Feeling Throwndown

Warning: This post has a little to do with riding bikes, and a lot to do with feeling beat down...

What happens when you take two perfectly healthy 32 year olds, 2 great shows, too much beer and a whole bunch of riding in late December/early January? Some kickass sickness that's what! Apparently drinking beer and then jumping around like a fool in conditions that resembled a sweaty gym locker at the Middle East on the 29th, coupled with back to back road rides, another show on NYE, and 3 more back to back MTB rides might, might leave one susceptible to an ass whooping at the hands of an evil virus. I'm not 100% sold on this theory, but I'm guessing some combo of the above activities may have led to me hacking up acrid goopy grey blobs of lung all week.

I did manage to get on the road twice this week for about two hours, and it actually felt great to breathe normally. This feeling abruptly came to an end shortly after I stopped riding, and I proceeded to wheeze like a lycra clad hairball stricken house cat. Awesome!

It's not fair to blame the shows, the booze or my bikes for my current state. It's more likely that the stuffy box in which I work is partly to blame. Colds spread through here like farts in an elevator. Everyone gets sick, but no one wants to cop to being the originator. Usually my generally positive lifestyle of riding bikes and eating well keeps me pretty healthy. Not so much this time.

Was it all worth it? Absolutely. If you missed the reference in the title (and the freaking logo) Stacy and I saw the 3rd night of the 10th Hometown Throwdown in Cambridge, and then the NYE show at home in Providence. The Bosstones hadn't played in a few years and getting tickets wasn't easy, harder than finding World Series tickets, if you can believe that. Both shows were great with the Middle East show being the smaller, and better, of the two. I hadn't been there since I saw the Bosstones there in '94. My goal this time around was not to hit the floor (at least not so hard) and to try to remember some of what happened. Long story short it was a really good time in a place full of people happy to see the band back at it, after what seemed like a really long time.

Providence was a little different. It is, after all, a full on gebrone factory so I probably should've expected all the fights and BS. Still, it was like watching Roadhouse in real life. Only instead of Dalton and Garrett it was the Lupo's bouncers dealing with drunken schmoes. Guys who probably should've rang in the New Year at McFaddens instead of at the show.

I'm bummed I missed the Fez dance-o-rama. I could've swung by after the show but, as previously mentioned, I'm old now and we old farts like to get home in time to see Nightline. Anyway, I'm going to straggle around on the road again tomorrow as our local trails are softer than a whisper right now. If you see me out there feel free to throw empty Dayquil bottles and Kleenex at me. Maybe next time I feel lousy I won't ignore it by riding like a fool for seven of eight consecutive days. Or not..