I am filling the internet with colorful leaves. Flooding your bandwidth with reds and yellows and greens, before they all turn to burlywood, burnt umber and other shades of … brown. And if you don’t like that, just scroll down, and you’ll find another short story about a bicycle ride.

This is a panorama. If you click the image you can see the full size. It’s part of our view in our backyard.

It’s a nice enough view for most of the year:

And look at this maple, blowing it’s last trumpet of the year:

We went for a walk this weekend and I saw this hole in the woods. I’m sure I’ve been through there, but it looks like a tunnel to Narnia or some such just now:

We had a nice time on our little path:

It eventually leads out to this maple, which is having a moment of its own:

And at the end of the path, where it returns to the road, and an empty field opposite:

And we saw this comparatively modest little thing on a sidewalk in one of the neighborhoods we walked by on our way back:

As I wrote here last week I had the 4,032nd flat of the year on Wednesday. I didn’t get a chance to ride again until Saturday. This is how that process worked itself out.

I decided to blame the tire, so I blamed the tire, and threw it out. Gave it a speech and everything. It was … perfunctory.

So I had to put a new tire on the back wheel of my bike. This is why you keep spares in your bike room. Did you know that bike tires come in different sizes? I did. Did you know that I managed to purchase the wrong size tires the last time I bought them? I did not. You can’t put a 650c tire on a 700c wheel, and I knew better than to try.

But! I found an old 700c tire I could use. So I started the process. Tire on wheel, tube in tire, start working it all togeth — oh, that’s why this is an old and used tire. This giant blistered bruised area. Now the mystery is: why did I keep this one?

So I threw out that tire, without a perfunctory speech. I figure it understand the sentiment.

I have still more tires. And they are all my wife’s, and they are racing tires. I considered putting one of those on. They are lighter and aren’t designed for the durability that I so clearly and obviously need.

So I thought about that, because anything worth doing is worth agonizing over for a few minutes. And then I remembered: I have an entire wheelset on my old bike I can cannibalize. So, off came a 700c Gatorskin, which has sat still enough to show off a little indentation. I put it on the good bike, put the new tube in, said a little prayer to the gods of vulcanized rubber, which is probably Vulcan, the god of forge and fire, and pumped it all up.

Well, I have an in with Vulcan. The new tube inflated, and that took care of the shape of the tire. And it all went back on the bike and out we went for a bike road of undetermined duration, because, hey, who knows at this point?

So we rode around our most usual route because, hey, who knows at this point? And we spent our prescribed amount of time pedaling away and I got in 25 miles with no problem.

And I’m climbing up the ranks! This weekend ride put 2020 third in my list of compiled mileage.

Now I’ll just have to see about setting a new high mark. We should be there in just a few more weeks.

Enjoyed a little bike ride in the warmth of Saturday afternoon. We are in that season where it is too chilly to want to ride in the morning. And the evening cools off just in time to go back inside. But, in between, it can be perfect.

So we had the usual bike ride weaving through the nearby neighborhoods and around the eastern side of town. No legs, but plenty of heart, some good smiles and a fine amount of fun.

Not too much fun, just the proper, moderate, amount. Not so much that you overdo it, but enough to make you want to go try to have a similar amount of fun. So, sometime in the next week, I’ll go have another ride with the appropriate amount of enjoyment. Nothing gluttonous, mind you, something perfectly unassuming.

But if I pile on the miles I can collect a personal best for the year.

What to do, what to do.

In addition to this being Catober, it’s also leaf season. It’s a bit dry just now, but maybe that won’t keep us from a nice, long leaf turn. If it hasn’t rained in a while maybe it’ll hold off for another month or so. It’s dry, but rain is nature’s big achoo around here. One shower and the leaves are everywhere. And trees don’t wear masks.

So, as long as it lasts, be warned: the photos around here will be soothing and/or reflective for a while:

The and/or construction is seldom used with great effect, but, I have found, it works when discussing the transitory nature of trees.

There’s also that sky rolling in, the one I dread for most of the next six months or so. The first real indication of that rolled in yesterday.

Autumn isn’t worth it, but I have no say in these things. It happens whether I want it to, or not. I am in the middle of it whether I want to be, or not. So, cheerily, one must find ways to rationalize it and take whatever advantage you can.

The maple in the backyard gives a nice going away present, at least.

It’s weird. You spend the summer dreading the autumn. I don’t mind autumn itself, but it’s signal. When the skies get gray and the tempers swing wildly and the leaves go, I know I’ll spend the autumn dreading the winter and “spring.” There should be a better way to look at that. Yet to find it.