In Which We Count Warm Pre-Christmas Rides

Saturday, selfie on the bike before we leave for pre-party ride.

Winter Solstice—shortest day of the year. The family Sheller clan gathering was gathering that day, two miles away at my sister’s house.

And it was sunny and warm, even if the nearest star is at its lowest winter angle.

I was in the backyard in the morning—first I filled the bird feeders, then I lurked to make images. My wife opened a window and suggested that I contact my daughter who lives nearby. She was planning to go to the family party with us, and my wife suggested that I ask a grandson, her son, if he wanted a ride on my bike before the party.

I called my daughter. She agreed. It was a bit past 11 when they arrived. I got the bicycle ready by inflating tyres, oiling the chain and installing the child seat. The 4-year-old is definitely at the upper end of size for this seat—not too heavy, but getting too tall to fit into it. Nonetheless, he welcomed the chance to ride.

We loaded up and headed out. First, we rode south, going around the pond at Collins Aerospace and then down C Avenue past Collins Road. We cut over to Harding Middle School and then crossed Noelridge Park, on the way to the Cedar River Trail.

My grandson was into numbers on the ride. He wanted to see how high he can count—he needed some help to transition from thirty to forty rather than skipping up to sixty, but with a little coaching, counted all the way to 100. He also tallied things seen on the ride—five squirrels, for example. I don’t recall the dog count, but lower than the squirrels. Two red trucks. One firetruck (not counted as a “red” truck, those were pickup trucks).

After the party, he said he was going to ride home in the van with grandma and mom, so I took the seat off the bike and stowed it in the van. And he changed his mind, so I reassembled the bicycle and he rode home on the bike. Luckily, taking the seat on or off the bike is very easy, just screwing in one nut that has a handle on it for that purpose.

That was Saturday. Sunday was another busy day—church, shopping, lunch out, getting a haircut (the grandson had declared a while ago that his next haircut would take place with grandpa—we had to get our hair cut together. Today we made it so.)

Light was fading when it was time for the grandson to go home—but he wanted to roll there, so we got the bike out and turned on the lights.

The ride on this pretty day was shorter, but enjoyable. We headed down Boyson Road, rolled around a neighborhood for a while looking at lights, and then headed to his apartment. After leaving him off, I took an early evening ride east to the “Christmas house” that is in my sister’s neighborhood.

A man was outside fooling with his lights. I paused to make an image, and we chatted. He noted that Santa comes out every night to hand out candy canes. I asked him how long he has had the extensive display of lights. “Nineteen years,” he said.

An impressive number on a weekend of pleasant, unusually warm for this time of year, number-oriented bicycle rides.

The "Christmas house" in northeastern Cedar Rapids.