I don’t think my blogs are the same without including my friends’ names. On the other hand, there are times when someone wants their privacy, probably because they’re running from something like the Saskatchewan mafia. Like my ‘friend’ from a remote part of Nova Scotia who wishes to remain a ghost to avoid detection by the very aliens from Jupiter who abducted them in a Midwestern cornfield and forced them to eat cardamom-flavored fish sticks. I’m getting off-point, so I better end this paragraph and start a new one.

So, I do have friends that blog my name in online public areas. I like it and am flattered. I think people’s names in blogs give it a certain perspective. It exposes certain relationships so that when you drop their name in a future blog, your readership knows them and has the very same relationship that you, the blogger, has. Did I explain that right? Better go to another paragraph.

My new rule is to post names of people who post my name or have asked me to include them in my posts. So, I have a bunch of friends that fall into that category: Ed and Jill (UPDATE: others, see comment below). Yep, that’s about it. Jill and I have become close friends, and our blogs expose that. Ed specifically told me to include his name while on a hike once. Have I left anyone out? Probably, but then you will remind me, right? This is not my point for this blog, so I better get to it. Another paragraph, please.

“That was the first time I have seen…,” oh shoot, can’t use that name. Start over.

The plan last night was to execute Jill’s plan and then attend the Missoula Thursday Night Ride season-ending party. The plan was to proceed from our individual workplaces and loop around the University range. Jill went clockwise, and I went counterclockwise. She went down Kim Williams and up Deer Creek while I started out a half-hour later going on Pattee Canyon Road. I can’t say what Jill’s secret agenda was, probably to get over the pass before I could. My secret agenda was to get over that pass and catch her on the climb. This would ensure my dominance on the bike and secretly crown myself the official king mountain biker of Missoula. We met right on the top, exactly in the middle… so it was a tie. Last night, we were both winter bike champions of Missoula. Actually, just being out biking with my friend is all I need. Crown or no crown, it felt good. We proceeded down the slushy hill (obviously the wrong direction because Deer Creek was perfect), and this is where I need to finally get to the point of my blog. So, maybe another paragraph.

Oh, then there was the party. The usual gathering of friends. Ed was there. I can say Ed; he gave me permission.

And it was there that I actually got to talk a little with Jill. We are mostly on bikes, in the dark hiking, or almost never in a sit-down talking type of situation. She mentioned how she needed to exercise or would feel badly. I concurred, and she offered up the word ‘addiction.’ You know, there is this thing that releases chemicals that make you feel great. If you don’t do that thing, you start to miss and actually yearn for it. We all know the what-about on that overly used term ‘addiction.’ Yes, I have heard what I do called an addiction, but personally, I think it runs deeper than that. I think there is another realm to it, but now my blog is running long, and I must end it. Maybe another paragraph to summarize.

So, the weekend is at hand. I have plenty to do. Actually, I must get caught up because I am behind on just about everything. Then I have to prepare for a visit from a friend next week (which is the only way my apartment ever gets cleaned). I have discovered that I don’t have the same excitement I used to for weekends. I suffer withdrawals. Maybe I’ll train and work out hard. The end.