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Day’s Verse:
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Philippians 4:6-9
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Please help me raise money for the MS Bike Tour Cape Cod Getaway. Donate today on my MS Participant page.
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We got our first gorgeous spring day of the season. Other days have hinted at it, but today everything burst out — daffodils, early-flowering trees, crocuses, tulips. The morning started off in the mid-30s, fairly cool, but by afternoon the temperature had risen to 68°F, the warmest day we’ve had in months. I rode in shorts and a jersey, no sleeves, no long pants, reveling in the feel of wind (of which we had copious amounts, but which bothered us little unless we stopped for a long time) on my skin.

I rode Charlotte and brought my camera. Riding Charlotte has this freeing effect on me: I can’t hurry, so I don’t. I feel no pressure to get there fast. I just ride for the delight of riding, seeing things, enjoying the journey. We focus so much on destination that often the glory of the journey dies, fading into a haze of hurry. Charlotte forcibly removes that hurry, since I can’t exceed about 13 mph on her very easily, so I putter along, taking my time, really looking at the route. I see new things on roads I’ve ridden daily for over a year.

For example, the watch-geese in the yard of a house not far from work. I stopped to photograph them and they almost immediately began waddling aggressively (not a combination you would have thought possible, but there it is) towards me, honking angrily. They reminded me of a terrifying watch-goose experience I had a child, back when geese were as tall as I was. Now I respect their diligence — and the fact that geese can actually attack — but I’m not scared. That isn’t why I ran away fast after taking this picture. Really.

Then, on the way back, I stopped at Roche Brothers for some basic supplies. The winds blew me speedily there, where I discovered I had left the grocery list at work. So I ad libbed it, and forgot lettuce but remembered the chocolate chips.

To top off the wonderful day right, I met Ian at Uhlman’s, where I had a kiddie-sized (which at any other place would be small) Heavenly Hash in a waffle cone. Ian really enjoyed his dinner-spoiling two-scoop small waffle cone of Heath Bar ice cream.

While enjoying our ice cream, we sat and admired the fiberglass cows in the yard adjoining the ice cream place (you can see them behind me), a home we speculate belongs to the ice cream place owners. We do not speculate on why a person would fill their yard with life-sized cow replicas — there is a baby one, too, just not in the photo — but as long as the owners keep supplying us with excellent, creamy ice cream, I won’t ask about the fiberglass cows.

On the way home I also finally stopped and photographed a flowering tree I have seen and wanted to take pictures of for the longest time.

And now we are home, freshly showered, feeling bright and cheerful and ready for a wonderful weekend, preferably devoid of rain, high winds, or disease. We have a reservation at the Wayside Inn for tomorrow evening to belatedly celebrate Ian’s birthday; that bodes well. I have high expectations.