26th ride of 2016 - 2/29/2016

I tend to get things stuck in my head (passages of music, or verbal phrases) and then repeat them over and over. This is especially true while I'm riding, and today's fodder was a bit of doggerel from the childhood of my dad (b. 1907).

I am participating in a Monday morning men's small group at our church, and today we began a reading of the Gospel of Luke. A consideration of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) reminded me rhythmically of this poetic couplet I heard Dad recite many times, listing the names of the four youngest siblings in their large farm family, along with the name of the family pony:

Loyle, Evelyn, Dale, and Von—

Saddle up Old Major and we’ll ALL hop on!

At any rate, this has been churning through my thoughts all day, and with it I went out and fought the elements this afternoon. Waiting until 1:45, the temperature had gotten up to 46°, but a stiff wind (20 mph), which was, of course, a great pleasure to ride through, brought the wind-chill down to 39°. However, by the time I finished, it had climbed all the way to 49°! (I didn't, however, suffer heatstroke.)

Because of the wind, I allowed myself to be content with a single round trip to Marsh Park today, finishing the 10 miles in a slow time of 1 hour and 12 minutes.