Yesterday I finally got off my lazy arse and I rode my bike to work. I had been saying for weeks that I was going to start doing it, so it's about darn time. The ride in is a 2.5 mile trip with lots of hills. By the time I got to work, I felt pretty shaky, but proud that I'd made it. The wife and I had been training for it for a few weeks, so I was glad it worked.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to ride a bike. Even when you have to dodge the millions of poorly flying cicadas, it's still a great time. I wasn't sure how the ride home would be. I'd been working hard all day and I'd already ridden 2.5 miles that morning. Yet actually the ride home was even easier, and that much exercise is really rewarding. The energy boost exercise gives you is also great. I had been thinking that by the time I got home I would be exhausted, but I still felt pretty pumped. So I vacuumed and cleaned the apartment.

Then I sat around like a big fat lazy slug for the rest of the evening because I could. I'd done my exercise for the day.

We also had a huge thunderstorm roll.through last night. I love those. I loved living up in Boston, but they don't get near as many powerful afternoon thunderstorms as I'd been used to from living in the midwest and mid-atlantic. So being back down here has been great for a gigantic weather nerd like me. When I lived in Ohio, we used to watch the big thunderstorms roll in from the horizon. My dad and I used to go outside and look at all the churning clouds overhead.

So these past few months down here have been great, especially now that it's getting warmer and more afternoon thunderstorms are popping up. Last night's was awesome. The lightning was hitting so close that the thunder was shaking the entire apartment complex. The windows rattled and car alarms were going off. I enjoy turning off the lights when the storms hit too, just so I can see the big bolts of lightning. I'm either outside when a storm is coming close, or pressed up against the window -- looking for the tower clouds and first signs that the rain is coming.

That reminds me of the storm we drove through this past weekend. We were on our way back to Ohio and hit this major line of storms in West Virginia (coincidentally enough, they started right as we passed a sign on I-68 that said "Be careful: This stretch of highway is prone to adverse weather conditions"). It was a torrential downpour, which was really scary to drive in, but being in the passenger seat, I could enjoy the fantastic lightning storm that was also going on. The lightning was mostly jumping from cloud to cloud rather than hitting the ground, so it was beautiful.

I wouldn't choose to drive through that kind of weather, though. Man, that was scary. We were on this windy mountainous interstate road while this insane downpour was blinding us. Not fun. But we made it.