Morning Race

I was up early this morning and was happily enjoying the opportunity to roll easily through the back streets out to the levee ... until I heard the train whistle. I had just turned onto Willow street, maybe eight blocks from the railroad crossing. It's hard to tell the direction from which the sound is coming in amongst the houses and as I picked up my pace I glanced down the side streets to the left. I could see the levee, so that meant it was an inbound train. A couple of blocks later I saw it cross ahead of me and knew I'd lost the morning race. It was a long, empty train, but at least it was moving along fairly well. Even with the delay, I was the first up on the levee, unless you count the homeless guy who was still there sitting on a pipe reading his bible. I was surprised that the Jefferson Parish police hadn't made him leave yet. Adam and Dan arrived and, being a Friday, that was it. So we did a nice easy ride today, picking up a couple of other riders here and there. Dan's a bit of a bird expert, so I asked him about the huge nests that were up on the cellphone tower platforms and he told me they were communal Monk Parakeet (aka Parrot) nests. Those are the loud green illegal alien birds that like to hang around the Palmetto trees around here. They make these huge multi-chambered nests. Sort of like people with their hi-rise Florida beach condos. So Adam and I chatted about officiating stuff and that sort of thing, debating the actual wording of the infamous Criterium lapped rider rule, and the wisdom of requiring races to provide two back numbers for the riders, and by the time we got back to the start the homeless guy was gone. Could be he just sleeps there between the two big pipe things (they must be pumps and perhaps some kind of siphon to get the water from the river over the levee to the Carrollton water purification plant).

Anyway, it felt really hot and humid by the time I got home today. It's already 87F with 62% relative humidity and a south wind, and although I know there are a whole lot of warmer days yet to come, it still feels good to complain about it.