Some quick notes...

Christmas involved copious amounts of coffee! My mom-in-law gave me a DeLonghi drip coffe maker. This has a gold-plated screen filter rather than paper filters, and it has a timer so a fresh pot of coffee will be waiting when I get up in the morning. Heaven! The kids gave me some French roast, a Kona blend, and a Jamaican Blue blend. I'll be way over-caffeinated this week.

Also, and I consider this a gift of the first magnitude, my daughter asked to ride the tandem with me! Her strength is coming back. She's able to lift some of the trays at work again, something she hasn't been capable of doing for months. And she's been riding the stationary bike at low and moderate resistance levels, but it tires her quickly. This afternoon, she asked to ride the tandem. We'll probably drive down to Mohawk Park and ride some loops. I thought about the Osage Prairie Trail, but an out and back may be too much for her. We can do shorter loops in the park.

I ran into Adam Pratt at the grocery store. He was off from work today, too. Adam asked if I'd join him on a ride this afternoon, but I begged off. I'm not nearly as fast as Adam. Besides, I felt cold and the wind made me feel colder. The only serviceable bike in the garage right now is my fixed-gear commuter. I could imagine spinning furiously while trying to keep pace with Adam! (On second thought - the Giant is probably serviceable, but I should inflate the tires hard and see that they don't leak down overnight before I trust it on a cold winter ride. Off to the garage!)