Health officials in Oregon are expecting “exponential growth” of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks. Yet watching the news and traveling about town for errands it appears that nobody cares. People are still gathering in groups and some of my neighbors are having parties. I totally understand that people are frustrated, fed up and want some normalcy back in their lives. Personally I think that Oregon opened too early. Mia and I are both trying to limit our interactions with large gatherings.

I’m still not comfortable doing groups rides with more than one or two people. Still not comfortable dining out either. I’m curious to see what happens back in my home state of New Hampshire. I felt like they started the shelter in place about two weeks after Oregon and now watching social media posts from friends and family it almost seems like life is close to pre-covid levels back there. I get the distinct feeling they will be where we are in 3-4 weeks though.

Besides me complaining I am just resigned to the fact that we are in this for the long haul. I’ll control what I can and take care of myself and Mia as well as I can. All the other stuff is out of our control.

I’m still all about the solo (or ride with Mia) rides for now. Yesterday I did what I call the mini-Timber Logjam by riding from my house and doing the first part of the classic OMTM loop. I avoid any of the “questionable” areas with this ride and still get in a decent 45-50 miles of mixed terrain.

Aside from far too many people at Stub and on the BV trail I unfortunately ran over a 5″ concrete screw when leaving Banks. It not only went through the top of my tire but also out the sidewall. There was no way in hell that my sealant was fixing those two holes. I tossed a tube into the tire and limped home with a bead that wasn’t totally set and wobbled when going over 16-17mph. I tossed that tire in the trash as soon as I got home. No sense in trying to plug it.

In over 30 years of riding this is probably the fourth time a puncture like this has happened to me. I remember back in the day during the Nashua Criterium around Holman Stadium I ran over a nail and punctured the tire, tube and right through the rim. It looked like someone had used a nail gun to secure the tire to the rim. Ahhh….the good ol’ days.

The tire wasn’t new. I have close to 800 miles on these Teravail Sparwoods. It still had a decent amount of life in it but I didn’t feel it was worth even attempting to try and save it. I ended up ordering some 29 x 2.2″ Rutlands for a bit more of an aggressive option this time around. I’ve read good things about them so time will tell.

Mia signed us up for the Unger Farms seasonal fruit CSA and every week we get a half flat of whatever is ripe. This week it was a half flat of all raspberries. Way more than the two of could eat before they go bad. Mia found this raspberry jam on epicurious.com.

I on the other hand finally fulfilled a long standing desire to create a skillet cookie. I was originally leaning towards good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies this week. I wanted to kind of kick it up a notch though. So after a little Google action I found this Lady’s Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie. The use of the words ooey and gooey totally got my attention.

Pro tip: If you can, have two (or more) cast iron skillets. Keep one for savory cooking and one for sweet. There is nothing worse than transferring the taste of garlic and onions to your skillet cookie.

As is typical I didn’t follow the recipe 100%. I’m not a huge fan of milk chocolate myself (well it’s not my first choice). I used a mix of both semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips. I also added toffee bits and chopped pecans……because I can. I also added some cinnamon to the flour mixture for a hint of warming spice.

I made this in the early afternoon, long before dinner. The waiting was probably the hardest part. I tossed it back in the oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes to warm it up and……….

That scratched an itch I had for quite a long time now. I’m impressed and for sure would make it again.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete