And squirrels

I spent an hour+ driving to "the loop", and another half an hour waiting for sunrise reading about the application of genetic algorithms to StarCraft 2 game strategy - all the while contemplating which fantastic albums I was going to listen to while biking for the next three hours; only I didn't bring my iPod. Brilliant. But, as it turns out, it was kind of nice hearing the sounds around me; although it was mostly just a cold, deafening wind. And squirrels.

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This was the first bike ride where I had a dog chase me. It's a good thing I left the Beretta at home (it's *so* much more effective than pepper spray, I imagine).

Countless stories of dog chases raced through my head. The collective wisdom was: 1) don't try to out-run the dog, and 2) don't try to kick at the dog while on the bike.

I managed to adhere to that wisdom, and while the dog freaked me out whenever it disappeared behind me (fearing that it'd chomp into my leg), it eventually tired of me, and my apparently ineffective yells to "go home!", and it left.

With more versatile shoes on it would have been an acceptable use of time to pin the dog down, read its collar, and escort it back home. Or just kick it. Whichever. But bike shoes are only good for tap dancing and clinging to pedals.

I'm going to try toting pepper spray (or something similar), since I'll be riding through there again soon enough.

Huh. Cool. There are ultra-sonic devices for the same purpose. I'm going shopping!