I always take the day off on my birthday. Yeah, it’s my birthday today. I do this so that I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to on my birthday. I don’t have to listen to anyone tell me what to do. This is the one day of the year that I am allowed to be completely selfish and not feel guilty about it. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Ideally my perfect birthday day would flow as follows:
- 9–10 am wake up. No alarms. Just wake up on my own, as nature had intended. I don’t want a clock to tell me when it’s time to get up.
- Have chicken and waffles with mango/calamansi juice topped off with a cup of coffee for breakfast.
- A round of golf on an executive course (short 9 hole course) with the family. It’s not really the act of playing because all of us, quite frankly suck at it, but it’s just being out there for a few hours with the people you love without the interruptions of technology.
- Lunch from one of my favorite Chilean restaurants. A chacarero sandwich, a coke, an alfajores for dessert, and of course, a coffee.
- Quick mountain bike ride on the rolling hills of Mt. Diablo. Nothing too steep. No reason to suffer on my birthday
- Boba drink as a prize for the calories I burned from the bike ride
- 3 on 3 hoops with the boys. Friendly competition and banter is something I always I enjoy
- Dinner with the family, preferably some fish and shrimp tacos
- Watch a Rom-Com with the family with some chatter along the way
- End the day thanking everybody on various social media for all the birthday greetings
Simple enough right? How did my birthday actually go?
I woke up at around 10 on my own accord. Good start so far. I had a ton of birthday greetings in various social media and I felt I had to respond, especially to the greetings from other time zones where my birthday was a day early. I was grateful and I wanted them to know.
No chicken and waffles. Didn’t have the waffle mix. No tropical drink either. Instead I had a pretty decent glass of ice water. Never underestimate the energy you get from drinking a cool glass of water to start your day. I learned that from my son. I did have my coffee so if I look at it from a baseball batting average point of view, I wasn’t doing that bad. Plus, my mom made me some pancit and in our culture, eating noodles on your birthday will lead to a long prosperous life. I’d say I was actually off to a good start.
Now for some golf. The sun, which was supposed to be out by now, wasn’t quite cooperating so I had to change things up and move mountain bike riding instead.
Where the hell was the sun? It’s ok, I’ll just bundle myself up to stay warm. This was my 3rd ride on my mountain bike since purchasing it at the start of the year. My first ride I went solo and realized how much I still needed to learn. On my second ride, I rode with a good friend, Meljun, who was a significantly stronger and more skilled rider than me. I figured I could learn a few things while watching him. I’ve always ridden a road bike and some skills are transferable but there are nuances to riding a mountain bike that you learn when you get out there. This leads me to the 10 life lessons learned on a mountain bike.
I looked at the map of the trail and outlined my route. It was less than a mile from the houseI to the trail head. I’d then hit a single track trail that would lead me to the main fire road trail and from there I’d hit a few rolling hills leading to my exit at Hannah trail road. After that, I’d have a late lunch with my alfajores.
Lesson 1: Some times, the path you map out is not as easy as you think.
I hopped on my bike, bundled like I was heading towards a blizzard. I’m an absolute weakling when it comes to the cold. Off I was, headed towards the trail head. Funny thing about the road when you ride your bike vs when you are in a car. You feel it when the road goes uphill. I wasn’t completely sedentary so I was able to power up the slight incline leading to the trail head. I unmount my mechanical steed at the end of Wiget road. After the entrance, I get back on my bike but after about 5 meters, I was confronted by a downhill leading to a small bridge followed by stairs. That was a disaster waiting to happen so I walked my bike past that area then leapt back on like a cowboy ready to go to work. The single track seemed narrower when you’re on a bike but I felt confident as I rode down the trail. I didn’t get quite far. The rest of the trail was blocked off so I had to go and figure out another route. This leads me to lesson #2.
Lesson 2: There’s always another path if you keep your mind and heart open to seeing other possibilities.
I back tracked to where I started because I remember seeing another trail. I already dressed up for it so I was determined to get my ride on the trails done. I found the area where the trail forked. I was glad I had kept my eyes open for options. Usually they are there if you are ready to see them. It doesn’t mean though that it’s not going to have additional challenges.
Lesson 3: Often times, the path you have to take is hard, but sometimes, the right things are not meant to be easy..
The alternative trail was up a steeper hill and though I originally didn’t want to exert myself on my birthday, I saw the hill as a challenge. So I put my big boy pants on, stood up, and started powering up the hill. Let me remind everyone again that this was only my 3rd ride on the trails so my skills did not match the level of my confidence. Everybody but me probably knew that. I didn’t notice a mound on the narrow trail and my pedal caught it. Bike stopped and the rest of me went forward. Luckily, I landed on a soft patch so aside from my ego, nothing else was bruised. Just dirty.
Lesson 4: You’re going to fall at some point. What you do after that defines who you are.
I wasn’t even half way up the hill. I had a choice. Take the easy route and ride back home. Call it a day. Or do I dust myself off and keep going? Do I walk the bike up the hill and continue with the journey I had intended to take. I walked my bike up the hill even though I was slipping part of the way thanks to the narrow track. I walked up that hill till I got to a flattish area where I could hop back on my bike. I was back in business.
