Un jour sans

The wind was wicked today, and it was cold.  Couldn't feel my toes (even with double socks) and my pinkies were non existent as well.

As has been my habit of late, I missed the start of the BP ride yet again.  Tchad and I rolled up Macarthur and caught the appropriate group at Clara Barton/Macarthur as we turned toward MountainGate.  The nice thing about this ride is that it has evolved into natural selections based on ability/conditioning.

Given the fact that I had expended little effort on my way to the meeting point (other than steady tempo) I had no problem feeling like a mountaingoat up Mountaingate, feeding my thirsty ego with visions of powerful climbing for the rest of the day as I was among the first to crest the hill.  Then I woke up, realizing that I couldn't hold wheels as we rolled through the neighborhoods and turned onto the usual fast Oaklyn rollers.  Pop went the weasel and I rolled back to the shop at a conversational pace with Conor and Scott, excellent companions as usual.  As we rode through the E/W Beach intersection with the remnants of the NCVC ride we came upon a car fire on Karim's street.  His neighborhood is just going to hell.

No extra 10 in the park for me.  I was happy to call it a day as a headwind was hitting us full on in our slog up the hill to the shop.

As usual, though, it was not literally "a day without".  It never is, really.  The ride may not have been excellent, but it was solid training and the company is always first rate.  6 shots of espresso at the shop, a bagel at the deli, and the reconnecting on a weekly basis with my friends makes any jour sans on the bike less so.

Thinking that there was a Laser Tag outing in our afternoon, I headed home and found some extra time as we rescheduled the shoot-'em-up session for another time when all the participants were healthy.  Cleaned up the yard to prepare for spring, a bit of baseball with the boy, soccer with the girl, burgers on the grill for dinner and all is right with the world.  Most excellent bonus of the night:  mangos and sticky rice for desert.  Heaven.

The real jour sans (actually 2 in row) was an untimely one for our Washington Caps, as they dropped two must-win matinee games this weekend in the waning minutes of both matches due to costly penalties and critical mistakes.  Gotta play the full 60 minutes...And how'bout them Terps?  Tag a jour sans on them too.  NIT bid anyone?