Yesterday's commute

Things are looking up. I've actually been able to ride several times in the the last week! Yippee!!! Yesterday, I caught a ride in with wifey on her way to work (my new job is on her way in so we carpool almost every day now. bonus) with the VanDessel so that I could ride home. The weather was just about perfect, roughly 33deg and clear. That's sort of cold but for Maine at this time of year it feels downright balmy. I left the office at 4:45 so I got about 15 minutes of single speed fun before needing to turn the lights on. To be honest I was a bit nervous night road riding this time of year because nobody expects to see a bike out at that time but everybody was great and gave me lots of room. My one scary experience on the ride was at about the midway point (the ride takes 45-50 minutes). I caught a glimpse of motion out of the corner of my eye. It was dark so it was hard to tell for certain what it was. My gut told me that it was a dog running my way to rip my leg off. Turns out I was right. A couple of seconds later a white lab came streaking out of the driveway to my left at full speed about 10 feet from my back wheel. He actually wasn't showing any signs of aggression but I tend not to trust unfamiliar dogs while on the bike plus I needed some interval training so I immediately started to sprint. I sprinted for a good 10 seconds before taking the time to look back. I half expected him to be gone by the time I looked but he was still right there about 10 ft. back. Starting to panic, I put my head down for another 10 seconds. This time when I looked back I was sure that he would be gone but no! That bastard was still there. He had even managed to gain a few feet on me and was probably only 6-8 feet back. Crap, I thought, I can't keep this up much longer. Maybe I should just pull over, expose a leg, let him get a snack and let me be on my way. In a last ditch effort, I put my head down one last time and dug in for another 5 or so seconds. This time when I looked back, the pooch had given up chase and was barely visible. Phew. I honestly don't think that I could have gone again. The rest of the ride was uneventful but it was great to get out.