Then I went to hang out with our new chicks and change their water. We got 6 baby chicks who should start laying eggs in September if the fox, coyotes, owls, hawks, bears, and other local wildlife don't get them first. Here's a picture of them at 2 days old:
By that point, it had stopped raining, but looked pretty gloomy, so I checked the hour by hour forecast--it predicted light rain from 8-10, and then thunderstorms for the rest of the day--actually for the rest of the week. The first day thunderstorms doesn't show up in the forecast is next Sunday. Lovely. I guess it's going to be back to the Y this week. I had wanted to do a 20 miler today, but that wasn't enough time. Then I thought, well, it's unlikely that the thunderstorms will start exactly at 10, I'm going to check the forecast in 15 minute intervals. That was even worse, saying the thunderstorms were starting at 9:30.
I quick woke Liz and up we had a protein shake. By the time we got out it was close to 9, but I figured, how accurate are those forecasts anyway. And we had our phone so we could call Grace and Melinda to come pick us up if it started lightening.
When we started out, it wasn't raining at all, but our back tires were kicking water up onto our necks, so we had to put our hoods up over our helmets. I was relieved when we got to the half-way point and it hadn't started raining. It started with about 4 miles to go. It felt like it was pouring with the rain pelting in my face, but that was just because we were going down a big hill. It wasn't so bad on the rolling terrain we had most of the rest of the way, except for the mile long hill up to our house. We made in back with no lightening, in fact, it's 10:30 now, and while it's raining steadily, we've had no thunder, not even off in the distance.
My biggest fear riding a trike is dogs. I've been chased by a lot of dogs in the many years I've run, biked, and rollerbladed, but my fear with those sports is getting bitten on the legs. On the trike, I'm below the height of a German shepherd or similar sized dog, so now my fear is getting bitten in the face. About a week ago a dog started chasing after us. I booked (oh--the thunder just started) out of there, feeling more than a little guilty at leaving Liz behind me, but prepared to turn around to rescue her if needed. Liz stopped and petted the dog. I felt like a fool. We had a big dog come out into the road ahead of us today, but it was clear he was a friendly guy, so we greeted him and went on our way. On the way back, though, we came across two people on the side of the road with two very mean looking Rottweilers on leashes that barked and lunged at us. I really hoped the owners had good grips on the leashes. I told Liz I wanted some kind of weapon to protect myself from dogs, like a pipe. She thought I said like a knife. Can you see me wielding a big old kitchen knife on my trike. I can't imagine stabbing an animal (or a person for that matter), even if I was being attacked.
Liz said that the pet store sells a product in an aerosol can that dogs find very noxious. That's what we're going to get. Hopefully, the spray is strong enough that it affects a dog a few feet away, so we can deter them before they get within biting distance.
I was able to garden for a few hours yesterday! I'm very psyched about that. I tried gardening a couple of weeks ago, and my back hurt so much I had to stop after a few minutes. I thought my gardening days were done. I haven't enjoyed our gardens for over a year because all I can see is all the weeds that need to be pulled. We didn't pull a single weed last year because I couldn't do anything and Liz was spending all her time taking care of me. In normal times, Liz and I take tours of our garden once or twice a day, but for the past year, Liz has had to beg me to do a garden tour, and when I've gone, I've made it as fast a tour as possible.
But I found out yesterday that I can weed, I just can't rake. I have to say, I'm willing to sacrifice raking for my health. I enjoy weeding. Weeding has immediate gratification. A flower bed can look like a mess, and 30 minutes later, it looks beautiful. We got enough done yesterday that I'm back to enjoying garden tours. Too bad the weather is going to keep us out of the garden for a week. Here's our rock garden:
I hear Grace and Melinda waking up--they were out very late last night with Grace's friends from college--so I should go make them breakfast. Brunch actually. Here they are:
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