I tried a new smoothie today. Because we have a lot of peaches, you see. The go-to has been a simple peach, ice, dash of milk and honey. And, recently, I swapped out the honey for a bit of brown sugar. That’s been a hit.

Just to experiment, though, because when you have bushels of peaches and a powerful blender everything seems viable, I decided to take out the brown sugar and add a chunk of chocolate. It did not turn into a nice brown color, because it was a chunk that just turned into bits. Thousands of tiny little bits. I guess I was hoping I’d wind up with a peach flavored Frosty … which the people from Wendy’s should call me about … but that’s not what happened here.

It wasn’t the best smoothie ever, but it was a worthy experiment. That little chocolate bunny gave its chocolate life for me to find that out.

I think we have some jelly beans somewhere … maybe I should try those next …

I will not try those next. Why tamper with what works?

Let’s get right to the site’s most popular weekly feature. I know it is, because they tell me it is. They, of course, being the kitties.

I’m a sucker for whenever Phoebe sleeps on her paw. Not sure what it is, other than just about the cutest thing she can do while she’s napping.

I was telling a story on Poseidon the other day. It was a common tale around here. One where I get to blame him for whatever is going on. It’s a high percentage play because he’s usually very much the cause of things. And just as I told that story I had to go down to the basement to fetch this or that.

The basement is a wondrous place to the cats, because we don’t allow them down there. I know, for a fact, that if we let them come and go they wouldn’t be interested at all. But, while the basement is cat friendly, it isn’t cat proof. So they don’t get to go. And just as I was heading to the basement he made a run. He’s good at timing these things, but he didn’t win out this time. He covered it well, though. He wasn’t darting for the basement, you see, he just needed to rub his chin on the door.

Poseidon has also recently discovered an interest in corn husks, but they aren’t a good treat for cats. So the corn, even the fresh picked stuff, goes directly into the refrigerator. Which means he must try to also go into the refrigerator.

If we get too much corn, we are keeping it in the laundry room, because we have cats and when you have cats you put your corn in the laundry room. He, of course, needs to be in there constantly.

So the cats, you can see, are doing very well, thank you.

I’m getting pretty good at timing out evening rides. This is why I did not get in a ride this evening. I waited too late, doing other things. (Two of those things had to do with peaches.) On Saturday, however, I set out at 6:35 for a 25 mile ride.

That still left a lot of time to enjoy the views through the corn fields.

Oh, I had lights a plenty. There’s a blinkie on my seat post all the time. In my back pocket, in the evenings, I carry a little four buck triangle light that I got for Christmas last year. It shines right through the material so well I’m going to pick up some more the next time I’m at the hardware store.

For the front I have my trusty One80 bike light. I saw their head lamps on Instagram, a runner I follow swore by them. I bought the Yankee one, she loved it. I bought myself one. And then they pushed those bike lights. I got one for both of us. She doesn’t particularly care for night riding, but I do, and I think those lamps are so great I bought two more of them, just to keep on a shelf in the basement — where the cats aren’t allowed.

I passed one stunning barn on the way back — I took a different road, for the different views, and it turns out to have worked very well for that time of day.

So I was well stocked in illumination products, but it turns out I didn’t need them. Oh, I turned on my blinkie and the one I carry in my jersey pocket, a bit more visibility for the distracted drivers behind you never hurt anyone, but I figured I would get all the way back home before I needed to use much of my front light. If anything, I figured, there is one dark patch where it might be necessary.

A strange thing happened on the back half of my ride. I didn’t realize it until I was almost all the way back home, but my legs came back. I don’t know where they’ve been since roughly mid May, but everything else felt a little sluggish and even slower than normal since then. Saturday night, however, there was plenty of power and energy.

This is all relative, of course. Relative to this point in life, and all of that. But compared to the rest of the summer, the second half of this ride was great. And kinda almost approaching a reasonable speed.

I don’t want to say I was a super man, or anything. Maybe I was just inspired by this view. Because, as I looked to my left and saw that gravel drive and that farm and that sunset I thought, If a kid grew up there, he had a great chance to play Clark Kent.

And so I made it home with daylight to spare. Not much. But still.

Maybe my legs are returning. I bet its the peaches.

The time has come upon us. Or it is very nearly upon us. Any day now. Any moment now. We’ll be drowned in peaches. I picked these off the ground on Saturday. We’d had some rain and a bit of wind and so a few landed on the ground a bit early. They aren’t all ripe yet, but there are plenty of things you can do with almost-there peaches.

My goal, this year, is to not be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of peaches the tree produces. And the happy thought is I will not get scurvy this month or next. I’ll also get more vitamin A than any reasonable person should.

Seriously, come by and get some peaches. There will be plenty to share. Our neighbors can enjoy only so many. Our freezer has a limit. There’s ice cream and bread to work around in there.

It says here on the ol’ Garmin that I’d ridden two hours and five minutes when I took this photograph on Saturday.

I shot that in the neighborhood next to ours, so I was almost home. My overall ride was about two hours and 15 minutes. All of which is to say, I am riding slow.

That’s not a problem, but it is annoying. And, if you’re slow, you have a lot of time to ponder the situation. A lot of time.

