I've been hibernating during the heat -- not much to accomplish outside for various reasons, so I've stayed inside. Last Saturday, July 3, I went for a short ride on the Silver Comet Trail early in the morning, and found that to be just delightful, even though I was once again a little out of shape. This past Sunday I did the same thing -- purely on impulse long before the sun cleared the trees -- and went a bit further. Could have done more, but since I've been somewhat inactive I've gotten a bit lazy. Sad but true.
I'm not sure quite when it occurred to me that I have four mornings every week that could begin this way and that I ought to take good advantage of that. Duh! The biggest factor in actually doing this, of course, is remembering to do it, but this morning it was right in the top of my mind and I headed out a little after 7am while the world was cool and quiet and peaceful. I went a good bit further this morning and I felt so good out there that I used the time for some real training -- pushing the body for speed and higher gears -- and that felt great, too. I haven't done that for awhile. One of these days I want to attempt to ride the other direction, towards Rockmart, but need to get those hill-climbing muscles in shape first. Since the westerly direction doesn't offer any serious hills, I decided to make the most of the ones it has and use higher gears, more muscle. That worked, too. And there are higher gears left to use. I think this has gravitated to the top of my mind now, and I plan to be out there more and more often on these free mornings. I was gone less than an hour this morning -- hardly a detriment to doing whatever else calls for this day or any other. And in all truth, there isn't much of anything that makes me feel quite so good as riding the bike, especially out in the quiet countryside. Again, Duh!
I splashed through lots of shallow standing water from last night's rain, and since my bike hadn't had a good bath for a year or two, I gave it one when I got back home. Got all the dust and gunk off, oiled the chain, and she looks much better now. This bike is 14 years old -- one of my first purchases when I moved to Corvallis back in 1996, and although it's had a lot of miles, still looks fairly new. Much on it is relatively new -- tires, seat, toe clips, rear carrier, handlebar grips -- but the basic bike is as I bought it.
We had one of those wonderful thunderstorms pass through last night around 7pm. Wonderful, because there was no lightning, the thunder rumbled softly in the distance, but brought a wonderful, long, soaking rain for the parched greenery. I sat out on the porch swing reading, watching the rain, and watching the kitten try and figure out what was happening. She was by the screen watching a bird when it happened, eventually scrambled away, ears back. She is SO much fun to watch -- everything is new and exciting to her.
Not sure what the rest of this day will bring, other than a trip to the library. I'm about ready to take up the black plastic and go about seeding the buckwheat, but with a week of possible thunderstorms ahead, I may just wait awhile. Otherwise, a heavy rain would wash the seeds away. I think I'm going to have to top them with some topsoil, since I can't really (read: won't) dig the area first. I'm hoping the topsoil will at least keep the birds away, but it wouldn't help during a rainstorm, certainly.
Hope your day is a good one.
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