Road bike daydreams

I didn't expect to miss riding so much. Sure, there's the trainer, and thank goodness. But the trainer is a contact high, not the real deal.

I don't know if I'm badass enough to ride in 20 degree weather, but I'm increasingly tempted to find out. Thinking of joining an upcoming Tienda Casa Paloma group ride. Wanting to drag the "my first bike!" no-suspension Mongoose Rockadile out to the river trails to see if any off-road variant is remotely in my future. (Zip, let's you and me get MTBs...)

I want to be on my bike. (Repeat that phrase 2000 times and you will have my mental soundtrack for the last few days.) Can I tell you my winter daydream?

I am on my bike. I ride to the lake. The deep water is cool with a six-inch cake-frosting layer of warmth from the sun. I swim to the other side of the lake, where I hang out with Johnny Depp for a while. He is sketching something and watching his kids swim. I swim back, stretch in the sun, then bike home. My house is magically spotlessly clean and there is a cold beer and leftover pasta salad in the fridge, and the dog jumps around and nuzzles my leg.

In this daydream, N., of course, is out on his bike. He won't believe it when I tell him about Johnny Depp. He won't be happy I drank the last beer, either. Yeah. Get your own daydream, chief.