This week, we seem to be celebrating January in April in my area, so the prospect of getting the bicycle out for a long run seems doubtful. Back to putting the bike on the trainer and watching the TV as a I ride. It's not as much fun as feeling warm breezes in my face as I ride, but watching some tanned guys on TV run down the beach isn't bad, either. It does make spinning my wheels a bit easier to take.

So what else does an optics nut do for optical fun when she is trapped indoors? Quite a bit, actually. There are always pictures to edit from my Pentax Optio A10 camera in my photo library. Never seem to be caught up there. And, then, I have a table with three microscopes just waiting for something to look at. A quick trip to the garden or lawn for some soil or twigs, rocks, whatever and I'm in business. The big stuff goes under my LOMO SF100 stereo microscope. The tiny stuff goes under my LOMO BMH4-BF compound microscope. On the other hand, if I'm not feeling so ambitious, I just open the drapes, sip hot coffee and watch shivering Robins pecking at the lawn for a frozen morsel or observe the squirrels feast on the black oil sunflower seeds I spread on the lawn for them and the birds.

There's always next weekend.