Steel, Rubber and Muscle

Just before I rolled out of the garage yesterday, geared up for a rugged ride up a long, steep dirt road, I said to Mrs. V, "I'm off to do what I want to do. Nothing to do with invoices, leases, clients expecting miracles from me, clients expecting the worst from me, commitments, or forms. Just steel, rubber and muscle."

The simple and elemental nature of biking is often a efficacious remedy for quotidian woes.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, filled with sleepless nights, anxiety, and not a little excitement. I'm taking the next step in establishing my private therapy practice, and, on Wednesday, I signed a lease for a one-day-a-week rental in a lovely, expensive office space. The countless ramifications of this step have been rattling around my brain like steel bearings in a thermos bottle, day and night.

Yesterday's ride was balm to the soul. Long dirt-road foray. Beautiful fall colors. Cushy tires on the Vaya to absorb the endless end-of-season washboarding. I returned a new man.

No pix yesterday; phone was recharging. Kind of nice to be forced to attend directly to the beauty, instead of "capturing" it and thinking, I can enjoy that later.

Instead of illustrations of yesterday's jaunt, I offer these random shots of our lovely farm-centric river valley. With Hurricane Sandy on the way, who knows what these fields will look like in a couple days? The hazards of tilling a rich-soiled flood plain. 

If the flooding isn't too bad, perhaps we also won't lose power for days, like we did in last year's Halloween storm. Wish us luck!

Hadley tree farm, and the Holyokes beyond

 Lovely dirt roads run through the alluringly
named, and oft-flooded, Honeypot neighborhood of Hadley