Relaxing Friday

This morning, while eating my Cheerios, Paul Conrad from Channel 9 News was making fun of guys in bike shorts at the Chicago Bike to Work Rally at Daley Plaza downtown. My bike was parked at work so I would not have the pleasure of being ridiculed on TV. But I left work early and made it to the rally around lunch time. No free fruit and drinks left from the morning but still lots of tents promoting biking to work. I didn't stay long.

I biked home at a more leisurely pace. No one was home waiting for me so I wasn't in a hurry. Lots of people enjoying the beaches and the terrific weather. North of Diversey I came upon a guy wearing a coolie had on a three wheeled recumbent toting a two drawer filing cabinet. The driver of this outfit was named Peter. He said the bike was his primary mode of transportation and the day before he biked from around Sox park to a destination way up on the north side that escapes me right now. Unlike a lot of other recumbents I've seen, this one would be tough to miss in traffic.

I continued to enjoy the easy pace all the way to my brother's house in Rogers Park. My brother wasn't home but he said I should stop by anyway to check out his silkworm project. My brother's place has a few mulberry trees and he hatched the idea to take advantage of the tree's bounty to feed silkworms (a few years ago he made a bunch of inedible mulberry pies and jams). His roommate let me in and led me to the attic where the silkworms were kept. Picture about 20 shallow boxes of various sizes crammed with pinky sized white caterpillars slowly wriggling around. The sound of their collective munching was like a soft rain. Some had already climbed out of the boxes and spun cocoons. My brother wanted his roommate to feed them while he was at work but he would have none of it (he wasn't keen on the whole goofy plan and had no intention of contributing to it). But I didn't have a problem pitching in. Fresh mulberry leaves were in a box and just waiting to be spread among the boxes. So I got busy and served the silkworms lunch. They must have been hungry because they dug in immediately. The attic was getting kind of hot, so I got back on the bike and headed home.

Distance Traveled: 24.9 miles
Distance to date: 2961.4 miles
Price of gas: $3.72