photo


3
May 16

Sometimes I think we’re just here for the cat

I rode 30 miles on my bike today. Just enjoying a few big loops around the neighborhood, really.

I should have carried the cat along with me. She sometimes has extra water …

Allie

Also, she did this the other night:

She likes cheese flavors.


2
May 16

It was slow, but it was going

We went for a ride along the Chattahoochee River on Saturday, a nice 43-mile ride. The river looks like this:

Chattahoochee

And part of the ride looks like this:

Of course, as we have noted in this space before, we only go over there to ride for the breakfast. When in Columbus, visit the nice people at Plucked Up Chicken and Biscuits. You’ll thank me for it later.

Baseball that night:

baseball

And the days turn to nights and the days after, faster and faster.


27
Apr 16

To every meal’s seasoning …

Jeff Price says the Barbecue House is sold and the College Street landmark will be redeveloped. The oldest restaurant in Auburn, Alabama is going away.

He just lost his mother a few years ago. His parents built the business themselves and for most of his life Mr. Price has had his hands in it as well. You could tell that he was getting ready for a new chapter. He still has his health and his family and more happy customers than he could count. People will miss it, but people will understand. That’s the thing about regulars. The employees see you, but you see them, too. You can count plenty of mornings and lunches that he was there.

When I was in undergrad I’d go there for breakfast. And some days I’d just stay there, skip a class, read the paper and then order lunch. I ate there for five years. But then I moved away. Ten years later, when we moved back, Mr. Price asked if I was visiting or if I was back. He remembered me, just another young regular who used to visit his store a decade prior. That’s kind of the place they’ve made at The Barbecue House. That, and the food, will be missed. We’ll have to eat there a lot in the last few weeks.

Everything changes. Everything has changed. It is all different.

At any rate … Nice 2,500 meter swim today.

It only hurt for most of the time.


26
Apr 16

Kept it under 25 mph, no speed records broken

When you have the chance to take a lazy trip around town on your bicycle just because, you should take it. You get good views if you stick your head into the wind and look around:

I write this down just because I have to somehow remind myself of this from time to time.

Here’s another thing I should remind myself about. One of my favorite things about Great Big Story is how they use crafted visuals to help tell their story. Like this one, for example.


25
Apr 16

Scenes from a weekend of riding

We got in about 60 miles on the bikes this weekend. We went over to Columbus on Saturday, a beautiful, warm day, to ride the bulk of it. Here is the Riverwalk:

You have to time this right so you can either avoid, or run into, the maximum amount of pedestrians. Your windows are narrow over there. But look at that sky!

I thought I would take a selfie. And I did, but this one turned out even cooler:

I guess I pressed the shutter button before the sensor compensated for the light. That white background is not Photoshopped, that’s just the way it turned out.

My Specialized and the Chattahoochee:

Really we go over to Columbus to ride for the late breakfast after. Can we talk food for a second? Let’s talk food for a second. As a baby, I gave up the bottle relatively quickly. And — being raised in the deep, deep, deeeeep South — I was probably weened on biscuits and gravy. So understand: I have a frame of reference here. Plucked Up Chicken & Biscuits has the best gravy biscuit I’ve ever tasted:

And I’m from the South, of course, so I know which I speak here. Also, someone thought it’d be a good idea to lightly batter some tender chicken and then put it in a spicy pineapple marmalade. This was a good idea:

Go have some. Seriously. It’ll change your day.

Today’s roses at home:

They just bloom and bloom and require nothing of us. Pretty incredible.