solo

Took a slow, solo ride this morning. Nice to ride alone after the near-fifty riders last night at CM. That is always fun, of course, but only when you are alone can you truly set the pace you want. I usually like to ride extremely fast with headphones pounding (the inherent unsafeness in this combination is exhilarating) but not today, I ditched both the crazy legs and the iPod. With all that said, however, I am looking forward to cruising with Leah sometime next week, just the two us.

So, I rode to the park and found this lone guy in front of the empty tennis courts, holding a silent guitar and talking quietly on his phone. A few minutes later an older woman pulled up in an enormous SUV; he put his guitar away as she retrieved a large wire basket of several dozen glowing-neon tennis balls, they greeted each other knowingly, and then proceeded to play, lobbing the balls back and forth with a real intensity, their rackets (I never saw where his came from, actually; perhaps she brought it) whirring and whining tautly. I left then on my bike for a few little hill climbs through the neighborhood.

Just trying to keep breathing; it is easy to do today. Everything feels slow and quiet, like everyone is just keeping to themselves.

P.S.: there was a live oak above this bench and the light that filtered down through it could not be captured properly, I mean, at least with my simplistic device.