Beauty, joy will always be free

They're very interesting to me... those rich folks in their fancy houses. I mean the ones that feel so violated by cyclists on the DBB @ night that they need to call and do something about it.
First off... I think we can agree that there is little discussion regarding whether or not you can ride there at night- you can't. It's a bad idea.
However, I am amazed that someone would have the ambition to make it their mission to call in reports of such activity like the DBB is part of their frickin HOA and someone left their trashcan out overnight.
It is ridiculous to me that we should feel intimidated into submission by these folks and their "golf buddies" for no better reason than they feel that the DBB is part of their profanely oversized backyard, oh- and that they have lots of money.
It's sad really, that these folks have no better way to spend their time. No other happiness in their dim lives to distract them from the flagrant happiness of others; no other motive than to interfere with it. That all that money couldn't suck any more marrow out of life must really perturb them.
And there I am, riding on a trail for free, unburdened by conscience or care, enjoying a little slice of heaven that they couldn't buy. Maybe it's not the lights that they're complaining about. Maybe the smiles are visible from there.

This video makes me feel better about the one-handed wheelie crash in the parking lot yesterday.

Childhood.

This is why I ride. These rare childlike moments. To giggle uncontrollably as I rail a singletrack descent, hovering over perfectly spaced and placed diving-board rocks. To be released from all other cares in everyday life. To leave them forgotten somewhere on the climb. And for a little while to be a kid again, totally carefree pedalling my Huffy up the sidewalk toward a ramp made of plywood and firewood. I forget my bills and work and retirement planning and yardwork and laundry and oil changes and dinner menus and for a time I am that little kid spinning uneasy circles in my frontyard without training wheels for the first time.

Well... that, and the beers in the parking lot.

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Either the settings on my camera were set incorrectly, or Pac-Man and Q-bert are in hot pursuit.

I am beginning to suspect some sort of geomagnetic re-alignment that has put our little slice of heaven known as Colorado somewhat in the vicinity of Seattle. Gray skies, fog, cold. The weather report this morning read: "Don't even think about it".

This is Colorado. 300 days of annual sunshine. What gives?

This is Wisconsin weather.

I left there 5 years ago to escape the perpetual blanket of gloom that lasts all fall, winter, and spring; lets up for both days of summer and then proceeds directly back into fall.

But wait! A glimmer of hope! Blue skies!

And I have to go to work.

Perfect.

Oh well.. Here's a little something to act as surrogate in the mean time.

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At these speeds, einstein's predicted space-time distortions become noticeable.

My first thought preceding this picture was "I am going to break my leg". Then, the elation of not having broken my leg was shattered by the sight of the Mojo whirling toward my head and subsequently bouncing off the pictured rocks. This was a difficult time. I needed a moment.

Mother nature is an amazing magician. Yesterday I was lost in a deep well of depression and despair, convinced that winter was eternal. The thin blanket of new-fallen snow may very well have been a harbinger of a new ice age. All this talk from Al Gore about global warming and I'm looking out my living room window at snow? In April? All those years I bought gasoline for my 318 cubic inch Jeep and purposely endured a 50 mile commute in a vain attempt to bring a little bit of the tropics to this corner of the world?! And this is the thanks I get?! Damn you hybrid gas/electric vehicles! Stupid hydrogen fuel cells! Help me Halliburton, you're my only hope!
But I digress.
Today I woke to green grass and blue sky. Nature had pulled her wintry tablecloth and had left the flowers standing. It might be 20 below out there. I don't care. The sky is blue and the snow is apparently gone. Today I am going to ride my bicycle.