I haven't mentioned the Fabulous and Fifty-Plus Cycling Dudes, Ltd. in a while; thus, I didn't want you to think that I hadn't mentioned them, because I had actually found a "real" job.
I say "real" job, because when cycling with Bill, I described a possible job opportunity to him. His response was, "Jean, you know what you tell them? You tell them that you already have a job; you're part of our cycling team. We can't let you get a job!"
I laughed, and while that sounded quite good, I knew that I wouldn't be saying that to anyone in the near future; and, I'd be lucky if I could retire, like Bill, when I was 63 given the way things were in in this job market!
And, I confess that I haven't mentioned my cycling group here in a while, because, I bike with them almost EVERY day, and I fear that most of you think I've joined a cult. Okay, not a cult, but perhaps I've joined the cycling equivalent of the Hell's Angels! I felt like saying to Bill at one point today, "Remember, I am not really retired. I just play a retired person when I cycle on the rail trail!"
And, this week, I began to realize that things were piling up at home (i.e., laundry folded two days after it came out of the dryer, piles of "things to put away" piling up in corners labeled "whenever," jobs leads that I wasn't sending my resume to 10 seconds after I got the lead, and so on). Did it bother me?
Well, if you want the God's honest truth, the lack in laundry folding bothered me more than the sending my resume task; however, as I have said in an earlier blog, I've made my peace with the job struggle. Actually, I really don't struggle with the lack of a job anymore. Sure, I've been a bit down at times, but being that way doesn't make my life any better; thus, I find it's best just to keep going -- forward.
At the local greasy spoon restaurant tonight, where we had dinner before Iz's Open House at school, I heard one elderly woman ask another how she was doing. The woman said, "Well...." Then the other immediately said, "You just stand up every day and keep moving, right?" The other woman screamed, "Yes!!!!' And, they both cackled. Yes, seriously, they cackled like they were in some all-knowing and enlightened "We won't let anything get us down" coven! I so hope I get invited to "Double, double, toil and trouble" with those chicks some day. :-)
Anyway, as I said, it seemed that, like that guy in Brokeback Mountain, I wish I knew how to quit these guys on my cycling team, well, not all the time, but at least one day a week, so I could accomplish something!
In fact, at the beginning of the week, someone decided it would be great if we all hiked up Mount Monadnock together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Monadnock
Err, so we're all hiking up this "mount" on October 16th. They proposed a few earlier dates, but each time I had to tell Bill that the date wasn't okay for some reason, and each time he came back and said, "We're not going without you." See, how "Saving Private Ryan" this cycling team is?!?!?!?
So, today, I knew I had to be somewhere at 2pm. (Okay, I had to get my hair cut, and I'm now sporting this cute bob, but unlike Iz, who got one last week, I don't think I "look like a boy!") I asked if we could meet at 8:45, THINKING (naively so) that an earlier departure time would mean getting home earlier, but that wasn't the case. If we're out earlier, it just means we just ride longer! Nevertheless, I still can't quit biking with these people, even though I know I can bike 50 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes, get my laundry folded, and do the "send my resume" task in under 3 hours when today it took us 4 hours to ride just 52 miles. <3
I almost crossed over an unwritten biking line today with Bob though. Bill and I met him when we were cycling back to Nashua with Leigh. He biked back with us. Leigh left for home, and Bill and I biked back toward home with Bob on the rail trail. Not too long after we left the parking lot, Bob, who had introduced me to people before as an "animal," said to me "Jean, ride ahead of me at 20 mph so I can draft you."
I laughed, and I continued along at a slower pace. After three miles, Bob (remember, he's 76!) went down on his aero bars and passed Bill and I. I looked at Bill, and he smiled. He said, "Jean, I think Bob just passed you with attitude." (I love biking with Bill; with him, I have the Dad relationship I never had growing up.) Bill slowed down, so I could pass him, and I cycled past Bob.
When I cycled past Bob, I fully expected him to get on my wheel. I was looking at my speedometer...20...21...22, and then I heard a noise, which I thought was him behind me, and I continued to crank down the rail trail. I finally looked back and saw he was about 200 yards behind me. I continued, thinking he was going to catch me, and when I knew I was near an intersection, I slowed down. I went through the intersection, stopped, and waited for Bill and Bob.
In about 10 minutes (after a short visit into the woods, which Bill divulged to me later), Bill rode up to me and said, "Where's Bob?" I told him that I didn't know. I explained what had happened, and Bill said that he didn't see Bob's bike on the way, so Bob hadn't made a pit stop like Bill. We backtracked on the trail looking for Bob, and he was nowhere to be found.
It was then that I said to Bill, "You don't think he got upset because he didn't catch me." Bill said that he might have, but that wasn't my fault. I got upset, and I said, "Well, I thought he'd get on my wheel and we'd crank down the rail trail together like we did other times." Bill told me not to fret, and that if there was a problem, it was Bob's. Bill and I continued down the trail, but no matter what he said, I felt badly the whole way home.
When we reached the end, we said good-bye and made plans to meet tomorrow (okay, maybe this IS a cult!). Bill was going to check out the well drilling in the rail trail parking lot, and I wanted to get home. To add insult to injury, after biking 52 miles, I have to bike up this hill (out of the saddle biking) to get home.
Once I was home about 15 minutes, my cell rang. It was Bill. He told me that when he arrived at the benches at the end of the trail, there sat Bob wondering where the hell we had been. Apparently, Bob had turned onto the road at that intersection, without me seeing him, and biked the roads to the end of the trail instead of biking the trail like Bill and I did.
Bill said, "Don't worry. There are no hard feelings." I said, "Why didn't he tell us he was going off like that?" Bill said, "Bob does what he wants. But, I'm pretty sure it's because he knew he couldn't keep up with you." This was something I had to get used to -- ego plus competition, plus a man who was a great cyclist but who was aging and finding it hard to lose ground and accept it. And, I told Bill, "I will never bike over 18 mph when I'm with Bob again." Bill told me not to worry. BUT, from now on, Bob will always rule the trail, and that's totally okay with me. <3
I Didn't Know They Still Made These Note:
Superman is out of a job (no more phone booths, well, at least in my town), BUT the pay phone is alive and well and living in a Bertucci's in Chelmsford, MA.
In This Horrid Economy, Guard Those Number 2s With Your Life Note: At the Open House at Iz's school tonight, I saw this label on the pencil can in her art teacher's classroom.
Nathan Describes to Me the Car That He Wants Me to Buy Him Note: It's a yellow Ferrari with racing stripes..............................with five Maine Coon kittens in the backseat. And, he just informed me that he's applying for a job at Subway on the weekends; he then said, "Yeah, Mom. You can work there with me!" Thanks, honey. I love you. <3
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