Small Troubles

Two fine sailboats passing by what passes locally for a skyscraper

On a day which has been just as beautiful as it looks in this photo, I had a little battle with my body and mind. I think it was my body depressing my mind, but, whatever the cause and effect, the two ganged up on me for awhile today.

It has been three days since we last biked, so you would think that my muscles would have recovered. But I have problems with the backs of my upper legs from time to time. Owing to degeneration in my back, I frequently experience a very deep-seated soreness in those muscles. For several years, I took Celebrex to ameliorate the condition, but I ceased and desisted last winter when problems with COX-2 inhibitors came to light. For the most part, I have been getting along well without them, but these particular muscles have felt very weak and worn for the past few days.

That feeling persisted into this morning when we began our ride. I was most discouraged and downhearted about it all and struggled to get going. Eventually, and it did take a quite while, I began to find my legs to some degree, and I began to feel a bit better about myself and about the world.

We were forced to stop our ride out to The Grove prematurely because we encountered a triathlon in progress right along our route — the nerve! Then, on the way back to the city, we discovered that they had foolishly gravelled-over one of our favourite roads. I have no idea what that is supposed to accomplish. If a road requires resurfacing (and I don't think this one did), then do it, but don't gravel it for goodness sakes.

Because our trip had been truncated prematurely at one end, we decided to add mileage to it on the back end. We headed to the waterfront and ran into scores of people and even a marching pipe band. It is the weekend of the annual Mackinac (pronounce it Mackinaw) sailboat race. The boats cruise up the St Clair River into Lake Huron where the race begins. It's quite a sight and brings the gawkers out in droves. And why not? We took the photos from a spot down the river and caught two sailboats passing by the building in the background.

Depending on the route that they choose, these craft will sail from about 230 miles to 290 miles from this end of Lake Huron to Mackinac Island at the northern end of the lake. The race officially begins just before noon on Saturday, and the fastest boats will most likely finish sometime on Sunday night.

After watching for a while, we turned toward home but stopped to see friends on the way. We haven't seen them for a while and caught them up on the news: i.e. our impending move. They brought us up to date on all of their troubles, one of which is that J is to have a cancerous kidney removed in two weeks time. This somewhat older couple also faces many other serious issues with dignity and grace.

It makes my grumpiness over my sore legs seem shallow and petty to say the least. I can't seem to help it at the time though. I just have to plod on forward until the malaise deserts me as it is always forced to do. I guess that's what you do in life. You plod on when you feel like it, and you plod on when you don't feel like it. You keep plodding when the going gets tough. With luck, you plod through the majority of your problems.

I know that I have yet to confront the greater obstacles that Life will , someday, erect in my path, for Mistress Life has been pretty darn kind and gentle me so far. The sailing has been mostly smooth, and the winds have been generally fair. I hope that when the Mistress does choose to let loose the gales, and the seas begin to toss me about that I will be able to summon the grace of spirit to smile into the teeth of the storm.

Yours truly by his bike watching some of the flotilla pass by. Motorboats frequently join the procession along the river.