Was on vacation with the family all last week, so today was a shock to the system to get back into my usual routine. While we were traveling I had adjusted my sleep schedule to match that of my wife's, who's a night owl. As a result, last night when I crawled into bed at 10:30 I laid there awake for several hours. Then I finally started to doze, but would wake frequently. After about 3 AM I started to sleep better but unfortunately my alarm went off at 5:40 so I really didn't get much sleep.

I got up and went for a 4.25 mile run. I decided I had to jump right back into my exercise program as I stepped on the scale and was dismayed to learn I'd gained 13 pounds in the previous 10 days. I'm sure some of that is water weight, but I'm also sure that a chunk of it isn't. Gorging myself for more than a week was a lot of fun, but now I'm paying the price. Also, while I did a lot of walking on vacation my overall activity level actually went down from normal and that certainly didn't help.

It wasn't supposed to rain today, but while running there was some thunder and lightning, then about halfway through a light drizzle started falling. The temp was a fairly pleasant 70 degrees, but there was a strong steady wind and the humidity was high. Temps will be quite a bit warmer this evening on my way home from work. Thankfully the rain should pass.

Back at home I hopped on the bike for my ride to work. I took the hybrid for two reasons: first, it was still raining and my hybrid has fenders. Second, my hybrid has the hookup for my trailer, which I pulled to work. I'm glad I don't have to lug that thing behind me very often as even empty it catches the air noticeably.

So why did I pull the trailer to work? I returned from vacation to find a note that I had a package waiting to be picked up at the post office. My birthday gift from my brother and his fiancee had arrived: a unicycle. I thought about just riding back home and then driving to the post office to pick it up, but the client office where I'm working today is just a few blocks away and it seemed silly to return with a car. So on my way home I'm going to be on a bicycle, pulling a trailer, holding a unicycle.

My birthday gift was actually a gift card. I was leaning towards using it for something practical, but my wife convinced me to "do something fun with it." I'd toyed with the idea of getting a unicycle for a few years now, and decided to go for it. Never ridden one but I figure it might be fun to try. I've heard it takes 15-30 hours of dedicated practice before you can ride one reasonably well. I guess we'll see if this old dog can be taught a new trick.

There's a guy I see who commutes on a unicycle. Maybe I can get good enough to join him before winter hits?