OPPORTUNITY FOUND

This morning I woke up around my usual weekend time – 7 AM. I splashed water on my face and headed outside to get the newspaper. It was unusually chilly this morning, so after I started the coffee pot, I went to Weather.com to check the temperature. Shit! It was 36 degrees! That’s almost freezing!

Almost immediately, the voices in my head started:
“Gosh that’s awfully cold”
“Your allergies will probably act up during your bike ride”
“You probably won’t have the stamina”
“Moco icicles don’t look good on you”

Then I remembered something an old man I met fishing in Corpus Christi once said. As I approached him on the fishing pier, I asked, “Are you having a good fishing day?”

He said, “Son, my worst day fishing was still better than my best day working. So yeah, I’m having a GREAT day fishing!”

I remembered it made sense then and it made sense now, so I started packing up my gear to head out to Madrone Trail.

Last week I wrote about how frustrating it was to have missed an opportunity to ride. You may think that was a bit melodramatic, but let me explain where I was coming from. I am scaring the crap out of 50 years old (I’ll be 49 in September). Needless to say, my mortality stares me in the mirror every morning.

None of us know how long we are going to be on this Earth. Perhaps I will be like Mom and David and still be mountain biking in my 70s. I can only pray I am that blessed. My brother was only 45 years old when he died of cancer.

This morning I learned our neighbors across the street lost their daughter this week. I don’t know how old she was, but I remember them pushing her in a stroller, so she couldn’t have been more than 2 or 3 years old. We suspected she was ill because we would see nurses come by almost daily. Bottom line – we are all living on borrowed time and it is up to us to make the most of it.

Hence missed opportunities. If you are lucky enough to have a hobby you love doing, whether it’s golfing, fishing, painting, running, mountain biking, or even making love, we only have a finite number of times we will have the opportunity to enjoy our hobby.

With mountain biking, I know there will only be so many days that the weather cooperates; some days I will be sick or otherwise physically unable to ride. Those days cut my opportunities to ride even more. So this morning, when I thought about what the old fisherman said, I wasn’t about to let my little “voices” talk me out of going.

The ride was ugly. It was really cold, but at least the wind wasn’t blowing. I HATE wind. I dressed in layers, so my upper torso was warm. Besides, I thought, I’ll only be cold until I warm up, right?

I started my ride and my eyes started tearing up right off the bat. About 15 minutes into the ride, I had to stop and rest. My eyes were steaming, which caused my riding glasses to fog up. Snot was running down my face and I could barely feel it. My breathing was as labored as an ox in heat. It was ugly, BUT I RODE!

My stamina was really lacking. I don’t know if it was from not riding in two weeks, my allergies acting up, I don’t know. But I did my best. I was only able to ride almost 3.5 miles in an hour, with many breaks to catch my breath. I knew it wasn’t my best ride, BUT I RODE!

After completing the initial portion of the ride, I headed back to the truck to load up and head home. Although I knew I should have done better, I left with the satisfaction of making the most of my opportunity to do something I really enjoy doing.

Although I’m not talking about a “bucket list”, or the Tim McGraw song “Live Like You Were Dying”, think about the things you enjoy doing. When you are debating lying on the couch to watch the boob tube (unless that’s your hobby), think about the limited number of opportunities in your life to do what you enjoy most. Maybe you’ll think twice and take advantage of the opportunity found!