Neighbors, Sons, and Sons of....well, lets just not finish that.

Josh Climbing Usery Pass

It's Spummer in Mesa good readers.   Spummer is a short season where it is cool enough that you aren't sweating buckets and yet you don't need arm or leg warmers.   Such a season mimics what the rest of the world calls summer but only lasts a few short weeks.   I can't in good faith call it Spring,  Spring follows winter and we don't have Winter here in the Valley of the sun.  We have Fring,  which is basically Fall Spring,  it gets cold at night but is nice during the day.

Well,  my neighbor across the street who works at DNA Cycles invited me on their Saturday ride and as I did not have anything set in stone,  I decided to give it a go.   My neighbor has been doing a lot of Mountain Biking lately and looking at his times on Strava, and adding to the fact he is a lot closer to perfect cycling bmi than I am, I was a bit intimidated.   I managed to stay with him to the shop despite breathing a little harder than I should for a warm up.   It went well though.   We've been talking of riding since he moved in over a year ago and it's funny it took this long for our schedules to hook up.

We rode out to the beeline and back with a trip over the backside and I am proud to say I was not last up the hills and was even third getting up little Kong.  Of course I was further towards the back on the other hills but I am not unhappy with the results.

In the afternoon I took Josh up to the Usery Pass Visitor's center for his last big training ride for Tour de Mesa next week.   He did good with only a minimum of complaining and stopping.  He'll do good when we mix in all the people to distract him next week and he just goes.   He has really picked up his pace this year and I am finding him quite pleasant to ride with.   Of course this might just be because I go all out in the morning and by the time I take him out that is just the pace I am comfy with.  No matter, he's a lot funner to ride with now that he can hold 15 mph or so.   Nice to finally average over 10 mph and not stop ever 3 or 4 miles.

Ah,  the title mentioned Sons of,  um,  well, I'm not a big swearer I'm afraid, but those of you who are can fill in whatever terms you like for my father in-law's boss that fired him because he was too old this week.   He's been my ride home this last year as I've been riding the bike 20 miles to work and then riding 3 miles over to meet him for a ride home at Az Mills Mall.   I'll spare you all the details but it all amounts to a 66 year old guy that can't afford to retire and lives to work by choice (yeah I know,  not my thing either,  I'd love to retire and ride all the time but different spokes for different folks) getting the ax so the company can pay a younger person less money.   I'll be putting in a lot more miles soon after he finishes training his replacement since I'll be riding both ways as I'm faster than the bus. Wish I had enough money to give him so he could just tell his boss to train the replacement himself and leave.

I should have lots of miles in the bank by the time the Mother Road 300k rolls around in May.   Nobody else is registered so far.  Hope I'm not soloing the brevet in May.  Oh well, if I go it alone I guess I go it alone.   Wish I didn't have a schedule conflict for the Mines to Pines this month,  looks like a good group of riders have signed up.

Commuting thoughts on a sunny beautiful 60 degree morning.

To the fellow in the surprisingly wide chromed Lamborghini in the contruction zone who passed me so close,  if I ever see you passing me again I shall empty my nasal cavity with surprising force in your direction and considering you have a convertible, the contents might contact you and your pricey car.   Something to think about.  What?   How will I know it is you?   Um,  you do of course realize there are a limited supply of Lamborghini's in Mesa, Arizona right?   The other one is Yellow but you probably know that I am sure.  For the record,  if you give me the 3 feet of passing distance the law requires it is a very slim chance I would have the range to get nasal discharge on your car,  I haven't been training lately and my range is just not what it used to be.

To the little fellow (I assume he's a little fellow at least in his own introspection) whose little compact has a tailpipe louder than an obnoxious Harley.   You know,  you are only making people think about the things you are compensating for when you try so hard to call attention to yourself.  Why not take up a nice hobby like cycling?  Perhaps the comradery would do your self esteem some good and give you something to really be proud of.

To Les,  the intrepid commuter on the cyclocross bike who I played tag with halfway across Mesa.  So nice to see another rider out there getting to work under their own power.  You can drop into my draft anytime.  Keep it up.