Let Me Spin You a Tale with a Tail

This weekend was pretty intense, physically. I bought the wood to build a floor for my metal storage shed, so that it could be moved. This meant loading it on a cart at Home Despot, then into my truck (then back into my truck after I dumped the load in the road on the way home) and then unloading it at home.

The next day, Richard and I built the floor/deck, then unloaded the metal building and moved it. You haven't lived until you've moved a 10'x14' metal shed fifty feet across the yard and set it up on a new floor.

The next day, Randy and I went back to the Despot and got 60 concrete pavers, 12"x12". Then, we excavated along the side of my driveway slab and widened 20 feet of it so that I would have room for my new wooden shop building.

So, this morning, I was a bit tired and sore when I got up to ride the bicycle into work. I decided to leave a little early, and take it easy on the way in.

The sun was beaming up over the horizon, the sky was blue and the temperature was hovering around 60 degrees F when I left the house at 5:50 AM. The forecast called for dropping temps and rain in the afternoon, so I had my rain clothes in the pannier.

I rode along, enjoying myself, waving at the dog walkers and joggers (most of whom now wave back, having seen me at the same time of day during the workweek, all month). Then, a couple of miles from work, I saw a big (BIG) German Shepherd dog running toward me from my right. I sped up, hoping he would stop at the edge of his yard.

No such luck.

He kept coming, aiming for my right leg. His apparent owner was running after him, trying to call him back. "Dog name, come back. Come back, dog name!" the kid was yelling. I never did catch the name he was calling.

Suddenly, dog name lunged toward me. I lifted my right foot off of the pedal and he bit the metal pedal, making a clanking noise with his teeth. That clank was followed by a "thwack" as the spinning pedal looped his head around and the pannier hit him in the face.

I sped up more, hoping that the clank/thwack had discouraged the dog. Nope. He suddenly passed me, on the left, then cut across me and slowed down, aiming for my right leg, again! At this point, I had enough adrenaline coursing through my veins to supply a Tour de France team for a mountain stage, and I scooted onto the nose of my saddle and SPUN.

My top speed recorded on the cyclometer was 24.7 mph. With a 38/18 gear ratio and 26" wheels, that means I was spinning the 175mm cranks on the pink bike at 151 rpm. So much for my easy ride in...

I hoped that, perhaps, I might luck out and avoid the afternoon rain, again. Then, at about 2:00 PM, this happened:

That's one of my co-workers using a snow shovel to clear the hailstones away from the entrance to the loading dock. All of that hit the ground in the space of about 10 minutes.

Luckily, I only had rain, for the most part, on my ride home. Hard, cold, soaking rain with just a few hailstones mixed in and temps in the upper 40's. And, in an ironic twist, it rained hard until I got to my house....

then it stopped.

I no longer feel like the Sun King; that's for sure!

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