Well shit, it’s been a while.

I’ve been busy. New job, or rather: new role at current job. Trying to get the next issue of Response out in something of a not too horrifically delayed fashion (it’s already horrifically delayed; I’m shooting for not too horrific). Figuring out how to ride bikes regularly again, and also go into the office (i.e., WeWork) with some regularity again. The Wednesday ride is back on. Boston can’t seem to decide if it’s spring or winter. Basically, shit’s been going on.

So here’s some rambling.

The commute in this morning was exciting. To spoil the ending (and assuage any fears my friends or family might have): I made it in safe without any real incident.

The weather was "rain" and "dangerous wind warning" when I left, by which I mean that when I left the house this morning it was almost sixty degrees outside and it wasn’t raining and all I needed was a t-shirt and the fancy wind-blocking vest thing that is my current favorite bike garment. It was so warm I even rolled the bottoms of my pants up a little. I got up the road and then it started raining a little. By the time I was well into Cambridge it was raining quite a lot, and the wind had picked up. I was drenched through by the time I made it to Harvard Square but I had a big goofy smile on my face: I like challenging weather, especially if it’s well above freezing (or well below: what I hate is hard rain at just-above-freezing temperatures).

I’d taken my rack off the night before but kept the dynamo wheel on, because although I’ve moved the lights over to the Straggler[1] in anticipation of pickup of an extremely beautiful wheel my friends at Battle Road Bikes built for me, I was very glad to have the lower profile rim instead of the deep, heavy, and also ugly "fixie" front wheel that came with "The Riddler Bike"[2] when the wind picked up. Which it did. Quite dramatically. Like very diagonal rain dramatically. But luckily my steering only veered a little bit once or twice and/or I figured out pretty quickly how to correct for it. It was fine. Fun, even.

So I get to work. I’m soaked through. I have a full change of clothes ready. It was lovely. I hope my shoes and pants dry out before I need to leave. At the time of writing, it looks like my pants will be fine, my shoes will probably still be damp. Thank god for wool socks.

My new role involves a lot more meetings than my last role (which involved, at most, three a week). Meetings are tiring! Or maybe it’s just those horrific "phone booth" things at the WeWork. Maybe both. This is a much more "thinking" role, which I "think" I like (HA!), but it’s an adjustment. More mulling. I think there will be more "doing" eventually, but for the time being it’s a lot of figuring out what’s going on, what needs doing, what is possible to be doing, etc. I like my new boss though and I like that I get to spend more time with my boss’s boss (who remains the same boss’s boss as my last position).

I was going to create another blog about computers and writing and writing with computers but I don’t think I want to do that anymore. I might put that stuff here. Or let this die on the vine. I’m too busy really to keep things up these days. Thus the horrific delays with Response. The contributors don’t seem to mind too much, though.

Back to bikes, I’m going for a Super Randonneur medal this summer. I don’t think I’ll actually pony up for the "medal" part, but I am intending on doing a 200, 300, 400, and 600k this summer, in addition to the odd 100k populaire ride and, of course, D2R2. It’s maybe a dumb idea, but I’m excited about it. I like spending all day in the saddle. I like pushing myself, and pedaling on.

But maybe I’ll hate it and stop after the 300k (I’ve already done a 200k and know those are fine) — who knows?

But to wrap up and circle back.

Randonneuring is a lot about riding come-what-may, and that includes weather events (within reason; I think they do occasionally get canceled for things like hurricanes). As I had that big dumb grin on my face riding a fixed gear bicycle into Boston in the wind and rain this morning, all I could think about was what fun I was having, what fun I’ll have in future rides like this, come-what-may, etc.

All for now.

1. I need to write an update on that bike. In some ways not a lot has changed, in other ways a lot has changed. For those curious, the gearing is now 46/30 11-28, which I think is just about perfect for how and where I ride.
2. Which maybe I’ll also someday write about. For those curious, it’s an old first-gen State Contender fixed up at 46-16 and it used to be my kid brother’s delivery bike in CoMo. Sadly, the Schwinn is actually, really dead due to the headtube finally ovaling out (but hey: it made it 30 years, which feels pretty good. And as my friend Alex pointed out: it’s kind of cool that I rode a bike that hard).