Today’s ride wasn’t any faster, but I did enjoy a new road. Quite a few, in fact, but this was the one I’d wanted to try, the whole point of this particular ride. Through the trees until it teed, and, then, turn right into you get back into town and then head on in.

I saw five deer. Or I saw one or two twice, it’s difficult to say.

This evening I looked and it seems I’ve been slow since May, so there’s that.

But, my ride on Saturday did offer me a consolation. On Saturday, 2024 moved into second place in terms of miles ridden. Still four months to go! I might need them all to put 2024 atop the ledger. Especially after July, which was no good. Sick, heat, travel, and when you mix them all together it turned into a bit of apathy. Maybe the break will help in the long run, but as you can see from the graph, it put me behind.

I’ll get back on track. Staying above those trend lines is an important part of the goal.

What’s more important is the site’s most popular weekly feature, checking in on the kitties. (I think it’s been a few weeks now.)

The most important thing, though, might be Phoebe’s milk. I’ll eat a bowl of granola and she’ll wait impatiently. Lately, she has become more impatient, and has chosen to express this through biting. That was fun for about a week, but then the bites got a bit sharper. A bit more adamant. More … pointed. Everything on this beautiful cat is sharp and pointy.

Apparently, she’s trained herself to know when I am almost through with my bowl. Apparently I have a pattern, because when I pick up the bowl, she knows I’m wiping it out, and so there’s more stamping and head butting and biting.

At first I counted the bites, and recounted them later to my lovely bride, because it was cute. Now, I’m actively defending myself from this beautiful, sharp, pointy cat.

She gets insistent because when I’m done, it’s her turn.

When she has her fill, she doesn’t drink much, she takes a few steps away, stops, and then does the full-body shake. I put away the bowl and find out where she’s chosen to enjoy her milk coma.

Poseidon does not get milk. He can’t handle the hard stuff. He’s catose intolerant. The Yankee gives him almond milk. Bougie cat.

He’s presently sitting on a box. We tell them not to get on the counters, which they ignore. But they are also jailhouse lawyers, and take pride in sitting on papers, bags or boxes that are on the kitchen bar, as if to say, “Not on the counter!”

It is working against him though because, this is his food. And if he’s sitting there, I can’t open it, and feed him.

He’s smart. He’ll figure it out.

I caught him emerging from his cabinet above the refrigerator. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before.

Recently, The Yankee took exception to my calling it “his” cabinet in her kitchen. But, I reminded her, she was the one that put a blanket in the cabinet for him.

The kitties, as you can see, are doing well. And I hope you are, too. Have a great week!

I am trying, trying, to get back in the swing of things. A few inches at a time, one step at a time, whatever it is. The word lethargy comes to mind. So does the word apathy. I wanted to say it’s a combination, an intersection of the two, except they are the same.

I turned down a party invite and a day trip because it just didn’t feel like I would be the best company this weekend. Pretending takes energy, and there’s lethargy. It seemed a rare moment of self awareness, a moment that make no sense.

I took an easy little bike ride on Saturday evening. It seems like I’m always taking these breaks from the bike and there’s always a reset. Maybe it isn’t really necessary. Maybe the point is just being on a road somewhere.

This requires no pretending. This I have energy for. The mental sort, anyway. Still takes fuel and rest to pedal yourself around, even if only a little bit. Even if you can coast by a winery and try to line up a sunset.

Sometime later, though it doesn’t like it should be, I decided to show off my new glasses. In the evening you don’t need shades, but it’s good to protect the eyes.

I’m wearing actual safety glasses. Hardware store specials. The cheapest thing possible. And they’re also incredibly lightweight. So lightweight that the arms are basically all a very flimsy rubber. This is fine, except for when you need to take the glasses off and then put them back on.

Also, I thought that maybe I could catch the sun behind me. Took a few tries, but good east-west roads are worthy of the effort.

One last sun photo …

And then immediately opposite, my favorite, nicely lit, hay shed.

I’ve been waiting a while to take that shot.

I have no recollection of the next five or six miles. I was deep into imagining a speech I’ll never give. (It happens, but usually in the car.) I got back to the house and wasn’t even sure if I’d taken the route I wanted. (I did.) It was a good speech, though.

Last night I took a a 30-mile ride. New roads!

I love new roads. There’s something romantic about being lost on a bike. Lost is a relative term here, I’d mapped this route on an app beforehand, but a good portion of my plan was all new.

And then, of course, I missed a turn on my route. For a time, I was actually lost, which is also great. I wasn’t that far from home, just two towns away, and there was still plenty of light, and before you long I ran across a road I knew. That took me to another road, which allowed me to double back, because there was light, and get back on my original course. Along the way I ran across a farm I remember from a ride last November.

And then I breezed by what is, I think, a new-to-me barn.

It can be awfully pretty out here. And, at that time in the evening, when everyone is already where they needed to be, it can be wonderfully peaceful, too.

Here are some more sunset photos, this one through the cornfields on the way back to our neighborhood.

And after those cornfields, you go through a few more cornfields.

There is a great deal of corn just now.

And close to home, and just in time for a nice glimpse of the sun retiring into the distance.

After that I made myself a giant peach smoothie dinner. But that’s an uninteresting topic I’ll share with you later this week — when I have time to make it more interesting. Now, we have to head out for another pastime.