Feeling Old On Father's Day Eve...

 

 I took my family for a long walk in the woods the other day, and got them semi-lost, and there were many bugs, but I have to say, we didn't get too bit up, since we'd coated ourselves in bug spray beforehand.  That's not what this is about, however.Incidentally, blogger seems to be going absolutely batty right now-- as in I hit return and it goes two lines UP, rather than one down-- (sounds like a country song, doesn't it)  So, we found some new trails.  Like, lots of them.  And

Yeah, it's a beer-drinking goat.

 a busted up, rusted out old pickup truck that was driven in there who knows how.  And an old wheelbarrow.  Oh, did I mention that there were actual trails without rocks?  Yes, in New England!  Isn't that absurd?  I meant to say banked turns since some of these were apparently made by moto, but the shock of the rock took over.  I couldn't believe it.

 

Which brings up another thing (see that space above this sentence?  Added by blogger and I can't delete it- batty, I tell you!).  We stopped by the local skatepark today.  Hard to imagine what my riding life, heck, my whole life (career) might have been like if we'd'a had one of these.  Concrete, flowy, with actual vert.  Oh, anyway, there were some pretty

I've told you before about my thing for bike rooms.

I want coffee from here.  ps. I camped for a week in Camp Four in Yosemite.

 Ripping local kids there.  One with a cookie monster t-shirt was especially great.  360 flyouts at will (didn't seem much for the airs back into the tranny, though).  Another kids was doing tailwhip flyouts.  Nice.  Of course, after each trick they had to sit on their top tubes and hang out for a good long while, but that's understood.  Made me feel pretty freaking old, I'll tell you.  Not that I expected at this age to be rocking the skateparks... Oh, no.

The Rapha van.  How is everything they touch so darn coolified?

I could very easily sell my mtbs and break myself on that park.  I'm thinking more along the lines of 'I've been riding consistently since I was 11 years old and what do I have to show for it?  A no handed trackstand?'  Honestly.  A fat belly and... and what?  That's almost 30 years of riding a bike!  THIRTY YEARS!  I didn't ride much in college, but other than that, riding pretty consistently for that long.  And I can't jump?  I don't have super fitness (or any).  I don't even know what I'm after here, but by fausto coppi I ought to have been able to pick up one of those bikes and do something!!! What, a poser?  Some rear wheel hops on the pegs?  Maybe I could whip those out.  Except they don't use brakes.  Or pegs.  You may say, but you ride a mountain bike now!  Yeah, since 1993- a little earlier if you count mtbs I test-rode at the shop after they'd been fixed.  And can I hang with XC guys?  No.  Could I do a drop over about 3 feet?  Nope.  Road rides?  No way.  So what the h@ll have I been doing for 30 years?  Can someone tell me that?  For that matter, can I even WRITE about it?  You'd think after so long, maybe I'd be considered some sort of aged (read that as two syllables) wise man.  Nope.

Why don't I just sell 'em all and go birdwatching or something?  

Fathers Day Addendum:  

Okay, I need to add a few things that I've thought of since yesterday.  I am capable in fact of doing the ol' CX remount, and I can build a bike from frame to finished bike, if imperfectly, including lacing the wheels.  So I am incorrect to call that nothing.  Still, I feel older and fatter than I should- and I'm going to do something 'bout it, too.  I swear!