Summer and blooming
Summer arrived early this year – May was noticeably warmer than usual, though it didn’t hit horribly unpleasant levels of heat. Somehow though, even with a late/non-existent spring, we’re having a record year for blooming. Remember the pollen carpet we had for weeks? Thankfully that’s been gone for awhile, but everything else has been blooming at a record rate – I’ve never seen our plants so lush.
After fearing last fall that our frangipani was nearly dead, it’s now been blooming for weeks at full foliage and with full blooms. Our little desert rose is so heavy with blooms that the branches are drooping. The oak trees are fully leafed, creating more shade than we’ve seen in ten years (they are also bigger by a factor of twenty!). From my desk I see a massive poinciana tree behind a neighbor’s house over on the next street; the huge expanse of lush, flame-colored flowers has been lighting up the skyline for weeks now.
The end of May and the beginning of June started with a heavy hit of heat and humidity, giving us a taste of summer to come. The bad news is that we spend a lot less time outside now and have to be religious about getting our bike rides and outdoor work done early in the day. The good news is that the pool water is like warm bathwater – awesome for relaxed swimming and pool play.
Bike maintenance
Chelsea did a deep cleaning on our bikes last week. It’s amazing how the dirt seems to sneak up. I had no idea how noisy our bikes were until she cleaned them and oiled the chains. Now they are whisper quiet – all we hear is the sound of the tires on the road. She also aligned my bike computer. It was seriously knocked out of kilter after a particularly brutal railroad crossing one morning.
Chelsea had been having flat tires, or more accurately, underinflated tires, for several weeks. Each morning she’d have to pump up the tire, but the air would only stay in for a day or so. She took the tire off and replaced the tube once, but the tube still leaked air. Finally she took the tire off and examined the tire itself even more carefully than she had the first time. To her dismay she discovered that her tire is disintegrating inside, causing a piece of wire to poke her inner tube.
I’d read of a cheap fix for that kind of situation – a piece of duct tape. Chelsea layered several pieces of silver duct tape over the offending wire, patched both tubes, and voila – her tires have been perfect since then. I guess we’ll have to move new tires up higher on our budget. At $60-$70 apiece times four tires, that’s a significant output.
Bike rides
We’ve been keeping up our regular schedule for riding, but we’re finding that we’re getting overtired, possibly from overtraining. We are reluctant to let go of our bike rides, even if it means a day off, because we have so much fun with them, so we may back off our speed improvement for a week or two and just cruise. We’ve been pushing pretty hard seven days a week with our workouts and bike rides.
We’ve noticed so many more types of riders this last month than we’ve ever seen. The usual teams/racers in their pace lines are out, primarily on weekends, but the biggest increase is in more casual riders who still appear to be pretty serious abut getting exercise. They are kitted out in spandex shorts and cycling jerseys, but they’re riding hybrids or other relaxed-geometry bikes.
Last week we spotted one mini-pace-line of about six men and women, all dressed in spandex and jerseys; the one in front was easily in his eighties; the others looked to be from seventy down to fifty. It was awesome! The age range seems to be from thirties to seventies – quite a range – but it’s a noticeable trend. What amazes us is that we are seeing more and more people as it gets hotter and hotter!
Memorial Day
Since the Boynton Inlet is the only boat access to the ocean from Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale, holidays are always a zoo. We rode both Saturday and Sunday on Memorial Day weekend, so we saw the full range of holiday goers. Saturday was astonishing for the sheer number of boats headed out. We saw easily thirty or forty boats headed out just between 7:45 and 8:15. The Lady K and Sea Mist III fishing charters were very full.
Sunday was all picnickers and fishermen. The parking lot was jammed by 8 a.m. and all the tables and benches were taken. Chelsea pointed out that we were the only women in the whole place (!), but then we spotted another woman down at the end of the lot. Three women and about forty men… The guys were hauling coolers, gas grills, barbecues, fishing equipment, bags of food and drinks, even table cloths and napkins. I guess the women were home finishing up the cooking and the guys had been assigned the job of getting the best spots and hauling the gear.
Alex and Amanda came over late afternoon on Memorial Day with chips, Bud Light Lime, and new floaties for the pool. We hung out in the pool laughing and talking till almost eight-thirty. Tyler joined us for a short while – he was a refugee from one party and had an hour’s break till he left for his next party. Pretty unusual for him – he’s been putting in brutal hours with his two jobs the last month or so. By nine they’d all left and we were underway with our rice and steamed veggies dinner.
Cassie and the birds
As we relaxed over dinner on the couch after a long day last week, Chelsea said, “Hey, Cassie’s got birds chasing her…” I glanced up a minute later as I saw Cassie trot by the porch with a shadow in the sky above her. Years ago the mockingbirds used to dive bomb the cats, particularly Cassie as she’s outdoors more, but they’ve not done that in years. They may sit up on the wires and scold a bit, but nothing more.
Since it was so unusual for the birds to be dive bombing her, I got up to look. What a sight outside! Cassie had caught a mockingbird (very, very unusual) and was trotting off to the bougainvillea with her “prize”. Up in the sky and on every tree and bush were dozens of birds – cardinals, starlings, mockingbirds, mourning doves, blue jays, every bird in our neighborhood – all of them shrieking and diving at Cassie, non-stop. What a racket it was!
Apparently the old adage of uniting in the face of a common enemy is true even in the bird world. I tried to see if the bird was still alive – it wasn’t, and in the process most of the birds gradually flew away a bit, with the exception of a fiercely angry mockingbird or two who kept up the scolding for a bit longer. I’ll remember that scene for years…
Adios
Tyler is home this afternoon and is making noises about going to Costco, so I’ll get my list ready and have my shoes at hand just in case. We’re out of so many things…
I’ll be back again next week, so adios till then. Meanwhile, check out the new photo album.