It was chilly in my house this afternoon so I expected to be cold when I headed down the hill on my bike, but now–it was all blue skies and sunshine and the heat on my back. It was also one of those days where cars seemed out to get me, so I hunkered down into my defensive driving mode, which includes a lot of following the rules of the road–yeah, it was a slow trip. I locked up, did a whirl around the gym, and then took my grading to a restaurant for a snack and a much slower whirl through the pile of papers. Unexpectedly, that task put me in a better mood, and I cheerfully got on the bike to head home. I snapped this photo of the building across the street from where I’d locked my bike. Ivy is taking over, and it reminded me of the cat’s claw in New Orleans. The air smelled like H&S Baker, and it reminded me of the smell of Leidenheimer Baking Company as you approach MLK on Simon Bolivar. Cities have those things, the flora and baking smells and retraced routes between work and play, and it all felt nice and familiar. Traffic downtown was just terrible, and yet again, I was grateful to be on my bike. Up the hill and home, another lovely fall day in the bag.