Mud baby

I stayed home sick from work Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. It was some kind of GI thing in addition to a pretty high fever. Pretty nasty stuff and terrible timing since this week is Maggie's finals. Plus, I was presenting a bunch of background literature to my 'boss' and lab-mates on Tuesday, so waking at 3am to a rushing impulse to evacuate both ends of my gut tube of their contents, with the later development of a 103-degree fever was quite painful. Mid-day yesterday I started feeling better and managed to get a bit of work done before preparing a delicious dinner of Tempeh and veggies for my exhausted wife. I kept thinking how terrible it would be if Cassidy caught what I had, so had kept my distance to the best of my ability.

This morning seemed like a normal day, Cassidy was wailing at 4:30am as per usual, ready to start the day! It wasn't until about 7:15, when I realized that our nanny was 15 minutes late when things got interesting. Turns out, the nanny has what I had! So, she was home sick. Maggie was on her way out so I resigned to spend the day home with Cassidy. After about 20 minutes, I decided that since it was such a nice day outside, that I should give the bike trailer, aka Burly, a second try and head in to work for a little while.

The first try was last fall, when Cassidy was a little under a year old. She wasn't such a fan. This time, she was giddy with excitement as I was putting it together. Maybe she has learned enough about bikes to know that she should by psyched to get towed by a 9-speed dura-ace equipped, steel road bike? Such a suspicion would be confirmed first as she declared 'weeee' as I rode down the steep gravel hill leading to the MKT trail behind our apartment. And second, as she seemed to much prefer the smooth roads of the University of Missouri Campus (again, declaring 'Weeeeee') and the high velocities in which they allow, relative to the old-railway-line turned gravel bike path of the MKT (where she cried a few times on the bumpy parts and REALLY didn't like having her baby-doll get muddy).

Of course, any self respecting off-road cyclist has to be a little bit concerned in such a situation and wonder, will my child grow up to be a roadie? Such were my thoughts as we arrived at the med school. All in all, the trail was mostly still frozen, so only a little mud had adorned our (including dolly's) facial areas and cycling equipment. Interesting note here: Cassidy hates mud. Every time something gets dirty we have to calm her down and she insists on it being cleaned as soon as possible.


At the med school, we ran around to talk with a few people about work and Cassidy seemed to enjoy the large number of doors that are in hospitals. Yes, doors. I don't know, she is who she is...

The way home, was a bit more interesting. Fears were slain and conquered. The trail was muddy as all hell. The choices, which of course I didn't give to Cassidy, were to ride on a busy road or the muddy serenity of the MKT trail....see for your self as to what transpired:








I promise I had the screen on her trailer down, but it is a mesh screen and I didn't realize how much mud was getting in. I guess she didn't care too much, because she fell right to sleep and in fact, is asleep in her bed as I type all of this! I wonder what'll happen when she wakes up and sees her pants? Maybe cyclocross will be a good compromise for her...