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Okay, my wonderful bride caught my error from the post: Today is a Good Day to Ride. As it turns out, I’m really too heavily influenced by Star Trek. My waterbottle doesn’t really read “Today is a Good Day to Ride,” it states, “Never a Bad Day to Ride.”

Both sayings are true, but only the “never a bad day” comes from the REI waterbottle. “Today is a Good Day to Ride” is a famous Klingon phrase (or a spin-off of it): Today is a Good Day to Die! I guess I can claim the Today is a Good Day to Ride as my own; at least I don’t think I saw it anywhere else.

So, in conclusion, today is a good day to ride.

K’plagh!

My cycling film of the year (I think only one was made in the last decade), is the Triplets of Belleville. As a warning, you should note that the film is a full-length animation, and it’s French. I really don’t have anything against the French, but it is no Pixar film. If you’ve ever been to an animation film festival, then you know what I’m talking about.

If you’ve grown accustomed to the typical Hollywood fare, then you may not like it. I however, have a penchant for the slightly off-beat, and I loved this film. I don’t want to give much away, but there is a mother who discovers her young son is fascinated by the Tour de France, so she buys him a tricycle. Years later, as the son is now a grown man, she becomes his cycling trainer.

Eventually, he races in the Tour de France, but is abducted and forced into a bizarre form of cycling servitude. The story is about the adventures his mother goes through to try to rescue her son.

The best part of the film is after what must have been a century, they arrive at their house. He’s completely exhausted, and the mom proceeds to give him a massage with an egg-beater and a push mower. After a century, I wouldn’t mind an egg-beater and push mower on my legs and back.

One last thing I’d like to point out is that it seems as if Belleville is patterned after New York city, and the people there are morbidly obese. I think the film maker might be pointing something out there, but I’ll let you see it and decide for yourself.

My REI waterbottle has a daily reminder, “Today is a good day to ride.” Some may think otherwise, but I say, even in rainy Portland, “today is always a good day to ride.”

Why just two weeks ago, my bride and I dropped our kids off at the GPs (Grandparents) and went out for a 1-hour spin. The weather was sunny and cool. There wasn’t any need for rain pants–just a pair of long lycra pants and a long-sleeve jersey was all we needed.

Then, last weekend, Mrs. Samwise and I took the kids to Rood Bridge Park to ride. It kept raining on and off, but it kept the park virtually empty. I pulled the Lumbering Rhino out from retirement, and hooked up the kid carrier, so I could haul our two littlest ones around the park for awhile. They are not quite the smallest sprockets on the freewheel anymore, and I had quite a time going up some of the hills, but it made up for the slower pace. It’s only about a 1 – 1.5 mile loop around the park, but it’s got many hills, ponds, and streams to look at, so you can loop around a few times.

I almost forgot the little waterbottle reminder this past week when I got sick. I was feeling well enough to work on Wednesday, but I chose to drive. Then, on Thursday, I couldn’t find my shoe covers after looking for 2 minutes, so I used that as an excuse (even after I filled the waterbottle that proclaimed it was okay — nay — good to ride). With a guilty conscience and a heavy heart, I drove away from home, leaving Little Joe behind. Finally, I did it, I found everything I would need the night before and rode my bike to work.

What a feeling. It put me in such a great frame of mind. The best news was that the riding wasn’t over for the day. I would be able to ride a second time on my way home. Do you know what my reward is? A three-day weekend filled with…yeah you guessed it…more riding. Yee-ha!