\”A fine kettle of fish\” seems an apt description of the current situation. Everything is in a mess: people losing jobs; the economy doesn\’t look good; social distancing; quarantining.

I\’m one of the lucky ones who can still go out and ride, as long as I don\’t ride too close to anybody else. I\’d be in a fine kettle of fish if I couldn\’t ride! By now I would have lost a lot of the strength and conditioning that I\’ve developed over 10.5 years.

\”Kettle\” reminds me of the kettlebell weight. I got a small one last June, intending to add some new exercises to my off-bike work. Then, when I got so busy with a major editing job on this site, it fell by the wayside.

Now I\’m trying to work it back in. Last night, I used it in a leg-abduction exercise. For several years, I\’ve been doing that move while resting a 5-pound weight on the working thigh. Now I\’m trying it with the kettlebell, which weighs 7.5 pounds. I sure can feel the difference!

Yesterday\’s ride seemed like a fine kettle of fish when I was homeward-bound. Perhaps you\’ve guessed it already: a headwind! It was blowing at 14-15 mph before I finished the ride. The clouds looked rather stormy, too, and at one point I thought I smelled rain. I\’m glad it didn\’t start raining; I was still about three miles from home.

I might have been in another kettle of fish if it had rained while I was riding home from the supermarket this morning. I\’m not sure why I worry about bread ; loaves of bread are all bagged in plastic, and there was the plastic bag from the checkout as well. The canister of oatmeal I had bought was far more vulnerable!

If it had gotten wet, I suppose I could have dried/toasted it in a low-temperature oven, but I\’m lazy. Oh, and as to fish — no, I didn\’t buy fish today.