Thursday, December 28, 2006

Holiday hiatus (Ho! Ho! Ho!)

Holiday hiatus

My weekly bicycle wrap is on holiday hiatus for several reasons and won’t return until Jan. 5, 2007.

I’m on some super-crazy early deadlines. Typically I work and play during the week, both of which give me some cycling opportunities. Then, when the weekend comes, I get into serious deadline mode. I crank out the paper and, if all goes as planned, the pages are uploaded to the printer at about 2 a.m. Monday and the paper goes to press that morning around 9 a.m.

Because of the holidays, my deadline is 5 p.m. Friday (Dec. 22 & Dec. 29). That means last week I put out a paper as usual early Monday, and as soon as it hit the streets Tuesday, I went right back into deadline mode.

This limited my bicycle riding. I pedaled into town, checked the mail, checked the office, got coffee and came home and sat behind the computer – for hours upon hours upon hours. Then I got a nasty case of the Humboldt crud, which resulted in coughing, fever and a general feeling of crappiness.

I got all my pages uploaded to the printer and a backup CD burned last Friday with 10 minutes to spare before the deadline. Despite all my deficiences, that made me feel like a pro.

When it comes to bicycling, I put in about 25 miles last week, including some interesting “fever” rides.

The Hiller Road overpass felt like climbing Mt. Everest. At one point I fantasized about falling over and curling up in the pine needles covering the bike lanes near the McKinleyville Shopping Center, but worried that if I did so I might get run over by the Redwood Transit Authority. (I wasn’t concerned about the street sweeper, being that it only comes four times a year.)

I was in no condition to ride a bike.

After that I started using the car. Oh, the luxury! It was cold and rainy outside, but I was warm inside my car. So I reverted to my old ways and guzzled lots of gas. The best parts of an automobile are the heater and radio. Sweet!

So I nursed my illness and kept warm. At first I considered the Christmas chocolates and crab enchiladas as medicinal. Now I fear they’re making me fat and lazy (make that fatter and lazier.)

Tomorrow I plan to get back on the bike. In the coming days and weeks I will need to drastically increase my mileage to make up for the past week. Seven days between bike rides is the most I’ve gone since July. Pure slovenliness. Sinful.

I think I’ll take a cue from the albino monk in “The Da Vinci Code” and engage in some self-flagelation. But I’ll skip the Mother Theresa-style mortification of the flesh and opt for my own form of punishment – I will seek out steep hills, and I will climb them on my bike.

So if you live within the vicinity of the Hewitt Ranch subdivision, look out. I may be pedalling through your neighborhood in the next couple weeks.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm feeling inspired by your bike blog. Since I started working in Ferndale, I've been extra conscious of all the additional driving. Riding a bike would be great, although I may start by doing a bus-bike combo and working my way up to the 24-mile trip. I rode to the Eye (5.6 miles) often this past summer, but since the weather turned and the day shortened, and with the additional job, I haven't been able to make it work.

I miss it. So does my body.

9:14 PM  

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