07.12.2006

Went for a little ride last night, felt the wind in my face, the chill of the air flowing up from the river as we rode past and it was sort of cleansing. Nice end to a stressful day.

It's raining today, grey, humid. Not raining hard - just enough where we have to take the car to work. So, DH is crabby. Any day he can't be on the bike is not a good day.

And poor Bubba, on top of everything else, she rode her bike all the way to her Wednesday babysitting job this morning only to be told by the mom (giggle) that (giggle) she forgot to call and cancel for today (giggle). That's not a problem, is it? This is the second time she's done this. Get ready for my bitch ray - although I think this behavior is age appropriate in a fourteen-to-sixteen-year-old, I find it rather annoying in a thirty-something mother of four. Although, I guess I should cut her a little slack since she does have four children under ten. People. What does it mean when you have nothing but contempt for the majority of your species?

But, the day got better. I've had one of my headaches for the last two weeks, and it has gotten to the point where I am alternately fantasizing about slamming my head repeatedly into a concrete wall, or a morphine drip. Either one will be acceptable, thank you. so, DH and I punched out quite a bit of work and then left work early, to drive home in the rain. And, as the children were quietly doing the assignment I had given them first thing this morning, we snuck off to our room, locked the door,put on some Allman Brothers and had a quiet afternoon. We woke up this evening to the rain moving out and my headache was down a notch, no longer making me suicidal or desirous of an opiate addiction. After checking the radar - which showed total clearance in the entire northeast corner where we live, we decided to go out for a bike ride. And then Neighbor Greg called and wanted to know if we wanted to go out with them, for a ride and sushi. Sometimes, the day just ends up being way better than you ever guessed - or hoped.

It's about a twenty mile ride through winding mountain roads, up sides of mountains, down into little vales and then back up again. The sun was setting, so the light was dim, the air was humid and there was low-lying fog over much of the mountainsides, riverbeds and stretching like fingers over farm fields. It smelled heavenly, warm and of things blooming, as we rode together. God, it felt good to be alive. And then, about two-thirds of the way there, deep in a vale between two mountains, it started raining. I think if you were walking, you would barely notice the rain, but going about 45 mph, it felt like miniature bbs bing shot at you. I have to admit, I did look longingly at the cowbarns and big trees we passed, thinking how nice it would be to pull over and wait it out, but Neighbor was in the lead and we kept going. We were pretty wet by the time we got to the restaurant, but the little Japanese waitress nicely brough us a roll of paper towels and seateed us wellaway from the air conditioner. I couldn't help but laugh my ass off - other than the momentary discomfort it was a great ride and I was with people I liked, so I had nothing to do but be happy. About fifteen minutes after we got there the skies just opened up - thunder, lightening, torrential rain. And none of this showed on the radar. It must have been hidden from the radar in between the mountains.
We had an awesome dinner, and Neighbor surprised us by buying us dinner, for our birthdays - what a treat! The ride home was great - the roads were wet, but it wasn't raining. It was warm, humid, occasionally a big plop of water would fall on us from the trees lining the road. We passed an eight point buck, grazing at the side of the road - he just watched us. The crickets, bullfrogs and tree frogs were singing their hearts out, and all around us, the earth smelled alive and fertile.