A weekend for visiting

Thanksgiving weekend was a welcome change of (working) pace, and the base for a good visit with my family. As usual, I took an extra day off to avoid airport craziness at the beginning of the holiday weekend; flying early Wednesday morning and early Sunday morning did the trick for me.

It was a good weekend of visiting, and a few crazy days of trying to get good photos of Bailey - the dachshund who is sure he is in charge of the house.

Puppy love! (Yes, I know, Bailey's really not a puppy, but the statement is fitting, isn't it?

Mirror & dog... it was fun but almost impossible to try to get a reflection photo of Bailey. He doesn't do a very good job of standing still, and do you have any idea how hard it is to get photos of a dog who is mainly black in color?

Family photos from the weekend can be found at http://denise.smugmug.com/gallery/1004683.

Pictures of Bailey (the crazy dachshund) and Coco (the cat that runs my sister's house) can be found at http://denise.smugmug.com/gallery/1004811.

Miles flowing...

...under my bicycle wheels

Back in September I set a goal of riding at least 4000 miles this year. I thought then that it was a reasonable goal, but later I started to wonder if I would make it. My tour of PEI was about 150 miles shorter than planned, due to my dislike of riding in the rain. No regrets there... It was the month of October that set me back, with weather that really didn't support riding. I managed to ride all but one weekend that month, but all of my rides were pretty short.

October's last day was a gift to cyclists, as was the first day of November. My bike joined me at the office those two days so I could get in a mid-day ride. And overall November (so far) has been much more of a riding month than October. Backwards, but no complaints here!

So where am I? At the end of today's ride, I'm at 3935 miles for the year. 65 miles to reach my goal...

...with the weather wizard's cooperation, of course!

A fabulous gift...

...from the weather wizard!

Last night one of my bikes took a look at today's weather forecast and decided to jump into the car just in case today turned out to be a good riding day. (What, your bikes don't talk to you and take the initiative to plan a ride? Well, mine do!)

The forecast was for a cool and foggy morning, and a 60% possibility of rain in the afternoon - but with temperatures in the upper 60s. When I checked last night that rain was supposed to hold off until after 3. When I checked again this morning it sounded like the rain would make an appearance by noon. But - my bike was already in the car, a sign of hope. I extended my work hours on both ends of the day (just in case) so that I could take a long lunch hour.

The fog stuck until after 11. Patches of blue sky made an appearance, but gray clouds were flying around the sky as the wind picked up. It was a little after 12 when I decided to chance the weather and make my bike (and me!) happy. And what a nice ride! I headed up Middlesex Turnpike, a 2-lane road lined at the beginning with industrial parks, low office buildings. That wouldn't be my choice of a place to ride at the edges of the work day, but it was quiet with very little traffic, a perfect start to my mid-day wandering. At the end of the road I headed west on Concord Road, an absolute treat since the road was newly paved. It was a windy ride, with temperatures rising from the 50s at the start to the mid-60s by the time I returned to work. What a wonderful ride; I could easily have kept right on riding, but I knew I had to go back.

That should have been enough exercise for the day, but it was still dry and the temperature was in the high 60s so I headed out walking after I got home. This was forecast to be our last warm day for a while, and I wanted to spend as much of it as possible outside. Walking, watching the clouds scudding across the full moon, listening to and feeling the wind...

A wonderful day. Thank you, weather wizard!

Darkness, step by step

Somehow, I can't get myself to face all indoor exercise. Yes, we're well into fall, the temperatures are cool, and there's not enough daylight - but I'm still walking outside. While I try to get a mid-day walk in, that doesn't always work, and I'm often wandering by foot without the benefit of daylight. I am lucky that I live next to a college campus, so I do have an area for walking that doesn't have much traffic. That's not enough though; guarding against boredom sends me down neighborhood streets too. Sticking to the sidewalks makes me feel unbalanced at times since the surfaces are far from flat and are not easily visible in the dark. I thought it was just one of my own idiosyncracy's that oncoming vehicle lights seem to make the visibility worse, but one of my co-workers expressed the same thing to me today as we were talking about exercising outside without the benefit of daylight. And yes, I really am sticking to those sidewalks in spite of my desire to walk on the smoother surface of the streets...

I suppose I'm going to have to start to split my exercise time between walking outside and doing some bouts on the elliptical trainer at the gym...

