Warm out there. Sixty-one degrees. No time to ride during the day and no desire to hang out inside while the weather is so warm. For some reason I’m a bit freaked out about riding alone at night, so it took a bit of a personal push but I got out there. And it was dark.

Dark and windy.

Flatted after I climbed 2/3 of the big hill on the ride. Since I wasn’t carrying anything remotely useful, I turned around and went back to my house and swapped bikes and reclimbed the hill. Once I got going it wasn’t nearly as creepy as I thought it would be. Dark, windy, but not cold. I had a spare light. Just in case…

No moon. Just a couple of stars peaked out through the clouds. From Valley View I got to see all the lights from the houses in the Center, all two dozen of them. Lots of Christmas lights out already, even on the houses far removed from neighbors — making some places just a little less dark.