It has felt like weeks since I last got to ride my bicycle. I was busy heeding the weather warnings and staying inside as Hurricane Sandy approached the east coast, and then I was busy catching up with work at work. I took the bike out for a very quick ride to see a show on Halloween, but that didn’t even count. Today I got to ride the bike all the way to Harbor East and back–hooray! Ok, still a rather short ride, but at least today I got get myself pedaling a bit. It took about three blocks for everything to feel sunnier, even if the skies are still gray, like they’ve been for over a week. Even though I’ve left my house since the storm, of course, it doesn’t feel like I’m really outside unless I’m rolling along, negotiating traffic, saying my how you doings, and checking out the scenery. Today the view was mostly of still-wet streets (it’s still spitting rain here) and piles and piles of leaves. Baltimore is quiet, as always, and it still was as I made my way back up the hill to home. I took a picture of this ledge and its tiny door leading into a tiny house sandwiched between bigger ones in Little Italy and wondered if they took the plants inside during the storm, or if the winds were kind to the place. I’m guessing the first. I rode home into a headwind. It’s time to find the gloves again. That was a huge, huge storm, and Baltimore just got lucky, this time. This afternoon I donated some change to our neighbors up north–they weren’t so lucky, and we might not be next time. Sadly, there’s plenty of disaster to go around, and we have to take care of each other–no other choice, people, no other choice. Let’s be our best selves.