The Avenging Spider And Other Tall Tales

Yesterday I woke up with this:



As if my eyes aren't small enough to begin with

Yeah, awesome. The same morning I encountered a spider as big as a house in our living room. I didn't want to touch it so I had hubby dispose of it. Now I figure it was the same spider that bit me so it definitely had it coming - but not before it took a bite out of my face.

I feel a little better today but just to be safe I wore glasses or goggles or whatever you call it on my ride in this morning - just in case that spider has friends.

When I checked the weather, like I do every day, I saw something new. Never seen this symbol before - and it wasn't lying.

There was fog everywhere.

The fog carried with it bone chilling cold, the kind that sits in ones bones for hours after having been exposed to it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed biking in. Since there's hardly any snow here in the Pacific Northwest, fog is the closest thing to it for me, making fog remind me of Christmas.

Following some great advice I got from the Hungry Hippo post, I had 20+ grams of protein.

Breakfast of champions

Now my eye is starting to hurt again - and it itches like a sonofa.

The Tale Of The Lonesome And Abandoned Bike

I've been feeling bad for my old bicycle ever since it was replaced with my new Cannondale. There was nothing very wrong with the old bike - except for the one thing that couldn't be fixed: size. The bike was just too small. The frame was too small and the handlebars were too wide. The fact that the old Raleigh is a man's bike explains the handlebars, so I figure the bike was made for a short guy with wide shoulders.

It wasn't this bad, but...

Look, I know bicycles don't have feelings but I kinda think they do. I've been imagining the old Raleigh crying in the corner of the garage where it spends most of its time these days. Of course it doesn't help that the bike is actually blue.

I contemplated fixing the bike by replacing the stem with a longer one and the handlebars with shorter ones, but that would cost me almost $500 - money I could put towards a new bike instead. And there's just something alluring about new and shiny, so I wasn't exactly a hard sell when it came to making the decision to go new instead of old.

Hubby took a spin on it a couple of weekends ago, but he's much taller than me so it was more of an exercise in experiencing a road bike than it was a permanent solution to my old bike's loneliness. I don't know what to do with the old Raleigh and I fear I one day soon will walk into the garage and find it missing because it ran away.

To be continued...

Since it's Wednesday, I have started to plan my weekend ride. Since commuting fills my need for close encounters with cars, I figure I'll bike somewhere more tranquil. Lake Washington is nice but it's kinda short and biking around it more than once just makes me dizzy and also bored.

I don't feel like doing the Centennial Trail two weekends in a row so that's out as well.

Upon considering the realistic options (i. e. not biking to Portland, however tempting that may seem), I've landed on JBLM.



That's about 50 miles each way. It is south so the rifle in the back of the truck factor might be higher but I'll take my chances.