So I went looking for sumac. Sumac changes early and goes brilliant red. I thought if the ashes were changing that the sumac must already be changed and I just hadn't noticed it. Sumac is a weed tree, not the sort of thing you see planted in somebody's landscaping. I expected to find some near the railroad tracks.
This is a view across the tracks and up towards the freeway along Saint Anthony on the hill down to the river. The sumac is visible on the left of the picture.
The sumac looks to me to be another victim of the drought. The parts of the plant that have changed have gone directly from green to brown.Also visible in this picture is an extremely significant fallout of the bridge collapse. The traffic from 35W has been diverted onto 94 and then 280 across along the boundary between the two cities until 280 joins 35W north in Roseville. Reconstruction of the interchange to allow double lanes of traffic to exit to 280 have resulted in the above sign.
90 percent of my mileage goal achieved with a month and four days in the likely riding season remaining. About 15 percent of the season remains and I need 10 percent of the miles. I pronounce myself confident.
Today's ride produced a first for this year. The weather forecast was for rain developing after dark so I was not too worried as I headed out on the ride. My usual examination of the sky, however, convinced me to cut off the ride into Saint Paul at about the place where I took today's picture. I wanted to be closer to home in case it started to pour. Well, I was home by 6:45 and it was raining hard by 7:15.
But what made it a first for the year was that as I rode up Roselawn towards Fairview with less than a mile to go I could see lightning in the sky over downtown Minneapolis. I do not recall previously this year observing lightning while riding and I can report that lightning is a strong motivator. The last mile went fast.
2 comments:
Sad, sickly sumac. I haven't seen any that has changed here yet, but I shall be looking for it, and will report back. I am at 92.6% of goal, so am fairly confident. Things can happen, so it isn't over til it is over. Still miles to ride. I highly recommend retirement though, as it frees up bike ride time. Even partial retirement is a big help. (I am at 86% of another, more ambitious goal, which is to exceed last year's total. The first one is miles by the end of DST, the other is miles by the end of the year.)
The Department of Transportation is amazing sometimes. They fixed that bottleneck at 280 and 36 over a weekend. They should have done that upgrade years ago. Your tax dollars are at work.
I bet they put the bottleneck back after the new bridge is installed. TT
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