2016: And that, as they say, was that

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It wasn’t all bad.

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The prevailing theme for the Internet’s end-of-year thinkpieces is pretty clear. Everyone thinks 2016 was a bust, pointing to the election as the nadir of all things terrible. Easy kill for writing topics to fill your Facebook feed.

Saying 2016 was the worst year is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The media said everything was bad, then everyone decided to focus on reasons their lives sucked throughout the last 365 days, too.

“Fuck 2016” is a post I keep seeing, for one reason or another. “This year can’t end soon enough.” On and on. Some riff on the negative. And maybe you did have a dogshit year for profoundly deeper reasons than an election result, a musician’s death, or your sportsball team lost a thing. Pain isn’t a contest. We all go home and scream into our pillows about something at night.

Lest we petulantly yell into the well with everyone else, bemoaning the potholes of our existence in the last year, I submit we take a moment to pedal around. Spin it out. Go for a hot lap. Do some skid-stops at sundown. Whatever. Start the new year off right: on two wheels.

I’ve been in L.A. for the last week, a place I’ve never seen outside of LAX connections. But I made it a point to take a ride up to the radio towers above Glendale and Burbank last night. It’d been raining all day, making the prospect of a dramatic, smoldering Golden Hour likely. I grabbed a Banquet and headed up to watch 2016 burn down. I saw a few other riders and hikers ascending Verdugo Motorway to do the same.

So I leave you with this. Here’s to the good, the bad and the ugly of 2016. And to 2017 — whether it’s an improvement or disappointment — keep the rubber side down.

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Cheers.

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About Wrighteous

Keeper of the DC colors in the American Midwest.

17 Replies to “2016: And that, as they say, was that”

  1. 2016 was a fucking train wreck. I’m not even going to comment on your political situation & how many awesome people died during it.

    Plus I got told that ‘your role is disestablished’ at work, ‘we’ll get back to you with a time table’. That was 2 months ago & I don’t expect much to happen in the next 3, nothing like impeding unemployment to work on your mental attitude.

    I really want some of those Dude stickers, where can I get them?

    Nailed 51 kms this morning & now drinking cheap Australian beer, (VB Bitter, called NZ’s mexican beer), life is good.

  2. Hello from the other siiiiiiiiiiide.

    Sorry to hear that, Hurben. Chin up.

    We’ll get to work on the Dude stickers. That Zefal mud guard had the Dude printed directly on him.

  3. Life is too short to have bad years. I tore my right internal carotid artery in April and my left gastrocnemius in December and it was still an awesome year!

  4. Pingback: 2016: And that, as they say, was that - Bike StoreBike Store

  5. Yeah, they call a tear of the arterial lining a “dissection.” It turns out, you use your carotid artery pretty much all day, every day. I tore mine skiing aggressively on steep, unconsolidated terrain, sort of a whiplash injury I guess. Apparently it’s a super good way to stroke out, but I was lucky and did not. The hospital time and the medical bills were less than ideal. It’s a bad idea all the way around; I don’t recommend it. No sir, not one bit.

  6. Got that right.

    I had a motorcycle accident in the 70s & a broken rear view mirror stem pierced my neck & scraped my carotid artery.

    According to one of the attending doctors, I had a Guardian Angel, according to the other one, I had no right to be alive!

    I notice the scar every time I shave.

  7. While the political situation is truly horrible…Right on, life is too short to have a bad YEAR much less a bad week.

    I became a father. I rode lots of bikes a lot (though less with a little guy on my hands!). And I had a good year at work.

    In 2017…I’ll finally get my arse out of grad school. I think. Finally. Fack, it will be a serious burden off my back. Now…time to grind out three months of very, very hard work.

  8. The Verdugos are fun. LA has some great single track, you’d be surprised how much good riding is out here, been to your hood too.

    Anyway dates and calendars are man-made systems, if you’re a douche in 2016 one day won’t make a difference in 2017. Keep riding :)