Messing about

Every time I get to that point where I am asking myself "what cool new thing could possibly happen next?" then something nifty and wonderful comes up and takes me down an unexpected path of delight. This time it was the gift of the moment, a wonderment in the form of a couple of bikes, a sunny late afternoon, a bit of time to burn and a boy to wear down a bit before stories and bed time.

I'm always amazed how the small gods interact with us mere mortals, take our expectations and turn them on their ear. It had already been a good day, a busman's holiday kind of day filled with book buying, library visits and comrade support. It was made better by a light and savory meal thrown together on the fly, a warm day in the Valley and an evening's agenda that pretty much was wide open. But a bike ride was something that neither my Esteemed Companion nor I saw coming. A walk, definitely. A trip down the drive to check on a neighbor's garden for marauding pigs, certainly. But a bike ride? It was the peeking into the shed, seeing the tandem bike just sitting there, that set that little man's imagination ablaze.

So, bike riding it was, the three of us meandering down a country lane to a tired, algae packed creek in the crisp late part of a day. We had plenty of light, practically no traffic and a lane that rivaled anything a big city bike path could have ever thought to throw our way. And while the sun went down a bit earlier behind the mountain than was expected the twilight still got us home well before the mosquitos ever thought to look for us.

It was all good. Somehow a bike ride, with all it's requisite bumps and races and different muscles to explore, is a grand alternative to the walks I take almost every day. Seeing the land from two wheels, or rather, three counting the tandem, was a delight. We covered far more ground than we would have otherwise, we got in something new that now can be seem as a regular kind of joint venture and exercise for us all but more it let us see that our days, sometimes in line to be one way, can be pulled in another and be a really cool thing., indeed.

Here's to serendipity, to boyish joy and to play that comes oh so naturally to this little group of ours!

Salud!