To Life and Lungs

I turn 45 today – woohoo! Happy day to me.

Mrs. V. threw a righteous party for me last night, with friends all attending, some I hadn't seen for months. Being the champ that she is, she gave the whole wing-ding a bicycle theme. How about that?! To start the the thing in motion, she downloaded a lovely old 1945 bike race poster from Spain and tastefully changed the lettering (in perfectly matching style) to make it an invitation to the party, which she emailed to everyone.

But the piece de resistance (that's French for "coolest part") was the party favors: Little wire bicycles! (Click on photo above to see them better.) With spinning pedals and bright red handlebars! If you peer into the background of the photo, you'll see she also baked birthday cupcakes, some of which were in the shape of a bike wheel!

Do I have the coolest wife a cyclist could have, or what?

If you're wondering what I got for my birthday – well, duh!

Actually, that was my present to myself. There are other lovely things from loved ones, all yet to be unwrapped, but later, later. Right now, my lungs feel somewhat clear for the first time in eight weeks, the sun's coming out, and it's promising to reach the high 30s today. The best gift I could hope for, after weeks and weeks away, would be a short ride on my new bike on a real live road!