Maybe half ??? done with this edit of Slider's Son. I hope.  It always takes longer than I anticipate.
I'm trying hard to write, do necessary schoolwork, and get out on my bike at least a little bit while the weather is so perfect.

Tonight, I had a short ride, but a satisfying one. I rode the County Road and the Rabbit Road (isn't that a great name?) to St. Peter, and then rode up the Hwy 99 hill, and at the top, turned up Co. Rd. 21 to the crest by the golf course. The hill is 1.4 miles from bottom to top. I was pretty happy to maintain 10-11 mph the whole way up. That's nothing to racers and riders who hammer--stronger riders than I--and TDF riders would go up that hill like it was nothing, but for me--I was very happy with that! (I've ridden up that hill at 6-8 mph before, and I haven't climbed all that well for the last few years...this is a vast improvement--a sort of breakthrough). Then, after I rode along the ridge for a few miles and came back down, I caught a tractor that was going about 20 mph.

Next goal: a train, running parallel to me. I realized it would be across the tracks ahead of me, and I'd have a long wait because it was a long train. So I took off like a bat out of hell, to use a bad cliche, and realized I was riding along, passing train cars. Finally, I overtook the engine! I got to the intersection/RR crossing when the engine was still a quarter mile away. Very satisfying.

The experience, riding between the River valley ridge of hill and a moving train, pasture and fields in between, was surreal...like being in a movie...full of movement and beauty.

I am more aware of trains than ever, too, because trains play an active role in Slider's Son, the novel I'm editing. It all seemed like an epic ride, even though it was just a little casual after-work ride. These golden, green, blue, sunshiny days are all too fleeting. I'm still trying to absorb every moment of them that I can.