Back on the Bike

And four months since my last post ... I'm back! Boston finally made it above freezing this weekend, so I headed out for my first two bike rides since late October.

The ponds were still frozen...



...the streets lined with old snow...


...and the marina nearly empty...



But even though it was a pretty bitter 37 degrees outside, there's only so long you can stare at your beautiful bicycle across your apartment without going a little stir crazy. It felt wonderful being back on the road again, enjoying this brief stretch of moderate weather within in a long winter.

Now ... about that four month break ...

It must be a common blogger-dilemma -- what do you write in the winter when your blog is about something you only do in the spring, summer, and fall?

At first I decided I would change the name of this blog to "New England Rambles". I would go for walks and hikes, take train rides here and there, visit some new places and write about them. Cycling would come back to the blog once spring arrived, but it would no longer be the sole focus. I even registered a new Blogger url, changed my bio and everything.

But you know what I found out? I don't really like hiking. And while I love seeing new places here in New England, writing about them isn't nearly as much fun for me as writing about discoveries I make speeding down the road on a 24-gear aluminum bicycle. I wrote one post for "New England Rambles", but it felt like work and I didn't have the heart to publish it.

So ... I re-discovered for myself that cycling is my thing, and "Bike Ride Rambles" this blog will stay. It actually felt pretty cool coming to the realization that some things in life don't have to get bigger and better. Just writing about what you love is fulfilling in itself, especially when it unfolds in ways you never imagined. That to me is a blogging-adventure worth taking -- even with a nice four month break worked in along the way...