Sunday, February 3, 2013

Sunny day, lazy day - Part the Second

It's WAY too warm for this time of year. I mean, the days have been so very beautiful lately with highs in the upper-60s or low-70s, mostly sunny skies, relatively low humidity, and light breezes but, let's face it, it's FEBRUARY! If it's this warm this early what's it going to be like in July?

I suppose it can't really get all that much worse in July and August. Hot and humid is hot and humid, period. It's just the thought of adding another month or two to the length of summer that gets to me.

Still, once I got to the levee and turned downriver I couldn't help but sigh with pleasure at the sunny, cool yet warm vista before me. There was little traffic on River Road to my left, I suspect due to the parade. The river on my right had very clearly come up but wasn't too high. If there was a breeze it seemed to be at my back and all was well.

Having mulled over a couple of different possible routes, each depending on where I wanted to stop or what I wanted to see, and my time constraint to get back before the streets were closed again for the night parade I headed to LSU / Highland Coffee / The Bicycle Shop. It's The Bicycle Shop that changed my plans.

I should know better than to go to the Shop when I don't have to be anywhere in particular. I did want to borrow a full-sized Allen wrench to swap out my regular bottle cages for the Kleen Kanteen-specific bottle cages but that shouldn't have taken long. As it turns out I finished swapping them out easily but then asked about a new steel frame touring bike Specialized is making. Two hours later I headed out.

Much later than anticipated and very close to being parade-blocked, I headed home but chose a route that would take me past the home of a couple of friends. If they were home I thought I'd stop for a few minutes to say hello then head to the house. If not, no big, I'd just head home.

As I rode past their house I saw them in the kitchen window waving. Seems they WERE home. My u-turn almost turned into a crash because of all the gravel in the road but I kept it together, finished the turn, and rode up their kitchen path to the door. Before long I'd agreed to stay for dinner (oh-so-delicious pot roast) and a couple of beers. No need to worry about the parade now!

By the time I left there was nothing going on downtown. The parade was over and the streets were uncannily clean. I hardly saw any beads along the route and that's noteworthy this time of year.

It was too late to do much of anything, much less laundry, so I just chilled and eventually headed to bed. There's always tomorrow, right?

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