Recovery ride - Winnie the poo day.

As the title suggests, on this blustery, rainy, cold day between meetings and such I found a window to ride. yay!

..is that silence because nobody cares or you're all just floored that soft-guy finally started his season?

Ostensibly this was a recovery ride from last weekends Del-shoes 'anti-race' but I suppose it's pushing it to call a six-day-later-ride a "recovery" ride. Still, if it's not recovery from the Anti-race, it's recovery from something..I had rather intended to mount the trainer sometime this past week, for those purposes but things being things, that didn't happen. So, with a busy schedule the only available window was Friday. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so super hot. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be quite nice, but today was generally yechy.
no matter, it is what it is, and one has to take advantage of the opportunities presented as they present themselves.

Things started out quite well. Weather was cooperating with the rain holding off and it stayed

that way for 20min or so until I was behind the Parliment Bldgs. So, donning rain coat I continued on, as did the rain.Managed to get the clothing mostly right so while I was a little warm early on, the temps dropped up in the parc and I was pretty good. ..'cept for the feet.
I'd neglected to put on my goretex socks or booties so once the rain & spray had completely soaked my feet & ankles It got a bit chilly down there. My ankles felt like they had ice cream headaches!

Still, all was well and the park was understandably deserted. Only two cars in Gamelin lot with a pair of cyclist suiting up, and throughout the ride I saw one jogger, three small groups of walker/hikers and three cyclists besides myself.

Everyone was cheerful and offered smiles or waves. nice!
Noteably; two of the three cyclists offered purposeful and clearly discernible waves..
THAT my friend is 66% of roadies offering acknowledgment of a fellow cyclist on ONE ride!!
It just doesn't get better than that. ..granted three is a small n but I'm not going to get hung up on conditional considerations that dilute the importance of that stat.

66% of roadies waved. Now, if you want to get freaky and include me,(i waved also) that already impressive stat launches up to a stratospheric 75%!! But that might be greedy so even without me the 66% is positively massive.

I personally am going to consider that one item a positive harbinger of upcoming wonderfulness. ..two of three riders willing to remove a hand from the bars to acknowledge a fellow rider and spread some cheer on a blustery, wet, cold day.

I propose to you good people that those kind souls are spearheading the revolution. yep. Remember, you read it here first.

I also had the fortune to commune with nature for a moment when I came face to face with a young buck on ..wait for it..

Fortune.

woah, get it? see what I did there? oh, yeah I gots wordsmithing all locked up over here.
Heres young Buck himself.
(how do I know he's young? well, I don't. I'm totally clueless actually, but young buck sounds better than old buck to me and I felt I had to pick one.

Unfortunately I noticed while taking the snaps that my momentary comrade-in-climbing has an injured leg.

That saddened me.

Suddenly, trying to get a good snap to show all you good people seemed completely trivial. The consideration being that a deer with a bad leg in late November has some very serious challenges ahead of him.
The fates can be cruel bitches, and I fear that my new acquaintance had Lachesis measure out a shorter string than he deserves. ..bitch.
However, despite Bucks questionable future, it's not my place to interfere with the moira (unwise to tangle with the weird sisters) so I carried on my way wishing him the best and hoping that he stays clear of the predators long enough to heal up.

The actual climbing of fortune was pretty good as the slower pace and harder work managed to warm my feet a tiny bit.

At the top Champlain was totally deserted as would be expected. It was no day to daly about in the blustery cold rain so I snapped my evidence shots and carried on down blacks. Pretty

uneventful ride back. ..I think.

I actually got immersed in thought and when I was rounding the corner to the Raymond overpass I was thinking "have I gone down Pinks

yet?"

I was honestly oblivious to most of the descent for being immersed in thought. huh. ..hope i didn't miss anything.

Anyway it was all good back to home. I was pretty soaked but felt ok until I got in the shower to warm up and apparently my feet were colder than I thought. The shower felt like red hot pokers raining down! My thighs went beet red and my feet went all purple and blotchy while the nerves spazzed out like ..um, insert witty analogy here, I'm tired.

..but the nerve spaz was short lived and totally worth it.

How to turn a dreary old day into something better than it looks like through the windows.

late breaking news. Just checked the forecast and while it's apparently going to be swell through the early next week, it's calling for rain and snow for Thurs, Fri next week. That should make things interesting for next Fridays ride. ..oh yes. There will be a ride. This year I'm going to ride until I can ski. ..guess I better find those Goretex socks!