The other day my wife and I dug out our bikes again. That is: I dug out our bikes and my wife thanked me for bringing out hers. It was a moderately warm-ish day….. kinda. (It was 6 ℃) But the sun was out… sorta. (It was foggy.)

Ok, I was going insane and I needed to go for a bike ride.

It was my Dad’s 60th birthday on the weekend and we were planning a surprise party for him. In order to throw him off a bit I went to visit him, and I took my bike. Getting on the bike was a blast after about 6 weeks of no riding, but a strange thing happened after about 10 min on the road: a huge wave of depression rolled over me.

It was only there for a few minutes, but the fact that it hit me at all surprised me. I was super jazzed about going for a ride! I got on the bike and happily (and quickly) zipped off. I had a huge, shit-eating, grin as I lazily passed a few cars, then the depression hit. Fortunately I had about another 30 min to think about it before I got to my Dad’s place, and I think I figured it out.

This year was supposed to be “The Big Year”. Notice the capitals? That means it was gonna be big! Notice the “was”? That means its not actually going to be that big.

Several years ago we had decided that I was going to get my Journeyman ticket in Cabinetry, and my wife was going to start her Personal training business. We had planned that in 3 – 4 years we would be done our training and business building and bringing in some decent cash. We cut back our expenses a lot and sold a whole bunch of crap.  Unfortunately my wife’s training hasn’t taken off quite the way we had hoped; and my training, while advancing on schedule, hasn’t had the incremental financial rewards I had expected and hoped for along the way. Now, these set backs aren’t the end of our dreams, by any stretch of the imagination. The trips we had hoped to take ARE going to happen, just not quite when we had planned.

And that was the cause of “the wave”. Realizing that our plans were, once again, going to have to be put off in order to deal with reality.

Now that doesn’t mean no trips this year! We are planning a trip in August. (Would I sound more optimistic if I said we are going on a trip this year?) Down to Oregon, across to Montana, up into Alberta, than back into BC for the Horizons Unlimited meeting in Nakusp. It will be a pretty good trip, off beaten paths, and through places we have never been. It will be a good “starter” trip for us, but its still not the trip we had hoped to take.

So its a little depressing, but not that depressing. Which is why I was only “down” for a few min on my ride…..

….then I passed three cars at once, and I started to smile again!

(I love that stretch of road!)