Place Your Bets

Editor’s note: This blog is starting out like so many others.

This time of year can be difficult when you ride motorcycles. The ride to work is cold but the ride home is beautiful. This morning’s ride was typical for this time of year with a start in the low 20’s. I was dressed adequately but I noticed an air leak somewhere around my neck so I just sucked it up and dealt with it. With a high temperature today in the mid 50’s it is a promise from the weatherman that my ride home will be alright. Cool. That’s in the groovy sense, not the meteorologist sense.

So as I rolled through the small Kansas town of Skiddy my mind starting drifting off to last night’s ride home. After I rode south of Interstate 70 my mind seemed to lock in on my shadow to my left. For once the sun was still at a point in the evening to cast a shadow, for whatever reason I was focused on how sharp it was. And how weird I look on a motorcycle. I’m sure there is some explanation based on the angle of the ditch, the height of the hillside, the trees and tall grass alongside the road but no matter, it created quite a show. So I thought about this for a few miles and miraculously it took my mind of the temperature for a few minutes.

Only this time it was a steaming, sizzling plate of steak fajita.

Once I turned right on highway 77 heading north it’s nothing but a straight shot to work. Now I know in a previous blog, Hog Heaven, I smelled bacon while riding. I don’t know how this happens but it happened again. Only this time it was a steaming, sizzling plate of steak fajita. I know what you’re thinking – this is just a commercial playing on the radio in my helmet. I don’t think so. I could smell this and actually hear the sizzle. I’m sure there is a valid reason why this phenomenon happens, but I don’t know what it would be. Is it subliminal advertising? Could it be a new app on my phone? Am I hungry for fajita? Bacon? So many questions, and lunch is so far away.

I don’t know if my mind is coping with a cold ride by featuring a La Fiesta commercial to keep the blood flowing to my extremities, or if I’m delusional. My money is on delusional.