I, like Papa Bear, rarely get sick, but this week is the exception to the rule – I only went into the office twice and with no animals.

“Gus wants to go on the ‘big boat’. He hasn’t been in a long time.” And so Gus spent a slow, rainy, start-of-winter day with me. I like Gus and I wanted him to have a good time but nothing much exciting happened. Sorry buddy.

My silence of late is attributable to having spent the better part of last week at eBay attending the Next-Generation Distributed Systems Summit. I was fortunate, in time and invitation, to attend, meet some really amazing technologists and learn a Tremendous amount (thanks Little Bear). I’m still consolidating my final notes and thoughts on the Summit so expect another post soon.

When it rains, it pours – literally and figuratively. I left the house today in a pretty steady rain, managed to get about a mile from home and then stopped. My rear tire, fine on Friday and over the weekend, went flat! After a quick cyclocross run home, Pig and I made the next boat. Ugh.

Today was rough – I punctured – I will never forgive the hippo.

Sometimes an animal journeys with me with whom I have less history, today was one of those days. The reason in this particular case stems from a PII incident which I can’t divulge. Nonetheless, we still ventured out.

No bike, no animals.

I look to my left at a fellow cyclist stretching along the railing as I pull the sheep from my bag and secure them for the shot.

The animals arrive pre-packaged now, nestled in their stuff sack, so I wasn’t exactly sure who made the trip this morning.

“There’s the polar bear. The polar bear is on the big boat. The polar bear is eating.”