Ordinarily, I'm not one to catch lucky breaks. I'm not saying I'm unlucky, but it seems that others are generally more lucky than me.
So when the good fortune rolls, I'm noticing. And I'm happy.
Tonight, while at Barnes and Noble buying books for the kids and me (the Easter Bunny sent gift cards), we were set to pay at the front registers. The front counter person (wearing, proudly, his name tag on a lanyard around his neck) was scanning our stuff - which included two stuffed panda bears, presents that I didn't feel like arguing about - and I noticed that it was Teacher Appreciation Week - 25 percent off. Sweet. Probably saved 10 bucks.
We arrive home and I pop in a construction truck DVD that came with one of my son's books and I go online to check the Scrubs episode that I thought I missed last night when I was out. I go to the site and it says the episode is tonight at 8, not last night. I keep forgetting that Scrubs has been changed from Tuesday to Wednesday night. So now, I'm planning to watch Scrubs in 7 minutes, live, but not really live. Nice.
If my luck is truly ringing true, this last matter will work out in my favor, too. We're heading up to Boston tomorrow, staying overnight. We'll go to the Children's Museum, walk around the city, take to the T to Quincy Market, and swim in an indoor pool (my wife's big request). But if the Red Sox game is rained out tonight - I'm hoping it will - then chances are many people will need to get rid of their seats since the makeup game is tomorrow at 1:35. Might be able to grab some tickets off craigslist later tonight or tomorrow morning.
Good things come in threes, the claim goes, so even though the tarp has been taken off the field and the game is scheduled to start tonight at 7:55, perhaps some significant rain will prevent the game from lasting past the fifth inning, which games need to do in order for them to officially count.
Don't mean to sound like a jerk to those at Fenway tonight, but rain, baby, rain.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
First bike ride
I seized the moment to ride my mountain bike the other day - the first ride of the season. The first ride brings so much promise, and it will hopefully be the first of many rides to come over the next seven or eight months.
Sun beamed strongly during the morning hours, warming the air just enough to take the nip out of it in the afternoon, when I took my ride. The winds picked up substantially, though, especially on the trail, and it seemed like I was riding against it both ways, but more so on the first half of the ride. The back end, which is slightly uphill, turned out to be easier than usual, which was good because I was running late.
Bike rides, even if you're not going that slow, give you so much opportunity to observe things. You get to watch people, their dogs, little kids struggling to pedal and keep up with their families, the rising water in a Hebron swamp, a tree leaning from the side of a grassy marsh at a 45-degree angle, looking as if it'll drop at the gentlest breeze.
It felt good to move the legs, to power my own movement. Running on the treadmill or elliptical during the colder months just isn't the same. There is no current of air to breathe in or birds to hear when running in my basement or at the gym.
Biking puts you in a trance of sorts, and after the first 10 or 15 minutes you can feel your body relax into it, even as your pulse is pounding. Music from my mp3 player helps provide an energy boost. The one that did it for me this time was Spacehog's "In the Meantime."
The only bummer of the ride - and I have feared this would someday happen - is that my mp3 player fell to the dirt path, perhaps hitting a stone, and the display window cracked. It still works, but it kind of pissed me off. I'll have to put the bulky leather case back on it to keep it going. Got lazy, there.
On the way home, clouds gathered above the trail, but by that time I'd been sweating. As I approached the parking lot, I saw a family of about six, including a woman who was partly disabled, pushing a walker. I silently gave the woman credit for getting outside, for not remaining a prisoner to her disability.
I threw my bike on my bike rack, and, as is customary, blared WEEI on the way home with the sunroof of the CR-V open. The trip home after a long ride is usually a blur, and it was on Saturday.
I pulled into my driveway, grabbed my bike off the bike rack, and put them both in the garage. While I was on the front walkway - in a seemingly eeriely planned way - the first raindrops struck the asphalt. They hit me for about two of my strides before I opened the door and it closed behind me.
Sun beamed strongly during the morning hours, warming the air just enough to take the nip out of it in the afternoon, when I took my ride. The winds picked up substantially, though, especially on the trail, and it seemed like I was riding against it both ways, but more so on the first half of the ride. The back end, which is slightly uphill, turned out to be easier than usual, which was good because I was running late.
Bike rides, even if you're not going that slow, give you so much opportunity to observe things. You get to watch people, their dogs, little kids struggling to pedal and keep up with their families, the rising water in a Hebron swamp, a tree leaning from the side of a grassy marsh at a 45-degree angle, looking as if it'll drop at the gentlest breeze.
It felt good to move the legs, to power my own movement. Running on the treadmill or elliptical during the colder months just isn't the same. There is no current of air to breathe in or birds to hear when running in my basement or at the gym.
Biking puts you in a trance of sorts, and after the first 10 or 15 minutes you can feel your body relax into it, even as your pulse is pounding. Music from my mp3 player helps provide an energy boost. The one that did it for me this time was Spacehog's "In the Meantime."
The only bummer of the ride - and I have feared this would someday happen - is that my mp3 player fell to the dirt path, perhaps hitting a stone, and the display window cracked. It still works, but it kind of pissed me off. I'll have to put the bulky leather case back on it to keep it going. Got lazy, there.
On the way home, clouds gathered above the trail, but by that time I'd been sweating. As I approached the parking lot, I saw a family of about six, including a woman who was partly disabled, pushing a walker. I silently gave the woman credit for getting outside, for not remaining a prisoner to her disability.
I threw my bike on my bike rack, and, as is customary, blared WEEI on the way home with the sunroof of the CR-V open. The trip home after a long ride is usually a blur, and it was on Saturday.
I pulled into my driveway, grabbed my bike off the bike rack, and put them both in the garage. While I was on the front walkway - in a seemingly eeriely planned way - the first raindrops struck the asphalt. They hit me for about two of my strides before I opened the door and it closed behind me.
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