Bonnie NJ wrote:
My little sister is taking part in a 100 mile bike race in Lake Tahoe. Hope
the weather is good for her. It's her first long distance race and she was
more than just a little nervous - traveling across the country to be a part
of it.

I wonder if she's riding around the lake - we don't know the area at all.
Anyone know of the race, it's a fund raiser for cancer research.

I biked only half that distance today, but I saw a deer and her tiny
new, but very lively kid hop across the road in the gamelands, plus a
hundred little ducks and goslings in a pond near a farm, plenty of
redwing blackbirds and goldfinches. All in all, a lovely day. Quite
different from yesterday, when I thought it would be a pleasant idea to
take *Donna,* my big red eared slider out for a little field-trip. I
put her on the grass and she dashed over to the pond, as expected, but
she stirred it up enough so I couldn't see her. I thought the koi would
give me a clue, but they didn't. Six hours of pacing the edge with my
net uselessly in hand, wondering how people cope with the loss of their
two-legged, two-armed, four foot high lost ones when I'm pre-grieving
over the possible disappearance of my 10 inch leg-less 4 flappered
little critter before, finally, the red stripe and pointy nose surfaced
and I netted the baaaad turtle.

Ruth Kazez