How To Put A Smile On His Face

Top photo is Mr. T after our ride.  Pretty happy.  Bottom photo is my parking spot today--hall outside my office.

Tristan apparently wasn’t having the greatest day.  When he came over this afternoon, he was slightly on edge and out of sorts.  Nikayla said “no” when he asked for Easter candy—although, technically, the candy was not under Nikayla’s control.

Mom ate a jelly bean that he wanted.  The Easter bowl is full of jelly beans, but nonetheless, it was a crying crisis.

It rained today, but I had commuted by bike.  It was only slightly misty in the morning, and rained mid-morning (luckily, I parked my bike inside).  When I walked across campus this afternoon, it was misting, but it had stopped by the time I biked home.

When Tristan came over, his main goal was to have a bike ride.  Well, I checked outside—cloudy, cool, but dry.  So, we decided to chance it.

And I’m glad I did.  We put a zippered sweatshirt on him and found a light jacket whose hood would fit under his helmet.

His hands got a bit cold, but I found his pockets for him and he kept his hands in them for the rest of the ride.

The wind from the south was cold, and he commented several times that it was windy, but when we reached the end of our ride (we went down the Cedar Valley trail south from Hiawatha into Cedar Rapids, turned around before we got to the “bridge” street where the trail crosses itself and loops down) and turned north, he repeatedly told me “it is warmer,” I think to assure me that he was enjoying the ride.

It misted a bit, but mostly it was dry.  And it was clear that he was enjoying the ride.  Mr. T was a new kid by the time we got back home, about an hour and half after we left.  He was full of energy, bouncy and happy the entire evening.

That’s the power of biking.  It’s good for both the young and the old.  It can certainly put a smile on Mr. T’s face, and mine, too.