Weird Ducks
I, it would seem, have plenty to blog about. The weather in Miami is beautiful. I would say January in Miami, thus far, reminds me of April in Portland. Except, now the the cold spell which had drifted over Miami for much of December and early January has lifted, and it may in fact be a bit too warm to make that Portland comparison particularly apt. And now that my life is free of online writing tutoring (having exchanged that job for the new one of actually teaching college writing), I took a very pleasant bike ride this afternoon.
On the new-to-me hand-me-down road bike that I brought back from Pittsburgh as a Solstice present from my parents. Originally my Uncle Tom's bike, the gears on it were of the wrong ratio to be usable by my father in hilly Pittsburgh (perhaps, the first really legitimate evidence that I've ever accepted that Pittsburgh does, in fact, have hills, and more hills than other places in the Northeast (knowing enough to not compare Pittsburgh's hilliness to, say, Iowa's hilliness)), but the bike's gears, ratioed for "power biking on flat surfaces" (according to my father) are in fact perfectly suited to my needs here in flatter-than-flat Miami.
I'm still too unsteady on the road bike to, like, bike on roads with it (especially in North Miami traffic), but I did ride it around a couple of times in a broad circle encompassing a small side road, the bike path around campus, and the driveway-road that leads into campus. I also upgraded my own personal street-cred (I mean the amount of cred that I give myself) by managing to tighten the rear brakes without resorting to going to the local bicycle repair shop. I thought I needed a 9mm wrench, which I don't have (I have wrenches in just about every other size between 7mm and 18mm, just no 9mm (not having a 9mm, I suppose, should lower my street cred again, but I digress)), but I found another bolt or two to twiddle that seemed to have had the desired effect.
So, I was riding my bike around campus, musing to myself as I often do. Of particular note, I think, is my curiosity as to whether I feel the way I do about dead trees because of the vultures that roost in them. Or, if what vultures see in dead trees that cause them to roost in them is actually the same thing that I see in dead trees that make me not want to do whatever the human equivalent of roosting in them would be. I'm also, speaking of the vultures, still not entirely convinced that all of the numerous vultures are American Black Vultures - I'm pretty certain there are Turkey Vultures around as well - I've definitely seen some red-headed vultures around, which is a sure sign of them not being Black Vultures.
And in other bird news, some new ducks showed up around the bike path today. Weird looking ducks that I've never seen before. This is no officially the second time that I've come to think that maybe I should look into finding a "Birds of Florida" book. They have brown circles around their eyes. Mostly white/off-whiteish bodies. And they're not afraid of bicycles. This, of course, is the worst part about these new ducks. Worrying about running over iguanas and Super-Fund Glow-in-the-daylight crabs is bad enough; now I have to worry about weird ducks too? Terrible.
On the new-to-me hand-me-down road bike that I brought back from Pittsburgh as a Solstice present from my parents. Originally my Uncle Tom's bike, the gears on it were of the wrong ratio to be usable by my father in hilly Pittsburgh (perhaps, the first really legitimate evidence that I've ever accepted that Pittsburgh does, in fact, have hills, and more hills than other places in the Northeast (knowing enough to not compare Pittsburgh's hilliness to, say, Iowa's hilliness)), but the bike's gears, ratioed for "power biking on flat surfaces" (according to my father) are in fact perfectly suited to my needs here in flatter-than-flat Miami.
I'm still too unsteady on the road bike to, like, bike on roads with it (especially in North Miami traffic), but I did ride it around a couple of times in a broad circle encompassing a small side road, the bike path around campus, and the driveway-road that leads into campus. I also upgraded my own personal street-cred (I mean the amount of cred that I give myself) by managing to tighten the rear brakes without resorting to going to the local bicycle repair shop. I thought I needed a 9mm wrench, which I don't have (I have wrenches in just about every other size between 7mm and 18mm, just no 9mm (not having a 9mm, I suppose, should lower my street cred again, but I digress)), but I found another bolt or two to twiddle that seemed to have had the desired effect.
So, I was riding my bike around campus, musing to myself as I often do. Of particular note, I think, is my curiosity as to whether I feel the way I do about dead trees because of the vultures that roost in them. Or, if what vultures see in dead trees that cause them to roost in them is actually the same thing that I see in dead trees that make me not want to do whatever the human equivalent of roosting in them would be. I'm also, speaking of the vultures, still not entirely convinced that all of the numerous vultures are American Black Vultures - I'm pretty certain there are Turkey Vultures around as well - I've definitely seen some red-headed vultures around, which is a sure sign of them not being Black Vultures.
And in other bird news, some new ducks showed up around the bike path today. Weird looking ducks that I've never seen before. This is no officially the second time that I've come to think that maybe I should look into finding a "Birds of Florida" book. They have brown circles around their eyes. Mostly white/off-whiteish bodies. And they're not afraid of bicycles. This, of course, is the worst part about these new ducks. Worrying about running over iguanas and Super-Fund Glow-in-the-daylight crabs is bad enough; now I have to worry about weird ducks too? Terrible.
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