Big Bikes

Gone A-Visitin'

That's what I did today (we'll get to the creepy dead birds in a minute). Me and M are heading out on vacation next week (don't worry I have a week's worth of "Very Special" Big Bikes posts waiting in the wings, hopefully I'll get to put them up) so I had to go see some family and do a good sized base ride. I've gone with the low cadence, big gear sort of endurance riding this year. Oh ya, I was out on the proper road bike, The De Rosa UD (Rhymes with THUD! Not really). Been doing so much spinning on the Fix-ed gear it was nice to go out and grind my legs off to wee little nubs. Just nice to mix things up too.

OK, I'm trying to look at the bright side but riding a road bike when it's windy as hell, in the forties, and the roads are bombed out, wet, and sandy kind of sucks. Totally sucks. I had good tunes though. Thanks to one of this guy's posts I wound up downloading a bunch of stuff from the Dischord site that I hadn't heard since I gave my brother several milk crates full of cassette tapes sometime in the 90's.

It was incredibly windy today but not incredibly cold so I used my incredibly busted-ass mid-weight booties, this may have been their last ride.

My Grandmother I call Ganga lives down in Wrentham. It's a nice ride from Somerville down to those parts, not too hilly, just winding country roads. I didn't call ahead, hoping to pop in and surprise her. When I got there the house was empty, the only inhabitant was Pickles the Jack Russell Terrier. We talked for a minute then the door opened and in walked Ganga, My Auntie Ann, her boyfriend Bill, and moments later my Uncle Elliot and my cousin Christy's buddy Christian. I stayed for all of five minutes (power visit) then set out for my sister's in South Natick.

I flatted in the gorgeous town of Norwood (Hi Josef!) Massachusetts. Lovely day to fix a flat. Nice spot too, right next to a few piles of dog shit and an earth worm the size of an Anaconda.

Ann and Bill had been up in the barn cleaning when they came upon this macabre scene. Apparently a bird had nested in the bottom of a pillar, probably a Starling. The adult birds could easily fly straight up and out but when the chicks were ready to fly they couldn't quite pull off this feat of vertical ascent. They must have been about full grown when they expired. I don't really want to imagine what these poor little guys went through.

I meandered my way up to South Natick for dinner with my sister, brother in law, the parents, and my niece and nephew. By the time I got there I was shelled and starving, but I showed up to the right place - the house of amazing snacks (much better than a house of a thousand hats).

Did I complain about drivers once in this post? I don't think I did. I had to say it was a good day...and I didn't even have to use my A-K.