Confronted a fear today

My bike has been something that has hung on the rack in the garage for a few years now. Back many years ago, Jon and I rode in some lengthy competitions around the state and his Dad joined us for a few of them. The last ride we did was to raise money for a local cerebral palsy organization back in 2005. Since that time, the bike has been hanging. We have a family membership with the League of American Bicyclists so I get regular issues of "Bicycling" magazine plus a mountain biking mag. I have been reading through the regular cycling magazine during the past couple of days when taking a few moments of respite in the "train room" of our house. This morning, I was reading a mag while having a cup of green tea and banana bread (Jonnie and I made it for Jon to welcome him home). For some reason, something moved me to want to get on the bike. I took a shower and headed out to the garage. My husband followed me. He pumped up the tires and I told him "I want to ride like a normal person, not a competitor". I won't repeat some of the words he muttered at me as I tried to get on the bike and rejected it. I tried putting a different seat on it to make it shorter but the seat posts were two different sizes. Finally, I put the regular seat back on and mounted the surly beast. I was scared at first feeling like I was going to crash. However, I started to get more comfortable and rode for about 15 minutes around the neighborhood. I had my helmet and a pair of sunglasses. I left the cycling computer in the garage but decided that I did get spoiled by the padded half gloves so I will probably wear those again. I have enough padding on the rear that my tush doesn't hurt. :-)

As I continue to battle an unknown disease, illness, whatever I feel like I accomplished something today by facing the fear of my bike.