… you might have warned me not to do as a kid. Or maybe not.

On Saturday, the day of sunshine and 40 degrees, I was itching to get my bike out of the garage and to go for a ride. So, out it came with a flat tire I swear it didn’t have the last time I rode it, probably in October. No matter.

I pumped up that tire and rode out the driveway, quickly accelerating through my gears until- whoa- I felt that wind chill. Now isn’t that interesting? At slow speed, with no wind and bright sun, it felt great to ride, but at speed greater than 10 mph, the windchill was a bit too much for me.

So, I decided to take a low-speed ride instead, across Lake Wingra.

Now, I’ve ridden around Lake Wingra a million times, winding around through the Arboretum, Vilas Park, and down Monroe Street. But on this day, a rare one when the ice was solid enough to ride on and the temperature was warm enough to make it enjoyable, I rode across Lake Wingra, and back, and didn’t tell my mommy I was going to do it.

When I mentioned it to a friend he said that when he was a kid he skated across Lake Mendota without telling his parents. He said, “hey, it was the 70’s and helicopter parents didn’t yet exist.” True that. We just did stuff and maybe talked about it later. Maybe not.

If you want to send the URL of the video to my mom, go ahead. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, right?

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