March 29, 2020
Dear Reader ,
Last time I posted the COVID19 was starting to make some serious noise here in the states. As a biochemist, I always knew and explained to many of my friend and peers, that population density and viruses is a formula for disaster. A virus is the ultimate human predator. But Dear Reader, I am not having any of that in this post. Not today.
Got up before the sun this Sunday morning. I am on 6 hours of sleep and I need 7 or 8. Got my morning Joe and dressed into my bike gear. I want to hit the bike trail before the twilight of Dawn. I decided to head south on the bike trail thinking that I might go all the way out to the Skyline Bridge. But I knew I was feeling tired and the 45 mile trip wasn’t in the cards on this beautiful southwest Florida morning. I have cycled over 300 miles this month So I decided to take it easy and ride to the Gulfport waterfront and have a Cafe con Leche at Sumitra. Of course, these days one doesn’t get to go inside and sit in a nice chair and muse over one’s coffee. Instead a counter is set up within the double door entrance and your choices are ordered from outside on the sidewalk. I was the first customer of the day and I was alone.
I think of so many things when I’m cycling. I fantasize sometimes about the ways things could have been; I know Dear reader, that is a useless endeavor…but it occurs. If only Deb didn’t have those 4 cardiac arrests. I think of writing in my blogs; what I’m going to write. My brain likes to go to my troubles too (of course). This morning, I am not holding on to them. They need to be scheduled on my work calendar! (That was a joke.) This morning my singing brain was stuck on this song by the Fortunes, a British invasion band.
I love this song for it’s musicality. The key changes are great. The Fortunes 1965. My brother had this on a 45. I remember it playing on the new WCOL Columbus, Ohio. I was 12 and playing little league baseball in the summer of ’65
So, back to the bike ride…It is a period of freedom for me. Deb is in bed and I am moving my brain to some mindfulness.
This time I am using my auditory sense. The morning birds cacophony gives me a peaceful ,easy feeling. Crows, Laughing gulls. Blue Jays, mockingbirds woodpeckers, osprey chirping, pigeons, sparrows, cranes, mourning doves cooing. They are my friends this morning.
On the ride back, I came upon a guy named John, who was riding his electric bike. It is called “pedal-assisted” as the battery run motor assists the rider in pedaling. These are going to increase in popularity as a”zero-carbon ” method of commuting. After explaining the mechanics of the bike to me, he asked if I would like to draft behind him; meaning I would have a much-reduced air friction or resistance as I pedaled forward. We went 3 miles at a 22mph clip. That was a nice interval.
So Dear Reader, coming up to the end of my ride, I decided I would make blueberry waffles for our breakfast, get Deb up and showered and hair washed. Then we will take a trip to Walsingham Park to sit in the spring sun for an hour since the beach is closed to dampen the so-called” infection bell curve.
Dear Reader, thank you being in this space with me. Please stay safe with your loved ones. Our normalcy is changing drastically.
Please be kind, caring, and help those who ask for it.