Shades of Mediocrity

Skyblue Sequoia

So here, at last, is a picture of the new bike, resting in front of the garage after Saturday's 25-mile ride (she was ready for 25 more, but I definitely wasn't):

The rack and small panniers are definitely not typical road-bike accoutrements, but I'm far too attached to the convenience and utility of being able to carry a lot of stuff not to have them. My penchant for carrying too much junk has already come in handy: after our lunch stop during Saturday's ride, I was able to run into Whole Foods, pick up the few items we needed to make dinner, and stash them in my panniers for the ride home. That saved us a trip later.

So far, I love just about everything about this bike, but I'm particularly enamored with a mere cosmetic feature: the color. While it was not a factor in my decision to buy this bike, I do love the pale blue brushed aluminum. It reminds me of the color of the sky just before dusk, when I'm often heading home following an after-work ride. Coincidentally, one of my favorite Peter Gabriel songs, "Sky Blue," has lyrics which are surprisingly descriptive of the psychological and spirtual elements of bicycling:

Lost my time lost my place in sky blue
Those two blue eyes light your face in sky blue
I know how to fly, I know how to drown in sky blue

Warm wind blowing over the earth, sky blue
I sing through the land, the land sings through me, sky blue
Reaching into the deepest shade of sky blue

Sky blue
So tired of all this travelling
So many miles away from home
I keep moving to be stable
Free to wander, free to roam