I thought it was raining.....

....but it was bugs! Hitting my face as I rode. I squinted and kept my mouth shut. I pedaled on, churning through the hatch. They came in waves, like miniature kamikazes of unintended accuracy. When I cleared the trees they thinned out and I was able to open my eyes, straighten up and catch a breath of relief.

This would be the sixth consecutive cloudy day threatening more rain. I went anyway, I didn't care if it started raining. I wanted a good ride, bugs and whatever else may come my way.

So far my 55 year old knees have held up pretty well to my increased mileage. I am consistently doing 15 milers, which might not seem like a lot. Not too many years ago riding 5 miles would result in days of knee pain, so I think I'm doing pretty well. My goal is to work my way up to 25 and then 50 pain free miles in a day. This fall I'm planning a bike camping trip with my son so I need to keep moving.

One of these days I'm going to buy a $150 helmet that looks cool. But for now I'll have to be satisfied with my $40 Coleman Cooler Helmet. Hmmm...maybe a goatee would help.

Head Clearing Ride

I'm in serious danger of becoming dull. Every weekend has been spent working on my bathroom remodeling project and you know what they say about all work and no play. So it was again this weekend, handling 40 lb sheets of hardibacker and attaching it to the shower walls. I was forced to quit when my saw blade broke and it was probably a good thing at that. I've been telling myself for 2 weeks that I needed to go for a good bike ride. When I left the project room it was about 3:00. It was still cloudy out, we never got the promised sun and I didn't really feel like going for a ride. I wanted to just sit on the porch or watch football. But my head felt thick and I was working on a good grump as well. I knew I needed a ride.

 At first I felt awkward, almost like I hadn't ridden for months. But then after a few miles I caught my stride. I was facing a pretty stiff headwind, and even though the temperature was in the mid 60's, I was glad I had worm my jacket. As I cranked down the road I was bombarded by signs of fall. Partially harvested fields of dried corn stalks. Dark green fields of soybeans that were showing the first tint of browning off. Weeds mature and tough, ready to belch seeds in every direction. The smell of wood smoke.

Traffic was especially heavy even for my back road route. Occasionally a biker runs into someone who for whatever reason regards them with contempt. Today I was stopped at a remote cross road when a pickup truck full of bushel crab baskets pulled up. The driver stopped and gave me a hateful glare for about 5 seconds, then just drove off. I'm not sure what the source of this contempt is. Does he think I'm going to call my fellow biker friends and take over his back shore turf? Or does he just hate any activity that doesn't involve a boat and a crab or a gun and a deer? I rode on and passed a fellow biker who returned my wave and a smile. We understand.

The clouds were starting to clear a little and so was my head. I rolled home in a better mood.

Sunrise over Kent Narrows

This is the view I get some mornings when I arrive at the park-and-ride to catch the commuter bus to DC. As the days get shorter the sunrise will fade until it is eventually just dark at 6:20 AM. I have noticed that the water of the bay is as muddy as I have ever seen it during my 11 years of commuting over the bridge. A hurricane and a tropical storm on top of already saturated ground has allowed acres of New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland to wash into the bay. Not a good sign for plant and animal species in the bay already under attack. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the course of nature to clear the waters.

12 day recap

Irma and I got home at 10:00 last night after visiting my Aunt and them meeting Greg and Pinky for a nice dinner out. We were checking out a restaurant for Ben and Emily's rehearsal dinner in December. They are getting married December 28th. So that will make 2 years in a row of Christmas weddings. I didn't sleep that well thanks in part to the annual September cricket invasion. Those critters like to party at night. So I got up at 6:00 thinking I'd relax on the couch, but the dogs had other ideas.

We all headed outside into a shroud of thick mist. It was a damp quiet, even Patton couldn't locate a sound to bark at. After the required chuckering, we headed back in. I was looking forward to coffee and some quiet time.

I looked at the calendar and realized that I haven't made any blog posts in 12 days (Sorry Mom).

Truth is, the past 12 days have pretty much just been rain and work. The week after Hurricane Irene, Irma and I spent every night after work cleaning up the tree trash that was all over our 2 acre yard. We started Tuesday and she finished it up with the mowing on Saturday. I got about 50 nasty chigger bites to show for it. I should have doused with bug spray like Irma did.

Then came labor day weekend, and we just labored. All weekend. I spent all three days in the "project room", the bathroom I'm renovating, hanging insulation and sweating.

12 rolls of R-19 later, it's finally done. Almost ready for drywall.

Then came the week of rain. All week it rained....and then it would stop raining...and start pouring. Then when the pouring stopped, it would start raining again. They say tropical storm Lee was to blame for this. But whether you believe it's caused by us humans or not, I say the climate is changing.

So today is Sunday, the start of a new week. I think I'll finish it with a bike ride. If nothing else it will give me something worthy to blog about.