Yes

(Yehuda Moon 'Bloomington Ride')
I haven't had much to say of late b/c this is primarily a bike blog and I haven't ridden, especially since tennis started. To that end, I haven't been on a substantial bike ride since the RCCS Clark State Forest ride 2 weeks ago, but today was a new day, and now I've made it a better day with a solid 30-miler in the morning, Spring rain. We began early esta mananya, with 'Z's soccer team holding a pancake breakfast fund-raiser at the Monkey Wrench, meaning that he and I were out of the house just a bit after 7.00. After some flapjacks and the arrival of the other 50% of the clan, I darted out, knowing that weather be damned, I was ready to ride. A quick check of the radar found the coming rains, so I departed on the mudguarded and fattie-shod Blueridge. My route took me west via Oak and then down a mud and limb-strewn Riverwalk, an experience I will chalk up as near "mixed-terrain", although nothing like Apertome's recent adventures. By the time I reached Bank St. in Portland it was coming down pretty good, but my choices of wool feet, wool top and wool cap made for a pleasant time. Once I pulled though downtown and onto River Rd. I decided to make an adjustment to my saddle height. The last several times I've been on the BR I've experience right knee pain; having surrendered almost completely to flat pedals, the clip/seat angle of the BR just isn't doing it for me. When I stopped along the Cox's Park path to my dismay I found no patches, no levers, and no hex set. Darn! Yet again bag maintenance strikes me. But alas, I was having too good a ride to let it get me down. What are we talking? $30 max? I finished up via Indian Trail and through Seneca before slowly climbing Valetta, wet, slow and mentally devising means of corralling the floppy fabric of the MUSA pant against the front chainrings. I arrived home to find, in a pile on the garage floor, patches, levers and a hex set. Genius! And a great way to spend part of the day.

**On a "busy schedule" note, I had a moment of insight when reading Little Circles up in NE. I'm whining about the hours of the day when he stated, amidst the treatise on 'cold', that he had been rising at 4.30 to get miles in. I guess other people do it, so maybe I should shut up and do so too. No judgment, just an idea.