i was only able to fall asleep last night when i stopped thinking about painting, particularly about walking on the rafter beams. i got up at 8:30am, ate my last tea egg, then went to work. bruce and i edged the ceiling of the living room before realizing we had used wall paint instead of ceiling paint. it didn't matter though, as el jefe jeff wanted us to put on the first coat in the kitchen after he'd cleaned it out of debris. bruce worked the edges and the corners while i rolled, first the ceiling (with ceiling paint) then the walls (switching to wall paint). after that was done, we went back into the living room and edged the ceiling once more, this time with the correct type of paint. we both had to get up into the rafters again, as we exchanged an unspoken look of shared terror. with that done, we went downstairs into the hallway entrance and primed that whole area. by then it was close to 1pm, and jeff told us to make a short day of it because ben was upstairs putting down the plywood boards onto the newly stripped kitchen floors and need all that space to work. this worked out perfectly for me since i had to leave anyway to go home and get ready to take advantage of the nice weather with a bike ride. bruce and i agreed to come back earlier tomorrow, at 8am, since he had to leave early.

the last time julie and i rode the minuteman bike trail together was towards the end of last summer, that time when i fell off my bike taking photos. after a shower (to clean myself of paint), i got my bike out of the basement and rode to julie's place in davis square. julie got her bike out of her basement and grabbed a jacket (55 degrees, warm, but a cold breeze), then we left on the path behind the davis square t station. the path was the emptiest we've seen together as we slowly made it to arlington, lexington, then bedford, julie on her yellow old school three speed cruiser bike that made the occasional squeaky noise ("lube!" she cried), me on my low-seat-height bianchi. almost all of the ice on the road was gone, nothing left but a few small insignificant patches in some of the shadier areas of the path. there wasn't too much wildlife, still too early in the season for that, but there were some minor signs. birds were singing in the trees, and we caught glimpses of red-wing blackbirds and a white-breasted nuthatch. there isn't too much to see in the early spring, and all the bare trees reveal glimpses of nearby residential and commercial buildings, demystifying the bike trail. julie raved about i shot andy warhol, a movie she had recently watched on the IFC. julie also talked about how she discovered that friendly's make great sundaes. she was patient enough to wait for me during my frequent stops to grab a snapshot of something interesting on the road. when we passed the spot where i took a dive the last time we came here, i felt a twinge of fearful nostalgia. once we got to bedford, to the end of the bike trail, julie tried to use a nearby portapotty but it was locked, so we went to the bike shop, where she bought a drink and used their bathroom. a check of my gps (peaking through the mesh pocket of my sports bag) revealed 12.1 miles of riding since we left somerville-cambridge.

marshy irises?

moss carpet

overwintered reeds

we headed back, complaining bitterly about the pounding our asses were taking from the hard bike seats. when we got to lexington center, julie got some money from her bank and we got ice cream.

i had a small french vanilla on a sugarcone. julie, in a fit of chocolate rage, got this chocolate chip ice cream with bits of brownies topped with jimmies on a waffle cone. we also watched this boy, who was eating ice cream opposite us, finish his snack and then climb aboard his unicycle, riding off into the sunset like some retro hipster.

after a visit to the toystore, we continued our journey home, the partially setting sun casting long shadows. for some reason it got really cold, which was partly because of the temperature change, partly because we both had ice cream, and partly due to julie's theory that you get colder after you eat because your body is concentrating all its energies on digestion. whatever the case, it was cold, our asses were sore, and there was one more place we had to visit before we could go home. in arlington, we stopped off at the trader joe's, where julie was trying to make up her mind on whether or not she liked this chain supermarket. she left with a better opinion of the store, along with a bag of msg-free wasabi peas (msg gives her headaches), while i bought a frozen packet of biryani. approaching arlington center, we also did a quick u-turn to check out this fancy restaurant by the side of the road (it was giving off some great smells), some new mediterranean-ish restaurant of expensive tastes.

emerging from arlington center we took broadway street through teele square back to davis square. by then the sky was dusky, and i wanted to get home before dark because other than reflectors, my bike doesn't have night riding equipment. somewhere in davis square i heard somebody call my name. looking back, i saw brian flanagan, who shouted, "i'll see you tomorrow!" julie gave me back some cd's i lent her and then i quickly sped home.

my parents came over for dinner (bringing dinner i should say), then left afterwards, after insisting i rent out my spare bedroom this summer to cover part of my mortgage.