A Raging Torrent

     With the recent passing of Gene Wilder many of my friends on the Facebook-o-sphere have been sharing some of their favorite moments of his career and listing their favorite movies.  When you look at his career, which spanned more than fifty years, and see the body of his work, he left us with many wonderful and memorable characters.  I can't say that his portrayal of Willy Wonka was my favorite as the first time I ever saw the movie (I was eight), it scared the bejeezus out of me so I didn't watch it for many years and my viewing was still tainted by that first viewing.  But one of my favorite roles of his (other than Leo Bloom from The Producers) was that of the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles (not to be confused with his portrayal of The Frisco Kid, another movie in it's own right).  I'm still trying to figure out why Mel Brooks hasn't turned THAT movie into a stage musical. 

     And yet another of my favorite characters from that movie was Hedley Lamarr, played by Harvey Korman, who uttered this quote that was floating around in my head during my ride in this morning;

     Every since I decided to decommission Connor's Army (for the now), my mind has been a torrent flooded with rivulets of doubt as I try to figure out what I DO want to do with myself and my biking passion.  I think I've found it but on the ride in this morning I think it was solidified by the thought that it's time to get back to basics, back to riding not to a destination, but for the experience.  I've been working so hard to reach cycling mileage goals that I've forgotten that feeling I had when I was six and took my first solo bike ride - the feeling of freedom and the thought that my bicycle could take me anywhere.  It's taken me many places over the last ten years, but it's time to just enjoy the ride.

     So today on the ride in I determined I would go wherever the lights told me to go.  If it was green I'd go straight, if it was red I would turn right.  I would go where the bicycle led me, much in the way Sheldon let the music of the bongos lead him;

     Fortunately I didn't fall (or ride) down any stairs but it was all good.  I did, however, manage to go REALLY fast down a hill;



     Yes, that IS 40.2 miles per hour on my odometer thank you very much.  Of course I still had a few hills to climb to get to school which accounts for the 17.4 average mph but it was fun and thanks to my trusty Garmin Edge I was able to document it all.

     So I think I know what my next purpose on my bike is - to commute and have fun!  But more importantly, I want to fix up the boys' bikes and get them riding more.  Last summer they started to get bitten by the riding bug but then life got in the way.  Well, I'm thinking I want to engender in them some lifelong love of the velocipede and get them riding much, much more.  And if I can get them to do it with me, so much the better.
     And I know it's a bit morbid but it's sort of interesting just to see the migratory patterns here in Urbania.  For instance, we have a herd of deer living behind our house on Main Street in Northport.  So just to see what critters we may have creeping about, I'm bringing back for my ride record the Flattened Fauna Record that used going on our cross country trip.  And so for my first installment;


FFR = 1 Possum


That's all for now.  I'm getting on my bike to ride home and muse some more.  Until then,


Stay well, and I'll see you on the road!