Air temperature 57 F, wind south about 4 mph, sunny. Yesterday's entertainment included a tree crew next door that we hired on the spot to also take down twinned Norway maples in our neighbor's yard (with her permission) that hung over the corner of our house. Now we have a bunch of pissed-off squirrels -- one of the trunks had a "drey" in the upper branches.

No new roadkill, no interesting metal birds, no new fall flowers. Both purple loosestrife and phragmites are setting seed in their war to the death for our wetlands and drainage ditches.

Ran into a detour out at the airport, down a side road that accesses the army guard helicopter base, thence to another road that skirted the perimeter wire. Hope that whoever monitors the CCTV system didn't ID me as Victor Charlie. Anyway, no blaring klaxons or claymores fired.

Got out on the bike, across town and back, did not die.

15.71 miles, 1:31:03

Air temperature 52 F, wind north about 4 mph, sunny. Now that the sun has bothered to get out of bed, that is. Trash out, early because the truck came early last week. Wanna bet it won't show up until afternoon this week?

(With all the critters in our neighborhood, I don't want to leave the bin out overnight.)

Ethics must be reciprocal . . .

Air temperature 51 F, wind southwest about 4 mph, airport weather station reporting fog but clear sky on our side of town. Appointment this morning, walk or bike ride afternoon. We'll see if our mowing crew shows up this week -- we don't really need them, with the dry weather.

We have geese! Maybe a couple dozen seen at the cemetery pond on my way out, more like 40-50 on my way back. Some looked like 3/4 scale models. Don't know if they recruited another flock or I just didn't see all of them the first time. Or even the second time.

Roadkill limited to one gray squirrel and the usual blood patches on the road.

Arrowhead blooming in the outfall pools at culverts through the bog. Also, lots and lots of "fall dandelions" (which are neither), more than we recall from past years. But that may reflect less mowing due to drought.

Got out on the bike, up to the golf course and over to the road through the bog and home. Did not die.

15.33 miles, 1:27:40