It was chilly this morning when I left on my bike.  I wore a fleece jacket over my tank top and long-sleeved shirt and I still balled myself up into the collar as the wind cut through my layers all the way down the first hill.  Lucky for me, there are a lot of hills, both up and down, between my house and my office, so I quickly switched into standing-up mode and warmed right up.

I’m lucky that I have access to a shower and locker at work – without those I just wouldn’t do it – I also enjoy the feeling of calm and peace of mind at the start of the day.  It’s wonderful.  But I think what I like best is the serendipity of the sites along the way.

Today, I saw:

1. a smooshed snake (small, baby copperhead? hard to tell)

2. a wood thrush up close

and

3.  a guy crashing out of a Magnolia tree.

Yup – that’s right.  A fully grown man came tumbling out of a huge magnolia tree in the yard of a small, white house, breaking several branches on the way down if the sound of cracking limbs was indeed tree-related, as I was inclined to think since he landed on the ground and proceeded to talk rather calmly, given his recent descent, to someone I could not see.

I did see a stepladder nearby, the kind you might unfold in your pantry to reach the old can of camper-stove lighter fluid you stashed three years ago on the top shelf, but no other clues stick in my mental snapshot of the scene.

Explain it?  I can’t.  We just had college graduation yesterday and perhaps he was still…coming down off that experience?  Or maybe he too was inspired by the sunny, cool feeling of potential accomplishment that this morning held and was going to do some yard work?

All I know is I would have driven right by without noticing a thing.

I love riding my bike to work when I can fit it in, which isn’t very often given days that require multiple trips and the general pressures of grocery-dinner-extracurricular-kid life.  But I’m always glad when there’s enough breathing room in my world to pump up the tires and take off.

The bike ride is uphill both ways, but worth it.