Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. I appreciated all of the nice cards, emails, blog and Facebook comments. I got up early and went cycling in the Park before work. It is getting harder and harder to beat the heat though. When I launched at 5 AM, the temperature was 86 °F and the heat index was 90 °F, but biking has got to be better than either walking or running. The steady breeze generated by riding a bicycle offers a cooling effect akin to that of a fan’s breeze. It is still dark, when I launched, but it gets light out before I’m finished. I saw an animal that I had not seen before. I was cruising by the Muny’s lower lot and saw what I first took for a squirrel in the half light just before dawn. It was out in the middle of the street chewing on something. After I cruised by it, I had one of those wait a minute moments. I circled around back and got a better look at the animal, about 10 feet away, before it finally notices me and dashed towards to bushes. It was the size of one of the city’s grey squirrels, but it was jet black in color. It looked like a ferret and was about the right size. The problem is that when I Googled ferrets, black ferrets are extremely rare. I looked at weasels and minks too, but none of the weasel pictures had the right coloration. There are black minks, but they are too big to be this animal. It is a mystery and I ended up getting 15 miles.