The Fat Man in the Red Suit

I think I ate my weight in ham yesterday.  That's what it felt like.  We only eat ham maybe once or twice a year.  This is one of those times.  I know it's horribly bad for me - bad for my arteries, bad for my salt sensitivity, and pretty much bad for my waistline.  But it's so tasty.  So so tasty.

It's a good thing I got a decent ride in on Sunday.  The day that was supposed to be in the low 40's ended up hitting 55 degrees, and as soon as it did, I was out riding.  There was a bit of a wind, so I had to work a little harder than I normally would, but it wasn't enough to make me stop and go back.  I once again rode all the way to the airport, which gave me about 14 miles of riding.  It's still hard to believe I can ride like that. 

As usual, though, I managed to hurt myself not once, but twice.  First, I gored my thumb with one of the bungie cords that holds down my trunk when I put my bike inside.  Danged thing just jabbed me like it had a mind of its own, and I bled all over the place.  I finally wrapped a tissue around it tightly and put my gloves on, and by the time I was done with my ride, it was done bleeding.  Then, on my way back, I was going across one of the pedestrian bridges, and ran into the railing, bruising up my arm.  This particular bridge is after a long uphill stretch, and I'm usually struggling when I get to it, so I'm in second and weaving the bike back and forth, and then there was the railing.  Whenever I'm headed for something immovable like that, for some reason I forget I have brakes and that I can stop.  I'm sticking my leg out, trying to touch the ground, trying to turn the bike, and none of it works.  Brake, dummy.  Brake! 

Santa was good to me this year in the bike category.  Hubby got me an adapter bar for my bike, so I could put my bike on the bike rack I bought.  I bought a bike rack weeks ago, but couldn't afford the adapter I needed because my bike is a girl's bike.  He managed to find one for a good price.  He also got me a nice gel seat, and a ding-ding bell for my handlebars.  He also gave me a pair of flashers, one in red, one in white.  These are on little elastic straps and will be nice to have if I end up getting caught out riding at dusk.  And my daughter bought me a nice pair of compression pants.  I'm all set now!

I wish I could say I'll get to use all of these things soon, but we have 4 inches of snow on the ground, bitterly cold temperatures (it is 3 degrees as I write this) and no change in the forecast for the rest of the week.  Sunday might get into the 40's.  That's still a long way off, but I'm going to keep my hopes up!