Chicken

I was having a beautiful ride in this morning; passed 4 deer that were standing about 5 yards off the bike path. The fauns are almost as big as Mom now. A blue heron startled me, or maybe it was me that startled it. Lots of ducks in the creek. I approached the turn to the last bridge before my office -- 4 feet wide and 15 or so yards long -- and I was thinking to myself that I hoped no one had stopped to look out over the creek this morning; it makes for an awkward situation that I just didn't want to have to deal with today. And then, it happened. There he was, right at the apex of the bridge, looking like the keeper of the Bridge of Death: a chipmunk. It just stood there staring at me. What to do, WHAT TO DO?

Understand, chipmunks may be the stupidest animals on God's green earth. If you pass one on the trail you can pretty much bet it is going to be so confused about how to get out of the way that it is going to end up trapped in your spokes. Didn't want to deal with that suspended over the "Gorge of Eternal Peril" this morning so I got off my bike and started towards it, slowly.

I kept waiting for it to speak and say "Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see" and then ask "What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" [The Holy Grail: Scene 23] But it finally got the message and ran the correct direction away from me.

Anyway, nice to be back on the bike this morning. Temperature at departure = 36° F (2° C) -- must be a Thursday thing since I had the same conditions last week. Nice way to compare clothing options. This week I dropped the sweat shirt and added a long sleeved tee shirt. I also opted to just use the hood on my wind breaker (under my helmet) rather than the head band I tried last week. My glasses fared better but the hood cuts out my peripheral vision. Still too much clothes. Today's lesson, at 36° I can get by with a tee shirt and lined wind breaker.