I mentioned recently that while riding to work I fall into a trance. This is generally no problem since I have ridden to work hundreds of times by more or less the same route. Today, instead of leaving from home I put Little Nellie in the trunk of the Millennium Falcon (our Mitisubishi Lancer) and drove it to the dealer. The gas gauge stopped working. I would make some snarky remark about how the gas gauge on my bike is never a problem except the bike computer on the Mule is messed up.
The dealer is in the heart of Alexandria on top of a big hill. I dropped the car off and assembled Little Nellie to the amusement of the car dealer's employees then I rolled down the mile-long hill to Four Mile Run. There I picked up the cleverly named Four Mile Run Trail that took me all the way to the Mount Vernon Trail at the southern end of the Airport. The ride to work was a short 8 1/2 miles.
Over lunch I rode across Key Bridge to pick up a new mount for the Mule's bike computer only to notice that it was the wrong mount. I need to bring the Mule to them so they can see whether the mount will still work. So that's tomorrow's business.
For most of the last two years I have been taking a 24-hour non-drowsy antihistamine every day. Earlier this week I discontinued taking it to see if my body can tolerate the many DC-area allergens. It became clear this afternoon that my little experiment was not working so I popped a pill and hoped for the best.
The ride home was a drowsy affair. The pill is a bit overwhelmed as are my sinuses. I hit autopilot about 1 mile into my ride and just started spinning along into a headwind. I passed the airport just as a small passenger jet (that's a small jet with passengers not a jet with small passengers) came in for a landing on the auxiliary runway. The MVT passes just a few feet from the runway so this jet passed about 100 feet over my head. Trance was interrupted!
In just a few seconds I was back on autopilot. Spin, spin, spin, WTF? I had ridden another mile and found myself 1/2 mile past the turn off for the Four Mile Run Trail. For a second I couldn't believe I had done it. I rolled for a few hundred more feet until I realized I needed to turn around.
The slog up to the dealer was long, made worse by a wrong turn that found climbing up a hill only to cruise back down to get back on course.
I drove home still in a kind of fog. I may have a sinus infection or something. Benadyl take me away.
I've been fortunate to only need the 24-hr stuff for a couple months in the spring and then again a month or two in the fall.
ReplyDeleteIt hasn't had an impact on my commute- although I only have to make it 5 miles in the morning (an hour after popping the pill) with a good portion of it being downhill!