One Ride, Two Trees

 Saturday brought near-record warmth: When I reached Greenwich, Connecticut—the destination or turnaround point, depending on your point of view—early in the afternoon, the temperature had risen to 81F (27C).  That is more or less normal for a day in June, or perhaps just after Labor Day.

Even if I hadn’t known it was near the end of October, the day’s warmth would have seemed incongruous with parents chaperoning their costumed kids to tables representing everything from the fire department to the local Democratic Party where volunteers gave them miniature candy bars. Tomorrow is Halloween, so the past weekend became the setting for Trick or Treaters, parades and parties.

Even stranger was seeing mid-to-late Fall foliage simmering in such heat.  On my way back, a tree in New Rochelle blazed, it seemed, as much from the summer-like air as the season itself.

How red can a tree be?

Now I wonder what it looks like today.  Some time around midnight, a storm pushed its way in.  The temperature plummeted and the rain and wind that soaked and strafed Sunday’s sky—and denuded the golden tree that greeted me early Thursday morning.

Taking One For The Humans

I don't drive.  So, if Marlee has ever been in a car, it was with her rescuer.

And I've tried taking her on rides with me.  If yo have a cat, you know how well that worked out.

Therefore, I have no idea of how she'd react to a pothole.  But she might know a thing or two about how we, as humans, might respond:

(By the way, those photos are not of Marlee.  She's been in other posts!)

Fall Rides: Colors, Everywhere

 The other morning, I couldn't get back to sleep.  So I went for an early before-work ride.

That's when I learned it's really Fall:

In other parts of my neighborhood, burgundy and orange leaves blaze against a crisply blue autumn sky.  But in the hour before dawn, nothing could have been more dramatic than those yellow leaves.

Of course, those aren't the only colors I've seen on recent rides.  Last week, I encountered this mural on 40th Avenue by the tracks, in a corner of Long Island City I don't often see:

And there was this, just after the seemingly-endless rains we had last weekend:

Wherever I ride in the Fall, I see colors, everywhere!