endless possibilities

i know i've talked about it a lot lately, but i really do love my bike. tonight i took what mapmyride says was a 7 mile ride, but i think it might have been shorter. six miles is what it felt like, anyhow. it was a beautiful evening, sunny and warm and by the time the sun set i was hot and welcomed the cool air. it feels weird that i ride a bike sometimes; a few months ago i would have never thought "oh yeah, i'm going to go home and take a five mile bike ride." five miles seemed like a lot in the beginning, especially considering i am not in the best of shape. what makes riding my bike different from other "exercise" is that it's fun. you get to see all sort of neat stuff, you can go slow or fast, it's hard without being ridiculously hard. i guess a better way to put it is that it's hard but with awesome perks. the more i ride, the easier it gets, too. in a short amount of time i think i've gotten stronger and better at riding, which is saying something because i am a lazy girl and i ride a one-speed bike. being outside by myself is also cool.

a few perks from today's ride:

• seeing random kittens down by the waterfront. i bet they are boatyard mousers!
• lots of cute dogs being walked.
  
• big black cows hanging out.
  
• many, many wild bunnies.
• i'm pretty sure i saw a heron, which i feel like is my lucky bird. i know that's weird, but i always feel a lot luckier after i see one. i'm sure it's just some weird superstition, a little magical thinking on my part, but herons tend to show up when i feel lousy and they make me feel better.
  
• i cannot tell you how much i love the smell of salt air. campfires are a close second, with campfires on the beach being basically the best smell on earth. the holy trifecta adds cooking meat or marshmallows. that's a scent that should be bottled and then applied liberally.
  

my parent's got home from their vacation tonight. baby was insane with glee. you could hear her popping up all over, yelling "grammy! pop pop!" and giggling like crazy. she crawled up on mom while i was talking to her and i hear her say, "maggie love grammy." it nearly killed me. i mean, maggie loves me, i know, but she doesn't love anyone the way she loves her grammy. i think i'm third or fourth on her list, which is still top five and fine by me! it was awesome to talk to my folks, their vacation plans this time were very "we'll see what happens" so i never knew where they were or when they were coming back. fun for them, annoying for the rest of us. i think they had fun, i'll find out for sure next week.