Another two trips to add

It seems this year that I write new Catrike entries for every two trips done. I'm not sure why that is but it doesn't seem to matter much.

The first trip was one Adam and I did this past Saturday. The weather has been marvellously unstable. The rains we were finally experiencing and soaking the ground resulted in moments of blue skies and bright sunshine followed by dark grey clouds and lashing warm rains. Without delving too deeply into a meteorology lesson here, the cycle can be summarized like this:

1. the sun comes out, heats the moist air and the air rises into cooler air above
2. the air hits the cooler air, condenses and releases its moisture only to fall as rain
3. the rainshower passes and the sun comes out
4. go to 1.

At any rate, wanting to take advantage of the mostly blue sky, we left and headed east towards the library. Yes, we both saw the dark grey rolling mass approaching but we also thought it would just pass us to the east as so many of these rainshowers do.

We were wrong.

By the time we got to about 1 or 2 kilometres from our house, the few telltale drops had multiplied into a light drizzle. By the time we exited the road and onto the bike path near the library, the light drizzle had - um - matured into a drenching rain. We wound up taking shelter at the library drive-through book drop off (yes, those exist) and just waited the storm out. Soaked to the skin, we decided to just head back home but we didn't go directly home. Instead, we took a roundabout way to get there. We also noticed that the streets were bone dry - as though the rainstorm we had been caught in hadn't even touched the place a mere few blocks away.

No matter, I had a lot of fun and, besides, what gets wet will dry.

The second trip was one I took myself. It was the trip we had originally planned to take on the Saturday. As Adam had other things to get done, and before the day warmed up too much, I decided to head out on my own. Once again, I rode towards the library, dodging puddles and some amazing frost heaves and other potholes. This time, I zoomed beyond the drive-through book drop off and continued onto Lorry Greenberg. It was mid-morning so there were no cars around in any great numbers. There was, however, a squirrel who seemed bound and determined to get hit by a vehicle no matter what. That vehicle would turn out to be mine.

Squirrels aren't known for their intelligence but I like to think that they, like all animals, have a natural tendency to avoid getting injured or killed...not so with this squirrel. I saw him well back and I had assumed he saw me as well. I approached. He stood on someone's front lawn and seemed to be watching me, timing things as to maximize his chances of getting hit. Sure enough, as I cycled along, he darted out in front of me only to get his furry tail just lightly nicked by my front left wheel. There's no point in slowing down or speeding up as they can adjust their leap to accommodate your speed. The squirrel was okay as he just tripped a bit and then ran off. Maybe he was heading to the nearest major road so he could play dodge ball with the cars there.

Squirrels are just phenomenally stupid.

Nevertheless, no one was the worse for wear and I successfully did my run along Lorry Greenberg, past Conroy and onto Blohm and around that suburban area before reversing my tracks. Like Saturday's extra venture, I turned onto Albion Road and rode up there to get home - just to get some extra distance there.

Tally for both days was 19.1 kilometres done. That leaves me 116.8 to go as of today.