In Which A Near Star Shines and Hides

April 17--Clarence at Cedar Lake near sunset.

April in Iowa: This one has been a nice once, although freezing temperatures and even a small chance of snow are in the forecast for next week. This time of year can be breezy, cool, cloudy, sunny, warm, cold—whatever weather you want, might get it in April in Iowa.

The week started with some late commutes from work, due to my role as an advisor to a student newspaper.

April 11--Bike on Rohde Plaza, MMU (above and below) as I have some late commutes.

Then, most of the week was windy and cool. I rode Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather was nice Thursday, but I was also scheduled to go off campus for my second Bill Gates microchip implant, so I rode in with my wife. Friday I had arranged to work from home anyway, anticipating my body would be a bit wonky as its immune system fought the false coronavirus foe.

As it turned out, I was lucky. I did feel very tired and had a mild headache, but that was it. Chip enabled. Body restored. A fortnight to the fullest available immunity—with the caveat that nobody knows for sure yet what that means.

Saturday was a gorgeous day that mostly I did not spend in the saddle. In the morning, a grandson was finishing a sleepover. Then it was my least favorite day all all—New Car Day. Our Dodge Dart had been smashed while it was parked, and the insurance rental was returned on COVID-shot day, so here we were, test driving unpleasant hunks of metal with four wheels. We bought one. It’s OK, but nowhere near as fun as any vehicle with a derailleur.

And there was the front parking, the area between the sidewalk and the street. Last year, a large ash tree was knocked down by the derecho storm, and when the city came to cut and remove its tree, their equipment (and the tree) had pretty much stripped the lawn and left it there an uneven mess.

So Saturday I was playing with a spade, moving dirt, spreading around some new topsoil, planting grass and clover seeds (I’m not sure why people freak over clove and try to get ride of it—it’s a lawn seed one can buy, makes pretty little plants that have nice flowers, feeds the bees—I’m a clover planter, not a clover fighter). My wife aided me, but the effort took some hours.

Well, it was done by 6:30, and the day was still gorgeous, another sunny day in this otherwise cloudy week, so I got Clarence (my hybrid bike) out and took a quick spin down to Cedar Lake. The detour on the trail is still there, but now one can circle the lake, which is nice.

It was getting dark and I was running with lights by the end of the ride. Still, even on this too busy Saturday, a ride was nice. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, a health crisis due to an accident was brewing in the narrative of a loved one, and that put a sad punctuation on an otherwise nice Saturday. Be grateful for modern medicine—it can be a literal life saver.

Note: Discovered on May 8 I had not posted. And the health crisis was not mine, but a relative, and although recovery is a long road, the person in question is doing well.