Back to the grind

Monday the 14th

My return to Chicago coincides with the usual, i.e. bitter cold and rain. While I have six million things to do, squeezing them in between my usual 6 hours of training a day, I have also somehow and rather foolishly agree to dogsit for a woman in Rock Island, who also does volunteer stuff for the Doberman rescue group. But all is not lost – I figure I can take my bike out there and get some decent riding in, outside for a change. The theoretical miles on the trainer are killing me!

Thursday the 17th

Dear God/Fates/WhoFuckingEver –

I agree, it probably wasn’t enough that when I started out on my little trip to Rock Island, which should have taken less than 3 hours on a typical good day, I was met with monsoon-like rain and blustery winds. This is what I’ve come to expect, and it was hardly much of a challenge. The endless construction, now that was a nice touch, with lanes appearing and disappearing seemingly out of nowhere, and the usual crazed drivers zig-zagging to get either on or off, because obviously if they missed one exit, there wouldn’t be another one for way WAY too long, so better to risk a multi-car pileup.

Traffic, well, come on. Even though it was Thursday morning, not a usual time for traffic, I took this in stride. And I had not realized that there is apparently one gas station in the entire western part of IL, so worrying about running out of gas, well, that made me happy too.

However. Just to be clear – we do understand that I was doing this purely as a favor to someone, a woman I’d never met, no less, out of sympathy for her recent disaster when she went on vacation and the person who was supposed to look after her dogs......didn’t. You can imagine what the house looked like when she got back. So more the fool I, I said I’d help her out if she were ever stuck again, and next think you know, there I was driving to Rock Island, which is basically Iowa, not even bothering to bring my bike because the weather was beyond miserable. Now, I mention all this merely to set the stage – it’s not as if I’m looking for some kind of medal here or anything – a heck of a lot people do a lot more, so I know it’s no big deal. But conversely, I did not expect what actually did happen: that there I’d be, almost at my destination, driving on highway 5 which is a 4 lane divided roadway with a grassy median of sorts – the kind of thing where there are side roads with no traffic lights where people will go across your lanes to get to the ones going the other way. Typical rural stuff.

So I’m toodling along, paying attention as always, and I see a car on the right that has stopped and is obviously waiting to cross my lanes to get to the other side. Kind of waiting, that is. Because suddenly the scum-sucking POS driving that car, and whoever he/she is I am still heaping curses on your wretched head, decides to pull RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Not peeling out quickly assuming they could zip across, oh no. It’s as if I’ve activated the stealth cloaking button in my car that renders me completely invisible. Oops, I hate it when that happens at the wrong time. So here I am in a split second trying to decide if I could speed up enough to make it in front of this car, or slam the brakes and swerve behind them. I pick option two, and somehow, someway, a massive collision is averted. Though subsequently my heart is beating so rapidly I’m pretty sure a heart attack is imminent – which is the only thing stopping me from turning around and hunting down this bastard and beating the ever loving crap out of him. Don’t think I didn’t give it serious consideration.

Which brings me to my point. Again, not looking for recognition for trying to do the requisite good deed once in a while. But. Perhaps. Given the fact that I’m trying to do a fucking GOOD DEED here…..do you think you might want to give me a fucking BREAK once in a while and not try to KILL ME??

Thank you.

Saturday the 19th


Apr 12
Sunny
90°

Apr 13
Sunny
88°

Mon
Apr 14
Sunny
79°

Tue
Apr 15
Sunny / Wind
69°

Apr 16
Sunny
72°

Apr 17
Sunny
74°

Fri
Apr 18
Sunny
73°

Sat
Apr 19
Sunny
73°

Sun
Apr 20
Sunny
72°

Mon
Apr 21
Sunny
70°

Those are of course the temperatures for Tujunga, CA. Here, well, as I’m driving back to Chicago, this time even more cautious – like someone who “smetana vezoot” as my dad would say – it starts snowing. I call my brother to tell him this, and I think he starts choking from laughter on the icy fresh lemonade he’s made for himself to combat the heat. Sigh.