Oh where hath my %$@#% Saturday gone

A Saturday spent already; not sure where it went but it's been nice day overall. Dealt with the sick throwing up son (wife did the most as usual) this morning, graded a couple of papers and read some email while listening for heaves, went to the library to pick up some books for a lecture I'm giving in my ch lit class picked, then picked up dancing daughter from her class. Lastly, instead of doing what I should do, I went on a mt bike ride. Now I'm tired, sweaty, stinky, and unmotivated to do the things I really should have done this morning: written a rough draft for a retention study I'm doing with a colleague, grade 30 ch lit book reviews on the symbolism in MC Higgins the Great, prepped for my Tuesday classes, increase our garden size by tilling a few swaths of grass, wrapping our apples in newspaper for storage.... See that's the problem. When I got up this morning I probably could have done one or two of those (I did pick the tomatoes I will have you know), but there were just too many things to choose from so I was like the indecisive deer in the headlights and once I regained my wits, I just figure ah to hell with it I will go on a mt bike ride.

And what a mt bike ride it was, primarily a lesson in humility (note to self: only ride with riders who will inflate imaginary sense of my riding abilities). The humility started in strong doses as my friend, one of the top three expert class riders in Utah, took it out "gently," a nice conversational pace FOR HIM!!, as we rode the pavement from Mueller Park in Bountiful to North Canyon. Once we turned off the pavement, the dirt road ascends steeply for 4 miles. Climbing I was rudely transported back to 100 degree August days, sweating out my jersey immediately and profusely, watching my friend speed out of sight. Back cramped, had to stop and stretch twice; I survived. It does improve at mile 4 with a much more sane switchbacked single track--before I knew it we were on top of Rudy flats and ready for some of the best downhill in the state and a solid 5 miles of it to boot.

Finally I'm used to my "new" bike I got about three years ago--a full suspension Specialized Stumpjumper for anyone that cares. If you want to know more about my bike, look it up--I only know it can go fast and has brakes which stop it. What I do know is that finally I feel comfortable handling the bike. Before I'd ridden a suspensionless Bridgestone MB5, quite a bike in its day, for about a decade. But now, sweet jesus, it's a beautiful ride. It's amazing what one can do on a bike, going over rocks, roots, washouts. I guess I didn't think this kind of fairly dangerous activity would attract me when I was approaching 40--in some ways I enjoy it more than I did as a kid. Anything else I say here will sound corny and cliched but, alas, I can't resist. It feels like the bike is an extension of me and somehow that's so beautiful because I could never run 20+ mph down this trail, could never descend the 5 miles in 30 minutes, could never jump over an obstacle floating for 15 feet....and somehow all that just tickles me silly.

It's approaching 7pm and all that stuff I should have done is safely out of reach, jusifiably undoable as it were. Relieved of duties, I will settle down to some reading, maybe a movie, some time with the kids--there's always tomorrow.

Bonus: video of guy riding Mueller with funny little dog

Things I meant to blog about but didn't

I've had lots (really!) of great blogging ideas but I've had little time and my brain is stuffed. So here's the short version of each; at least this post will move the F word down on my homepage:

1. Our 13 year old son has gone through some sort of evolution. A few weeks ago we realized he had a girlfriend--kind of difficult to keep tabs on this kind of thing when he can email, IM, and call her on the cell phone. This morning before noon he had already chatted with the gf and we fielded four calls from four different friends. What happened to the shy, boyish child of last year? Concerning gf thing I have radically contracting feelings and thoughts. On one hand, I'm think hold up buckaroo, there's all kinds of time left, no need to take the fun out of puppy love stuff (a note, a brush of hands, etc). On the other, I identify strongly with his plight to get with his girl. Several times I've caught myself constructing arguments my son might use with us and the gf's parents. And after seeing him IM for several hrs with the gr, I finally said, "You might as well go see her." Which of course he had already thought out and planned--that evening he headed out on his bike with goofy directions to her house, accepting none of our help. Amazingly he spent an eveing with the gf and her family. I was 17 before I did such a thing--much safer and less grown up to just make-out in the bushes during night games. What is he thinking!

2. My wife and I went to Beethoven's 9th symphony--it really go me going. Of course I'm familiar with the Ode to Joy but had never heard the entire piece. Near the end, during the last movement where the orchestra begins to tempt us with the Ode to Joy melody (after having taken us through some sort of Turkish march music), I nearly lept from my chair and had to blink away a few tears. It was brilliantly explosive.

3. Harvest time again. This past Sunday the whole family got invovled, picking peaches, pears, apples, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, and squash. I've designated myself the peach cutter upper for this fall-50 or so peaches later, I'm still loving it (the eating and cutting). I've made a couple of superb batches of fresh salsa with a variety of hot peppers--the classic jalapeno, the less well-known serrano, a long skinny red pepper, and the exotic tiny thai dragon (hot as a mother). Eating all this fresh food has given me an opportunity to detox from the modern vagaries of grocery store shopping. If only I could eat this way all year.