No is easy

Saying "no" is easy. Doing nothing is easy. Excuses and rationalizations for not doing something are a dime-a-dozen. It's easy to say I'm too tired or it's too cold or whatever. When ice covers the front yard the last thing anyone thinks of doing is going for a bike ride. Which is precisely why I do. It builds character and confidence. Makes me happy? Sounds weird but yeah, it does take the edge off to know that I'm doing something that very few would even consider. Some people also call that crazy. Whatever.

Winter in the Northwest is mild compared to many places around the world but we still get nasty cold temperatures, snow, ice and frost. It would be easy this time of year to sit inside on the couch and hide under a blanket. I would love to eat cookies and get fat, lazy and complacent. But that's not what I'm about. I'm on a mission. I have something to prove and something to fix. Resting on the couch and watching Top Chef ain't gonna cut through shit, sorry. 

Paradise Valley is covered in ice and not your regular run of the mill ice, this is Ice Palace ice. Slippery, glossy, unforgiving, what-the-hell-are-you-thinking ice. I let the air out of my tires for better traction and nature laughs at me. Ha! There's no adjustment or compensation I can make to my bike or my riding style that makes it easier to ride on ice. The ground is frozen solid, no give at all. Cover that with a sheet of ice and thats what we have, sort of. I mean what's a difficult situation, or nearly unrideable situation that couldn't use an extra dose of wtf impossibility sprinkled over the top. 

Well leave it to me. Look at the picture above: that's Lee (Crash) on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Everything is frozen solid and ice covers everything. Difficult riding conditions? Hell yes. Nearly impossible. So what. Three days after this picture was taken we went back to Paradise to ride....at night....while it was raining. Yeah that's right, we ARE bat shit crazy. But we had the best time. Because we knew that no one else was willing to do it. It was just the two of us out there in the freezing rain. 

When I do something that I know others aren't willing to do it changes me, little by little, into the man I want to be. Is it hard? Yes. Would it be easier to not do it? Yes. Would I be a better man if I stayed home? No. I'm not looking for easy because I know it's a whisper of a dream, it doesn't exist. The only path to healing is through pain. Anyone that says differently is trying to sell you something. Go and do. Stop saying NO.