iRide Fri. 13 Sep. 2019

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Retirement benefit

• After I retired (or became unemployable as I prefer to say), I discovered that the benefits of retirement are certainly not financial. There are some things that are valuable without having a monetary value. I have wealthy friends who bemoan their painful predicament of being money rich, but time poor. As in so many circumstances there is a balance to be struck. I have done my best to achieve that desirable state.

I realized that one of the benefits I enjoy is that I don't have to leave at 05:30, riding in the cold and dark just because that is the only time available to me. The mid- and late-morning temperatures are now comfortable enough for bicycle riding. I started at 08:30 and avoided the madding crowd that is routinely late for school or work and trying in vain to make up time by not driving in the sedate manner that normally characterizes the locale. The countryside was all ours: me, the birds, and the farmer raising dust.

I have the pilot of the green plane to thank for setting up the photo of the hawk in flight. His engine made just enough noise to raise the bird from its early morning torpor. The plane and the bird flew west, pursued by this bicycling cameraman. Several utility poles further along the bird landed for just long enough to be photographed before it took off again allowing a photo of itself in flight.

For once the performance limitations of the Canon G11—a  good camera for taking photos of stationary objects, but mostly too slow in operation to capture decisive moments—were overcome through predictive pre-focussing. Sometimes cunning compensates for shortcomings in other departments.


WEATHER report:
*START* 08:34, Clear, 63°F, Feels like 63°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 27%, Dewpoint 29°F, Wind 7mph from ↙, 13mph, UV index 1.
*END* 11:16, Clear, 80°F, Feels like 80°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 14%, Dewpoint 26°F, Wind 8mph from ↙, 13mph, UV index 6.
*RIDE* feel 71°F, avg. temp. 71°F, avg. feel temp. 71°F.


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