Big Bikes

OK Fine, I'm Back...Sort Of, I Guess

What's it been, ten days since I wrote something here? Nine? Wow, seemed longer than that. I was really wondering how I was going to get back at it, then, like that, the insomnia returned this morning. Not the old kind where I couldn't get to sleep, this is the new breed where I wake up at an ungodly hour and can't fall back to sleep...so I write.

I once attended an art show at The List Gallery at MIT called "Shakespeare From Memory", where an artist had tried to piece together synopses of all the great works of, yes, Shakespeare, scrawling the words on large canvasses. She hadn't read them since high school, so it was actually pretty funny. Don't get me started on the conceptual art. If I go to see art in a gallery, I want it to be a visual or some other sort of sensory experience. Writing large words on a canvas is called writing and like most conceptual art it conveys an idea. Ideas can be conveyed by telling people about them, you don't necessarily have to waste your time shlepping to a gallery to see those ideas hanging on a wall.

My point, my point, it's in here somewhere...ow! There it is. I am going to try to piece together (briefly) what has happened in the past tennish days (Tennish, in this usage means "roughly ten days", it is also how a Dutchman pronounces "Tennis", just wanted to clarify).

July 4th - I don't like to get stuck far from home sitting in traffic during this holiday, so I went down to the cabin in Wrentham with my then fiance, Miriam, keeping it local. Not before I went out and did the CRW/ NEBC hill loop. At some point I'll post a my own version of the thing with suggestions for improvement, I've got a few of my own hills that would work nicely into that thing, particularly if if you skip the whole thankless lollipop section going out to The Burlington Mall and back. A lot of the hills are right in my backyard and I had no idea they were there, it was pretty awesome having a couple epiphany moments during the ride "THAT thing has been hiding up in that random neighborhood all these years and I didn't know about it, dang!".

Then, later that day, M and I headed down to Foxborough for a rip around F. Gilbert Hills. The place is rough, but on The Remedy and the Genesisters Hi Fi we were flowing like human powered motorcycles. The place was built by motos and it is still pretty overun by them, they rip a lot of stuff up, but hey, I 'd rather ride moto trails than hiking or equestrian trails any day.

We were three quarters of the way around the loop, it was getting dark, the quadruple-normal mosquito population had come out to party, so Miriam went back on the road as I took off to hammer out the rest of the loop, with the car keys in my pocket. I instantaneously flatted. Knowing that I had only a 29" tube in my pocket (not too many 26" tubes in my house) and that the bloodsuckers would descend on me with a vengeance, I tried to run it out, realizing pretty quickly that I was miles from the trailhead, I stopped to fix the flat. I got it done in record time while still giving the skeeters plenty of opportunity to bite me on every un-deeted spot on my body multiple times. The result looked like a bad reaction to Poison Oak. It felt great too.

July 5th - With the first Parsons/Kornitzer family barbecue looming, I was given an hour and a half window to ride. I struck out with my cousin Will in tow for the over The river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go loop, which encompasses right-a-ways, private property, town land, Wrentham State Forest, and the old abandoned ski hill. Always one of my favorite rides.

July 6th - I think I rode to work, I'm not sure, I bet it was really, really exciting

July 7th - I think I did some of the NEBC hill loop and some of my own stuff on the way to work, I think I felt like crap doing it. I am fat. In fat, I mean fact, I am weighing in at 167 Lbs, right now. That is how much Bart Brenjens weighs. That is not good.

July 8th - Team TT of the Fells MTB Loop with Kevin Sweeney. It was wet, my RWS skewer slipped, I felt gross, I dabbed at least four times (which is just pathetic) we did it in about 29:15. Not a record. Awesome! Then we rode to work, me on my spinny, spinny off road gear, 32 X 17.

Oh, then I rode up from IBC Newton to Melrose through all but one section of The Fells to a NEMBA meeting on preserving and promoting MTB access to The Fells. After that I was tired.

July 9th - Super-Connector. Went out from The Danish Pastry House for a three and a half hour tour with Kevin, Alex, GTL, and wicked fast youngin' Nathaniel Williams. We hooked up Brooks Estate to Horn Pond to Cummins Park to Willard Woods to Burlington Landlocked to Great Meadows to Whipple Hill, it was sweet.

You ever seen a little kid draw a person and they get to a point where they figure out that there is no way they can keep their figure in proportion with the space available so instead of running their legs or head off the page, they just curve the legs or tilt the neck, making it appear like the poor guy is trapped in a cramped little box suffering horribly?