Today I got off of work early in order to go biking with my friend Austin Heath. I loved every second of it. When I finished, I rode my bike directly to Windsor park where Lily and the kids and Amy and her kids were just finishing up with tennis practice. Lily had prepared a picnic, and I grilled veggie burgers on coals and we all had a great time conversing and eating in the perfect weather. It was a truly wonderful experience.
The event did end with some drama. Mary killed a spider and Ammon lost his mind saying that spiders have a right to live. He was screaming and yelling for 30 minutes and completely hysterical. I was biking en route to Qualtrics when it all went down and Lily explained that it seemed Ammon was having an existential crisis. I suspect some heat exhaustion may have also been at play given Ammon tends to break down mentally, emotionally and physically when he overheats. When Lily met me at Qualtrics to drop off Clarissa for more bike practice, Ammon was on the tail end of his crisis, and he soon calmed down (aided by Qualtrics lemonade and Oreos).
Then I worked more with Clarissa on her bike. The plan was to work on turning, but she started turning wonderfully immediately, so we really just spent time with me jogging next to her while she got more and more comfortable on her bike, and then practicing braking when it was time for her to stop. I busted my buttons with joy when she did one of her last stops perfectly (see last video below). I’m now convinced Clarissa is well on her way. We also caught some videos and Facetimed with Lily and family and they were all thrilled and praised Clarissa as well. She was rewarded with lemonade and Oreos in the car. It was very cute listening to her little “gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp” in the backseat 🙂 Very well done Clarissa!