This picture has nothing to do with anything other than I think pigeons are kind of cute and their voices are soothing. I took this picture on my lunch break today.
Yesterday, I rode home from work with my jacket tied around my waist, like the big girls (highschool girls) used to do in the mid-80s. We younger girls used to emulate them, tying sweatshirts, sweaters, jean-jackets or those horrid nylon windbreakers lumpily around our weaselly little hips. Today, I rode to work with my obnoxious zip-away cargo pants rolled up to mid-calf (Shants! Pahorts! Schpants!). Aaah, the fashion crimes I commit in the name of comfort. When you gotta ventilate, you gotta ventilate, and goodness knows I don't need stifled calves. I'll tell you the truth, I wasn't wearing a single sweater, and my jacket was unzipped to mid-sternum. It's just that darn nice outside.
So, in the face of all this warm weather, with reasonably pleasant weekend weather forecasted, I'm plotting out my riding plans. I've got some errands to run on Saturday, plus I want to do the ACME afternoon ride, then Sunday Joel and I are going to be riding out to Landahl. He's got a race to participate in, and we're probably going to do a casual loop around some part of the trail system later on that afternoon. Assuming the whole thing isn't a slopping mudpit. If it is, he'll ride in the race, then we'll probably do something a little more paved, in the interest of not destroying the trails any more than is strictly necessary. Because though mud is fun, we want to be kind to the trails and the people who build and maintain them.
I've been promising myself a rotary cutter and cutting mat since I did Julie's wedding dress, and that was like five years ago. I was still living in the apartment on Warwick, so it had to have been over four years ago, and I think I may have started that dress before I moved into that apartment from the roach motel on 38th & Main. Anyhow, I've been meaning to get a cutting mat and rotary cutter for ages, and never got around to it for one reason or the next, but it's time already. I also could use a new pair of decent scissors…maybe a pair of shears and a smaller pair for cutting appliqués. The scissors I have are actually pretty crappy, and I do use 'em an awful lot.
The other thing I need is more socks. I've been throwing away all of my old, over-stretched, holey-heeled, thin-toed, lousy cotton socks, and now I'm pretty much down to a couple of pair of kind of ornamental knee socks, the woollies I bought last winter, and three pair of cycling socks I won at various alleycats and raffles. There's an army surplus store on the way back from the fabric shop, and Joel said he'd stopped in and was favorably impressed with their sock selection and prices, so I'm likely to stop in and re-stock socks. Re-sock. Apparently they have a lot of lightweight wool socks in various colors, plus Wigwam hiking socks on the cheap.
I also need to go down to Brookside and get some Diet Catfood for Little Miss, who has been feasting on Grizzo's prescription bladder-care chow, and is starting to bulk up rather alarmingly.
Here you see her trying to make a nest in the back of my BOB trailer.
This past weekend Joel and I rode out to Independence, just because. The weather was really nice, and there is a work-and-western store out there which was rumored to have the sort of workboots I needed. Indeed, they had the boots I wanted, plus another pair, both of which were at prices I found highly agreeable. I spent $74 for the workboots and $35 for the army jungle boots. Now I have two pair of sneakers and two pair of boots, plus the dress shoes I'm hoarding against Audrey & Matt's wedding, so I guess I'm thoroughly shoed-up now.
I took some pictures of a cool old house and its charmingly co-ordinated garage. They did cool, patterned roofs with ordinary asphalt shingles. Please enjoy the photos.
