Happy Belated Fourth! The geranium pictured above is from last year. I didn't plant a single flower this year. :( My shoulder surgery happened on May 22nd, and I just didn't have it in me to do all the pot cleaning/hanging, plant procuring, actual planting or watering this year. Lame excuse, I know. I miss the scent of geraniums, though. Nothing says "Welcome!" like a cheerful red geranium by the front door, complete with a sparkly American flag pot-decoration-thingy.
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So this year, since Rylan wasn't donning a vintage girl scout uniform and parading around in it, I woke up with the bright idea of bicycling to the parade locale and watching the parade...much to Owen's dismay. After 2 hours of prepping we were ready to go. Never mind that the parade was long over, the horse poop cleaned up, the streets opened and the fire trucks put away... we were still going for a ride!
We haven't been on a family bike ride since fall of 2011. We completely skipped over bicycling, somehow, last year. We had the wildfires for most of June, so outdoor activity was a no-go. July was hot and we left for vacation, and by August I was starting to feel not-so-hot with chest pains and shoulder pains, so we just never did. So that bike trailer got considerably dusty...and it really did take two hours to get that cleaned up and ready to go, in addition to my bike, and locating all things related to biking.
This was Rylan's first official long distance trail ride on her own bike. Previous trail rides meant she was with me, on the tag-along thing. So Dean took the lead with the trailer, pulling 80 pounds of boy, and I followed Rylan, annoying her the whole way with 'rules-of-the-road' advice. She is really going to hate me in her teen years. We rode without incident and it was a beautiful day with a nice, light breeze. My shoulder did pretty well. I ride upright, on a Townie (the blue bike in the pic below), so my arms stretch out and forward to the handlebars. My shoulder got crampy and tired about halfway through, and I just had to swing it around a bit to get it loosened up again. The good news is that the achy feeling didn't last long, so I am really really pleased about that. Our ride was 12 miles, and we stopped off at a Dairy Queen on our way back home.
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| Smile dammit! |
We took recovery naps off and on for the rest of the day (well, the grown-ups did, the kids worked on trashing the house since no one was watching...), until it was time to load up in the car and head south to my brother's for a 4th of July bbq and watch the fireworks. The boys took their recovery nap on the ride down.
Our friend Norma, whose daughter and husband were out of state visiting relatives, joined us for the festivities. She was kind enough to bring her ostentatiously orange camp chair for the occasion - strictly for Dean's benefit. Dean, Norma and her husband Keith are all Oklahoma to Colorado transplants. Dean has OU blood. Norma and her husband bleed orange (OSU). It is a rivalry that will never end. Norma asked me to take this picture of Rylan in said chair, and then post it to Facebook for all to see. My husband is still not speaking to me.
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| I'm sure there are benefits to owning a chair like this. I just don't know what they are. This might be the ideal hunting accessory - y'know, the safety orange and all... Unless you come across a Sooner fan that is also out hunting. Then all bets are off. |
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| My SIL is the cupcake queen, hands down |
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| My dad, me and my beloved. Do you think I have groveled enough? |
It made me giggle, but it also gave me goosebumps. Just imagine what those days must have been like 237 years ago... We have so much to be grateful for. Just no more 'Georges' in office, m'kay?
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