Blue Can’t Come In
Neither Can the Good News
I looked up from the fog of burnout and there was Blue, perched in the window with those ridiculous anime eyes, wanting in. I waved. Then shook my head. Sorry buddy, house rules. You’re the neighbors cat with a bounty out from our landlord, even if you don’t know it. One more task on the list before I could call it a day: swap the rigid fork on Hope the fat bike for something with a little give. Should be simple enough.
Earlier, the day had already gone sideways. Dropped the van off for an oil change, figured I’d walk for thirty minutes, come back fresh. Thirty minutes turned into two hours. My phone died somewhere in there, so I just... waited. Watched the world go by like some Norman Rockwell painting, trucks loaded with pumpkins, kids on benches, trains curving through town. Finally the guy wandered out. Van’s done. Oh, and you’ve got a transmission oil leak. What. That’s the kind of news that lands like a cold rock in your stomach when you’re already running on fumes.
So I went home and wrestled with the suspension fork anyway. Nearly launched myself into the ceiling at one point because I forgot how much pressure those things hold. Classic move. But I got it on, got Hope rideable, and rolled out for a shakedown just as the light was fading.
The ride was short. I got home so late I went to bed hungry. But somewhere on that trail, just for a minute, I smiled. Actually smiled. Not because anything got fixed or resolved. The van still leaks. Blue still can’t come inside. But the wheels turned, the fork worked, and for a few minutes the weight lifted.
Hard days. They don’t need to end well. They just need to end. The next one might be different.
On This Day
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2012: Dream ride – Even though I had my warmest mitts on, the cold started biting into my fingers. It might be that my hands were falling asleep from riding all night, maybe it was the cold. I kept focus on the...
2013: Friends – [gallery type=”square” ids=”5342,5343,5112,5127,5387,5576,5577,5610”]
2017: It’s been awhile – I think last year we tried it too. And I remember that we even had trouble figuring out how to connect into our bindings at the time. So this year I practice it over and over in my head. So I was...
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