Blue Skies After the Rains

     The rainy season of Sacramento must have waited for me to arrive.  After weeks of rain some of the strongest thunderstorms in decades hit us last week.  My condo did spring a leak in the roof, but it is a rental and the water only damaged the ceiling, not my things.  Fortunately, for the landlord the repairs will be covered under warranty, since they recently got a new roof over that section.
     Today a beautiful blue sky appeared after I took my nephew to "Hunger Games."  As he and I departed that fabulous movie with smiles, I noticed the bicyclists on the bike trail along Lake Natoma.  The bike trail beckoned to me in a way that I couldn't resist.  I did have a lot more paintings to hang, but they would have to wait.
     Connecting to the bike trail along the American River is a breeze.  Gold River has a bike trail extension that connects our neighborhood right to the main trail.  As I pedaled harder to get my heart rate up, I noticed that the American River bike trail is a treasure to behold as I rubbernecked most of the time---nearly missing a few oncoming bicyclists. 
     The river itself is memorizing.  Lake Natoma is also gorgeous and had crew races today, so there was an unusal amount of long rowing boats on the water.  I passed a photographer taking pictures of the tall, purple lupine that emerged in large swaths along the trail and in the vibrant-green, grassy clearings.  Orange, golden poppies popped up here and there in the grasses and sometimes even on the river islands.  It was all so fabulous that I felt no pain from my infrequent biking.
     Riding back into my gated community I had a chance to gab with my neighbors that were walking their little dogs.  My neighbors are very nice, despite all the homeowner association "Don'ts."  One of the older ladies is an avid bicyclist, too.  She's the one who asked me to join the 49'er Club.  She let me know that the bike trail extends even farther than Lake Natoma and told me how to find that trail that goes to Beals Point at Lake Folsom.
    A trip to Beals Point will be an adventure for next weekend.  Now that I'm working, I've started the terrible habit of being a weekend athlete.  I will definitely have to break that habit from developing more. 
    After stretching, taking some Advil, and eating dinner, I laid down and watched "A Night to Remember," which is the nonfiction, 1958, English version of the Titanic movie.  It was quite moving, especially on the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  That was such a terrible tragedy of manufacturing and pilot error.  At least we have learned from it.   After the storms of life, there are always blue skies.

P.S.  To my blog readers:  If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at:  https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960         Thank You!