The magic of Illuminite... a vision of my outer layer of "walking in the dark" clothing. My vest and jacket are both light blue, but you can get the idea of the effect of lights on the fabric here. Natural light on the left, and hit with headlights at night on the right.

Two very different days

Ah, a weekend for riding - the weather wizard is cooperating. It was a weekend of two dry but very different days. Saturday was sunny, a smiling kind of day - but with relatively cool temperatures. It was very cold when I woke up, but in the mid-40s for my ride. Sunday was warmer, but the high 50 to low 60s temperatures were accompanied by strong winds and sometimes overcast skies. I surprised myself this weekend by preferring Saturday's weather. Cooler was a small price to pay for no winds and sunshine!

This looked like a piece of original art-work tacked to a tree. It's more likely that it's a copy, of course - but it looks like a good plea from the animal world to maintain some open space.

A quiet road, leafless trees, it's fall...

I was fascinated by the reflections of trees along with floating leaves.

Crosswalks...

...a mystery solved!

I started noticing a change to crosswalks in some of the towns near me this summer. Roads were freshly paved, and the new crosswalks appeared to be brick. It looked like a lot of work, but the crosswalks seemed to appear overnight!

Ah, mystery solved! An article in today's Boston Globe gave me the missing information. According to the article, "the crosswalks are made from a form of plastic that is melted and poured onto the street, where it bonds with the asphalt. The designs can be imprinted to resemble brick or other natural stones..." Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe

Branches, bare!

My morning walk on this cool and very gray day presenting me with this image of impending winter, totally bare tree branches.

Backwards temperatures

Temperatures rising during the day makes sense to me. For today, the weather wizards have forecast a backwards kind of day, temperatures falling!

An interesting notation on today's forecast - it's relatively warm now, in the low 50s, but the temperature is supposed to fall during the day, heading for the low to mid 40s.

Leaves, gone!

What a difference an early November wind makes! On Sunday as I wandered on my bike on roads surrounded by trees, I saw a lot of trees sporting yellow, orange, and red leaves. There was still some green out there, and there were sections where bare limbs were out, but there were still leaves.

This morning as I drove down the same roads, the predominant feature was trees devoid of leaves. I've been saying I'm not ready for this change of seasons, and the lack of leaves are definitely a sign I didn't want to see. I suppose I'd better get used to the change though...

Who's in charge?

I just spoke with my Mom, and she almost had me rolling on the floor laughing. She was telling me how she was preparing her car for her planned drive to Philadelphia later this week, and one of the most important tasks apparently was cleaning the windows in the back seat so that Bailey would have a clear view.

If you haven't followed my previous posts about Bailey, he's the very funny dachshund who lives with my parents. I've thought for a long time that he runs the household, and now his sphere of control has moved into the car too. Funny!

Didn't you know that this is my car?

Warm and cool, sun and fog...

...dry and mist

This weekend was one of many contrasts. While the forecast called for two sunny days, that wasn't reality. I had planned a Saturday ride along the New Hampshire coast, but I thought better of it when I was greeted with cool fog in the morning. Actually I woke both days to fog - Saturday's burned off to give us an afternoon of blue skies and sunshine, but Sunday's never showed any sign of leaving. I managed good rides both days - after all I have to take advantage of decent riding weather as long as I can! I have to admit that I had to force myself out of the house on Sunday though. Somehow 50 degrees and misty isn't my favorite riding weather, but once I was rolling I was really happy that I chose to ride.

November, and the trees are still wearing coats of many colors - and although this picture doesn't show it, there is still a bit of green out there.

A tree stump, and some amazing mushrooms.

Bare legs and bicycles

What a nice beginning to the month - sunshine and warm weather! November rolled in very softly this year, and I decided that I needed to take advantage of the warmth.

Goodbye to October and hello to November, greeted with a return to work attire (skirts!) with my warm weather bare legs instead of cold weather tights. And it was predicted to be warm enough that my bicycle jumped into the car to be prepared for lunchtime rides. I came in to work early and left late on both Monday and Tuesday, but rewarded myself for the seeming extension of my day by taking a long lunch and riding my bicycle. It was shorts and short-sleeved jersey weather; no knee warmers, no wind vest. Bright sunshine too. Fabulous!