At Least One Of Us Rode Today

here's da moose doing his brian lopes imitation on our semi-dry driveway

the weather was pretty much ill all day up here, even though the forecast called for mostly sunny skies. that's okay though because we got other things accomplished during our winterizing phase of hillbilly living. my father-in-law is now living with us-that's another story-so we got some more of his things from denver or what us hillbilly's call down-the-hill. we got his snowblower, which will be a huge help when the snow starts dumping, a wheelbarrow, speakers for our home stereo, a decent espresso machine, and some other helpful stuff. we're going to have to rent a log splitter one more time because our wood burning habits are towards the comfy side of warm. once we got back uphill, i moved another truck load of wood to our stash near the house, vacuumed, and cleaned the cat boxes. am i exciting y'all yet? am i one domesticated bastard or what? anyhoo, the weekends go by too fast.
before dinner and after we do our chores, after maura's bath she asks if i can give her a teddy bear hug. it's kinda chilly up here and to help her warm up i wrap a towel around her and try to get as much of my surface area on her by giving her a huuuuge, daddy bear hug. oh yeah. she's my little princess. mason doesn't go for that but he does like being wrapped in a towel cocoon and laying his head on my shoulder as we go from the bathroom to his room where the heater is. melissa cooked a slammin' vegetarian dinner and we ate together as an extended family. i said something foolish and maura said something about you better talk nice or santa's not going to give you anything.
to which i replied, santa clause is a chump. that's when grandad almost lost his drink from laughing. you should've seen the look on her face when i said that. it was the look of downright sacrilege and scorn from an innocent child to an iconoclastic father-me!
from a relaxing and satisfying dinner it still boils down to soccer, house upkeep, winterizing, mental stress relief, sleep deprivation, kid raising, bike racing (if you can call it that), bike therapy (or lack thereof), reintroducing our fighting dogs, being nice to family members, thinking of work...damn i don't think i've ever been this busy before; or maybe i'm just thinking way too much about it. i truly don't have any reason to complain, but if i don't blow off any carbon from my mental and physical engine it's like my circadian rhythm's all wacked and i can't mentally settle or be capable of being nice (which i think i am at least 51% of the time). shoot i remember back in the day when i was going to university i never: thought about insurance, went to the doctor, considered a retirement plan, considered how to pay off a mortgage...etc. am i going through a mid-life crisis or am i a 41 year-old baby (no need to answer that)? sometimes, like last week, i swear i just wanted to scream in padded room and get it over with, or do 3X5 intervals on the bike 'til my lunch came up, or take it out on a punching bag (i used to do that back in texas at my parent's house when i used to be in kara-te).
damn, have i mentioned the weekends just go by way too fast?