People are strange

I got a ride in today.  Finally.  After three days of snow, I was able to throw my leg over my trusty Rig.  Getting in a quick ride was one of my goals today.  I had to drive to the dark side and pick up the boy.

He spent spring break with my father-in-law (otherwise known as 'Gran'pa').  It's a four hour drive, and I wanted (needed) to get out before we left.  I felt pretty good riding up the road for a quickie. 

The weather cooperated, and it was chilly but not cold.  I lumbered up the hill to get out of the neighborhood, and down to the bike path.  Under the wife-killer memorial bike tunnel, and across Union.  As I got about two miles into the ride, I noticed a man walking his dogs.  They didn't appear to be on leashes (naturally).  Fortunately, he saw me from about 100 yards, and gathered in his dogs.  As I got closer, I saw the bigger of the two - a brown boxer-pit bull type dog.  The smaller dog was close, but I could see him bending down, holding the brown dog.  I assumed he was soothing the dog, his face very close to the stubby ear of the dog. 

As I got closer, this is what I heard the man say:


STOP IT! THERE'S NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF!!!

He was yelling this in the dogs ear.  Maybe not yelling as much as growling. 

As I passed, the dog was wide-eyed, looking at me.

I'm no dog whisperer, but this is what I imagine the dog heard:

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLABADEE BLAH!

Not only did the dog hear gibberish, he saw me zooming by on... what?  But boy was it fast.  The dog could only have imagined how tasty I was, and the big dog was growling at him.  What to do?  Chase?  Maybe this fast thing was tasty.  Or at the very least, a playmate.

I can't imagine the dog learned anything constructive.

Other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful.  I didn't stop on the ride, which made me feel good. 

This particular loop is about five miles downhill, 2 miles on the base leg and 5 miles uphill, with a nice down and uphill in the last two miles.  In other words, a typical ride in Nirvana.

I did pass an epiphany. 

I passed him on a part of the trail where I often see homeless, indigent, unkempt, unwashed... you get the picture.  This part of the trail is a fairly steep, long (about 200 yards) hill.  It appeared he had all his belongings either on his back, in his hands or tied to his bike, all in some form of plastic bag. He was pushing his bike up the hill. I was huffing pretty hard as I came up behind him.  I called out 'on your left' as I always do.  He was walking in the middle of the trail (naturally), and turned to look at me as I passed. 

He had to have been my age, maybe a little older, but not by much.  He looked at me, and I looked at him.

There, but by the Grace of God go I.

I nodded and powered up the hill.