Lesson 5: When it gets really hard, don’t be too proud to do what it takes to get you past your challenge.
After a few meters, I hit another steep incline. I stood up and started my assault up that hill channeling my inner Lance Armstrong minus the steroids. You know that feeling where you don’t have enough momentum and you just kind of keel over to one side? Yeah, that was me. I hopped off my bike wondering why I was doing this to myself. I came out to ride my bike up the hills, not take my bike on a hike. But I wanted to keep going so I swallowed my pride and started taking my bike on a walk like it was my favorite pet. I eventually got to the end of the single track to the bigger fire road. Success.
Lesson 6: Enjoy yourself when things go well. Don’t linger on the bad things leading up to that point. Let it go.
A few rolling hills then I hit a pretty good stretch of downhills. Wind was in my fair. Ok, in my helmet slightly coursing through my self inflicted covid haircut. This was why I wanted to ride today. Seeing the beauty of nature and being one with my surroundings. Being both lost in the moment yet present in the situation. For the moment, I forgot all about the challenges that had happened before.
Lesson 7: Learn to slow down. If you go too fast you might miss the right line.
Going downhill on the trails is a bit more precarious than on the road. On the trails you have to worry about little crevices that could redirect your wheel and cause you careen off the trail and heaven forbid, into one of the steep ravines. You have to pay attention to your lines. As tempting as it was to fly down the hills without fear, I knew it would be foolish so I paid attention to my line and slowed down, probably slower than I should but confidence had already gotten the better of me earlier so caution was my friend. At one point after a specific section, I even stopped, just to make sure I enjoy what I had in front of me.
Lesson 8: The end of the ride just means another one is in your future.
I made it back to the house in one piece. I was drenched, probably because I had dressed like I was about to experience the next ice age. The ride was more challenging than I had anticipated but it was well worth it. I was sad that it was over but I knew it just meant I had another one to look forward to.
Lesson 9: Keep Learning and don’t be afraid to seek others that could help.
I knew that I needed more experience before I tackle the single tracks again. I mentioned that in my second ride, I rode with a good friend. I needed to do more of that. Learn from people, books, videos and wherever I could get it from. A change or challenge is a lot easier when you don’t have to go at it alone but learn at a pace which is right for you.
Lesson 10: Last but not least, Rest and replenish. Both your body and mind need to recover and if you don’t allow this to happen it will become a chore that you will not want to do anymore. I felt like I could get a 30 minute run on the treadmill in but I thought against it.
Those are my 10 lessons about life from my bike ride. I figure there are a lot more to come. But let’s get back to my birthday.
It was lunchtime and I was looking forward to my Chilean food. It turns out that one of my favorite places, Sabores del Sur, was also impacted by Covid. They had trimmed down operations significantly so you had to order a day in advance. In my past 3 birthdays, I had eaten my alfajores and I wanted it to become a tradition. I guess I’ll have to skip this year. Yet one more reason to hate Covid. Yeah, I know this was minor compared to the other issues the virus has brought to a lot of us. Trust me I know. I’m just saying this is one more thing to the long list I already have.
Thankfully, my wife baked me some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and we all know how good freshly baked cookies taste. That was enough to get me ready for my round of golf.
Ideally, I’d like to play a quick round of golf on an executive course with the family. Given that my son and his wife are in Australia, my daughter was fast asleep, and my wife becomes extremely irritable when we play a round when it’s just the two of us, I felt I’d go at it alone. I hadn’t played golf since COVID happened so this would have been my first time venturing out. I have been extremely cautious given that my 87 year old mom has been living with us since the pandemic hit. It was a weekday so I incorrectly guessed that the golf course would be fairly sparse. Boy was I wrong. The first golf course I hit was packed. I saw the line on the first tee and immediately made a u-turn out of the parking lot. One more golf course nearby to try. If this one was packed too maybe I can just go on the driving range. Sure enough, Boundary Oaks had two foursomes waiting on the first tee. Fine. Driving range it is. I continued the drive up to the range area. Not a single stall was available. Even the putting and chipping area had people practicing. Why are these people not at work? It can’t be everyone’s birthday? No worries. This will just make the round more enjoyable on my next birthday. I still wanted to get boba off my list so I went to my favorite boba place in our area, Ice Monster and got myself a coffee milk tea with boba. That hit the spot.
Hoops was out of the question due to COVID although some of my boys play defense like they were social distancing. In reality, most of the time, you could get off a shot whenever you wanted. We’ve all gotten older so our days of locking people down are gone. Not that we ever did…most of us at least. Either way, hoops was out so dinner was up next.
Shrimp and fish tacos happened thanks to Door Dash and Pacific Catch. My daughter and wife even made me a vegan chocolate birthday cake and it was delicious. We hopped on a zoom call so I could still see my son on my birthday. At that moment, having all of my loved ones in sight, I didn’t care about the other parts of my birthday that didn’t happen. At that moment, I was good.
After the call , we spent the remainder of the evening in front of the fireplace watching Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love. I think a lot of us now are seeking what she was looking for in that movie. Balance, love, purpose. Today, I found balance and love. Maybe by my next birthday I’ll find my bigger purpose.
With that, I end my day the same way I started. Thanking the people who remembered to greet me and being grateful for what I already have.
Till next year.
