The Aging Process

I decided to push the old body yesterday by going on my second bike ride in four days. What’s 39 miles on the lakefront? Let’s just say pride goeth before the fall. No, I didn’t fall. In fact, my body held up as well as you might expect on a trail where the Chicago Park District still won’t open many if any of its restrooms. I just didn’t appreciate being passed by a guy my age—or a little older—on a Divvy bike. And not just passed but left in the dust to the tune of about 100 yards before he disappeared. Ouch. What’s a Divvy bike, you might ask? Think Miss Gulch peddling away in the tornado at the start of “The Wizard of Oz”; it looks like that, and you end up looking like her regardless of gender. I was at the start of my ride, at my fastest and strongest and on a ten-speed. And I get left in the dust. Oh, well, it could be worse. I could be Joe West. Somehow, the 68-year old West has made it through 5376 major-league games, though it’s debatable any game West umpires can be considered major league. Oh, everybody including “Hawk” Harrelson had nice things to say about West, who repaid the compliments by showing why he’s such a bad umpire behind the plate. Let’s just say his strike zone last night at Guaranteed Rate Whatever lacked consistency to the point of absurdity. But the White Sox did beat the Cardinals 8-3, so that’s a silver lining. Harrelson’s retired. How long until West joins him? The three of us could have a Divvy race on the lakefront.