Dragging ass

Man. Sometimes you just lose all motivation, ya know? And it’s not that I’m feeling down about anything or I don’t want to be here because, believe me, I do. I guess it’s mainly due to the fact that it’s 0220 and I’m cranking out my New News info for all you folks at home when I’d rather be getting rack time. But I won’t hold any of you responsible… this time.

For the dry season, it’s still raining like mad around here. Three of the boys and I got together for a “short” ride the other day and ended up in a downpour the likes I haven’t seen since I left North Dakota. Wet, chaffed, bike time is better than no bike time so I can’t really complain. The afternoon even started really nice. I was the only one wearing a shirt from a sunburned received a couple days earlier, but no worse for the wear.

[Kevin] Mack and I had the ride planned all morning. The rain had let up, the sun was out, and the recent purchase of two water bottles meant that we could now travel farther than ever before. Needless to say it was still well within the 50 mile range but at least there was progress! The Detachment owns six mountain bikes is various states of disrepair, and I grimaced at the thought of playing Dr. Frankenstein to try to piece together one lousy bike that worked right. As luck would have it, there was a fully rigid GT Avalanche with index shifting and dialed dérailleurs simply collecting dust in the supply room.

Mack handed me the one tool we had for the bikes: a Topeak Alien multitool. Success! It sure beat a 10mm wrench, Leatherman tool, and 5mm hex head like I started out with back in the day. I immediately went to work. I tightened the headset, trued the wheels, aired up the tires, checked the shifting, dialed in the brakes, raised the seat… and we were off in under twenty minutes! I swung a leg over the top tube a pedaled around the driveway for a minute. A voice called from a second deck window.

“You guys going riding?” [Jacob] Hill asked from the living room. I looked up with distaste. “Hang on! I’ll be out in a second.” I was less then thrilled. Now I had to prep another bike which would put a dent in our afternoon plans. Well, what’s more rider? It simply increased the chances that I wouldn’t be the one the most out of riding shape. I nodded with approval and Hill disappeared like a flash into the house.

I pulled another bike off the wall and went to work. I was going down a checklist in my head when Hill hollered again.

“[Richard] Coleman’s coming too!” Crap. Two bikes I had to make miracles with. But after all the bragging about the things I could do, I had to take the challenge. I was a blur of cables and wheels and grease and wrenches. I was a surgeon in times of extreme duress, where only my experienced hands could pull them through. I was finely tuned, automatic, unwavering. Less than thirty minutes later we were rolling down our street like free men. I felt good.

We put almost thirty miles on that day. I was coming off a mids shift the night before and hadn’t slept in two days. My last meal had been 24 hours earlier and I was feeling every single pebble in the road. My back was stiff, my shoulders ached, and my legs were Jell-O. I was half asleep and practically starving. I loved every painful turn of the pedals. When the sheets of rain starting coming down we were thankfully only six more miles from home. And in that last six miles is when I saw the biggest grins and heard the hardiest laughs. We were having the times of our lives, dodging traffic, eating dirt, and chaffing in every conceivable place to no end. We waltzed back into the house the Wet Dirty Rat Gang with mud in our teeth.

We were harder. We were saltier. We had taken one average afternoon of easy Brazilian living and transformed it into a sightseeing tour of self discovery and classic male bonding through discomfort and pain. There’s a new respect for each other in our eyes as we pass in the kitchen now. We know. Next month we’ll try to go without the microwave.

A Naval officer here at the embassy is trying to get a Lone Scout organization going. Lone Scouts are very similar to Boy Scouts without all the committee red tape and paperwork. I’m going to try to get as much volunteer time in as I can because it really is a good thing for the junior high/high school age boys in the American community. I also heard that there are some real killer places to hike and camp too. For everyone’s sake, I hope this all pans out. There’s a meeting Monday night so we’ll see.

Well, beyond that there’s not much new to report. The Command Visit is in ten days and I can pretty much guarantee there’ll be some interesting goings on as a result of that. I’m on a mission this week to get pics of the Marine house and some of Brasilia (at least some off the net if I can’t get the time for a ride around the city). As always, there’s still plenty of good stuff up the road for this website. I get new ideas all the time and I’ve got tons of pics yet to post to give you that extra edge in knowing everything there is to possibly know about your truly. If you’re reading this now, thanks for tuning in on a regular basis and keep it up.

I’m outta here!