I’ve been assaulted all week by a horrid cold that is reluctant to unhand me. Today I’d hoped to make the recovery needed to take a birding trip tomorrow, but instead I woke to find that the cold had triggered my asthma, which had been lying quietly dormant since early summer. Hooray. I haven’t ridden my bike since last Friday, and that was only a quick jaunt down to the post office and back. I haven’t commuted on it in over a week, and I haven’t taken it on one of my mandatory restorative rides into the country for two weeks. No wonder I am out of sorts. I have been sickly and stagnant and increasingly cranky. The antidote applied this afternoon was good mail read in the sunny post office parking lot. Just in the nick of time.