It really wasn’t the most awesome weekend, sad to say.

Really, I honestly just started behind, unable to shake continuing bureaucratic nightmares that seem to be my lot in life these last few weeks (I’m taking all kinds of heat because my name is on a project that is being held up by two warring factions of the finance department who won’t accept each other’s reasoning over one measley letter on a spreadsheet somewhere, even though we all know the money is where it needs to be). Friday morning we got word that a dear friend slowly recovering from a significant health issue took a turn for the worse; resulting in us taking in an extra kid for a good chunk of the weekend so said friend’s partner could be there to offer support and wrangle medical professionals.

It was the proper thing we did, and I was happy to do it, though it completely threw off our weekend plans, and as my partner was obligated to spend a large part of the weekend teaching make-up dance classes because of a studio closure a couple of weeks back, I was largely homebound to address issues amongst Adult Children Who Should Know Better™, a teenager riding the wave of vaccine shot #1, and distracting another teenager who was very worried about the health of their parent.

As I said, I’m not sorry we did a favor for a friend; not at all – we love these people like they’re family; they’d do the same for us in a heartbeat, no question. I just started the weekend with a significant spoon deficit and never really got a chance to plug the charger in to make up the difference.

All the same, I got a bunch of stuff done that needed doing. I hit the farmer’s market and did the shopping, washed four or five loads of laundry, finally fixed the cable jack on the five-string bass, as it’s looking like I might have a need for it on a stage in a few weeks, and knocked out some household bookkeeping. I did a good job, too, it just wore me the heck out.

The only real time I got to clear my head was when I racked the bike and disappeared for a couple of hours to put 41 miles behind me on the Capital Trail early Sunday. It started out a little cold, but I soon got myself in a zone where my mind went mostly blank and it was nothing but pedals and gears; I didn’t owe anything to anybody, except myself and the occasional bell ring/”on your left” to the slower riders I was passing. It felt good, and afterwards, according to my tracking app, I averaged three and a half minute miles, which is crazy fast (approx 17mph), at least for me, a larger guy on a 29er cross bike surrounded by tiny little guys on tiny little road bikes.

The week ahead, alas, looks like more of the usual grind (in fact, the work emails from people decrying last-minute tasks at 11:00 on Sunday night when I submitted the documents for review COB Thursday, were waiting for me Monday morning, once I was able to get into my email at all). The weather looks beautiful, though so I look forward to some decent cycling, though that’s already been scuttled for Monday, as I have to drive one of those Adult Children Who Should Know Better™ out east for a short-term housesitting gig, which is going to eat up my entire afternoon.

So…yeah.