I've missed a few weeks posting my commute, mainly due to a bad case of cranky; I've been avoiding human contact as much as possible. But the last few rides were great; only one incident that nearly killed me. This one involved a twelve-year-old with a soccer ball.

I was on the Lake path near Recreation Dr. when I heard the kick; snapped my eyes over just in time to catch the horrified expression on the kid's face, then braced myself. The ball came down out of the branches like it had been thrown by God himself and came so close to my head I heard the whistle as it cut through the air. It hit less than a foot in front of my wheel, then bounced off to be somebody else's problem. For about a second of red-eye rage I considered wheeling around and chewing the kid's face off, but he'd been literally white with terror when he realized what he'd done, so I just cussed quietly to myself for about a quarter of a mile while my blood pressure went back to normal levels. If that thing had hit me in the head, it would have knocked me out, helmet notwithstanding.

Yesterday afternoon was not the most pleasant commute ever -- the wind was gusting from the north up to 30 mph and I could barely make headway against it. Had to detour into the streets for most of the ride home -- though I did manage to hit the part of the Lake path that swamped me and soaked my pants to the waistline. =)

It was kind of cool, going through the streets. I'm going to have to find a better "too windy to be at the shore" route home, though -- the one I took yesterday was way out of my way and had far too many seriously annoying drivers on it. One guy in a seafoam Honda kept blocking the bike lane ahead of me every chance he got, and dear lord, those cars are slow...

This morning was absolutely beautiful, bright sun, cool enough that many of the joggers had hidden indoors. Niiiiice.