The Grass Is Pretty Green On This Side Too

Usually when I come back from California it's a good week of sulking before I come to terms with my home environment, but this time around it's been fairly easy, possibly because it's spring.  But also, what's so great about California?  What do they have that we don't?

Fires, you say?

We've got those, too!

I rode into that one just a few miles north of the city line on the South County Trailway the other day.  It must have been a big one, too, because you could smell it all the way to Hastings-on-Hudson. 

Apparently there was some mismanagement going on at a waste management facility:

The two-alarm fire at 325 Yonkers Ave. started shortly before 10 a.m. and was still burning as of noon, Yonkers Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Flynn said.

Smoke filled the air around the property, which is surrounded by a car repair shop and a two-story commercial building.

Firefighters arrived and found heavy flames in a garbage pile. About 60 firefighters responded, Flynn said.

And you thought the only flaming garbage pile around here was my blog.

Then the next day I went to go pick up THE CAR THE BANK OWNS UNTIL I FINISH PAYING THEM BACK and went like 20 miles out of my way in the process so I could ride on some dirt:

As I mentioned, a dealership was replacing my Exploding Takata Airbag of Death, and here's footage of them disposing of it:

Come to think of it, that might explain the fire.

Here's the aftermath of that fire, by the way:

I often stop to urinate on that wall, but now the fire seems to have burned away much of the foliage that served as my cover.

Only now am I realizing what a catastrophe that blaze really was.

And then today a longtime reader of this blog accompanied me on a ride, and we saw a bald eagle:

It's there, I swear:

I never would have seen it at all if it weren't for my riding companion; even though there were a couple of people there with telephoto lenses trained on it, I just assumed they were taking photos of the glorious Yonkers skyline across the river.  Come to think of it, I'd been regularly seeing cars idling in that spot and had no idea why.  And now I know why.

Evidently I should turn my head occasionally.  Alas, tunnel vision is a serious side-effect of Fredness.

So yeah, we've got fires, mixed-terrain routes, and exotic wildlife sightings.

What more could you want really?