Yesterday, for me, seemed officially like the start of fall here in Kansas. It was never above 55 degrees and pretty damp all day. It is strange racing cyclo-x at 80 degrees just 2 days ago and now it is 30 degrees cooler. But the weather wasn’t what got me noticing the fall so much, it was the squirrels running around like crazy, doing their fall busy work, that started it.

This year seems like a banner year for squirrels here. There are millions of them everywhere. I like squirrels. I don’t really think of them as rodents, but I think they officially are. It not like there are lots of different types of wild animals that live in my yard that seem to cohabitant with me, but I like them just for their personalities. Well, for some of their personality traits.

Squirrels are super entertaining. For me and for all my pets. Bromont is officially a bird dog, but he wants to get a squirrel something serious. And the cats stalk squirrels nearly as intensely as birds too. I’ve never seen anyone of my pets catch a squirrel. There are way too many trees nearby for them to escape. But, that doesn’t seem to bother them the least. It’s the chase, not the capture, that is the intrigue.

I just like watching squirrels do their squirrel thing. There aren’t too many wild animals that seem to like to play as much as a squirrel does. There seems to be plenty of food around here for them, so most of the time when I see them during the year, they seem to be chasing each other and playing squirrel games. And it’s not only two, sometimes 3 or 4 play the chase thing. It is great.

Anyway, I don’t know if this has anything to do with the number of squirrels around this fall, but this was also a banner year for walnuts, black walnuts. Even though there wasn’t much rainfall this summer, there are an incredible amount of walnuts on the ground this year. They are everywhere. And they are hazardous for a bike. I don’t collect walnuts in the fall, I don’t why not. I guess because it seems like a lot of work for not much return. I did it one year, but had them on the porch, drying in the sun, and the squirrels eventually stole all of them. I didn’t mind.

But, like I said above, they can be treacherous while riding. They are on the bike paths, gravel roads and the worse is when they are just in the grass, under leaves. I’m pretty much only riding a cross bike now. I think that is because I’m too lazy to take the tubeless cross tires off my road wheels, but maybe it is because I’m enjoying riding gravel more this fall. I don’t know. But, I’ve come close to loosing control a couple times the last couple weeks by hitting a walnut or two when I’m not expecting it.

And where there are walnuts, nearly for sure, there are squirrels. And one thing that is not good about squirrels is their unpredictability when it comes to fleeing under stress. They never seem to be able to make up their minds on which direction is best to flee. That is pretty unnerving when you’re trying to avoid them on a bike. I’ve come pretty close quite a few times the last few days of plowing over a squirrel. Yesterday I ran over one’s tail. I thought it was all good, but he decided to do a U-turn about 1 foot from my front wheel. I was lucky I didn’t just squish him completely. That would have been depressing.

Anyway, I’ve been pretty fortunate to not have any real altercations with either a squirrel or walnut yet this year. But, you never know, the fall is young and I have a bunch of more encounters ahead I assume.

This guy got pretty lucky having its' human pile up the walnuts at the base of his tree.

Yesterday I thought I should maybe do some “training” for the Berryman Epic, 60 mile MTB race, this Saturday. So I decided to go out and ride 5 hours on my MTB, throwing in a hour of rocky singletrack in the middle. It didn’t do much for my psychic. I’ve been trying to locate a 29’r fork for my rigid Eriksen, but haven’t had much luck yet. So, I was fully rigid and the rocks were not my friends. I’m not bleeding too much, though, I was like a pinball most of the time. Bill has a new Felt and was riding much smoother than me. He had pretty low pressure in 2.25 tires and was lovin’ it. If I don’t hear anything positive about the fork soon, I’m going to put my YBB back together and ride it. Berryman is pretty rocky and, like I said about, rocks and I aren’t getting along that great now.

While we were heading over to Clinton yesterday, a huge group of turkeys crossed the gravel road ahead of us. I was trying to figure out what a hoard of turkeys was called. I couldn’t come up with it. I think it is so weird that we have different words for groups of different animals. And we have different words for different kinds of the same types of animals. I usually think of a group of birds as a flock. Oh, how wrong I can be. Here are some examples for various sources.

A group of turkeys is called a rafter, although a gang is also an acceptable name. They have also alternately been called a gobble, although this definition is colloquial and does not appear in dictionaries.

A group of hawks is called a cast, aerie or kettle. (The only hawk you are likely to find in groups is the Harris and it is found in Arizona and Texas.)

Then I found this. It is baffling.

A group of birds is called a fleet, flock, flight, congregation, parcel, pod, volery or dissimulation (small birds only). A bevy of quail A bouquet of pheasants [when flushed] A brood of hens A building of rooks A cast of hawks [or falcons] A charm of finches A colony of penguins A company of parrots A congregation of plovers A cover of coots A covey of partridges [or grouse or ptarmigans] A deceit of lapwings A descent of woodpeckers A dissimulation of birds A dole of doves An exaltation of larks A fall of woodcocks A flight of swallows [or doves, goshawks, or cormorants] A gaggle of geese [wild or domesticated] A host of sparrows A kettle of hawks [riding a thermal] A murmuration of starlings A murder of crows A muster of storks A nye of pheasants [on the ground] An ostentation of peacocks A paddling of ducks [on the water] A parliament of owls A party of jays A peep of chickens A pitying of turtledoves A raft of ducks A rafter of turkeys A siege of herons A skein of geese [in flight] A sord of mallards A spring of teal A tidings of magpies A trip of dotterel An unkindness of ravens A watch of nightingales A wedge of swans [or geese, flying in a “V”] A wisp of snipe.

Wow, would you ever have’d guessed? I particularly like the parliament of owls. I think I’ll just use any adjective that I come up with at the time I spot them.

I did an interview with SkinnySki.com and it is posted today here. He could have picked a NORBA result without my absolute worse finish I ever had as a photo. I finished 5th the year before.

I can’t believe how sore my arms are from the cross races, then riding on rocks yesterday. Bill’s arms are sore too, as if that makes me feel better. Okay, I better get an attitude adjustment the next couple days or this weekend is going to be trying.

This is the white trail at Clinton Lake. This is the clear area. Most of the rocks were covered by deep leaves.

There are tons of wild turkeys in Eastern Kansas right now.

I was over at the local bikeshop, Capps, and ran into the Giro/Easton/Bell Sports, rep, Trevor Litten. He was showing me the new Giro helmets. Crazy light. But, did I end up with this new World's helmet. No.

I have the retro Giro for Berryman.