Torture

My oldest son, Rene, loves Calvin and Hobbes. It occurred to me yesterday that I was feeling something that the protagonist of these witty comics frequently announces with obvious displeasure: "TORTURE!"

Right. Torture is:

1. Waiting for USPS/UPS/FedEx to deliver lots of parts for the bike, in no particular order, and at no specified time.

2. Waiting for the weather to cooperate just enough to be able to get out for any kind of decent ride. I'm no stranger to being out in averse weather conditions, but when the windchill is -12 I'll stay inside, thanks.

3. Making the holy, if somewhat futile, attempt to satisfy the needs for entertainment and stimulation of a three year old child who LOVES to be outside, wants to RUN and go  TO THE PARK and for BIKE RIDES, and just doesn't really respond well to all this time we seem to be spending in the living room.

4. Realizing that I bought a new digital camera, and haven't been out to take a single picture with it... a GPS to use with Topofusion that hasn't been used except for a single test run grocery shopping... because I take very few pictures in the worst of winter.. because we don't exactly do much. Next year, we're getting snowshoes or cross-country skis or something.

So... yeah. It is almost March. The bike is almost finished. The temperature is almost above zero. This is why spring is my least favorite season, I think. There is the allusion to, the promise of, something just around the bend... everything seems to be imminent, yet just out of reach.

Just another few weeks.