Jane get me off this crazy thing...

This is how I felt last week, while we were polar vortexing, as I tried to manage my regular job, my side gig, fundraiser trivia prep, bike team logistics, and captaining.

This week, I facilitated a multi-day meeting of smart, engaged local public health department leaders, researchers, and lawyers in STL. It was tiring, and I am afraid of all I need to do the next few days to catch up on work and volunteer stuff, but I am oddly calm as I sit here, delayed at the airport.

🚴‍♀️ Is it exhaustion?
🚴‍♀️ Am I recharged by the great conversation and interesting ideas?
🚴‍♀️ Am I at peace because I got to be pampered by my aunt and uncle in STL?
🚴‍♀️ Was it my mini run at the hotel this morning (until I accidentally hit the treadmill's emergency stop button)?
🚴‍♀️ Is it resignation?
🚴‍♀️ Is it my Starbucks oatmeal dinner putting me in a coma? (It sure isn't the big cup of coffee I just drank.)

Regardless of what it is, it sure is nice. I should open my laptop, but might just daydream about summer bike rides instead.

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

Ah, memories

As I got in my car last night to go to the gym to try to clear out some brain cobwebs and retain some semblance of fitness on the indoor bike, I thought of North Dakota.

Several years ago, we went to Fargo at Christmastime and it was cold like this - - twenty to thirty below with wind chills doubly cold. It was the first time I truly experienced whiteout conditions and the car almost didn't start the next morning.

We bundled up, and I was wearing the same alpaca socks as I am right now, as we walked the half-mile to check out a taproom. We thought we were tough stuff, as we unbundled layer after layer to the amusement and admiration of the other patrons.

But, just then, a guy came in, on his bike, stopping to have a beer after skiing.

It's all relative.

And I will never move to North Dakota.

Stay safe!

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Head Clearer

When I used to work at an office outside of my home, I learned that my bike commute was a huge stress reliever and great way to shift gears, so to speak, for the evening. I found that I had to get more creative in winter, even if I did some occasional biking to work or on trails on the weekends. This is even more true now that I work from home and I don't have very long hallways to roam when needing a drink, the bathroom, my lunch.

I was exhausted all day but decided to go to the gym - I'll admit it - to stay on track to get my 12 visits (= 20 bucks) in since I've got some work travel on the horizon. I thought, "I'll just walk on the treadmill, it is better than sitting on a couch." Well, that sort of rationalization is a slippery slope for me (and the treadmills were full), so I pulled out my smartly packed cycling shoes and made myself do something sweaty.

I thought about the source of my exhaustion a lot today. Last night, I called the police to respond to a "domestic disturbance" across the street. Thankfully, I think it just involved a lot of yelling, cursing, frustration, threats, break-up language, thrown furniture, kicked furniture, squealing tires, more squealing tires, probably some alcohol, maybe some drugs, arguments with the police about constitutional rights, and an usual cast of characters that I've never seen before (including a child), but have possibly been living in that house. There also was an ambulance just in case, but everyone seemed to be physically fine. Eventually, the police were allowed into the house to try to sort out exactly what happened, and that's when I tried to go back to sleep in earnest, but had a hard time getting my brain to stop racing.

We have a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood, but the house where this happened is a house of sadness. At least in my mind. Before we moved in - over 20 years ago - a man and his wife had two children with a baby on the way. The wife died shortly after giving birth to the third child or when it was very young. The baby went to live with other family members and the man, a very nice and neighborly alcoholic, "raised" the other two, although only the son stuck it out until reaching age 18 - the daughter went to live elsewhere when she was a tween. Fast forward 20+ years, the alcoholic man is dead from a nasty case of smoking-related cancer (when is cancer not nasty, Maggie?) and the son lives in the house. With his girlfriend. And possibly his sister. And probably another guy. And maybe the girlfriend's son. And was the guy with the child just visiting, or does he live there, too?

Although this was the first year that the yard had flowers and there was a Christmas wreath on the door, apparently that isn't enough to correct a whole bunch of messed up childhood things or mean that the people inside have figured out how to deal with anger, frustrations, or stress.

I am lucky, very lucky.

Heat Wave

The lyrics aren't about a bike ride, but the Linda Ronstadt version of Heat Wave is in my head as I type. 

It was in the low 40s yesterday, which led me to do something I don't think I've done before: take a road bike out in January. After some deliberations (we always deliberate *something*) over which streets and trails would be most clear, my friend Matt and I headed up River Road from Fort Snelling, along the Cedar Lake Trail to Hopkins, and then along the Greenway back to the river. This is a reliable route - one that I have done often as either a season opener or a season closer. 

River Road was clear, but the Cedar Lake Trail was a bit like riding on cookie dough or sand, with some icy patches buried beneath. Considering how exposed that trail is to the sun and the fact that it technically is a plowed trail in the winter, we were rather surprised at how much snow we rode in (many miles of it) and how much slush gathered up by our brakes.

I thought the ice cream truck was an interesting backdrop,
and Matt pointed out that it was fitting
due to it being almost ice cream weather.

Given the cool fall, the icy winter, and the lack of good snow for fat tire bikes, it was so very nice to just be moving on our bikes, to kick off another year of riding, and to spend time with a friend. This will be a different year for me, ridewise - - some new goals, some new rides, some new people to ride with and some riding things that won't be happening due to life events. 

I like this picture that Matt took of me overlooking the lake by my house. Not only does it capture a great bike ride, but I think it reflects the optimism I'm embracing for 2019. 

Yes, people are ice fishing. There were others skating
with kites, which was cool, too.

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We twa hae run about the braes

We didn't pu’d the gowans fine, though, since it is winter. 

But over the Xmas holiday, I managed to get my nieces and nephews out for a walk in the semi-woodsy field, telling them we were going on a search (!) for scat (!). ["Aunt Maggie, do we find scat on the ground? How will we know if we found it?"] We found deer, rabbit, and coyote scat; tracks from those animals, plus from turkeys and something mink-like; and a deer carcass. I was glad to see my youngest niece wasn't too scarred from seeing the deer entrails, and still managed to enjoy her spray can whipped cream. 

My dad, BIL, SIL and brother decided to join us on our scat
hunt. Here's a subset of us, with my photobomber nephew.

Give this kid some more sugar!

Piper and I got in some decent walks in the woods, ON the snow and IN the rain, tracking deer.

Mom and I spent some evening quiet time doing some color-by-number mosaics and putting together a felt succulent garden kit, which was fun, but I think I'd like to put together some living succulents.

Dan and I got our fat bikes out on this nicely groomed trail system near my most northern set of parents' house. I was reminded that biking up short hills in the snow is challenging and, that if the conditions in MSP are amenable to such things this winter (climate change has been messing with this lately), I will be in much better spring cycling shape. I am not kicking the year off with a ride as in some years, but am still optimistic about what 2019 will bring, both on the bike and off. 

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet. (What's the forward-looking version of the phrase "auld lang syne"?)

Voluntary parking meter in Minoqua, WI -
proceeds go to the food shelf

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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