Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Forgive me for ch-ch-channeling David Bowie, but he describes my current life pretty accurately!  Yes, I’m retired.  Can I say that?  Yes, I can!  That sounds weird and should come from some old fart.  But it’s me.  (No comments….)  How long have I anticipated saying that?  Phew….it’s already been a few weeks, but it’s still hard to believe.  As of April 29^th, after 38 years of federal employment and other post-college positions, I have been officially retired from the working world.  Wow!  No, this post isn’t so much about cycling.  Or maybe it is.  Maybe more than usual because now I feel like I can do lots more of it!!  But let me also explain that this has been an exceptionally busy time these past couple of months.  My lovely wife put together a great combo party the very next day with well over 100 friends, family and co-workers for my 60^th birthday / retirement.  That took a hell of a lot of prep (and yes, I helped…. some….. but thanks Dear!) and we even had the kids serving and bartending.  It was certainly a great time where even some friends from Boston showed up!  And something like that won’t happen again, so we made sure to enjoy it.  

The next week, we moved her mom and cleaned out the family house of 47 years right after the big retirement date.  How’s that for timing?  Then, May raised its busy head with the usual assortment of important dates….our wedding anniversary (25^th!), my wife’s birthday, Mother’s Day, and finally, helping our son get ready to move from SLO to Chico for next fall’s next start to business school.  Oh….and don’t forget about retirement activities.  Let’s just say there were lots of beer tastings!   ;-)

Retirement - I've giving it a try!

25th Anniversary in Bodega Bay

To be honest, I don’t want to ever bore of riding my bike.  But I’ve never been faced with that potential problem until now.  Back to retirement for a moment….I’ve seen the look on the faces of many friends, acquaintances and others when I tell them this….there are a few pat responses that almost everyone makes.  Disbelief.  Congratulations.  Jealousy.  It was obviously in jest, but also with a hint of truth when one guy (a friend of a friend) said “Fuck you!!” to me.  Are we a bit jealous??  I’d say so.  It’s certainly an enviable place to be….having done my time, getting a pension and still retaining my health.  Wow....what did Curly Joe say?  “Pinch me….see if I’m dreamin’!”  My sentiments exactly!

So, now that I can ride a lot, am I riding a lot?  Well, I’m doing ok, even with all of the above-mentioned interruptions.  I’ve always been able to squeeze in quality riding time, due to my ability to "change gears” quickly (off the bike!) and go from work to riding and be home for dinner with just a few minutes in between each.  But now, there isn’t this big push to squeeze so much activity into so little time.  That’s what I’m having fun getting used to….I don’t need to worry about every second anymore.  So, maybe I’ll waste a little more time compared to before.  But mellowing out is healthy too.  I know I was stressing to fit everything in along with work prior to retiring.  But that’s now changed.  For the better.  The less stress, the better!  With the big ride to Santa Barbara coming at the end of May, I’ve been trying to rack up some miles in preparation.  Since early April, I’ve had one ride from Berkeley to Davis recently (94 miles), one up Diablo (81 miles) and about five 60 milers.  I’m feeling ready for the big ride!  It’ll be weird with our ride leader of 26 years not in attendance due to a family issue and a number of other regulars not able to make it.  But I’m hopeful that we’ll all have a safe and fun ride.

Finally, there are a few other recent rides worth mentioning!  I can say with some pride that rides around Berkeley are typically a cut above most places (right from the door, hills, views, mostly decent drivers, good weather….need I say more?), but we still can get kind of repetitive.  But some did stand out anyway!  I had two rides to Mt. Diablo, one successful and the other truncated.  As a late birthday ride, my buddy Marius gathered up a handful of buddies and we climbed the peak in mid-April for a nice ride.

Birthday ride up Mt. Diablo

Then with good intentions of climbing again the following week to remember friends and family who succumbed to cancer, Chris invited me to join his group.  But the rain got the better of us.  The rain started about 10 miles into the ride out there.  We got to the base of the mountain (Athenian School) fairly soaked, so Chris and I grabbed some food and headed back home to avoid more wetness.  It would have most likely have been a warm climb, but definitely a freezing descent.  We did about 60 miles total, with at least 40 in the rain.  Yechhh.  

Look at dem socks.....Dutch riding?

Then, how can one forget the feeling of coming home after officially retiring and heading out for a ride?!  Bye Bye…..I’m going for a ride!!  And finally, on my actual birthday, I did two rides!  What the hell??  It was my big 60^th birthday!  So why not??!!

So, life is good, cycling and otherwise.  WIth more time, rides may increase in length and/or frequency.  Or they may not.  With all of these ch-ch-changes, there will be tons of things to do in this newfound retired life.  Cycling is just one of them.  My only promise I want to make is to keep all things I do, including rides, as fun as possible!  And carpe diem!

Me on the right in the driver's seat....where it all started.

Bike parking on my street....this was not staged!