A Great Father’s Day Weekend!

Obviously, the title of the post could be construed a couple of different ways….Was it a great day? or am I a great father? both? or neither? (obviously it’s not or neither or this would have just been a silly title for today’s post)

Well, being a father, I can safely say Father’s Day is one of the few things I am totally qualified to celebrate. Thankfully the only criteria required to celebrate this event is the ability to produce offspring and not in any way measured or quantified…..now, if it was “Good Fathers Day” or even “Nice Father’s Day” I’m not sure I’d be able to get in on it. Of course it would all depend on what day the qualifications were taken and who the judges were….

The best part about Father’s Day is that it’s is all about ME and, as anyone who knows me, knows, I like it all about ME. I want to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. Honestly, I don’t care about YOU. I only care about ME and this specific holiday, along with my birthday, are days in which it’s ok for me to be  completely and totally selfish and not be forced to pretend that I care about anyone else.

And, to make matters even worse for those poor people that are forced to live with me, I not only spent Sunday doing exactly what I wanted, I expanded the concept to become Father’s Day weekend and took a nice long ride on Saturday too…..yep, I’m totally selfish that way. Granted, I used the Death Ride as an excuse and believe it or not, my wife thinks it’s better if I don’t actually die on that ride so she agreed to my training ride.

Saturday morning Jerry picked me up at the house and we headed out to ride Mt Tamalpais. The plan was to have two groups. One group would be led by Jerry and include Sausalito and some other stuff but be geared towards beginner, intermediate riders. The other group, I was supposed to lead was going to climb Mt Tam and should be a “tougher” ride but should also be the smaller group.

As you can see, my leading the smaller group ties right back in to the selfish thing. I don’t want to have to be responsible for anyone else. I don’t want to have to pretend I care when they’re tired or out of water or crash or anything like that. The fewer people I have to be responsible for the better. I can only pretend to be concerned about others for so long before my true nature comes out.

Turns out Jerry had 3 riders and I had 15….wait…huh? How did this happen. I can’t even keep track of my second set of keys and now I’m supposed to keep tabs on 15 different people on bikes?

The ride turned out pretty well though. I lost two riders right off the bat which it turns out was ok since that was their plan to begin with. I forced myself to be caring and supportive for the riders that fell behind (most of the time) and other than my phone jumping out of my bento box and trying to commit suicide by sliding across the road at 20 mph, there were no crashes or injuries.

The best part is I pulled off such a convincing act of concern and compassion for my fellow riders, none of them even know how selfish I really am.

Sunday, being the official Father’s Day, my Rich-centered world fully blossomed into a full day of ME-ness. After church, the girls and I loaded up the bikes, drove down to Monterey and in a supreme act of “it’s all about ME” I forced them to ride their bikes with me along the coast on a beautiful, sunny day….I know RIGHT???? Pure selfishness at it’s finest.

We rode through the Fisherman’s wharf area, Cannery Row and along the coast. Obviously not everyone knew that Sunday was supposed to be about just me as there were thousands of people out there taking up space on the bike path… all laughing and having a good time like it was their father’s day too….