The Going is tough...

Well, I said I wasn't going to be a wimp about the weather, that I was going to "just ride." Call me a wimp; I don't care. A number of things have kept me from that--the weather is but one. It's been on the cold side in the mornings, although this morning isn't too bad at 46 degrees. It's been damp and windy. Still, I could have ridden on a few of those days. But I think I deserve a pass if I'm physically depleted. It's never a good idea to ride when you're wiped out, right?

Notice the new logo to the right--Yes, I've joined the ranks of those frenzied, masochists who spend the month of November each year pumping out a minimum of 50,000 words to write a draft of a novel. Like thousands, I started penning words to paper on November 1 but didn't get around to being an official NaNoWriMo entrant until this past weekend, when I posted my two week word total.

Yesterday I reached the half-way point. My friend, Martha, from VA is also participating. In an email, she said, "...it is amazing what an unfettered brain can produce..." This truth has become my mantra. If you sit long enough, something will come if you get out of your way and let it happen. By 6:00 a.m., I usually am finished with my 2000 words a day goal. Actually, knocking on my wooden head, I am ahead of my goals and should post 50,000 before the month's end.

So, you see, I've not been a total slacker about riding. Been juggling a bit more than usual and by the end of the day it shows. Even on the day the winds were expected to reach 45 mph, I had good intentions and were it not for being blown home practically, I would have taken a bike ride that evening.

I do have some motorcycle news, well it's more a comment. I'm currently reading Riding with Rilke. The author, Ted Bishop, is a scholar who rides his Ducati from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to the University of Texas at Austin. Before starting the book, I wondered if people who like books and reading about books but who don't ride a motorcycle, would like this book. Similarly, would someone who rides a motorcycle but is not a fan of literature and literary pursuits, find the book interesting? Although I'm only mid-way through the book, it's a hard questions to answer since I don't fit either camp. I loves literary pursuits and I ride a motorcycle. Did Bishop write his book in hopes of attracting that audience? Did he even have a particular audience in mind?

I don't think it's true that anyone who rides a motorcycle will like this book. That's too bad, because it's really good. Bishop is an entertaining writer and tells a great tale. I can envision someone being uninterested in the literary figures he writes about, such as Virginia Woolf and not go beyond reading the back cover. That's unfortunate too because s/he would miss the wonderful, unexpected parallels Bishop makes between motorcycle riding and unearthing the esoteric information that invade scholars' brains. The Woolf papers give Bishop a reason to leave the towers of this academy and mount his Ducati and ride some scenic and not so scenic roads to TX. It is also just as much his desire to ride his Ducati that makes him venture out to examine Woolf's papers in the lone star state. Once you settle into the ride with Bishop, you don't care why he's heading to TX, you care only that he is. You go along with him to witness his adventures and become green with envy that you are not on those roads riding your own motorcycle.

More later...