Posted by Daniel Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:18:21 GMT

It’s very rare that my birthday falls during the week and I have off. This wouldn’t seem strange on the face of it, but my birthday happens to coincide with Martin Luther King day. So you’d think that I’d have off routinely, except this holiday has not been accepted into the pantheon of “important” holidays in many businesses. However the Oxygen Network is one of those places, and since I’m currently working on a project for them, I had the day off.

So I planned to ride quite a bit today, and did, but not as much as I wished because it was rainy and nasty. Sure, I did ~30 miles (I dunno exactly I had no comp on the bike – I’m being very conservative), but I was muddy and wet and the temps were dropping, and decided that it was getting unpleasant and not in the birthday spirit, plus my riding partner quit at 26 miles (having frozen her toes to cubes) taking her comp with her. Plus, she had the route we were supposed to take, but I was riding in front. So we wound up climbing a few hills that were not on the program. Not so bad. Worse, we set ourselves up for a very steep descent into town at the end. Short, trafficy, and steep. Wet roads, wet rims, etc. Not good. All was well however, and therefore all things considered, a great first birthday ride… even if the weather did not cooperate.

While I was riding I got a chance to consider the day and the importance of diversity in my life. Diversity is the answer to so many problems. Open the doors, your home, your mind. You’ll never be sorry.