morning biking

Better than a cup of coffee is an early morning ride around the neighborhood with Ringo trailing. Once we reach the south end, we hear a rooster crowing. We see a male quail chasing a female quail with some leaves or berries in her mouth, in that funny tilted way quails run, across the street. The little feathers on their heads bob up and down as they skitter and fly off into some bushes. We see a large migration of black and red caterpillars crossing the asphalt between a grassy lawn and a Valley creek. Ringo stops to sniff one, but he's never been interested in insects. I wonder what they will become, because I have never seen caterpillars like that. Ringo and I make it twice around the neighborhood before he needs water. Sprinkler systems start to set off on many lawns for a morning watering, emerging from absurdly wide patches of green in this Valley heat. The sounds of the morning complement the soft sounds of the bike. I like the steady whirring of the wheels, and I like to watch the shadow of the spokes turn into a half-shadow blur.