A not so good idea

Sometimes a not so good idea can lead husband-dear and I to look like this:



And these interesting outfits can be almost entirely be attributed to one of husband-dear's less than wonderful ideas.

Let me start off by saying that on the whole, husband-dear has far better ideas than I do. He is practical, and tends to think things through before he starts on something. So this afternoon, for instance, after I had spent twenty minutes twisting a string of lights around a lengthy piece of garland, only to discover I did not like the color of the lights, husband-dear suggested that perhaps I should have turned the lights on before I spent all that time working them into a garland. Great idea. Just like that one time I tried to hang our letter holder, found out it was crooked, tried again, ran into the same problem, and before I could even open my mouth to start a lament about the terrible letter holder and the horrible hooks, husband-dear handed me a level and a pencil, and suggested I try using that. My husband. Is. Smart. I mean, I'm telling you, I may have all those fancy degrees rolled up in a chest at the foot of our bed, but husband-dear is the real brain around the house.

But sometimes, just every once in a while, husband-dear's ideas are less than perfect. In fact, on a few rare occasions, his ideas just plain suck. This morning was just such an occasion. And for those of you who spend the better part of the year in the rain or the snow, this little tale should make you feel a little better about the weather in your neck of the woods. You see, this morning, it was cold. And I mean really cold. We're talking frost on roofs, grass, shrubs, and the hum of all the neighbors' AC units working overtime reverberating down the street. In spite of this, to us southerners, insane cold, husband-dear and I simply had to get our exercise in. Some people have their morning caffeine, others have to watch the news, or read the paper, we're those people who can't get going without a nice shot of endorphin. Now you should probably also know that we had a busy day today. And the only time available to exercise was prior to ten in the morning. And the key to this whole little story? The fact that our training schedule called for a long bike ride. Any normal person would, at this point, have looked at the thermometer, shaken their head, and decided to do something else. Anything else; push-ups, bowling, jazzercising in the living room, heck, staying in bed would have probably crossed any normal person's mind first, anything as long as it did not involve a bicycle and howling winds.

But none of these people have met my husband yet. And when husband-dear wants to exercise, he. Will. Exercise. End of story. And since I am on the same training schedule, and hate feeling like I wimped out, a feeling which can, in all honesty, be caused by doing one push up less than husband-dear, I too really wanted to ride.

So this morning I joined husband-dear at 8am. The sun was still coming up, the temperature was just above freezing, and a nasty wind was cutting across the fields. It. Was. Freezing. While we usually shed half of our clothes while riding, this morning, we kept all of it on. Although my hands had warmed up by mile 4, they were back to freezing again by mile 20. My toes numbed up, and as I had neglected to wear a pair of shorts underneath my leggings, my lower body was than thrilled with me. Our knees were creaking, our joints protesting, and we couldn't wait to get home. It was miserable. And, as it has taken us the better part of the day to warm up, it was miserable even after the ride was over.

So for those of you who think we spend our days here sipping margaritas around our pool, we don't. It does get cold down here too. Granted, we may not have snow, or sleet, or hail. But when you're used to 100F temperatures, and the weather drops down to 32F, trust me, you feel like you are going to die, and whoever said the earth is heating up, needs to be checked into a home for the mentally unstable.

In short, there will be no more early morning bike rides in the Dixiechick home until spring. And all future exercise ideas will be considered with the expected temperature in mind.