Today’s ride took me down the hill via the Maryland Avenue cycletrack, a right on Lombard to the bike racks at Greene to pick up the shuttle to work. I take this ride all the time, and I know its asphalt really well. it took me a few years to figure out the phantom drop just before Saratoga, but I mostly know it all by heart now. I still keep my eyes down, though, because you never know. And today it was this sad dead rat, looking sleepy but most definitely dead, in the middle of the right lane around 24th Street. I went around it and kept on my way. I locked up my bike, headed to campus, worked and worked and worked, and then turned around, got on the shuttle, walked to my bike, and headed uphill.

There were so many things in the bike lane on the way home. There was the car dropping someone off, the parked car, the scooter, the horse shit, and yes, the dead rat, still snoozing away, just this time with a little more blood at its mouth. I wonder how long this rat will be here. I’ll check again tomorrow.

I love riding my bike around this time of year.