500 miles

Well, over that, actually. Today's ride takes me to 540 +/- for the year. Should be rather more than that, for July 4, but weather has interfered, and the nice doctor lady didn't want me riding in April. Minor surgery at the end of March.

Wildlife report is pretty normal, dead woodchucks and skunks and probably a raccoon (ID can get difficult after a few days...) and a live fawn by the side of the road. About half grown, but still spotted and gangly. Bald eagle fishing above the dam near Indian Island.

The deer fly is one of the most ornery critters in the universe. It and its larger cousin the moose fly are big, buzzy, bumbling carnivores that won't take no for an answer. They want a chunk of hamburger from your hide, not just a delicate sip of blood. And for all their size, they fly fast. Had a bunch of them circling me, out along Route 46, and they kept up with me at a clocked 22 MPH. No breeze to speak of, which made them more of a problem than sometimes. Makes you question the concept of a benevolent deity.

Oh, and the LiveJournal spellcheck doesn't recognize "didn't" and "gangly" as lawful words. Screw 'em.

Long series of noises

I _told_ them not to mix all those chemicals at the decommissioned paper mill across the river....

No, wait, it's July 4....

We decided, with the boys all grown and moved out, to skip the fireworks display this year. Time was, before a tree grew another twenty feet, that we could see some of the bursts from our windows here. Now, we're just too old and jaded to walk a few blocks.

Earworms during my bike ride today, series of pop songs from the late 50s, early 60s, a totally forgettable group except I don't seem to have forgotten them. "Bobby's Girl" and "Deadman's Curve" and that ilk. Probably triggered by the neighbor parking a '52 Ford coupe in his driveway, the sort of car my buddies had in high school in the era in question. But the kid down the street in 1960 paid $150 for his, if memory serves, and neighbor's son wants $13,000 for this example in AD 2004. Inflation.