Got home late last night after spending the weekend with Andrew bicycling to
Kansas City and back.  It was about 120 miles each way; some of you might
remember next summer Andrew and I will be biking across the USA from the
Southern Florida Key to Seattle.  This was a training ride to work out
details with the new equipment.  It felt really good to do a couple of
centuries, but I have to admit the new saddle leaves something to be
desired; I think I'll switch back to leather.  In the mean time, its
computing while standing up.  Andrew is much faster than I am anymore, but
then, I can ride all day.
 
I brought Stella and Carbone with me, and they rode in the trailer the
entire time.  For the trip, I bought a kiddie trailer that clamps to the
rear axle to carry equipment; I like how they handle better on the downhills
than the equipment trailers, plus they do double-duty to haul ferrets.  I
think they had a great time--Carbone would dance all over the place when I
hit a good bump.  Andrew and I have a mandatory break each hour, and the
ferts would get out to go potty, drink, eat and explore.  I don't know who
was more tired last night; me or the ferrets.  They slept in my tent the
entire night and never bothered me at all.  Maybe they did but I was too
tired to notice. ;-).  No potty mistakes tho', very happy about that.
 
You can tie Stella to the end of a stick and she wouldn't care.  Carbone,
however, hates his halter and leash, although he is beinging to understand
they and the outdoors go together.  And he does love the outdoors.  I
weighed him Friday and he is up to 3.8 lbs.  Muscle.  I also had to install
new anti-ferret barriers into the kitchen this weekend; Jet has learned how
to make the old ones look like ladders.  She gets this running start, hits
the barrier, and leaps over it.  Totally amazing.  The only problem is I'm a
short-legged kind of guy, so the new barriers are more of a hazard, if ya
know what I mean....
 
Aging: I lot a lot of comments on this one, many asking why I didn't say how
much tooth transparency equalled a certain number of years.  The problem is
pictures or desciptions can never teach you what experience can; the best
way to learn aging is by doing.  Check out ferrets of known age and see if
you can guess the age correctly.  The more you do, the better you will
become.  Just takes practice with known age feedback.
 
Bob C and the 20 MO Frankenferters
[Posted in FML issue 2101]