Excitement, or indigestion?

When I was a kid, we lived about 5 hours from both my maternal and paternal grandparents. Although I have more memories on the maternal side (remarkably, I had even *more* cousins on that side), I have really fond, strong memories of my Mahoney aunts forcing us to go caroling on the deep snow on Christmas Eve. And then I would wake up super early on Christmas morning, look out the window of the second story bedroom where I sometimes drew the straw of sleeping on a rollaway bed with rustly (probably something intended to be waterproof?) material under the sheets. The magical, heavy snow glistened under the streetlights, and then again in the early morning sun.

I have no photos, but the one I've shared here is close to evoking a similar feeling in my chest.

So, this morning, Christmas morning, I woke up at about 4:20, after a nightmare that we moved back into the apartment where we lived in 1996. (Sorry landlord Andre, it was fine for 1996, and super cheap - thank you.) For 30 minutes, I tried all my brain emptying techniques, but could not go back to sleep.

Was it Christmas excitement? Was it my full bladder? Was it my (TMI alert) metamucil-ed guts doing what they do? Was it some work and bike captain things that I need to do, starting to creep in?

I got up, came into the dark living room, and plugged in the tree, which temporarily  brings me the same feeling of comfort, peace, and wonder as I had circa 1975, from a small, kid-stuffed bedroom on Emmons Street in Michigan. ☃️❄🎄❄

It'll be a mouthful?

I haven't ridden in about six weeks. As my friend's kids would say: "What in the chicken bwak bwak world?" (I love this, by the way. Say it out loud and you are guaranteed to laugh.) Six weeks? Granted, it was colder than normal and we haven't really had much snow. While I went to the gym, who wants to read a blog post about going to a gym?

The weather was great today, and we still had good riding snow from last weekend's storm. While I'm not the most adventurous on my fat bike, who cares when you can ride from your house into the state park and make eye contact with a huge doe and buck who only start backing off when you reach for your phone? 

I did not ride this beautiful bike all summer. What a shame. 

He's perfectly camouflaged. I could hear him chewing.

He was really close and I was trying to count the points
on his antler rack, but he edged away when I fiddled with my phone.

I saw her first. She was more wary. Maybe because she was more in the open.

So, speaking of adventure, I decided that my lack of riding this year cannot happen again in 2019 and, although I am not adventurous on my fat bike, I do like a good story. I set a goal for myself that I think will be best described by this quote:

"The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew, and live through it." - - Doug Bradbury

Doug Bradbury apparently is the guy who pretty much invented shocks for mountain bikes Anyhow, the challenge?

I plan to do all three Bike MS rides in Minnesota, yet do all of my fundraising with the Ride Across Minnesota and raise $5000. If I hit that goal, I will be able to do any other ride in MN and the US in 2019 without having to do any fundraising. And the big ride I'm going to do is the Waves to Wine ride in California in September. There are different routes you can do, but I'm going to do the 1-day, 100-mile ride with 6000+ feet of climbing. As someone who finds 100-mile flat Minnesota rides to be challenging, this will be a tough one for me. I will bite off more than I can chew, and I will live through it. I cannot wait to ride my bike this next summer to prepare.

I'll begin my fundraising in earnest in 2019, but my birthday is this next Friday - - - maybe you want to donate in honor of my birthday? Here's the link! (Any amount is helpful.)

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo