friday facts

fun friday facts:

today's vehicle count is in honor of my friend connie t: 7 vehicles heading east up the canyon, 11 vehicles heading west down the canyon.

this morning's star count: 0

this morning's airplane count: 2

temperature when I left my house at 5:30: 55 balmy degrees

number of other outdoor exercise enthusiasts seen: 0

number of big unidentifiable things in the middle of the road: 1

what an odd morning it was: absolutely perfect for halloween. clouds covered the sky, blocking my view of the stars and keeping the temperature up. I could feel the humidity just sitting in the air particles sweeping past my face, and it felt as though I might by riding through the mist of low-hanging clouds. scotland, I thought, then perhaps san francisco. somewhere along the coast, somewhere less inhabited than san francisco, perhaps the oregon coast. I rode for miles without seeing a car or another body. I heard nothing but the rattling of leaves as the wind pushed them into each other, and the gentle crashing of water against rock in the creek.
no hooting owls, no howling coyotes, not even a scampering rabbit or squirrel.
it was a perfectly calm and eerie, dark halloween morning.

my friend connie has a thing about the numbers 7 and 11, in combination. she often finds this 7-11 popping into her life: significant moments, when she glances at the clock and sees that it's 7:11, perhaps a bit of news that comes to her on the 11th day of the 7th month. ( I have a thing about 6:25, as that combines my birth month and day. every time I glance at the clock and see 6:25, I smile and give thanks for my being on earth. ) so I was thrilled with my vehicle count this morning, and give connie this small gift.

as for the outdoor exercising enthusiast count: it has been a weak week for early morning sightings. which could be due to the incredibly excellent afternoon and evening weather we've been experiencing . . . many people might choose to exercise in daylight when the temperature is in the upper 60's and 70's instead of in the dark when it's in the 40's. go figure.
wednesday morning I saw just one runner, mr. christmas tree, with lights on his shoes and in a triangle on his back. yesterday, a lone runner with just a headlamp. and this morning, not another soul, running, biking, walking, or standing. all week, no bikes. no bikes at all.

as for the indecipherable object in the road: I have no idea whether it was a wind-filled plastic grocery bag, a porcupine, or something somewhere between the two. I was coming downhill, at a healthy speed, riding in the middle of the lane because it feels safer than being in the bike lane on the edge of the road, where junk and rocks and dead animals are more likely to congregate. I receive plenty warning from the headlights of descending vehicles, allowing me to move over to my own place (the bike lane) before they get too close. so this big thing in the middle of the road caught me by surprise, as I caught just a glimpse of it as I sped past, luckily a foot or so to the right of its location. porcupine? bag of garbage? hallucination? I'm not really sure, which is one of the fun things about riding in the dark . . . you are often left with unanswerable questions, an excellent place for someone with a creative imagination to be.