Fulfilling A Promise

The end of a great day

My son had been wanting to go sledding for a while. However; one thing or another has been getting in the way for about a month now. Sickness, super cold weather, or some other activity. He was pretty disappointed several times. But not this past weekend.

It started out with about 4 inches of fresh snow, so that was good, but we needed to clear the walks and street parking first. That took up about two hours.  Jacob helped with that chore and did a great job.

Then we had some lunch, and oddly enough, the gals went out shopping, leaving us by ourselves. Jacob decided we needed to just chill out and watch some television for a while. Eventually, after I just about feel asleep, he got up and announced that it was time to go sledding. So, I put the sled in the back of the Truck With No Name and we set out for the dike to slide down as many times as he wanted to.

There were other things I could have done that day that were cycling related. I could have gone and supported the local snow bike race, and run my fat bike. I could have gone to Des Moines to ride with friends on gravel to Perry Iowa and back. Yeah.....but those things are not all that important. I was reminded of that when earlier in the day, Jacob was going though a rough spot, and I stopped and had a bit of a time out chat with him. Calmed him down. Everything was better after that, and then he said to me later,

"Thanks for encouraging me earlier, Dad."

Beats going on any bike ride any day, for my own purposes. Glad I decided to stay home and spend my time with my son instead.

Fulfilling A Promise

The end of a great day

My son had been wanting to go sledding for a while. However; one thing or another has been getting in the way for about a month now. Sickness, super cold weather, or some other activity. He was pretty disappointed several times. But not this past weekend.

It started out with about 4 inches of fresh snow, so that was good, but we needed to clear the walks and street parking first. That took up about two hours.  Jacob helped with that chore and did a great job.

Then we had some lunch, and oddly enough, the gals went out shopping, leaving us by ourselves. Jacob decided we needed to just chill out and watch some television for a while. Eventually, after I just about feel asleep, he got up and announced that it was time to go sledding. So, I put the sled in the back of the Truck With No Name and we set out for the dike to slide down as many times as he wanted to.

There were other things I could have done that day that were cycling related. I could have gone and supported the local snow bike race, and run my fat bike. I could have gone to Des Moines to ride with friends on gravel to Perry Iowa and back. Yeah.....but those things are not all that important. I was reminded of that when earlier in the day, Jacob was going though a rough spot, and I stopped and had a bit of a time out chat with him. Calmed him down. Everything was better after that, and then he said to me later,

"Thanks for encouraging me earlier, Dad."

Beats going on any bike ride any day, for my own purposes. Glad I decided to stay home and spend my time with my son instead.

The Slippery Slope

Look Out Below!

I was feeling something funky late in the week last week, and that combined with New Year's Eve and my wedding anniversary on the 2nd seemed to just put me waaaay off my regular schedule. I felt drained by Friday night. So, I stayed away from the bike and slept late Saturday. However; I was once again called upon to go sledding by my son, so I could not refuse that!

We took our plastic toboggan to the dike in Hope Martin Park in Waterloo where most of the neighborhood kids go to slide down Black Hawk Creek's flood control dike on the North side. It's a short, but very steep pitch that gets you "up to speed" rather quickly! The transition from slope to flat is pretty severe as well. This tends to break a lot of the plastic sleds folks have theses days. Many chunks and shards of them are colorfully strewn near the trees where folks dispose of them to keep them out of the main sledding tracks.

Well, with the recent return to frigid air and a stiff Northwesterly, the snow was pummeled to sugar like consistency which made getting back up the steep pitch an amusing to watch- frustrating to do- activity. It took great skill to get up without slipping, falling, or doing some fancy acrobatic saves. The taller/bigger you were seemed to have a great effect on this as well. Small fry were simply flying back up the hill, and a lone old Yellow Labrador Retriever was blithely walking up and down the slope in "four legged drive" mode as if she were on a Sunday stroll. This only added to the adult male's frustrations on this day.

Crowd's were sparse on this frigid day

 I made it up without much issue, but with  great effort. I counted it as "pushing practice" for Triple D. I certainly will be pushing my fat bike at some point that weekend up a steep hill. So, I felt I got something out of the outing from that standpoint, but it was certainly a great day with my son, who loves to slide down the hill.

Sunday I didn't ride either. The first half of the day was at church and I got to play my '98 Les Paul Standard and try out my new stomp box, which worked really well. Then afterward  it was already below zero with a howling Northwesterly and they say the windchill makes it feel like -50 below today. Yeah......not gonna do that! Oh, and it is supposed to be 20-something below by the time many of you will be reading this. Not riding! No-sirree! Besides, the long term forecast is no where near that cold for Triple D weekend, so wasting time figuring out an ultra-cold temperature set up won't help me there, and would have fatigued me even more than I was.

More cycling is in store, but I will be waiting for this air mass to be saying "adios" and for the warmer air to come in behind it. Right now, Wednesday's projected high of 9°F sounds positively balmy.

