mike lee called me while i was making a bagel sandwich for lunch, wanted to come take a look at the place to decide if he wants to move in or not for next semester of law school. mike and i were roommates in my western china sojourn, so it wasn't a hard decision to let him rent the guest bedroom if he wanted it. he came, he saw the place, we discussed the disagreeable matter of money, and he told me he'd let me know of his decision after he comes back from spring break. he left to meet his new girlfriend at boca grande for burritos.
i went down into the basement to dig out my bike for a leisurely ride on the minuteman bike trail starting from davis square. after pumping the tires, i wobbled off into search of spring-like adventures. i was dressed in nothing more than a pair of shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt, and even then i felt too hot. 
although i've been on the minuteman bike trail before, i've never taken it from davis square. traffic was light on this st.patrick's day, the occasional runner, the occasional biker, the occasional mother with stroller, and the occasional hot girl in a halter top walking her dog. road conditions were fine until i got to arlington, where sections of the path were either flooded with ice puddles or still covered in slippery snow. 
puddles were no problems, just a splattering of muds everywhere. the snow however was a different story, and i ended up having to walk my bike, the thin wheels of my street bike unable to plow through the icy obstacle. 
once i made it to arlington center, i assumed it'd be a smooth ride all the way to bedford from that point. little did i know, the path was even more snowblocked, so i turned back. when i returned to cambridge, i took a look at the numbers on my gps: 17.8 miles, average speed 10.4 mph. i rinsed off the bike with the hose in the backyard before putting it back in the basement.
the warm weather accelerated the snowmelt in the backyard, revealing bulb activities, spring signs. i saw bulbs poking out of the ice, soon to flower, and even a few washed free from the dirt by the eroding snow. the only flower out there was a single snowdrop (galanthus), pretty with its drooping white petals. i've yet to see the backyard during the spring (since i purchased the place during the summer), so it'll be a sequence of perennial surprises waiting me for the next few months.
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i took a shower, cleaning myself of the mud, realizing the bruises i'd be getting on my ass from the bumpy bike ride over the snow and ice. i need to get one of those nice sorbothane bike seats. refreshed, i called somebody at cambridgeport savings about the property tax i pay through my monthly mortgage, whether or not i can deduct them from my overall taxes (the answer is yes!).
my father dropped by after work (his night off tonight) bringing dinner. he also cleaned out my fridge (threw away the cranberry jelly hiding since thanksgiving, along with a container of fermented grapfruit juice), did the dishes (surprising, since he never does them back home in belmont), and then we had dinner.
children of dune rocks! so says me, mini-series junkie.