Pedaling through

It's been just over a week since BeanSS and I said goodbye to our little Dora. One thing has nothing to do with the other, but it seems many of our most trying times with our dogs have occurred during the summer, either the abject inferno of June or the nearly unbearable heat and humidity of the months-long Mexican Monsoon.

I've long used bicycling to clear my mind, and I've been riding quite a bit lately. I still tear up from time to time, but the burning in my quads does help distract me from the aching of my heart. And while the stifling air hasn't kept me from riding, it's meant that I've been opting more often for a road rather than mountain bike. It's uncomfortably sultry no matter what, but it feels a little more tolerable to be zipping along on pavement rather than grunting up a rocky climb with sweat pouring into my eyes.

This morning's ride was actually fairly nice, though I ended up riding into (and back out of) the path of a small rain cell. My "rain bike" is a sweet, steel Kona. And this, by the way, is where it all started. Our first dog is the only one so far which we actually named ourselves, and the name we picked was Kona, partly for the coffee but mostly for the bikes, which I lusted after at the time.

And this would be an even better rain bike if I'd go ahead and put fenders on it. That's not some retro splatter paint job, it's flecks of mud.  I'm still not clear how crap gets on the front of the head tube, but nevertheless, there it is.