Meet Nat

Hey everybody, this is my new friend Nat:



I met Nat during the bike ride today. I was zooming down the hill after visiting Mr. Griffith and all of a sudden WHAM! Nat (the gnat) decided to do a belly-flop into my eye. I think of myself as a pretty conservative rider, and I was fully prepared for every obstacle I could think of: cars, loose gravel, potholes... But I have to admit, meeting Nat took me completely by surprise. So now I'm whizzing down a winding mountain road half blind. Great. I was able to stop and tried to give Nat a bath with my water bottle, but he was perfectly content just hanging out in my tear duct. About another mile down the road I was able to coax him out on to my sleeve.

I notice that a lot of people wear sunglasses during the rides. And not just any sunglasses, these are ultra-hip triathlon glasses I suppose. I sort of figured that I'm mostly riding in the evening when it isn't very bright, I'm not going to impress anyone with my fashion sense anyway, so why bother? Now I realize that everyone else is just being anti-social: they don't want to meet Nat. They're smart.

Crap, now I have yet another thing I need to buy.