Monday, December 10, 2007

Bad Decisions

Ive made a few.
One was quitting college 80 credits from graduation. Another was stealing thousands of dollars worth of lumber at 4 in the morning when I was 14 years old and deciding to take the scenic route home and getting pulled over by the cops. These are all in the past. I would like to think that with maturity comes the ability to make better judgments. Until yesterday.

Writing a blog about a bike ride is a snoozer. "blah blah we were pedaling along and we are real fast or tough or it was awesome" or whatever. But yesterday was one for the books. My books anyway, it doesnt compare to Danny Chew riding home from Columbus OH in 40 degree rain wearing short sleeves, and numbing his hands for a month afterwards giving him what he claims to be the mental tenacity to win RAAM. No it takes less than that to get into my books.

Lifson and I headed out for a 3 hour ride on what seemed to be a pleasant day. 1.5 hours into the ride, it got really dark and started sprinkling. I was like "lets go right and add another 40 minutes cutting through Northmorland Park." Jake being smart (ask him any questions you might have about "toxic tort law"), says "maybe we should just head left and start towards home."

8 minutes later we are both realizing the severity of the situation. We are out of the county, it is 37 and raining and we are both kind of not dressed for it, because it was 40 and OK when we left.
The stages:
- at first it was comical. "man this sucks"
- 20 minutes later it was zen. "you have to know pain to know comfort" "you must know cold to understand warm"
- 1 hour into a headwind at 22 mph with freezing rain at 35 - 37 degrees it was "dude I think I might stop in at Trizilla and jump in their endless pool"
- 1.5 hours into this hell, I was on the verge of just quitting, I was starting to shake from cold and couldnt open my front door by myself.

Im not trying to be dramatic or sound macho, because it is like bragging about how tough you are after you shoot yourself in the foot, but the pain I felt when the feeling came back into my fingers almost made me vomit from nausea.

Moral of the story:
Sack up babik, krall and turner.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

northmoreland? shit you should have just stopped at my mom's place for cocoa and a warm fire, haha.

bad decision: not knowing friends parents locations while riding in westmoreland county.

Mike said...

john and i also had a similarly tough experience during our 4 hour ride in BRUTAL non-raining 48 degree temperatures. Additionally, it was a tough choice between the turkey and cheese sandwiches at wawa.

Anonymous said...

I did not sak up yesterday morning, myself. I decided to hit my gym in south side Sun morning since there had been a winter weather advisory that morning. Once I got there, I started to feel really guilty when it started drying up outside. I felt really really guilty when I saw jake ride by the window...I assume to meet you. About an hour later on my way home when it was pouring freezing rain...I no longer felt guilty.

- Conneely

Chris Mayhew said...

Maybe that'll learn you to eat a freakin' carrot every once in a while.

You could have coasted around with us on the Pitt Pro ride. 100w for 3 hours!

steevo said...

I got a sweet workout in, because I couldnt shift for the last 20 miles! 50x17 up 40th street.

Hoovis: not everybody is spoiled like your kids. Back when we wanted a skate ramp, we had to steal the wood and build it ourselves. Its not like now, with this commie every town has a cement park that I would have driven 5 hours for in my prime.

Burt Friggin' Hoovis said...

Spoiled? I grew up in Etna, motherfucker. I had my 1st job in 1980 when I was 9 delivering the post gazette to 50 friggin' mill hunkies ever morning before school. Haven't been without a job for more than a week since.

Furthermore, when me and my little bastard friends were stealing shit, it was porn. We used to hop the fence at Tippins down on butler street on Sundays when they had a skeleton crew working, so that we could rifle through the lockers. Never stole anyone's money or shit, but if there was a hustler it was ours.

Since a young age, my life has pretty much been an endless quest for smut. And I'm very proud of that.

Anonymous said...

The other day it was cold and snowy and I walked to my car (Without my coat on for Christ's sake!!), started it up and went back in side and had a cup of coffee. 15 minutes later I went outside (still coatless) got in my car and went to work. That night, while I reflected upon my day, I remembered punching some guy in high school and stealing his lunch money, it was winter then too. The cold must make me cranky. If I had left my coat at home that day maybe some poor high school bastard from yester year would have had pizza or meatloaf or Mac and Cheez. Damn,... I mean, Damn!