What Thel Saw

Yesterday morning I had big plans to celebrate summer solstice by waking before dawn to watch the sun rise on the longest day of the year. Since dawn was officially at 5:11 a.m., I didn't quite meet that goal.

I did get up just about that time, though, and rode up through Colman Park to the I-90 bike trail. I stopped at the park overlooking the bridge and watched the sunny morning sky, the cars on the bridge, and the many bicycles crossing the bridge.

When I turned to head west to MLK and thence north to work, the clouds were rolling in from the Pacific. A rainbow glimmered through the approaching rain, and greyness overtook the clear blue sky. I didn't get rained on at all, though. It was so early that I stopped for coffee and a doughnut before work, and even so I made it to work before any sprinkling started.

I rode through the bike tunnel to get to MLK. The closely-spaced lights threw repeated shadows against the wall, a grey bicycling woman who kept passing me on my right. It was a fun repetition at first, but I must say I began to feel like I was losing a race after a minute or so...

What else I saw:

*A small flock of ducks crouched at the lapping edge of Lake Washington at 5:30 a.m., heads under their wings in early-morning sleep.

*A woman who has almost precisely the reverse of my commute. She lives down the street from where I work, and rides her bike to teach at the school just a few blocks from my house. She was hit by a car coming out of a driveway last year, and broke some bones, but she has recovered enough to be riding again.

*Another woman bicyclist passed me yesterday morning as I was turning off the lakefront road to climb a new hill overlooking I-90. She was wearing what may have been a tie-dyed pink and yellow shirt. As she flew past she called cheerfully, "Happy summer!" I barely had time to reply, "You too!" before she was gone.

Happy summer.