Birthday girl

Today is Rose's birthday.  I went out for an early ride here this morning, and was thinking, too late, that I should have taken a camera and snapped her a sunrise birthday pic.  It was a beautiful morning - a moment of not-raining (these being very rare for the next month or so).  But at 4.45am it was 32 degrees with 94% humidity.  Birds starting to sing in the sauna.  Anyway - a camera is impossible (unless you seal it in some sort of waterproof bag) - if it's not falling from the sky, it is pouring from your pores.  So I couldn't do a photo.  Then later I was reading a cycling blog, and it had an article about the perils of animals - man they are pesky - dogs (not looking, or chasing), wild pigs, smaller stuff - insects too - big badass insects that thwack you very hard on the nose.  I rode through a cloud of flying ants, somehow one of them found its creepy crawly way into my cycling top - and then got very busy trying to get out (for this I don't blame it).  Anyway - back to the article (one more digression, apparently Australian magpies are known for attacking cyclists - too bizarre). It had this super-fantastic photo of a smiling dog - so that is going to be the birthday pic - and there is a bike in it too (nice bike as it happens - cyclocross ).  Looks like the kind of dog that chases and catches successfully.  Looks like it might have had the cyclist for breakfast.

Because I am mildly obsessive - here is the bike (sad, I know).  For what it is worth, I predict these will take a big bite out of the mountain-bike market.  This is what you want to be riding if you want a great commuter, a bit of trail riding etc - they actually work - note slim little knobblies - not some huge studded takkie that you have to schlepp around for fun.