Friday, November 30, 2007

One last French football post

And it may also be the very last bicycle post as the weather prediction is for a possible 6 to 10 inches of snow before the weekend is out which would certainly bring to a final and irrevocable close my bicycle riding season.

Ligue 2 resumed today and Le Havre battled from 2 behind in the second half to earn a 3-3 draw with Reims. The result moves Le Havre into first place alone on points but opens the door for Nantes in its Monday evening encounter at Montpellier. Nantes trails by a single point and can retake the top position by snatching the away 3 points at Montpellier. This is certainly no easy task as Montpellier is solidly in the top half of the league but nonetheless the opportunity is there.

The draw for the 8th round of la Coupe de France has been held and Nantes has drawn another 6th division opponent. The game is scheduled for either the 15th or 16th of December at Union Sportive Municipale de Saran. Saran is a suburb of Orleans. Drawing another lowly opponent is good luck for Nantes as the draw included 3 games where Ligue 2 teams will be matched against other teams from Ligue 2.

44 games are scheduled for the December weekend, reducing the field to the 44 winners who will be joined in the draw for the next round by the 20 teams of Ligue 1. Nantes has drawn a 6th level opponent for this round but faces the probability of seeing much stronger opposition if they can continue on.

The complete draw is reported on the Nantes website and a team I have recently mentioned is also still alive: Paris FC will be at home to Villefranche or Feurs.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Whose woods these are I think I know

Actually I am pretty sure I know whose woods these are. Today I went to an all day meeting at the Cloquet Forestry Center. The Center, located just south of Cloquet, is owned by the UofM. It is a research and instruction center for the University's Forestry program. This is what it looked like today. It was 2 degrees on the bank time and temperature display when the bus passed through Cloquet. Winter has arrived in Cloquet.

I have not taken the course of instruction from the University but I do know that those are red pine, also known as Norway pine.Here comes the bike part. The main speaker was a geologist whose subject for the day was carbon sequestration in the Mid-Continent Rift as a strategy for dealing with global warming. The part that I heard was the idle chit-chat introduction that our geology guy gave him that said he was a marathoner and a triathlete. OK, I know what triathlon is so I went up to him at the break and after waiting for all the geophysicists and such to complete their technical questions I asked him what he rides.

He was immediately even more animated than he had been while talking about the Mid-Continent Rift. He rides a Cervelo. I knew that Cervelo was one of the favorites of the triathlon crowd but after today's conversation I know quite a bit more than I previously knew.

He and I had a nice moment as we discussed the point which I believe I originally read on FatCyclist about how few people there are who understand and appreciate what a wonderful thing a really nice bike which fits properly is and what a wonderful tool such a bike is and what wonderful things you can accomplish with such a tool.

Bike post, and here's some poetry:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Salt residue

I am not sure when this happened because I think I have been watching but today there was a white film along the edge of the entrance ramp of the freeway and then the same white between the drive lanes, clear evidence that that section of roadway has been salted. I know it has been cold enough but it has not really snowed and that first application of salt to the roads usually occurs contemporaneously with the first snow fall. Just being cold isn't enough as you also need moisture to produce poor traction requiring melting and I just do not recall that having occurred this year. But the salt residue was unmistakable. This is actually a bicycle post as the first application of salt is a sign certain that the season is over. I do not wish to expose my nice bike to potent corrosive chemicals so I usually bring it inside when salt appears on the streets. I am uncertain at this moment and it seems likely that the weather will make the decision for me before I have to do much worrying but the evidence is mounting that the bicycle season is over.

I have that "Gullible Info" widget over there on the side of my page and this is what I found on it when I logged on today:

"The Battle Creek Enquirer published the prior week's lottery numbers on February 15 2007, causing Michigander Bret Nelson to throw away what is believed to be the winning $17 million ticket."

Is this really true? Or am I just really gullible?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Nice punish PSG

I was checking a French football website just now to find out if the draw for the next round of la Coupe de France has been held yet. It has not. But the headline on the front page of the website set me to surfing. It seems that Nice has defeated Paris-Saint Germain in Ligue 1 play. As a result of the defeat PSG has fallen into the relegation zone and must confront the possibility of demotion to Ligue 2.

I have in the past done a little reading around mostly Wikipedia about football in Paris and therefore know that there is another team in Paris, Paris Football Club, which currently competes in the Championnat National, the 3rd league in the French hierarchy. I found a place where I could check the general classification for le Championnat and discovered that Paris FC is currently 3 points adrift from the promotion zone in that table. This raises the intriguing possibility that PSG could be relegated to Ligue 2 in the same year that Paris FC wins promotion to that same league. Apparently the followers of the two teams are somewhat antagonistic towards one another. PSG is very much the team of les Bobos (or with English subtitles by King Negrito), the self styled trendsetters of Parisian life. The average Paris FC fan would claim that football is what is important, that PSG is about image and therefore not worthy of serious consideration. So the two teams in the same league could be fun.

