National Bob Day!

Hi, I'm Bob. Today is my 50th birthday. I rule!

Just finished a 55-mile bike ride to start the day! I'm whooped...

Had a collision with an 8-year old on the greenway. He was riding on the wrong side, on the edge. His 10-year old brother was coming at me in the center, and their grandfather was 20 yards behind them. The 10-year old sees me, hears my bell, moves over to his side of the trail. The 8-year old couldn't decide what to so, so he goes right, then left, then right, then left, where it looked like he would stay. Cool, I've got an opening up the middle. Except, at the very last second, the kid tried to bolt across the trail – all I could think of was that stupid squirrel I'd run over the other day – and we smacked right into each other. I kinda thought that was what was gonna happen, so I'd been braking in anticipation. But since all this happened in the space of a second or two, there was no way to avoid it. Our collision wasn't hard enough to break anything (bikes or bones), and somehow neither one of us fell off.

Poor kid looked scared to death. I asked him if he was OK, then rode off as his grandfather was lecturing him about 2-way traffic on the greenway and his responsibility to stay in his lane or at least pay attention.

Half a mile later, I came across my favorite obstacle – a woman walking on one edge of the trail with a dog walking on the far edge of the trail away from her, leash hanging between them. In spite of my slowing down and ringing my bell repeatedly, it didn't occur to this particular dumbass that she was blocking the entire width of the trail until I was right on top of her. I was maybe 3 feet from the damn leash when she scooted across right in front of me. Me, I would have had my dog come to me. Oh, well…

It could have ended like this:

Spotted this little fellow a couple of miles later:

Sometimes it's really peaceful and serene out here on the greenway:

And sometimes there are interesting critters like this one. I don't think I've ever seen a spider that looks like this, all yellow with red spots:You can click on the photo to enlarge it for a better view of this guy.


Here's a photo of me as a dorky 16 year old with my first guitar. I had to wash dishes at Ponderosa Steak House for 6 months to save enough money to buy it: