Triska … HUH? Triskaidekaphobia! Fear of the number 13. As if that word weren’t long enough already, fear of FRIDAY the 13th has even longer names: paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.

Today is an unusual Friday the 13th: it coincides with the full moon. I got a beautiful view of that moon while out on my morning ride. I’m glad I did get to see it, because the full moon won’t shine on Friday the 13th for another 30 years. And who knows? Next time it might be cloudy!

I don’t let triskaidekaphobia get me down. As usual for Friday the 13th, I wore my Lucky British Black Cat pin to work. Maybe I should have worn it when I went out riding. I did get a bit of bad luck; a freight train was coming, and was too close to the crossing for me to dare trying to beat it. It was a long one, too. I made four or five circuits of the block before the thing finally got past.

I’ve been using the hybrid for my morning rides for two days because the road bike was in the shop for a tune-up. Today I got it back. It had needed new brake pads, and I was surprised when they told me that the bike still had the original brake pads. Over 23,000 miles, and I hadn’t ever worn out the brake pads? Oh, well — maybe that’s a good thing.

While I was at the shop anyhow, I got Chamois Butt’r. They also carry Her’ Chamois Butt’r; but I prefer the original.

Now that I have my “real” bicycle back, I can think about the Sunday long ride. So far it looks like the weather will cooperate!