Good Weekend

Photo: The Main Street Creamery & Café in Old Wethersfield.

Even though I have been retired since May 1st, 2001, I can’t get beyond the work week/weekend schedule. That may be in part because some of my playmates are still working and are available only on weekends.

Saturday
I hung out around the house getting computer stuff done. In the afternoon, I went walking around Old Wethersfield with my friend Jon. Both of us love that part of town from the really old section down by the Cove on up to where the more modern homes start to infiltrate. Some of the side streets are interesting, too. As long as we were in Wethersfield, we had to stop at the Main Street Creamery and Café for ice cream. The best!

Sunday
Bonnie and I were supposed to ride the Windsor Locks Canal, but the weather looked so “iffy” Bonnie decided to stay home with poetry and tea. Thinking that was a pretty good idea, I changed out of my bike riding clothes and decided to stay in also.

Then I started getting mad at myself. I know I need to get out and exercise more. I have been very lazy this winter and spring and the scale is beginning to show it. I really need to start pushing myself. So I pushed. I changed back into bike riding clothes, racked the bike and took off for the Vernon Rail Trail. Once I was making the motions of physical activity, I started feeling better about myself.

The trail
From the Church St. parking lot in Vernon, one turns to the right (I think that’s east), down a short but steep hill with wash-out ruts and areas of deep sand, cross Phoenix St. and grind up another hill. This second hill used to be rutted with lots of washouts and deep sandy areas making it treacherous in both directions. Yesterday, to my delight, I found the hill has been paved! What an improvement. At the top of the hill things level off, more or less, and continues toward Bolton Notch on hard packed dirt/stone dust which is great.

Somewhere around 2.5 and 3 miles there is a section where the surface gets rutted and washed out with the accompanying deep sandy spots. Once beyond this brief section the trail gets good again.

About 1/10 mi before Bolton Notch, there is a section of very chunky trap rock along side of Railroad Brook. I always walk my bike over this section because I don’t want to puncture a tire. So far I have ridden almost 5 miles.

I could have gone on to Andover, but that would have been another 7 plus miles and that would become a 25-mile round trip bike ride. Twenty-five miles isn’t bad, but the upgrades of this trail make it a good workout. This early in my riding season not a good idea.

Oh, did I mention that the trail is a 1.5-2% up grade from Vernon to Bolton Notch? From the Notch to Andover it’s the same grading, but it’s down. The trip back is reversed of course and by the time I get back to the Notch I’m darn glad to be going down again!

The only thing that marred my ride was the deep hoof prints of two horses up ahead. Hoof marks on a dirt trail can make for a rough bike ride. I caught up with them at Bolton Notch. They kept going toward Andover and I headed back to Vernon.

Breakfasts
Every weekday I have hot Quinoa (keen-wa) for breakfast. Quinoa, by itself, is very bland and tasteless. I add any fruit (except banana), a dash of cinnamon, a drop or two of vanilla if I think of it and sweeten with honey. Add a little soy milk and I’m set until lunch time.

On the weekends, however, it’s reward time. This is when I have 2 small sausage patties, a small red potato diced and fried in olive oil and an egg.

This past weekend I had some fresh asparagus set aside from earlier in the week. One of the stores had it for $1.28 a pound and I couldn’t pass that up. I saved out 3 tender tips for each weekend breakfast.

I chopped some onion and 3 tips of asparagus and sautéed lightly. Then I added one egg, beaten with a little water and salt and pepper, and scrambled the whole delectable concoction. I hope you can smell and taste how good that was.

Weekend over
Another weekend in the books. Today is laundry day and my whites are in the dryer as we speak. Our weather this week will not be conducive to hanging clothes on the line…except Wednesday, maybe. I’m planning to wash my darks on Wednesday so I can hang them out. The sheets will be done on Friday or the next good drying day after that.

In the meantime, I have 50 copies of my chap book assembled. I expect to have the final on the cover sometime this week. The cover will be printed at Staples. Once that’s done, I will staple cover to assembled pages, and they will be ready for show and sell. How exciting is that?!