I woke this morning to a loud "bang." At first I thought my son was up early doing something, so I didn't pay it any attention. When I walked out the garage door I saw a good sized pheasant laying in front of the living room window. He was still alive, but still stunned. I hope he survives, but he wasn't looking too good and I have a feeling when I get home from work I'll have to dispose of a dead pheasant. Second bird that window will have killed this week.

34F this morning, but similar to Monday the sun was out and the headwind was light. I got out the door a few minutes early, so I tacked on an extra mile just for the fun of it.

I rode my fixed gear again today. As I was riding up to the building I unclipped, but then wasn't paying attention and managed to get my left angle caught between the pedal and the chainstay. Suddenly I felt a bolt of pain and the bike started skidding. At first I was worried that I'd either really damaged my ankle, or bent the chainstay or even worse, both. To my amazement, once I walked around for a few minutes my ankle felt fine, and my chainstay only needed some black marks left from my shoe to be rubbed off.

While the bike was hanging from the wall rack and I was cleaning the chainstay, I went around and wiped down the rest of it to remove the little splatters of mud and dirt that quickly collect after a couple of rides. I had completely detailed the bike over the winter so it's still in that "I don't want any dirt on it" stage.

Then I noticed my chain was a little loose so I pulled out my wrench and did a little adjustment. I learned that the kind of wall rack where the bike is suspended by the rear wheel really works well to tighten a fixed gear chain. I just loosened the axle bolts slightly and the weight of the bike pulled the chain tight. Then I just tightened them up again.

All that and I still walked into the office a few minutes early.