Music.

I finally realized why I love some artists and songs more than most. I grew up in the suburbs. I've lived a pretty suburban life. So I've never really protested anything, I've never really been oppressed, I've been bored, I've been in love, I've had a crushingly awful job and I've had lots of vacations to the beach.

So when I hear Squeeze's "Pulling Muscles from a Shell", it hits me where I live.

I wish I had a motor boat
to pose around the harbor

I understand that. I've lived that.

Steely Dan knows suburban angst. Squeeze knows it too. Joe Jackson gets it.

We think we're pretty smart
Us city slickers get around
And when the going's rough
We kill the pain and relocate
We're never married
Never faithful not to any town
But we never leave the past behind
We just accumulate
So sometimes when the music stops
I seem to hear a distant sound
Of waves and seagulls
Football crowds and church bells

Rainy day

You need rainy days every now and then to remind you how nice it is to have good weather. I've lived where there's 4 months of perfect weather every year and it gets boring. You forget how nice the weather is because it's perfect every day.

So yay rain.

Riding at night.

Got caught out late on my bike tonight. Riding at night is a really different feeling. It feels smoother, like floating, like gliding above the ground. It's quieter, peaceful.

Somehow, I hit less bumps and potholes.

The only thing I can compare it to is cross country skiing in fresh snow at night, going downhill, skis buried except for the tips, floating, gliding, free.

Pride.

Is it wrong that I'm prouder of the work I did tiling my kitchen than I am of anything I did in the last year at my former job?

Field trip!

Off to the pumpkin patch with my daughter's preschool class. Her favorite part? Petting a kitten.

Go for a ride.

Phone calls taken care of, tile grouted and caulked, time to go for a ride.

Headed south and east of Madison. Some nice rolling hills, some beautiful scenery and cloud free skies.

There's something about riding that clears my head, makes me focus. I've had a lot more time to ride lately, and I'm not minding that.

Seeing something new.

Well, that's something you don't see every day.

I stumbled across a controlled burn the fire department was doing today. Never seen anything like it.