Biding time

 It works.

To contribute to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, click here: Jon's MDA drive.

We've been at the Michigan homestead this week, working, mostly, all in the realm of Upkeep. Still it's a nice place to be, and we are fortunate. 

Waiting for my bike ride to commence, I feel a little lost, living ahead of myself, and, when I come back to where I actually am, and doing what I should be doing, I feel tired. So I'm up to about a nap a day. 

I leave June 15 or 16, thereabouts, and have tentatively recruited a compadre, the famous Bruce, who will join me a day or so in, and stay on the trail for, well, who knows how long. Where company is concerned, I'll take it. 

I did a dry run, in a car, of my first day's ride. It'll be about 55 miles through woods and past farms. As I have not ridden in almost two weeks, 55 sounds like a long way. But I'll leave early and I'll just keep cranking. And eating.  

Behold, above, my new tent. I put the fly on after the picture was taken -- inside out. It was a choice. No, really.  

Well well well

Oh boy.

Sorry I've been out of touch. Still a month till I go, but I've been packing assiduously for days. It's like doing a puzzle, and then doing it again, and again. My office is a mess, the bike's leaning on the dining table where we hope the dog won't knock it over, and we eat hunched over the TV trays holding conversations that are, well, merely polite. 

Sorry about the tired picture. It's from last fall's ride -- closest I could come to what I'll look like this year.  And here's my half-finished packing list: 

It's a fluid document. I don't want to carry things I won't use. On the other hand, I want to keep myself from turning savage, stealing food from picnic tables and snatching sleeping bags out of strangers' tents.  

So.

We've had a couple of outdoor dinners with friends at local restaurants, and it was like surfacing after a long period under water. We could actually talk in the old way, interpret a hesitant smile, gauge a shrug of doubt, listen to an anecdote uninterrupted by a spinning connection. We are, again, HUMAN!

June 15 is still my tentative departure date, give or take. We're going to Michigan for a few days at the end of the month, and while I'm there I will drive my first day's ride, just to see what it looks like. If it's nothing but hills and wind and cars, heavens, maybe I'll just cancel the whole thing. 

Such a good boy.