My daughter loves to toss leaves into water, ducks love to storm to thrown food, perfect.

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.

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.”