Driving home an hour ago I could see, through the shades of precip and slanted evening light, the layers of Mingus Mountain above town better than I ever have. Normally, you can’t see the forests for the trees at all, but stereotypically unideal conditions today proved unique.

So to with the rest. When I have a bad day at work, my line of duty usually provides a whopper, and today was one of those days. I only lost a little skin, and did manage to pass one student through her midterm and on to the second half of ninth grade. Doing that paperwork is always welcome.

So then I came home, listening to Liz Phair and feeling like a shell of a man. Drank some tea, ate an ice cream bar, and helped M with the 50 minute task of putting her mostly de-fungi’d fuel tank back in. New hoses went on easily, 3M spray adhesive worked well enough to get some gaskets back in the right spot, and a broken hose to the “reserve vacuum reservoir” (or something..) was fixed with heatshrink and electrical tape. The car started with lots of bitching (not a surprise, given that it had effectively run out of gas) and tons of smoke (not surprising for a 30 year old diesel). Killed it, and it started right up easier than ever. Very, very good news (I wouldn’t have to be shuttle driver and stay up late to pick her up from work).

So I went riding. Explored the trails around Thumb Butte, which I’d never ridden. Ostensibly casual, so I wore carharts and a fleece shirt. Still, the legs were calling. My enthusiasm was culled in a few spots by downed trees, but I had some serious snap over rocks and up eroded climbs. Very, very good news.

The trail system is discontinuous, and a ride of any length requires fire road cruising to link bits and pieces. Some have complained about this trait, but I’m not too picky a rider, and the terrain is open pine forest and granite, one of my personal favorites. Speaking of which, Saturday I’m meeting a new netfriend to further explore Thumb, and Sunday is Foolio fest in the big ditch. Still in, Eric? Which begs the question, is their enough light to justify an afterwork trip to Flag tomorrow or Friday?

So, to bring it all back to the subject at hand, I just ate some tasty pasta of my own creation, am drinking a very tasty Bridgeport IPA (well rewards departure from New Belgian), and writing animatedly. With lots of spelling errors. So, the day has turned out very well. Now (drumroll), off to bed to watch TV!!! And force myself to do some grading, though I may just go in early to do that instead. I’m digging the buzz and am lacking faith in my motivations to be excessively responsible.

Ha!