Weekend end

I had a particularly good weekend this past...um...weekend. Friday, my co-worker Kashmira brought me a tub full of beautiful bright orange day-lilies to transplant to my yard. As soon as I got home from work, I plugged them in our front yard around the eyesore we call a gas line. Saturday, C and I were up by 6:30 a.m. Can't remember much of what we did, but the day seemed to go by pretty slow... Sometime that afternoon, I bought a brand new wheelset for my bike off a guy for an unbelievable price (in my novice opinion)-- apparently this guy, who is the manager of a nearby bike shop, bought a complete bike, and replaced the wheels with his own custom set. The wheels are unused, and outfitted with tubes and tires. What's more, for those of you who care, the rear wheel came with a flip-flop hub and a freewheel. At some point in the afternoon, I think C and I went to the gym and worked out a bit. We also had a really pleasant dinner at Westerville's Uptown Market Bistro... and maybe it's worth mentioning that C found that one of our zucchini plants produced a monster zucch, compared to the other fruits it's been putting out. By Sunday, the new day-lilies were putting our brilliant new blossoms adding a terrific display of firework-like color to our front yard of solid green foliage. I bought a new bike chain and tool and successfully finished the conversion of my bike to a single speed. C and I biked a long way to get some good food at the "good Skyline" and went swimming at the Community Center (and my wheel and new chain stayed on the entire trip!). Later in the day, C made some perfect-as-usual pizza and we took Aldy downtown to check out Comfest and a local band called Pirate. While we were there I got a really great compliment ("Niiiice kicks") on my new shoes (an early birtday present from C). We hung out with J and Bella, then came home to eat some more good pizza and homemade smoothies... Fortunately this work week is a short one, due to the holiday weekend, so hopefully we can make our next mini-vacation even better than the last.

Love Life

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin, 'Poor Richard's Almanack,' June 1746

This weekend I was fortunate to be a part of the beautiful wedding ceremony and celebration of Michael and Jessica MacMaster: two people I love very much for all they are and all they do. I'm not going to try to rival C's speech/toast from the reception, so I'll keep my discussion short... for now. I do want to admit that watching Jess walk down the aisle had me tearing up and it was all I could do, including turning around to look at the bridge behind us, to hold myself together. I think my emotions were the result of a combination of being ecstatic for Jess and Mike, remembering the feelings from my recent wedding (which included so many of the same people), and the selfish happiness I was feeling for being part of such an awesome family that now includes Mike.

Life is flying and we need to keep up with it. It's easy to forget that time is precious and I'm glad that the past four days were spent with family and good friends from out-of-town and across the country. This morning, Mom and Dad Love were the last of those out-of-towners to leave and I was sad. There's nothing better than being around people you love and enjoying their company. Everyone put in a lot of effort to make this weekend great. I want to give a special mention of the selfless efforts of my beautiful and generous wife, C, that I was able to witness, first hand, over the past several months. I can't begin to list all that she did, but would care to say that I am constantly impressed and always proud and hope that soon I might develop her intuition and absorb even only a fraction of her generosity.

Mike and Jess, I wish you a long life of happiness together and hope that the four of us are never far apart (literally!) for long.
See? That was selfish.

Enjoy it before it's passed.

Rainy daze

Today, central Ohioans woke up to the second day of rain in what is supposed to be nearly a week of continuous downpour. Throughout my post-adolescent life, I've grown to be so mentally affected by gray and rainy weather: I get irritable and lethargic, depressed and offensive. I trace this back to the days when Ryan and I would skateboard in the streets, sunup to sundown; when our only enemies were cops, cars, and inclement weather. In more recent years I've started mending my relationship with the periodic nimbus cloud. Above all other reasons, it brings the rain that helps my garden grow.

As you may know, I've fostered a new, fervent interest in wheeled transportation: this time, of the two-wheel variety. It's not that you can't bicycle in the rain, but the various metal parts are so sensitive to water. Also, as a bicycle commuter, a ride in the rain equals a soggy arrival to work. Cycling in a shower is actually pretty refreshing, maybe cathartic. It requires that you stretch your comfort limits and really embrace the weather that might otherwise make a modern suburbanite cringe as they look out of their insulated window panes, pent up in their isolated, climate-controlled domiciles. I will admit, I don't necessarily jump at the chance to commute to work in the rain, and in fact would prefer to not. But today I was forced to make a decision: bike in the rain, or drive? I knew at the moment the question was pressed on me, I needed to bike. The decision was an effort to prove to myself that I am not (or don't want to be) a fair-weather bicycle commuter. So, I packed my lunch, a thermos full of hot coffee, and some dry clothes into my backpack; donned my swim trunks and a rain jacket; slipped into my sandals; then took off to the bike path on my mountain bike--which is my all-weather tank. I'm not sure which made me more wet: the falling rain or the massive puddles I had to bike through, though I suspect it were the puddles. Anyways, I arrived at work like a wet dog, wiped down my bike, and changed into my dry clothes. Knowing that days like this will be few and (hopefully) far between, I'm happy now that I decided to ride--it was a great way to wake up. Also, I know I will be sitting behind a dry desk all day, staring at this computer...
Enjoy it before it's passed