In truth, both PSG and Paris FC are relative newcomers to the scene. Top flight league football had fallen on hard times in Paris in the early 1970s. Paris found itself in the embarrassing position of having no representation in Ligue 1. A new team was formed, partially by the fusion of an existing Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain, and partially from funds gathered from nearly 20,000 subscribers. The creation of the new Paris Saint Germain marked the reappearance of a major club in Paris after the demise of most notably RCF Paris and Red Star. However, shortly after the new team was formed it came under pressure from the Paris City Council to remove the reference to Saint Germain from the team name and it split again into two forming the current Paris Saint Germain and Paris Football Club.

Historically the two top teams in Paris through the formative years of French football were Racing Club de France, and Red Star of suburban Saint Denis. Both currently play in in the Championnat de France Amateurs, the fourth tier of French football league system, although in different groups, RCF in Groupe A, Red Star in Groupe B.

One final note, "Red Star" is not a translation; the club's name in French is "Red Star", rather than "Étoile Rouge".

Enough French football for today.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Sun makes an appearance but you couldn't prove it by me

Monday arrived and I went back to work. I don't get an early start this time of year so it was completely light by the time I went, the sun was up but I couldn't really see it behind some clouds.

The day cleared nicely and I could see blue sky out the window, but it was out the window don't you know. I could just as well have been watching it on cable TV on the "What's Outside" Channel.

Sunset? 4:36 today.

Walking out to the parking lot to come home? Dark. Totally, completely dark.

Only about 3 and a half weeks and the days start getting longer but late November is hard.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Sun shines

It was a very nice day in a couple of the most important ways, the sun was out, the temperatures were pleasant for this time of year. But it was windy and it certainly seems like the sun goes down in mid-afternoon. I know that in July I can head out at 5:15 for a bicycle ride knowing that 2 hours of riding will bring me home well before dark. Today I got home from the hockey game at 5:15 and it was already stone dark.

So it was a very nice day but abysmally short.

I can report that I did a bit of grocery shopping today and blueberries have retreated from the $5.99 threshold to now stand at 2 for $5. That's 2 125 gram containers for $5, still around $9.50 per pound. **sigh**

The traveler is back on this side of the Atlantic. She is such an old hand at this France thing that I do not so much worry about her when she is gone, I just am personally happier when she is closer to home.

Anyone reading this should leave here now and go over to her site and see the pictures from her trip.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Une qualification sans conviction

It might have been possible to ride this afternoon. It was above freezing and the wind which later howled a bit had not yet started to blow. But I had a hockey game to go to and bicycling just did not fit into the schedule. It is just as well as it was very, very marginally acceptable conditions for riding. It might have been possible but I suspect it would not have been a very pleasant ride.

No biking today.

A crowd of over 11,000 assembled in Stade de la Beaujoire this past evening for Vertou-Nantes. The final was 2-0 for Nantes. Despite the victory the Nantes side was taking no particular joy. The consensus reaction was that the Vertou side had played more inspired football than the Nantais and deserved to at least have scored. However, after a scoreless first half, as headlined on the Nantes website, Thomas Dossevi "sauve la mise", saved the day with goals in the 49th and 56th minutes to seal the Nantes victory. Avec panache, Vertou tentait bien de revenir, with panache, Vertou tried well to get back into the game but could not. Nantes does not take joy in the way that they played but they do achieve the most important objective, advancement to the next round.

Friday, November 23, 2007

French transportation strike losing impetus

The news from France is that a series of votes taken yesterday nearly unanimously confirmed the intent of the striking transportation workers to return to work today. It will be several days before full service is restored but the worst is apparently over and visitors to Paris should find it easier to get around for the next couple of days and cheaper to get to the airport on Sunday.

The news from here is that it was very cold yesterday with a bit of snow. The snow has stopped although a bit of residue perseveres here and there. The cold hangs on with a vengeance. Last year I rode on the day after Thanksgiving and Saturday and Sunday, three rides for that weekend which finally allowed me to barely reach my mileage goal for the year. No ride is planned for today. I have several guidelines to help determine when bicycling is possible. One is that the water must not freeze in my water bottle while I am on the bicycle. Today is a day on which the water would freeze, no bicycle today.

