THANKFUL FRIDAY

The longest day of the year happened on Wednesday and we have official entered the time of year when all I want to eat is some kind of a salad. I’ve spent my free time this week collecting salad recipes into my NY Times Cooking app. Most of them are just variations of tomatoes and mozzarella tossed in a bowl with olive oil and salt. I plucked a red cherry tomato off of the plant in the garden this week and handed it to Michael. He promptly popped it into his mouth and exclaimed “Holy crap! That’s so much better than the flavorless cherry tomatoes I bought from the store!” The plant is loaded with tomatoes. The problem is they are ripening slowly, one at a time. I shouldn’t complain. Last year, I planted two tomato plants. They grew tall and leafy and green, but they did not produce a single piece of fruit. This year, I have a plethora of green tomatoes.

And I’m going to eat them. With mozzarella.

I’m normally not the type that pays much attention to solstices, but this year I couldn’t help but notice that the longest day of the year happened in the middle of the week, a short week for some. Short weeks are tricky because they always feel like extra long weeks. Maybe it’s because I try to cram in all the work I didn’t do on Monday into the rest of the week. Wednesday is that day of the week that is generally harder to get through on it’s own without making it the longest day of the year. It is a rough place in the week for that amount of daylight.

I have ridden my bicycle to work every day this week with the exception of today. Fridays are for scooters. By the time I made it home on Wednesday, I had decided that I was done with the bicycle for the week. I was tired. It was hot. My bicycle was still making a rattling sound like it was about to fall apart. Michael had already tighten up all of the things and determined that the sound was coming from the battery being a little loose in the housing. Nothing a piece of tape or velcro couldn’t fix. We just hadn’t gotten around to doing it and once I knew my bike wasn’t going to fall to pieces while I was riding, I didn’t care about the rattle. But Wednesday felt different. For some reason, probably because I was tired and hot, that rattle was the worst. Plus, I just wanted to be home. That night, without any prompting, Michael went out and fixed the rattle. It turned out to be more than a loose battery situation. A screw fell out of the battery house when Micheal took the battery out to check things over. The rattle was indeed, my bike falling apart.

I still wasn’t convinced that I would ride the bicycle on Thursday though. I sat slumped on the couch and told Michael that I wasn’t going to ride the bicycle for the rest of the week. He asked me why and I said “Because I’m tired.” He told me that was a valid reason, but even though I was moving a little slower than usual the next morning, it was the bicycle that I pulled out of the garage. I did for a micro second almost change my mind when I had to turn around a block later because I’d forgotten my helmet. I spent most of my ride peddling away while lost in my own thoughts. The morning weather was pleasant. I was exercising without really exercising and I wasn’t mad about any of it. I’d just finished mentally scanning the grocery list and reminding myself to add ‘coarse ground coffee’ to the list when I looked up to see that I was only a few blocks from work. I felt really proud of myself because I had made a goal at the beginning of the year to ride my bicycle at least three to four times a week to work. Michael even purchased the things my bike needed to install a basket and bought me the case that fits on the back of my bike so I have something to carry my lunch box. He did that so I could ride to work. This is week four of consistent bike riding meaning at least three days a week I have ridden my bike to work and this is the first week I’ve been on my bicycle four days in a row.

This makes me want to high-five myself with gratitude.

LOVE THURSDAY

Blue and gold

"Blue and gold"

At one thirty this morning, you could find me standing next to my bed, pressing my right foot firmly into the floor and whimpering. A cramp in my right calf, just below my knee, had me flying out of bed so fast that I didn't even realize I was standing until I was, well, standing. The cramp finally released, but it left a sore tight spot in it's place causing me to limp as I paced the floor. I still had that limp as I peeled myself out of bed and poured myself into the shower. I had been trying to decide what vehicle to take since the day before. Scooter, bicycle or car. Which one was it going to be? As I stood under the hot water in the shower, feeling my achy body, I decided it would be a car day. When I got out of the shower, I checked my weather app and then decided it would be a scooter day.

I finished getting dress and started making my breakfast. I noticed the stove clock and saw that I was actually doing well with my time that morning. Lately I have been stumbling into the kitchen around 6:45. By the time I sit down to eat breakfast, I am rushed. It's already inside my brain that I have to hurry even though I do not. I am only "late" by my standards. This morning, though, I looked at the clock and then decided that it would be a bicycle day. I know that getting on my bicycle was the absolute last thing my body wanted to do today. I missed a couple of weeks of bike riding for various reasons: weather, errands, late work evenings. It just hadn't been convenient to ride a bicycle. This week was my week to get back into the habit of riding. Michael and I even mapped out a new bike route to work. As we drove it the day before I was to take it, Michael kept talking up various parts of it. "Oooh...look how fun this curve and hill are going to be." He just wanted me off Troost, which he calls "danger street". So this new bike route (which is an actual bike route) is how I've been getting to work this week. 

The new route is actually pretty lovely. There are three hills that have me praying to the gods that my thighs will not burst into flames and my knees won't explode, but other than that it is all mostly downhill. The road is a two lane road with a wide right lane with ample space for a car and a bike. Traffic is light to nonexistent and I can peddle as slow as I want because I don't feel like I'm going to get run over. No one has honked once at me while traveling this route. I thought a lot about those three hills this morning while deciding if I should ride the bike. I also reminded myself that I had set a goal to ride the bike at least three times this week. So I thought again about those three hills and how I just had to make it to the top of each one. That's all I had to do. 

The weather was perfect. I didn't need a jacket. The sky in the East was an explosion of orange and pink as the sun rose up through gray clouds. Yellow sycamore leaves drifted slowly down from the trees lining the road. A few roses still dotted the rose bushes around the fountain near Gregory. The air smelled of wet grass and wood smoke. I don't know if I would have noticed all of these things if I'd been in the car or on the scooter. Maybe the smells, if I'm on the scooter, but usually the sights are a blur as I fly down the road. I know my body wasn't too keen on riding a bicycle today, but I think my soul was. I made it to the top of each one of those hills at my own pace, but more importantly, I made it to the top of each hill.

Also, I'm not longer limping from that cramp. Happy Love Thursday!