A Nice Surprise from a Long Day!

went on a sort of training ride today. a HUGE front was blowing in today and one of my best friends and teammate, kenny, and i decided to start our ride then. it's almost the height of winter here and we recently had a warming trend. all the accumulated snow is now melting and it's like little rivulets on our normal cycling routes. the picture is what we had to deal with on some of the roads. not too much of a pain if you're prepared. gear like fenders, a boat-load of clothes and base layer, decent tires, good gloves...etc. can make for a tolerable riding shindig near freezing temps (but it was in the 40s when we left!). before we leave, i check kenny's new turntable out. kenny has a pretty nice stereo and when he plays the lps it just sounds lovely. it's enough to make one buy vacuum tube stereo amplification. he plays some cheap trick and some rush before we go. it was a quick time travel back to the days of the mullet, member's only jacket, parachute pants, and kaepa hightops where you cuffed your pants. okay, i digress. we leave his house after we cross a slush-field of once upon a time ice. the front created these nasty winds. we work our way out his little valley with a climb and a nice headwind keeps us honest. to keep us even more honest we're getting self-inflicted spray from our front tires hitting our shins and feet (rear fenders only don't help). this water's cold too! we have booties on to kinda keep our feet water resistant. so we fight the wind for an hour and decide we can go on for another hour if the streets are this wet. the cold's cutting through me and kenny knows of a place that serves some pretty banging coffee. my blood sugar's low so instead of a doppio (a double espresso) i order an italian soda so the sugar can get into my blood quicker. i also order a pastry just to make sure. man that helped. by this time the sun's ducking behind the mountains and i'm running out of clothes. i put on my pvc rain jacket to keep me warm and it does the trick. not very breathable but at least i'm warm. once we get back to his house, kenny gives me a ride in his volvo. you say a volvo? well, this is one highly modified 740 wagon that turbocharged with too many modifications to list. if you're interested he's on my favorite links. check it out. anyhoo once we're on the streets and it's po-po free he lights it up and all 500 horses are unleashed (that's right 500! got it verified at the dyno). he lives near my brother in-law so we go pick him up for a very truncated cruise session in lovely westminster. it was a nice way to punctuate a high-effort day. i'll have to wash my bike later...
so here's the surprise: when i get home i find a good friend of mine-from my air force days-left me a comment on the previous blog. i contact him and we exchange digits for future reference. he's a walking blog entry for sure. quite a character with a heart of gold. we did a lot of gastronomically, spiritually, socially enlightening things when we were usaf europe.
here's another sidebar from today. i subscribe to new york public radio's radiolab podcast (thanks alec) and the latest one is on the fanaticism and myth of wagner's ring series. it was a very enlightening primer on wagner, his use of the leitmotif, brief character study, other wagner-esque nuances any music lover would respect and appreciate. to sum the ring, as quoting jad the host of wnyc's radiolab "the ring is a german, romantic view of norse and teutonic myth influenced by greek tragedy and a buddhist sense of destiny told with a socio-political deconstruction of contemporary society. a psychological study of motivation in action and a blueprint for a new approach to music and theatre." now wouldn't that get you hooked? tomorrow team m goes to a birthday party my middle daughter got invited to.