The Plentiful Vintage

I spent much of the afternoon down in the cool of the basement again, so much so that I didn't notice the dark clouds moving in until I came upstairs to go for a bike ride. I went anyway, and since I assumed that it would be cut short by rain, I pushed pretty hard. The thunder came and the rain started pouring when I was still about half a mile from the end of the first lap so I got drenched, but better that than three miles out. It turned out to be my fastest time of the year, albeit for only seven miles.

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I saw what I think was a baby fisher cat crossing the path on the White Horn Brook bridge. I've seen fishers before, and it was the right color, but way smaller than an adult. It was the size of a ferret. Took one look at me riding towards it and lit out for the brook.

This follows my accidental terrorization yesterday of a baby bunny that was hiding under an old, non-functional lawn mower in my backyard. I was mowing the lawn and moved the old mower out of the way to cut the grass near it, when the poor little guy darted out from under it and made a bee line for cover. Fortunately this incident worked out a lot better than some past encounters I've had with baby bunnies.

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The pedal is still making clicking sounds, although not as many as it had. It was fine when I tested it at the bike shop yesterday, but once I started pedaling hard, the noise came back. Very annoying.

'Cause I got to 500 first...

500 miles, that is. After rides yesterday and today, the total stands at 503, more than any other year except '93. Another six rides or so should put me past my all-time best. I just wish the humidity would ease up a little. It was frelling hot out there this evening.

It turned out it was also manic bunny night down at the bike path. There's been a bumper crop of bunnies down there this year. Every night it seems I see three or four or more alongside the path, but they usually stay close to cover, ducking in as folks go by. Not tonight. I'm not sure what was going on, but instead of the usual duck for cover, all the bunnies seemed to think that the cover on the other side of the path was more protective. My first inkling that something was up was when a bunny the size of a Volkswagen darted out of the bushes right in front of me. I had no time to react, and only missed him by a scant foot or so because he managed to get out of the way. A couple of miles down the road another one cut in front of me, although not nearly so closely. I have no idea what got them so riled up.

I'm also not sure what would've happened if I'd hit the first one. I was going downhill pretty fast at the time, something that still causes me flashbacks to the accident, and it shook me a bit. No matter what, the bunny likely would die. The question is whether bunnies are solid enough to cause the bike to flip up, turning me into Flying Man! again. Another thing to worry about. Stoopid kamikaze bunnies. (Bunnies have made a habit of vexing me over the years, from the one that strangled itself in my garden fence to the flock of baby bunnies that kept running at me while I tried to cut the grass with a riding mower. It's an omen I tells ya. A baby bunny will be the death of me someday, I just know it...)