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.