Riding

People! I just got back from the most incredible bike ride.

I thank you all sincerely for your exam encouragement, in comments on my last post, e-mails, and phone calls. However, I must say that at the moment I'm feeling particularly indebted to Ellen, who this evening e-mailed something along the lines of, "You haven't left the house in three days? You should really ride your bike!"

I only rode about six miles, around the lake and back, but it was fantastic. The fact that I forgot my camera is probably just as well, as I would have been stopping every few feet, and as it couldn't have come close to capturing the evening's splendor anyway. If I could have bottled just this evening's air, or accurately captured only the shadows of the leaves cast on the huge houses around the lake, you'd hardly have believed it. If you had been there, in person, with me, as the evening sun glinted off the kayaks and the cool breeze smelling like warm bark wafted past us, you still wouldn't have believed this evening. That's how amazing it was. A few times a year, I'm convinced that this really is one of the best places on earth to live; tonight was one of them.

When I got home, I had a shirt full of gnats. Funny how a tank top is a perfect scoop when you're leaning over your handlebars.

Now back to work; according to my schedule I'm supposed to finish my first essay tonight. I've written 11.5 pages so far, but am not finished yet. I'm hoping that having finally started squeezing words onto the page my second and third essay will come more easily, but I'm not holding my breath.

Adding slightly to my stress level is the fact that my pointer has started going nuts, traveling slowly or frantically across the screen to lodge in either the lower left or upper right corner. Sometimes I can pry it free and make it work (often by leaning hard on the pointing stick while working the touchpad with my other hand); other times I give up and navigate using the keyboard. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, it behaves normally.

Back to work.