Good Morning, Sunshine!

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This morning, I left the house at 10am…on my bike. Yes, I am still biking. Why? I have no idea. Well, it’s probably because I’m still hearing a cycling voice in my head; that would be the voice of Bill, my 64-year-old cycling buddy, in the form of a text message asking “Bike today?”

When I left the house, it was warm 45 degrees. As I road down my street with my three layers on top and my cycling tights on bottom, my hands started to get chilly, and I knew that in 10 minutes, my toes would be numb! I thought, like you are probably thinking now, why am I on this bike when I could be in a warm gym running my 5K on the treadmill?! It was the call of the cycling wild, I guess, and since it had gotten colder, weather I’m not too fond of biking it at all, that call still kept coming from Bill whenever we had a day when the temperature was going to go over 50 degrees.

The interesting thing about riding this late in the Fall is how much everything has changed since the Summer. That sounds kind of obvious, but today, I noticed that the trees were almost bare, I could smell the decaying leaves along the side of the trail, and every now and then I could smell wood burning. I love that smell, and it should be a Yankee candle!

The good thing about biking in the cold (yes, there is one and only one) is that there are no bugs to eat. Again, I don’t eat the bugs on purpose; the bugs just fly into my mouth. Sometimes I can spit them out, sometimes they linger a bit, and then sometimes they zoom right down the hatch. At least, in the cold, I don’t have to wish that bugs tasted better for the occasional one that doesn’t get spit out in time.

When I met Bill in the rail trail parking lot, he greeted me with “Good morning, Sunshine!” I was somewhat shocked by it and not because he had called me “Sunshine.” It was because the last time I heard that was when I came down the stairs at my Dad’s house in Nantucket over 10 years ago. “Good morning, Sunshine!” was what he had always said. Oddly, it seemed that I had been encountering a lot of things lately that I had long been missing from my life.

When we were out and about, I told Bill that I couldn’t believe we were still riding in November. He said, “Just think of all the pussies out there that aren’t out here riding like us!” I admire the way Bill just says it like it is. Thinking about it more, I didn’t think I had ever been on my bike in November in my entire cycling life.

I told Bill it still didn't feel like it could be November already. I didn’t know if it was because I was unemployed or that somehow time seemed to be moving too fast for me lately. I was in denial; and I felt like it should still be August! Whenever I talk about Summer, Bill always counters with, “Well, you know, it did rain 21 days in the month of June.” I guess his thinking is that Mother Nature stole 21 days of Summer from us, so this must be why I'm still stuck in Summer!

As usual, we rode over hill and dale while Bill told me all sorts of stories about all sorts of people. Today, he was telling me that his sister-in-law wouldn’t like one of his friend’s, because this female friend was “you know, our word” he said. I asked, “Quirky?!” We like to talk about “quirky” people we know; and it appears that “quirky” is now our word. And, as it turns out, I like saying “quirky” as much as I like saying “apropos,” “kiosk,” and “stiletto.”

On our way back down the trail, we stopped to see how the covered bridge was progressing. When Bill first took me to the site, I really didn’t care one way or another about the bridge construction; however, Bill had now made me a fan, too. (Hmmm. If I start watching the Patriot’s games and calling people “pussies,” then you’ll definitely know I’ve been hanging around with Bill way too much!) Anyway, today there were actually construction workers, two huge cranes, which Bill thought was really cool, and several large wooden beams lying around. Bill was totally elated.

I laughed and said, “Gee, it doesn’t take much to make your day.” Bill said, “Well, you know, Jean, I guess it doesn’t!” As we usually do, we biked over the temporary footbridge to glance at the other side. There was nothing going on there, so we rode back over the footbridge, and he usually does, Bill stopped to glance at the part of the bridge under construction once more. He said, “Jean, you know what makes my day? Biking out here on a day like this with you.”

When we got back to the end of the rail trail, we had ridden about 30 miles. Of course, we had to touch the post at the end of the trail to validate the trip. When I got home, I saw that I had a message on my cell phone. It was a text message from Bill; “Today was fun. Thanks for making my day!” But, Bill had made my day before we even started to ride. At the beginning of any day, who doesn’t want to be someone’s sunshine? ♥