Turn off tune out

I think that some of my best rides are the ones where I can truly turn my brain off and just feel.  I don't meditate so the prospect of flipping that proverbial switch to neutral is not an easy task for me.  Sometimes the odd rare occasion will occur and it happens...I go blank, the trees become a blur and it feels like I am a passenger along for the ride.  I know my bike has a mind of its own, usually for the good but sometimes for the bad.  When the brain takes a vacation my body and bike meld into one organic machine that lives breathes and rails.  I try not to have work, family, people, or world issues invade my inner-sanctum when I am out for a ride, it does happen, but when I can keep the thoughts at bay, that is when the real soul of cycle locomotion is in control.

This happened tonight. It is sometimes hard to find the words that can describe the feeling that can be produced by riding a bike on a dirt trail over rocks and through trees.  We used to call this "Souled-Out" back in the day when I was snowboarding.  It's a transcendence that generally finds the recipient speechless, yet with a heightened awareness and super-human powers that makes one impervious to gravity.  Not really, but it sometimes feels like it.

I will always come back to the central point, the point that we are riding toys.  Yes, bikes are transportation, vocation, but most importantly they are recreation.  Kids love bikes because they are fun.  Adults love bikes because they are fun.  The two wheeled time machine.  Throw a leg over a bike and you will be transported (no pun intended) to a different time, a time where you are happy.  Happy to be on a bike with your freedom.  A perfect union of machine and human power, that creates life...or enhances life.  Ride a bike...Live

Talk show

Hope this doesn't turn out to sound like some forced BS, because this is exactly what I am doing.  I am forcing myself to write something in the smallest of hopes that I will actually generate a thought that I just might be able to share, well, I am going to share it good or bad.  You are just going to have to live with whatever I decide to put out there, which is kind of a free flow of me just thinking and typing.  Lucky you.  I had better not unlock any of the closets for fear of skeletons coming out and appearing in print.  Yeah it would probably make for good reading, like watching a train wreck, but then I most likely would not be able to look some of you in the eye.

What's new with you?  Work did not totally suck the life out of me today, or did it?  I had no motivation to do anything other than watch a replay of an English Premier League match.  My motivation had to work late so my mtb ride went out the window, as if it were going to materialize in the first place.  Got "stood up" yesterday, but had the motivation to get in a ride none the less.  Did not feel it today.  Would really like to get in a ride tomorrow, or is it I really need to get in a ride tomorrow?  Not talking about need to for my fitness or training plan -cause I don't have either.  I'm talking about getting in a ride so that I don't fall further down the rabbit hole, the one where TV is life support and the couch is the next best thing since, oh...sliced bread.

Did I mention that I baked a loaf of fresh bread?  I have a bread machine and it totally rocks, that is when I use it.  Not like it is hard, just put the ingredients in and press a few buttons, wait a few hours and viola, Fresh Baked Bread.  Butter Baby.  French toast kills with homemade bread, oh now you want to sleep over.  That ship has sailed.

Yeah, that pretty much went where I thought it would...nowhere.  OK, I've got to look at the positive...I am practicing my typing skills.  Speaking of skills, thank Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for instant spell check, is that not like the coolest thing ever?  Predictive typing or whatever you industry people call it is pretty darn annoying, yeah turn that crap off.  I have swype on my phone and it works pretty good, except when I have no idea how to spell the word in the first place, then it is I who sucks.

P.S.  I just thought of an excellent gadget for my blog... I need to put a little indicator of how many beers that I consumed for the post down at the bottom of said post.  Just for the record, 0 beers were harmed during the making of this post.  If anyone knows how to make gadgets, that would be super cool.