And Now to Huey With Today's Forecast...
June 5th.
2026.
The Emperor.
Coca-Cola and Spicy Boys Redux.
I remember having a handkerchief in my backpack to keep the screen of my laptop tidy. It’s not there.
It’s fine.
It’s fine.
Saw a green Ferrari 296 with gold wheels this morning. Tasteful.
Red Ferraris are flip-flops in the city unless that's the only color they came in.
Too bad about the Lucce.
———
I can’t say I’ve ever been so excited for Spicy Boys having tasted it from the other side once before.
And with the Coca-Cola.
Few things compare.
———
Huey Lewis really dropped elite knowledge on us when he revealed that it was “hip to be square.”
Huey Lewis and The News.
Back in Time.
I Want a New Drug.
The Power of Love.
Hip to Be Square.
Maybe there’s something there. Maybe it’s all just coincidence.
Who knows.
I spent way too much time digging into Huey Lewis and the News.
Not the first time I’ve written about Huey Lewis…
Not the first time I’ve written about the magic of a Coca-Cola and Spicy Boys.
———
It may have been the day before my birthday when I woke up and immediately put on A Perfect World just before sitting down to check the news and see that the United States had conducted an operation against Iran…
“Starting a war.
The humor in waking up, establishing our goals for the day while we eat breakfast and drink our coffee, putting on Huey Lewis and the News, and as I read that there’s been strikes in Iran, Perfect World begins playing.”
———
And after all of that…
———
I hadn’t rode the bike in going on three days.
I wasn’t sure what exactly it was the bike gods wanted from me, but they’ve made it clear at this point.
———
Last night I finally sat down and watched Breaking Away per Oldner’s request.
He’s persistent although he knows that Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television only ever bolstered beliefs I had myself, so getting me to watch anything requires at least 527,000 joules of expended energy from the person recommending.
Long-winded sentence but that’s for Oldner and he’ll understand it perfectly.
Anyway.
I watched Breaking Away and had my brain been just a little more balanced yesterday, I would have been moved to tears.
Honestly.
I found it funny that the day before I’d spent the evening making pasta and eating homemade sorbet… following it up with an espresso.
I knew what I was doing. I’d prefer if everything we ate in this house ended in “ini.”
Nonetheless.
All I wanted to do… was wake up and ride my bike.
I’d dreamt of winning a crit race during an afternoon nap but had no capacity in any pillar of my body to actually make it to Driveway.
One day spent resting and cleaning the bikes.
One day spent in woe.
Three days? Too long.
Three days and after watching Breaking Away?
An eternity.
———
I wake up this morning.
I had slept in.
I felt like shit.
Therapist says I ought to give myself grace.
Okay.
Couple eggs. Some sourdough.
Pull The Emperor.
Going to ride a bike…
I stare out at the grey sky.
The dark clouds rolling through the Texas sky.
The mist.
The rain.
———
I feel like it’s one thing to start a bike ride in the rain and another to get caught in the rain.
I don’t mind the latter, the former… I have a hard time bringing myself to do.
———
I don my running shorts and lace up my adidas.
East Side Puddle Jumpers.
———
Running feels good. The bike definitely helps with my ability as a runner although it takes away from the time on feet.
Time melts away and when I return home, I truly have to piece together all that has happened. I know I need a shower, I know I need some oatmeal but these things seem so conceptual.
All I remember from the run is thinking to myself at one point “and now we’re done playing, this is the hunt.”
———
The dopamine carried me through to lunch, the clouds remained in the sky, rain intermittent just until I’d finished my Coca-Cola and Spicy Boys.
Steady enough… still longing for a proper bike ride.
———
I sat at my computer after dinner.
The clouds had returned after a brief departure but… it seemed the weather could go anywhere but I felt I’d called its bluff.
I grab a chamois.
Fill my bidon.
Eenie-meenie miney moe between the yellow fixie and the Aethos.
Fixed.
Seems right.
The clouds are holding strong but the meteorologist failed to account for the love that would blow in…
———
“Did it start raining yet?”
I turn completely defeated…
“Why did you do that?”
“What? You can ride your bike in rain… A nice light rain would be nice. Refreshing even.”
I peer through the window once more…
It hadn’t started raining yet.
“I’ll be back.”
———
I make way to the elevator… thinking about the rain.
When did the rain begin stopping me from doing what brought me joy?
It hadn’t stopped me from riding the bike as a child.
I remember a day spent circling my street in a torrential downpour only to return inside after lightning struck immediately after I imitated Christ the Redeemer while standing on the seat.
It hadn’t stopped me from riding when I got the Aethos four years ago and had to learn on the fly the art of riding in a peloton in the wet one dawn patrol morning. A morning no slower than any of the others. Sink or swim.
It would be refreshing.
———
I step out of the elevator and of course…
It has begun raining.
A light drizzle, nothing that would even soak a cotton t-shirt over the duration of the half hour or so I’d plan to move…
I clip in.
I get just out of the neighborhood when the skies completely open up.
In a matter of seconds, I’m… refreshed.
———
No sense in turning back now that I’m saturated.
I proceed on my usual city sprint
Chicon → Pfluger Bridge → SoCo → Reverse
———
The mind is so quiet.
I feel myself moving not through the world, but moving the world around me.
When the mind does chirp… it only speaks in visions of Senna.
———
Ayrton Senna, Robert Hood, and Isadora Duncan all walk into a bar…
———
The mind is pulled out of its trance…
Something is off…
———
I pull into a parking lot to examine the bike and find that the tire has debeaded.
———
“Well fuck… ohhhhhhhh.”
———
I remember now what it is that I owe the bike gods.
———
I’ve been riding around this city of mine without a repair kit.
And now… for the third time in a two-week span… I find myself in need of repair.
First time… no big deal. Beautiful day, sat in the grass waiting for Delta to rescue me.
Second time… frustrating. Three checkpoints left to go in my first alley cat race, strong feeling that I would have won. But there was humor to it and I would have needed an entire tire with me… I would have had a tube maybe, but not a whole tire. So I sat in the grass waiting for Delta to rescue me.
Third time… a simple repair… just a tire lever needed. Maybe a CO2 cart… and I’m out of the rain…
But… I’m stubborn.
I push my luck.
And now it has to rain harder than it has the entire outing.
The bike gods have gotten their way.
Delta has gotten hers.
I find a lime glider, load the bike onto the basket and laugh all the way home.
Refreshed.
———
“Did you get caught in the rain?”
“Did I get caught in the rain?”
I stand at the threshold drenched, shivering.
“Are you cold?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll make you some tea.”
“Thanks.”
“Didja have fun?”
I laugh…
“…sure …”
It’s hip to be square.