Biking and Fall Colors

This been the coldest Chicagoland October in 133 years! At least today and tomorrow had been forecast to be sunny and reach the average temp (61 degrees). They were half right about today -- we hit 60 but with complete cloud cover and not a peek of sunshine all day. It's been 2 weeks since its been acceptable biking weather and I got out today 17 miles, hoping to see some trees in full color, but the only ones I found were in the old Four Winds Golf Club on the Fort Hill Trail...



The only real color around here is trees put in as part of landscaping efforts as these around my townhouse...



...and in the back yard...



Tomorrow is still supposed to be nice, but we'll see, and the rest of the week has temps falling 10 to 15 degrees below normal again. It's a good thing I understand that what has become known as "global warming" should in actuality be called "climate change" and that it refers to long range weather patterns, not seasonal blips in the weather. Our recent 3 week cold snap (and for that matter our below normal temps most of last spring and summer) are the result of jet stream and El Nino factors and don't discount the climate change theories. It is what it is, so we deal with it (and occasionally complain!)