The Slippery Slope

Look Out Below!

I was feeling something funky late in the week last week, and that combined with New Year's Eve and my wedding anniversary on the 2nd seemed to just put me waaaay off my regular schedule. I felt drained by Friday night. So, I stayed away from the bike and slept late Saturday. However; I was once again called upon to go sledding by my son, so I could not refuse that!

We took our plastic toboggan to the dike in Hope Martin Park in Waterloo where most of the neighborhood kids go to slide down Black Hawk Creek's flood control dike on the North side. It's a short, but very steep pitch that gets you "up to speed" rather quickly! The transition from slope to flat is pretty severe as well. This tends to break a lot of the plastic sleds folks have theses days. Many chunks and shards of them are colorfully strewn near the trees where folks dispose of them to keep them out of the main sledding tracks.

Well, with the recent return to frigid air and a stiff Northwesterly, the snow was pummeled to sugar like consistency which made getting back up the steep pitch an amusing to watch- frustrating to do- activity. It took great skill to get up without slipping, falling, or doing some fancy acrobatic saves. The taller/bigger you were seemed to have a great effect on this as well. Small fry were simply flying back up the hill, and a lone old Yellow Labrador Retriever was blithely walking up and down the slope in "four legged drive" mode as if she were on a Sunday stroll. This only added to the adult male's frustrations on this day.

Crowd's were sparse on this frigid day

 I made it up without much issue, but with  great effort. I counted it as "pushing practice" for Triple D. I certainly will be pushing my fat bike at some point that weekend up a steep hill. So, I felt I got something out of the outing from that standpoint, but it was certainly a great day with my son, who loves to slide down the hill.

Sunday I didn't ride either. The first half of the day was at church and I got to play my '98 Les Paul Standard and try out my new stomp box, which worked really well. Then afterward  it was already below zero with a howling Northwesterly and they say the windchill makes it feel like -50 below today. Yeah......not gonna do that! Oh, and it is supposed to be 20-something below by the time many of you will be reading this. Not riding! No-sirree! Besides, the long term forecast is no where near that cold for Triple D weekend, so wasting time figuring out an ultra-cold temperature set up won't help me there, and would have fatigued me even more than I was.

More cycling is in store, but I will be waiting for this air mass to be saying "adios" and for the warmer air to come in behind it. Right now, Wednesday's projected high of 9°F sounds positively balmy.

Whiteout

Ringing in the New Year has a bit of a different meaning these days. When I was a youginz, the folks would either get someone to watch us, or when we were old enough, would just leave us at home while they went out to celebrate the New Year coming in. Stories of drunken antics, late night shenanigans, or crashes, arrests, and death were not uncommon back then.

This has all changed, and probably for the better. In the family I am a part of, we spend the evening together, watching movies, eating snacks, and we all raise a toast at midnight before turning in for the night. My two children really look forward to this now, and I am afraid it has become the tradition for us through the years. Not that it is a "bad" thing, because it isn't, but it does affect the next day!

I wasn't too eager to get up, and I missed the planned ride some folks were doing on fat bikes in town, but had I went to bed earlier, I would have really disappointed the family. I went out and found it had snowed again, so I cleared the walk and around the cars. Then my son reminded me I had promised him a sledding outing. As it was his last day off from school for break, I decided against doing a ride at all and went out sliding with him. Time well spent.......

I could have groused, gotten angry, or sullen, and made myself no fun to hang out with, but ya know- not everything turns out as we expect, but if you let it, things may turn out even better than you imagined. 

There will be times for bike rides in the snow, but my son?  He won't be here to go sledding with someday.....

Whiteout

Ringing in the New Year has a bit of a different meaning these days. When I was a youginz, the folks would either get someone to watch us, or when we were old enough, would just leave us at home while they went out to celebrate the New Year coming in. Stories of drunken antics, late night shenanigans, or crashes, arrests, and death were not uncommon back then.

This has all changed, and probably for the better. In the family I am a part of, we spend the evening together, watching movies, eating snacks, and we all raise a toast at midnight before turning in for the night. My two children really look forward to this now, and I am afraid it has become the tradition for us through the years. Not that it is a "bad" thing, because it isn't, but it does affect the next day!

I wasn't too eager to get up, and I missed the planned ride some folks were doing on fat bikes in town, but had I went to bed earlier, I would have really disappointed the family. I went out and found it had snowed again, so I cleared the walk and around the cars. Then my son reminded me I had promised him a sledding outing. As it was his last day off from school for break, I decided against doing a ride at all and went out sliding with him. Time well spent.......

I could have groused, gotten angry, or sullen, and made myself no fun to hang out with, but ya know- not everything turns out as we expect, but if you let it, things may turn out even better than you imagined. 

There will be times for bike rides in the snow, but my son?  He won't be here to go sledding with someday.....