That's Where it Came From?

With Alpha and eBaby off on a work trip with Alpha's mom for company, I needed to do something that I wouldn't normally be able to do. The last trip, my activity was staying up late reading that damn book (boy wizard who-will-not-be-named). Tonight I decided to take a late-night bike ride.

This is something I haven't done in a very long time. So, I put a few extra lights on the single-speed, donned a shirt that would be seen, and rode off into the dark night. I'd forgotten how fun riding in the dark is. The area near our house is very secluded and very dark, but with the shirt I was wearing, I wasn't worried about being noticed by the few cars on the short bit of road I was on.

I decided to take the paved bike path towards the museum instead of the park road. The park has developed a few soft spots in the dirt surface that would be impossible to see in the dark. Even on predictable pavement, I had forgotten that the faster you go, the further you want to aim your lights. It was funny to use the brakes going down hills only because I didn't feel comfortable with how many seconds ahead I was able to see the bike path.

Once I was safely through the "speed" of the "downhill" section I was happy to be climbing up from the pond and past the horse farm. The silence was equal to the darkness, only while the darkness was pierced by my feeble bike lights, the silence was mainly taken up by the frogs and bugs. In its simplicity, the single speed doesn't make much noise. Just as I was beginning to enjoy the night noises, feeling alone in the dark I got the answer to a question that had been asked on another dark night, mainly, "Where did that deer come from?"

Yeah. Except it's actually scarier to have a deer jump out in front of you when you're only on a bike. It's also good that as a smaller target, I was spared the body-work the Scooby-Blue had to endure. Apparently, the deer like to sleep in the ditch between the bike path and the horse fence and the spook easily. It must have been my shirt.