Winter rambling

I am questioning whether age is starting to affect my mental processes. It is winter and while I accept that I live in the mountains of Colorado and it is supposed to be winter......Does it seem it gets worse every year????
I used to snicker at the "old" people who complained about the winter, the wind and the cold and the snow. I always thought; "Go south you snow-bird wimps. leave the nice winter and skiing to us younger crew!" Do I desire to now be one of those snow-birds??? I don't think so. I like winter less than I did, probably because I used to make a living on my skis and just enjoyed it so much. I only ski now about four or five days a winter now. I do still enjoy it so much, maybe I need to invest a few more days in that activity so I appreciate winter again.
Activities that I do enjoy involve my bikes and this winter it has been downright nasty to maintain any connection to outdoor bike riding. During a normal winter there are days that come along where you can throw on a couple of layers and get a winter fix in on a bike. So far, this has been one of those stretches that it seems when it warms up......the wind gets really cooking.....or when it stops blowing then it snows. We have had snow on the ground since the week before Thanksgiving and I am not really complaining, just observing. In the past, snow on the ground was welcome, looked forward to it. So, I maintain with daily "rides" on the spin bike at the local health facility. I am one of those personalities that can go in and grind out an hour on that machine and be just fine. Put some tunes on and let my mind wander through the corners where the weird stuff lays tucked away in the cranium.

What else??? Basketball. I really enjoy my connection to kids through the basketball program. It is the winter activity that really motivates me to study and work on planning a program so the boys have a chance to enjoy the game in practice and the games. It is my belief that the work we do as a coaching staff improves these kids high school experience and along the way we teach them something about being better prepared to be men in their future lives. This is another area where age  has popped into my head. I am not too old to be a Coach but, our staff is the oldest in our league. Our head Coach is a young guy and I know that Rene (He is two years older than I) and I bring a maturity of age and experience (we both had boys go through the program) to help him deal with parents and teenage boys. I also see the day out there when youth must be served and it will be time to step aside to allow a younger generation lead these young men into adulthood. I find it is healthy to recognize this and just know when in some future years it will be time to step aside. For now, I get so much from having a connection to High School kids through a game I played and have loved for so long.

Winter Blahs.......That is what is prompting this post. Let me tell you, all my friends out there, facebook and elsewhere.....your posts on your rides or working on bikes from Ryan and Hugh, really keep me going. I really enjoy them. Richard, you and I have talked about writing another post on the "same old ride". But believe me, they are a "warm breeze" for this winter bound cyclist! Ryan, I still need to find a project to put in the stand, always a good distraction waiting for riding weather to return.

Whew!!! I already feel better.....blah,blah,blah! Off we go for another session on that spin bike.
Everybody have a great week!!
Jim