bike on a certain day? Sometimes it is the route we intend to take, and sometimes it is just as if that bike calls to us. Sometimes we find we have picked the right bike for the path we find ourselves on, and other times we think another w ..read more
To Be a Puddle
9M ago
On the Loss of Victor R. Smith:
And so it is, with the loss of my last brother, Victor Smith, two days ago, I become an only child that once had four siblings. I suppose, being an orphan as well, with both parents deceased, this does not count. I certainly did not expect his loss, or at least not this soon, and I struggle. I find this odd because of all my siblings, we probably were the least close. We didn't hate each other and weren't angry with each other, but we were just very, very different sharing little in the way of interests though he did begin riding a bicycle a bit a few years ba ..read more
To Be a Puddle
10M ago
"Solitude is a breeding ground
for idiosyncrasy, and I relish that
about it, the way it liberates
whim."
Caroline Knapp
I belong to two bicycle clubs, and both have rides that interest me today, but a part of me urges me to decline both and do a gentle, easy, meandering type ride with no demands upon pace or conversation. To soak in the summer that is relentlessly passing. To go at my own pace with no thought to others. For these are the types of rides that often renew my love of cycling. The decision is easy when Mike posts a difficult ride. The other ride ..read more