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i went to get the motorcycle inspected today at the bike store in union store. i scared the guy working there when i drove into the shop, narrowly avoiding hitting some bikes. after the quick inspection, he stood behind me, concerned, as i rode the motorcycle back out. i stopped by the cafe briefly before going to belmont to help my father install the cablemodem and hook it up to the router. comcast has really improved their self-starting software and the whole process was relatively painless. with that done, i was finished with errands, and seeing that i still had several hours of daylight, i decided to take the bike down route 2A and visit lunenburg. it wasn't until last year that i even knew there was such a town. purely by coincidence i discovered a large tract of hidden conservation land, and it was there that i spotted my first water snake.

it took an hour to motorcycle there but i didn't mind, the trip is part of the fun, and being that today was another hot and humid day, cruising down the highway with the wind blowing through my hair wasn't a bad thing. the sky threatened bad weather but it never did rain, and by the time i left lunenburg, the sun came back out. i started to get worried when i didn't see the large native-american statue, but was relieved when i finally went by it in the town of shirley.

there was nobody there when i finally arrived at lunenburg conservation land. before i walked into the forest, i sprayed myself thoroughly with a can of bug repellent. that's another thing i remembered about this place: the last time i was here, i was chased out of the woods by hungry mosquitoes. the area has a high concentration of mosquitoes because there's a large swamp nearby. i walked as far as the rocky stream where i saw the snake on my last visit. the water level was higher now, and i didn't see any snakes; just some wood frogs, a few damselflies, some early season mushrooms, and an occasional ladyslipper flower. it felt good to be back in the forest, although a bit ordinary, since there was hardly anything i haven't seen already. still, there's plenty of things in these new england woods i've yet to spot, so i will continue naturing until then.

hungry mosquitoes biting me through my t-shirt motivated me to leave soon afterwards. i returned to cambridge, showered, and turned on the air conditioner. i was startled to discover that it was 7pm, but there was still plenty of daylight outside. i watched some baseball, then ate some leftover for dinner, before my father came by briefly to fix a panel on the AC installation.