Determined not to let another of the remaining beautiful warm days of 2005 go by without going out to breathe some of it in, I took off on Serenity, not even certain where I was going to go. I had thoughts of possibly dropping by the Unitarian church to meditate, but decided instead to head eastward. Out of town.

This map shows part of the trail I took. (It's the line that starts just above the middle of the left side, angles downward almost to the bottom, and then goes back toward the north as it reaches the right edge.)

I went farther on that trail this time than I've ever gone before. Just past the point where it intersects with O Street again. (Scrolling a few screenfuls to the right, after google's rendering turns to a brown shade. Right after the trail intersects O is where I turned around.)

Eyeballing it, it looks like the horizontal distance between 84th and the place where I stopped is roughly 1.5 times the distance between 84th and downtown. Fun times. (At some point, I'd like to attempt Ran's suggested exercise for those wishing to hone their crash survival methods. I have no delusions about it; in the event of a hard crash, there's no reason to believe I'm any better prepared in practical terms than the average soon-to-be-starving American idiot. But I think it would be a fun thing to try anyway.)

Back to 84th, then I headed south. I contemplated attending Jewel Heart. My only problem was that I really had absolutely no idea what time it was.

Ultimately, I decided on the other alternative I had been contemplating. South, south, through construction zone mayhem. Roads empty of cars. I spotted another biker riding, and a couple walking a dog in the middle of the road. How very peaceful. (If this is what all the roads become like after the crash, I want to survive it too!)

I biked west along the shoulder of Highway 2 as the sun set on the horizon.

When I reached 56th, it took some meandering around through several of the strip malls before I found what I was looking for. Eventually, I spotted the new health food store the people at Open Harvest had been talking about.

"Red Clover Market." According to the other volunteer I was talking to Wednesday, it just opened a couple months ago. They had noted that unlike our mighty cooperative, Red Clover is a privately owned company. Not nearly as exciting. But I still thought it might be fun to scope out the competition. See what's out there. Having worked up a bit of an appetite with all the riding, I also was also ready for a good snack.

When I walked in, the place was dead. Before opening the door, I almost thought they were closed. (The sign said they stayed open until 8, but I had no clock. I just knew the sky had gotten dark.) A lone clerk stood at the front of the empty store, and greeted me with a faint smile as I entered.

After wandering through and scrutinizing, I think I can safely say that Open Harvest has absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of competition from this particular place. :)

Like Akin's, they do have more floor space than Open Harvest, but they waste nearly half of it on aisles full of pills! What a joke. No fresh baked bread of their own, though they did have bread from an organic bakery in Lincoln. (I recognized it because Open Harvest is also a reseller of the same type of bread. However, Open Harvest also bakes fresh bread in the store; it's much cheaper, and better too!) A bulk section, yes. But utterly tiny. Most items there were more expensive too.

After wandering through the aisles several times, I eventually decided to buy a couple of apples and some spinach. They were tasty enough, but I doubt I'll go there again, unless I happen to be in a pinch on the south side of Lincoln. At least now I know.

Since I was so close to the Edgewood theatre, I contemplated the thought of going to see Serenity again. I went up and looked at the showtimes. There was one at 7:10, which I was certain I had missed. Another at 9:50, and I didn't want to wait around for hours. Oh well. Tickets are too expensive anyway these days.

My journey took me past the branch of the Lincoln library at 56th and Normal. I decided to wander in and look around.

I was happy to note that there were two Jacqueline Carey books on their shelves, and one of them was Banewreaker. (The other was Kushiel's Avatar; it seemed odd that they would have the third part of the trilogy, but not the first two, but perhaps somebody had checked the others out.) Though I could probably borrow Yanthor's copy at some point, I decided to go ahead and check out the library's copy since it was right there in front of me, and I wasn't sure when he might be finished.

I also grabbed Philip K Dick's Counter-Clock World, which promises to be fascinating. (I still haven't finished reading Linknoid's book, nor even started a few of the other used ones that I bought a couple months ago, which suggests that my reading ambitions tend to exceed my actual time spent reading, but that's ok.)

Back at the base, I joined Yanthor and Anya in watching televised poker for a couple hours. Back during my unemployed months (er, I mean... when I was working for x13) I managed to kill quite a bit of time watching it in the wee hours of the morning when I was bored and couldn't sleep. Despite my suspicion that it is, at least to some extent, an archonic distraction, there is a fascinating element of strategy to the game. I think it's the suspense that keeps it interesting.

And now, here I am. Luckily, unlike in past weeks, I don't have to be at work before the sun rises. Nevertheless, I think I'll attempt to get some sleep soon. Overall, I would say this has been an enjoyable day.