something new

I took my new bike out for a spin today. The work week combined with the heavy rains kept me off of it. I'm not what you call a hard core biker, more of a recreational rider. My place of employment keeps me moving during the week...go go go...go go go...what's wrong, go faster. At weeks end, I'm usually spent. The thing is though, I'm not doing enough to elevate my heartbeat like I should. In fact, on the weekends, I'm almost sedentary and that's something I want to stop. Come Monday I can feel a diminished lack of fitness. Hence the bike. I took a spin around the TCC NW campus. It's kinda hairy getting over there with the cars speeding by, hellbent on getting to the next stop sign, but once there it's a nice place to ride. On the weekend, that is. Marine Creek Lake has a narrow paved trail around it and it looks like it'd be a nice place to tool around, but a sign at the trail entrance stated: no this, no that, no the other. Too bad, the only thing on the trail was the breeze. I can feel the exertion in my lungs. They're sending up their complaints in coughs and tracheal irritation. I'm thinking later I'm going to put my bike on the back of my car and go to the trail that runs along the Trinity River. If you see a tallish, lanky person, on a new white trek, looking down and fussing at his pedals, it might be me.

I've finished my chores, paw, can I get my bicycle out of lay-a-way, now?

A day late, or so, I'm afraid. It's a 2009 Trek 1.5.   Its been said, believe half of what you see and none of what you read. Keeping that in mind, from what I've read on the net, the 2009 1.5 is a better bike than the 2010 1.5 . In my limited experience, I must say, it's quite a bike. There's a group of bikers who are also bloggers that organized a ride yesterday, in Fort Worth. Miles, of Rat Trap Press, spearheading the effort. Unfortunately, I didn't have my new bike out yet and I was near exhausted from the work week of gathering straw to make mud bricks for pharaoh's cities. I've got my new bike now and maybe if and when the group organizes a new ride and I'm up to speed on my bike, I'll be able to join them. I hope so.

fire

Have you ever tried to write something? Fiction, I mean. A short story maybe, or a not so short story; a novel.  Teasing out an idea for a story is like chasing a itch that flits around your body and not settling down to submit itself to a good scratching. Life is so busy and crammed with the hum drum, mundane details it's hard to take time and woo the muse. An image popped in my head of Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away, his hands bloody with the effort of trying to start a fire and finally doing so, dancing on the beach, exultant. This, I think, must be what it's like to finally capture the spark of an idea, that'll spring into a full blaze and become,what? A short story, at least.

blue skies

Come back blue skies, we miss you. I spoke to someone on the phone, today. They were  in New Orleans. It was hot and humid, he said. Is the sun out, I asked. Yea, man. I'm sweating like a pig down here. I was jealous of his being in the sunshine. Seems like to me the sun has been occluded more than not, for the last thirty days. This weekend, hopefully Sol will once again grace the heavenly view.

the southside

Saturday, the weather was not in a cooperative mood with the near southside's, Arts Goggle. Lots of rain and fall temperatures ended up putting the squeeze on things, I think. This is the first time for me to even go, so maybe I'm wrong. Maybe last night was a resounding success. It didn't seem so much it like it to me, though. The near southside is also known as the hospital district, with lots of old interesting buildings and houses. People with extra money and time, apparently, are buying up the buildings and repairing them as well as many of the old homes, as well. That's a good thing. Being a strange child, it's hard for me to get around the old buildings without getting the distinct impression that ghosts from the past are moaning just beyond ear shot; wanting to tell their stories, hoping to find someone who can hear.  Many of the buildings are gorgeous with old world touches, but are in a state of disrepair until those with the afore mentioned money and time get a hold of them. I wish them luck. I must get a digital camera so the one or two people who may peruse this blog can take the walk with me. Later, dude.