Sometimes I wonder if we are not more on a bug collecting adventure than anything else. By the end of the day I can barely see through my face mask and the bikes are usually covered in a disgusting fuzzy pelt of bug guts and wings. Interestingly, bug guts come in a wide variety of colors, ranging from bright yellow all the way to purple.

I have the unique ability to not only get bugs on the outside of my face shield while riding but, disturbingly, on the inside as well. I don’t what creates this phenomenon because it happens to me and not James or anyone else that I’ve spoken to. I think there must be a stream of air that goes over the bike’s wind screen and under the chin of my helmet. The other day I had one fly up into my helmet and stick to the inside of the face shield, two inches from my nose, wings swirling about until it finally broke lose, hit me in the face and, I can only imagine, ended up in my hair somewhere.

At one of the construction stops there was a worker there that was covered in mosquitoes. Appalled at this I asked him incredulously if he wasn’t being bothered by this. He just replied, “I’ve become one with the bugs.” I don’t know about this Zen business, but I’ve certainly had to reach a certain level of comfort with bugs this trip -bugs on my helmet, bugs on my face, the dragon fly that made it down into my shirt that I didn’t discover and the next stop, mosquitoes biting every time we stop, and my jacket completely covered. You simply have to let go of your typical repulsion and disgust, ignore the gag reflex at the gross splat between your eyes, and get comfortable with this because there isn’t any way around it.

On that note I thought I’d share with you some of what I’ve been contemplating while riding. There’s plenty of time to marinate on the important things in life and I got to thinking about what a bug might be thinking before it splats against my wind screen. Here are the top ten:

Top then things a bug might be thinking before it SPLATS! against my face shield:

1. Ooh, I love a game of chicken – SPLAT!

2. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood…. SPLAT!

3. Oooooooooh, Shiiiiiiiiiiiny…..SPLAT! (Katie, that one was for you
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4. You go left, I go right…. or left, right, left, right – shit! SPLAT!

4. Bonzai!!! SPLAT!