Day 228: My bicycle hasn't seen much use over the last couple of years, largely because there's only one of me, and other forms of exercise have taken precedence. In a normal year, nice weather would find me hiking or kayaking if I had no other pressing obligations, so the bike has pretty much stayed in the garage. However, voluntary isolation has made me rethink my routine. Walking the same stretch of road and the same short wooded trails near home was beginning to get old, and I was feeling the need to change it up, broaden my range, so out came my trusty cheapo Schwinn and off I went on a patrol for Scotch broom infestations. I think walking almost every day has helped keep my legs in shape, but even so, a different set of muscles comes into play when you're pedalling. I made seven miles the first day, ten the next. Both still qualify as "short" trips in my estimation, although the inclines seem steeper than I recall. Couldn't possibly have anything to do with age. Nope. Suffice to say that even being firmly beyond seven decades of existence doesn't keep me from imagining myself to be half that old when the wind is whistling past my ears and the wheels keep going 'round and 'round.
