I'm sure this happens to you all the time...

...but it is the first it has happened to me.

20 days in a row. That's my current streak of being on the bike. But today it has been in the 20's and snow/wet/ice. I opted out and rode the rollers to keep that streak alive. Now, I realize that this quick story requires a visual, and I'm sorry that all of you haven't been out here yet, so bear (bare?) with me.

I'm in my dining room, which has a wall of windows that looks out across our front yard and to the county road. Across the road is a pasture that holds some very fine horses, but it is way dark here at nght and I can't see them. Besides, I have the light on in the dining room so I can see my slimming reflection in the window while I ride the rollers. I ride until I look like a bike racer or until I can't stand the site anymore. Took about an hour before I got sick of it, but that's another story.

So, I'm rolling along on the track bike on the rollers (it was closest when I was grabbig for a bike), and after long enough to be nice and sweaty, but not so long that I wanted off the bike, I saw something very big walk across in front of the window. Now, there are critters out here aplenty, so a racoon, skunk, rabbit, and so forth is a daily thing, but this was big. Big like a horse big.

Stopped pedaling quickly because I thought maybe it was a reflection of one of my kids standing behind me or something, but everyone was upstairs. I rode another minute or two and got a better look when the creature walked across a patch of snow, which gave just the right amount of light and contrast for me to make out that it was a horse. Both of the horses actually.

Off the bike and ran outside into the dark night with a sweaty un-d-shirt, bike shorts, and cycling shoes to protect me agains the 26 degrees, dark, snow and ice. I had to hurry because the front gate was open (as was the back gate, obviously at this point). Turns out the horses really like being next the comparably warm house, and it takes a lot of apples to get them back to the pasture. Or maybe they were just messing with me because of how I was dressed.

Locked the gate down tight, quick waddled back inside, remounted the aluminum steed quite refreshed, and busted out the last 30 minutes. Nobody here even woke up or stirred. Either I'm good, or they were watching out the bedroom window.