517.7

No rain. A little earlier and warmer coming home; the hills nevertheless don't seem as difficult today.

A single hawk in a tree on Rainsville, looking exactly like the Maltese Falcon. Too far away and too much shade to tell what kind, but from the size, a redtail or red-shouldered. Bunches of small birds congregate on certain wires, their afternoon social.

Dogs all along the way, protecting their turf, very brave behind their fences, can't quite keep up with me.

King Road, a fine ride down, and only one car passing on the way up.

Baby llama at the end of King is getting bigger. Grey with black spots - pretty unusual llama coloring.

511.2.

Mindless, uneventful rides home and back to work. You get in a rhythm... Warmer this morning - first without frost in a while - probably means rain is coming. Warm is good, though, for the power usage and for my bike rides.

When I'm driving, I go as far as possible out of the lane to stay clear of bikes and peds - you never know if one is going to take a fall into your path. Wish others would also drive this way - it's a little unnerving to have someone pass two feet away from you at 50mph. Granted, there may be oncoming traffic, etc., but if there's room, jeeze, why not use it?

Then there are those who creep along behind when there's room to get by. Drive Briskly, folks! Not aggressively, just... you want to get where you're going in the most efficient way possible. There's no need to crawl behind me - I'm already moving over as far as I can on the shoulder, but it's not always practical to stay there forever!

503.0.

The Fair Ave. route is .1 mile shorter than the Rainsville route, map indications to the contrary. Go figger!

Frost everywhere this morning, scattered low-lying fog, and a big fat orange sun just peeking out at 7 or so.

Frightened a pair of pheasants, who in turn frightened me, this morning - don't know if they're native (I don't see pheasants elsewhere), but there's a pheasant farm on Skillman so they're pretty common around there. They're beautiful birds. Perhaps we should try pheasant sometime. Bet it tastes like chicken.

Construction-type guy in a pickup yelled something at me as I crossed in front of them - I think something derogatory related to my manhood and my taillight - like because I have a blinking LED taillight on my bike I am somehow less manly than if I didn't. Duh, the fact that you NOTICE it means you SAW me, which means it's doing EXACTLY what I got it for, which means I'm SMART. Or something. People who feel the need to put others down - such an obvious ploy to mask insecurities on the home front.

Oh well. No skin off my back, just a bit of morning wierdness.

499.1.

King Road again. Nice fish-scaley sunset. Tempted to go a half-mile up the road just to have the round trip get me to 500, but I'll get it tomorrow.

Another great day, though, and two in a row with the all-bike commute.

I can sorta justify eating at Burger Thing or Gag in the Bag from time to time, if I'm doing all this sweating to and from work...

492.4.

Again chilly, but sunny. Looking at a map, the Liberty Rd route is shorter than the Fair Ave., but it definitely feels longer - that slow climb on liberty is worse than the quick one(s) on Fair.

Well, okay - it's four miles (from odometer readings here); I thought the other was 3.5, but we'll see tomorrow.

Nothing much to report today, just another nice ride. Legs feeling the renewed activity.

I actually like the fact that my car is not currently driveable, and I'm forced to ride the bike. "Lard" knows I need the exercise, but also I have that half-hour of "meditation" on the way to work. I'm rarely thinking of anything specific while riding, other than the focus on the road ahead for debris, watching the wires and posts for raptors, listening for cars coming up behind. I'm in this peculiar receptive "intake" mode. I don't really think about the cold (now that I've got my cold-weather bikewear sort of assembled, and so not emulating Curly of the Three Stooges on downhills over 15mph "WOOP woop woop woop woop...")

And I'm more or less ready for work when I get there (after showering, getting my latte, and perhaps shooting a few racks of pool with Toby)...

488.4 A bt longer ride home. It's so crisp and clear out! Winter (when it's not raining) is actually a really nice time to ride. Sun went down on my way home, those few moments of Golden light hitting the newly-green fields. King Road hill not too bad a climb, and a nice ride down, cooling the sweat. Cattle are complaining everywhere - who knows why? They're not destined for the slaughterhouse, they live on some of the most costly real estate in the world, and that grass looks pretty darn juicy.

481.9 Well, I'm a blithering idjit with cars, so may be riding the bike more for a while here.

Chilly this morning, but I bundled up pretty good, so... pretty much a standard ride in to work. Had the misfortune to be riding right during the school bus run up Skillman, so kept catching up to the stopped bus, and eating a bit of exhaust each time. Yech.