rose petals

It is already Thursday, so we have just a week to go. I’m a little chilly, but I am pretending that I am not, because this is Phoenix and I am on vacation, and I am not supposed to be chilly. I knew it would be cold at night, but it would be nice if 4:30 wasn’t the beginning of it.

From where I am sitting, I can see teddy bear cholla, buckthorn cholla, saguaro, palo verde, compass barrels, the tree that smells good in the rain [creosote], sagebrush, mistletoe, hedgehog cactus, and a few other things which I forget the names of. I learned a lot of the names on the walk we took yesterday morning with Dr. Hensley.

Later that day we got the bikes back to the campground. So thats what we did that afternoon. We split up between the road bikers and the mountain bikers. I was on the road bike and I noticed right away that I am not very fast or in shape. But that was okay, because my bike still gave out before I did. The chain was too short to stretch from biggest gear to biggest gear, so it just trashed the de-railer. So we got it back, half riding, half walking, half driving. Which is three halves. Oh well.
But we got it fixed today. Which took quite a while and about $100. and then Roger and I joined the group.
I liked it that way because the group was all tuckered out and I was fresh, so I felt skilled for once.

I feel very relaxed. I feel very at ease. I feel very non-OCD, very flexible. I feel very at home. I feel very much like no matter what happens, it will be okay. That is what a vacation must be. That is how life should be.

Something that contributes to this feeling is the overall friendliness of people around here. Not only this group, but the town, the people at the grocery store, the people running the campground. Pretty much everybody except that guy at Surprise Cycling.

Maybe the people are happy because they have the opportunity to get rose petals blown in their face by passing cars. That’s what happened to me today as I was biking past a rose farm.

Quiet.
When I have nothing to say.
When rose petals are blowing in my face.
When life is a stand-still chase.
Quiet.