Lovely, lovely commute this AM. I think its been 2 months since I've bicycled to work; today I saw my first significant wildlife on the commute - a deer in the river bottom & a wild turkey on the side of the road. Now, I live within the city limits of Minneapolis, so I don't expect much for wildlife. I saw the deer as I was riding over the Mendota Bridge, which crosses the Minnesota/Mississippi river valley right at the confluence. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that we see so much wildlife, given the river valley, but its still somehow bizarre. Yesterday we saw a couple hawks, who briefly perched on a tree right outside our porch for a few moments, before a squirrel scared them off (?!?). Then watched another one take down a chickadee or something in a yard across the street.

Anyhow, it was nice to get back on the bike; none of my usual excuses panned out; despite being disorganized & wasting 15 minutes packing, I was still able to get to work on time.