good to be home... good to get back on the bike...


good to be home...
good to get back on the bike...
it will be good to get back into a routine

back home
it is good to be back home

got home from new orleans in the late afternoon

I was feeling that post travel fatigue
all I wanted to do was take a nap
lisa on the other hand fought the impulse to lounge around the house and got right into routine
after starting a load of laundry she was out the door and off to the grocery store

the fridge was empty and there would have to be food for dinner and food for lunches
this left me back at the house with the boys

the boys were all over the place
they did not want to eat
they did not want to do anything
there were no other kids on the block to guide their attention


they had just been on a plane and in taxis all morning
I wanted them to burn off some energy
I wanted them to get some exercise
sending them out back to play in the hay did not suit their fancy
denied any request for Nintendo DS or a movie
not sure if they asked for either more than once

eventually after realizing that they would not play positively enough or long enough without fighting that I could take a nap I suggested going for a hike with the dog
there was a fight
it became a discussion
there was refusal
then I insisted
out the door there was a fight about which trail we would hike
once on the trail grant hit me with his ghandi move of passive resistence


for sections of our short hike I put my straw cowboy hat on grant's head and grant on my shoulders
then to initiate movement I set up a few races
once I said ON YOUR MARK-GET SET-GO... grant was unstoppable... unstoppable in the race... he was insisting
on being carried for some of the sections in between
pretty much for all of the up hill sections in between the down hill races

once back from a hike in the woods with the dogs the boys were in the backyard throwing some hay with some of the kids from the block
before the sun faded I pulled out the bike
it was tough for me to break through my own desire to just sit down and not move
so I insisted
avoided getting too deep into a discussion with myself
ignored my effort to refuse myself
I was not feeling ambitious to just ride
so I pulled out the bike not so much for a ride but rather so that I could get across town

I called to see if I could stop by the Maryland Avenue Climbing Gym
sure enough... green light go
so after scaring up a pair of old vans high tops for climbing shoes I was out the back door with the bike

then I realized I needed air in the tires
the cross bike has low PSI for cyclocross style riding the last time I had rode
and there had been some loss of pressure since

time was passing and the sun was dropping fast
when the ambition is low it can be slow getting out the gate

on the bike I rode through downtown traffic
through downtown in rush hour
straight down 16th past the white house
a right at treasury

then straight up penn avenue towards the capital
out of the saddle up the hill and then past the parks over to the wall

sure mass avenue towards union station to capital hill would have been an option
but sometimes the trajectory is dictated by the flow of the lights and the thickness of the cars

once at the maryland avenue climbing gym I got some more lessons on the rope

there was some review of the knots I had learned on the previous visit
then some further discussion on the belay process
with the helmet and harness on it was belay on-climb on and then up the wall
as the sun was dropping fast it was just a few quick attacks on the wall
a few failed traverses and a few successful efforts going up
then I took the belay position for a few shoeless sessions by my instructor before th
e light ducked behind the buildings

after the wall closed for the evening I took back to the streets and worked my way home
still pumped from the fun on the wall I tried to catch the fast flow of traffic

Maryland to Mass Avenue then muscled my way towards 16th Street
out of the saddle sprinting my way down into the tunnel under Thomas Circle

then forced to drop my pace up 16th as the gaps did not allow me to bust a move on the red lights
and there were no green lights to add to the flow
by the time I got to Malcom X Park I was on the sidewalk moving at a less than aggressive pace

the light had pretty much faded and I was pleased to have a few blinking lights on my bag and NiteRider lamp on my handlebars

got home and the boys were already in the tub
the energy of the vacation had still not diminished in the boys
the bath was cut short for fear of flooding the house
then the boys wrestled each other for over an hour as I tried to wrestle them to brush their teeth, put on their pajamas, and go to the bathroom

now dean is reading a gorilla book while I blog