"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

Gaming update (yes, Chris and Mel, it's a game that relates to some of your past travels! a little :-)

I had little sleep last night, but I do have the comfortable feeling of an empty laundry basket and a full sock drawer! (Not for me the fate of the Prince Regent...)( other stuff behind cut )

Nice bike ride this morning; foggy and damp, showing off the bottomland colours of autumn in the little valley where I ride. The trees and streams all dark and muddy, the few leaves left are shreds of bright green or yellow, pink or orange against the darkness of trunks and water. I almost didn't see any of my wildlife chums, just joggers and dogs out with their walkers, but in the return leg I did see a young deer. Lovely person!

I also saw a NEW BIRD!!!!!!! New to me, obviously, not an undiscovered species. Along with the usual doves and blue jays and robins and mocking birds that I see near the ballfield, there was a cedar waxwing! Never seen one of those before, but I recognised it right off from the books. There was also someone small and red-headed, who may have been a house finch.

Lots of helicopters overhead--are we ferrying OSCE election monitors around, like it was Haiti? :-)

GO VOTE! (of course, this admonition doesn't apply to thoise of you reading in places where there isn't a vitally important national election today... :-)

"Tonight he shows me all the bloody footprints. ... It's all right, Helen. That's not swearing, that's an adjective of quality." --Lord Peter Wimsey, "Clouds of Witness"

Well, at least I found out what Rupert wanted for his birthday--BLOOD!

:-) I took a bit of a spill halfway through my ride today, which, while the result was very bloody, was not terribly serious. Peeled the skin off the ball of my left hand, probably about an area the size of a half-dollar/10p piece, bruised, scraped my right hand, and chewed up the skin on my left knee a bit. I promptly got back on the bike and rode about ten yards before I realised that it would probably be good to at least use my water bottle to wash off both the scraped-up bits. No great harm done; it will just be a bit ouchy for a while. It should serve as a reminder to PAY ATTENTION, especially when turning on gravel, and to wear my freaking gloves. And probably to always carry my phone; I don't imagine C&M would have been happy about coming to pick me up, but if I simply *couldn't* ride home... and maybe carry a small patch kit for the rider as well as the bike.

On the other hand, the previous instance of inattention this morning was rather nice. I was grumbling to myself over a slight binding/rubbing noise (which had turned out to be the kickstand which was a little out of alignment and rubbing against the rear tyre-- of course, the one thing I didn't have the right tool to adjust), when out of the corner of my eye I saw movement ahead of me, rather close, less than five yards away. "Kids?" was my first thought, "hiding in the long grass?" No, as it happened, deer. Two adult does, one of whom bounded right across the path, the other of whom ran ahead parallel, looking slightly nervous. I stopped and suggested she rejoin her friend, which she did, and the two of them jumped off into the woods. I saw two more does later on elsewhere, probably not the same pair.

I took photos of the injuries, mostly for my own amusement, before and after cleaning, first with cold water then with hydrogen peroxide. I'll post them somewhere later, for the morbid. :-)