Ordinarily, riding to the farmers' market on Saturday isn't much news,
but my last such trip was on the second of May, a few days before a
masked man sliced up my nose. (And two days after that, he sliced a
piece off my chin to patch it with.)

Last Wednesday, I got leave to resume normal activities, and soon
after that I took the potatoes out of my pannier and put them into the
vegetable bin. It's getting too warm to keep veggies in the garage
anyway.

I discovered, once at the market, that when cleaning out the panniers
I'd overlooked canned cat food and a poop scoop that I'll someday drop
off at the Animal Welfare league. (My next-to-the-last ride had been
to AWL; I can leave old towels etc. on their front walk without
speaking to anybody.)

I put on house pants and my second-best jersey in case I needed to
undress into the washing machine. I settled for leaving the jersey on
a hook in the garage to keep it from snuggling up to the clothes in
the closet. The house pants are in the laundry room, but that's
because I spilled soup on them at suppertime.

I'd put on sunscreen when first arising, in the hope that it would be
dried enough that it wouldn't prevent band-aids from sticking when it
was time to leave. I can wear a mask or a niqab when carrying out the
garbage, walking to church, or riding the flatfoot, but I have to wear
bandages when I ride the Fuji. Special clothing *does* inhibit
riding!

During the ban, I'd retrofitted my new cycling sandals for summer wear
by adding thick insoles. I put them on, reflecting that, unlike my
walking/driving sandals, I didn't need to worry about my heel slipping
off the back. I remembered that cycling sandals have to be tied
assymetrically, then looked at them baffled. The outside laces were
so long that I was more likely than not to step on them. Then I
remembered that I tie *these* sandals symmetrically, shorten the free
ends by lengthening the loops, then tie the loops together in an
overhand knot that makes the bow knot into a short Macramé chain.

The seasons had changed during my confinement; I picked up my helmet,
then went back into the house to dig a do-rag out of winter storage.
I'd still been wearing scarves when strenuous activity was banned. I
should have hunted out summer gloves too, but I wore the plastic ones,
then dropped them into the laundry on my return. I didn't hunt out
summer gloves until evening. I find that I have a nice new pair and a
shabby mended pair.

At last, ready to go . . . Umm, I can dent my front tire with my
thumb. The back tire felt hard, but was down to around forty pounds.

Legs aren't the only body part that goes soft during a layoff. It
took a *lot* of very hard pushes to inflate those tires. Hurt a bit,
but I didn't notice being sore while riding, and my arms don't hurt
any more than usual now.

After all this, (and a cooked breakfast), I still managed to get to
the market over an hour before time for them to close. Forgot to note
various times in my notebook. Started to write down the departure
time, looked up the date, wrote it down, put the notebook back into my
pocket. I did write the time I left the market, after buying some
daikon that tastes like wasabi.

On the way back, I stopped at the outdoor plant display at Sherman &
Lin's. They didn't have any herbs I don't already have execept for
tarragon, and I don't *like* tarragon. Which is just as well, because
you have to go in to pay, and someone who keeps a bag packed with
books, a water bottle, food bars, and other things that might be
needed when parked in front of the emergency room does *not* go inside
stores.

Sent unedited.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/