So, my little “time away from work” was, by definition, “time away from work”, as I didn’t log into work on either Friday or Monday. Doesn’t mean that work issues weren’t living rent-free in my brain for at least three of the four days.

Damn. I can’t catch a break, even when I schedule one.

I got some things done that have little to do with the office, which was nice. Lots of laundry, preparing a huge batch of chicken salad that’ll probably be lunch for the rest of the week, and a nice afternoon spent with the college kid (we needed to run some stuff out to her on Friday, so we took her out for dinner and hung out a bit), even if there were about five hours of driving involved.

It’s back in the saddle again today, in a couple of ways. I’ve got a full schedule of work meetings today (but not the one I *really* need, unfortunately), and if the weather continues to hold, I’ll be saddling up on my new bicycle this afternoon!

I never did get around to having the damaged one fixed at the shop; the bill related to replacing a whole new crankset and associated gizmos at the shop was, frankly, intimidating and frustrating, especially on an eleven year old bike that’s put down at least 20k miles over those years, often in scenarios where it wasn’t ideally suited. The conditions of my riding have changed since I bought the thing back in 2010; I spend a lot more time on pavement and gravel than I do careening down mountains on narrow single-track runs.

So, as the tax refunds came in, I started doing some research and seeing what was out there. I ended up grabbing one of these at Pedal Power RVA on Monday morning, the Giant Roam 3, a so-called “cyclocross/hybrid/adventure” bike, equally at home on gravel and dirt (like the forest service roads and bike/hike/horse trails I frequent) and pavement, like my beloved Virginia Capital Trail, where I’ve spent way too much time in the last year. My old Giant Revel 1, of course, is still on hand, and I’m researching parts and specialized tools I’ll need to fix it myself in my spare time (parts are reasonable if self-sourced, especially since I located an old pdf of the tech specs of the bike online) once the weather gets more reliably nice, but honestly, it was time to upgrade to some more modern bicycle technology that better suited my current habits.

Really what motivated me, though, was seeing a guy at one of my favorite parks racking his bike after a nice ride late last week during the gorgeous weather as I was wrapping a nice six mile hike, and feeling my heart ache for the same experience.

I’m really looking forward to this afternoon’s shakedown ride.

Otherwise this week, it’s the usual work crap, and as much trail time as I can manage. If I can find a few free hours and make my fingers and throat work right, I really should do a couple of sweetener takes on a couple of my FAWM tracks; I’m within striking distance of releasing them as a record for Bandcamp Friday on March 5th. I’m actually rather happy with my output this year, and releasing these “intimate” recordings out into the world feels right, whether it makes me a few bucks or not.

Stay tuned…