Anyway....I AM 42 YEARS YOUNG TODAY!!! Whooooooosh....how did that happen? There I was, a thrusting teenager, happily minding my own business, squeezing zits, failing exams and wondering why Sharon wouldn't give me the time of day and KABOOOM!!!!!!!.....I am a wheezy old fart who can't hold his ale, has to get up in the night to pee and grumbles about almost everything. Actually I suppose things haven't changed much. I am still happily minding my own business, the zits have been replaced by suspicious skin bumps that occasionally have to be sliced off by the dermatologist, I am still failing exams (although now they are called "grant applications" and Shaz still won't give me the time of day (sometimes). So it goes.
We had a great break over Christmas. A good combo of lazing around in jammies by log fires, getting out for bike rides and socializing. We even had a 70 oF day when we got to peddle along the river trail into town and luncheon with a bloke called Al Fresco. These temperatures seem dim and distant now that we are back down to lows of 4 oF (-15oC).
It has been too cold for happy cycling....I went for a ride on the new recumbent bike (I told you I was having another mid life crisis) on Christmas day and literally lost feeling in my feet for about 30 mins afterwards. There is a pic of the trusty new steed below which, I have to say, is MASSIVE fun. Yes I can just see me riding it through Old Swan!
"Nutcase"!!
"Zooooooooom"
On New Years Day we went for a very chilly walk along the "Jail Trail" which runs next to the Monongahela River. However, it was bloody freezing so we scooted across the Hot Metal Bridge (an old railway bridge for trucking steel away from the mills and now dedicated to trail bikers/hikers) and into REI (outdoor gear store) for a gander at the sales and a go on the climbing wall. I was my usual cowardly self....bottling out at about 4 ft while the kids showed no fear. Shaz, however, is the family mountain goat....casually ambling almost to the top and then wondering what all the fuss was about. We rounded the afternoon off with a Guiness in Claddhagh.
