Day 44

Rides are solitary moments of meditation and focus interrupted by uninvited human contact.

Last week.

I was preparing mentally and physically to go into the trails between a tennis court and a bathroom but paused when I heard coughing. An old head popped out of the trailhead and coughed again. He had a surgical mask pulled down to his chin and something in his hand.

“Hey man you go in these trails how far do they go?”

The thing in his hand is a knife and he’s swinging it around while he talks. I had one fit clipped in and the other one planted on the ground with my hands on my phone. This old dude is going try to rob me. I put the phone in my jersey pocket.

“yeah man they go all the way to Parkside.”

“Oh that’s all.”

He starts coughing again, like hacking and he’s still got the knife out. I cut a line towards the trailhead keeping a few feet distance from him and said peace.

Ride was super good.

A couple days before that

I took a left off my block and watched a guy drive his car diagonal across the next intersection and purposefully crash head on into another car. Both drivers jumped out and ran at each other. I thought they were going to start bucking shots so I and I switched routes.

Ride was super good.