In other news from France, Vertou was given the opportunity to hold a practice session in the Nantes stadium to familiarize themselves with the surroundings. The team members are, of course, all residents of the Nantes metro area. They are obviously avid amateur players and therefore almost certainly fans of the professional game. It is extremely likely that they have all been in the big stadium before. On all of their previous trips, however, they had to pay admission and confine their activities to watching from the stands. The FC Nantes website features a photo of "les Vertaviens" loosening up on the field at Stade de la Beaujoire.

The website also features an interview with Nantes midfielder Frédéric Da Rocha. Da Rocha says that le Coupe de France is special and that the team will take the challenge of the amateur side very seriously as advancement to the next round is of paramount importance.

For those who do not know, FC Nantes has won the French Cup on three occasions, 1979, 1999, and 2000. The current holder is FC Sochaux Montbelliard. Sochaux is currently 19th in the Ligue 1 table, in danger of relegation to Ligue 2, so it is not farfetched to think that one of the top Ligue 2 teams has a shot at winning the Cup.

Nantes is also, of course, an eight time champion of France, having won Ligue 1 in 1965, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1995, and 2001. FC Nantes is in fact the last club other than Olympique Lyonnais to be the champion of France. Lyon has won the league the past six years in a row and are currently once again comfortably atop this year's table.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

8 am, 22 degrees

Thanksgiving Day morning, 8am, 22 degrees F, minus 6 C.Meanwhile, 3pm Paris time, predicted high of 55 and partly cloudy.

Perhaps more later, if not, a happy and safe holiday to all.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Proper flurries

We had proper snow flurries today. With the temperature hovering around 30 snow flakes hovered in the sky for most of the afternoon. It is still flurries, though, not yet a snow fall. Of course gravity continues in force and many of the flying snow flakes settled to the ground. Today for the first time there were enough flakes and the ground was cold enough that collections of flakes started to gather on exposed grassy areas (and on the windshield of my car parked at work). But still only flurries.

From the FC Nantes website, Nantes season ticket holders are reminded that the Coupe de France game on Saturday is a Vertou home game and that season ticket holders do not hold priority on their regular seats. Also the game has attracted the interest of not only the local media but France 2, one of the national networks. The big network has sent a crew from what I assume is a regular show, Foot, to cover the preparations for the game.

Allez Nantes.Ms. Wireless will be in Paris tomorrow, strikers willing, that is. Here she is with Maman at a quintessential Paris landmark in 2006.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Football news


FC Nantes is in the midst of a two and a half week break from Ligue 2. The team is currently in training at Les Sables d'Olonne. Meanwhile, Vertou is still active in its league. In the absence of Nantes football news, the Nantes website featured a report this week on the Vertou game. Vertou played La Baule to a 0-0 tie. Insert *yawn* here. The little tiny photo at the left is from the Nantes website and shows the scene at the Vertou home pitch with banners for Vertou and Nantes promoting the upcoming clash.

In what passes for actual Nantes news the game against Guingamp originally scheduled for December 23 has been moved to December 22 for the convenience of the cameras of Eurosport. **yawn**

Tickets for the Vertou-Nantes matchup are on sale at the stadium and at E. Leclerc. Sideline seats are 10 Euros, seats behind the goals are 5 Euros. Expectations for the crowd are modest, with one reference which I did not completely understand citing the possibility of Vertou playing before 12,000, which would obviously be 20 or 30 times larger than their average crowd.

Monday, November 19, 2007

200 posts

The counter on the archive to the left and on the dashboard when I log on report 199 posts. That must make this one number 200.

Yesterday I had a picture of the Hill Mansion. Next door from 1887 to 1959 was the Amherst Wilder Mansion.

In his architectural guide to the Twin Cities, Larry Millet says that this was the finest among 60 or so lost mansions on Summit Avenue. He calls it probably one of the two or three grandest houses on Summit Avenue.

Wilder, whose fortune continues to finance good works in Saint Paul, lived in the house until his death in 1894. The Wilder mansion later became the property of the Catholic Archdiocese. For 41 years, the Wilder served as the Archbishop's house until its last occupant, Archbishop Gregory Murray, refused to live there... "too ostentatious", he said. Instead of being preserved, it was torn down in 1959, in what Millet calls, "a great loss to the city."

So that's all I got for today. 162 rides, 200 posts, 4,000 miles, as Wireless said back in the beginning, this bike thing is totally bloggable.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Very cold day for biking

I think today was as cold a day as any when I have ridden for at least a couple of years. It was cold. I changed the hand coverage from yesterday but my fingers still got cold. My trunk never warmed up, I was always cold. I was warm enough to not be uncomfortable, but I was always cold.

I rode over to the Cathedral and as I passed the James J. Hill Mansion I noticed that the driveway gate was open. The house is owned and operated as an admission required museum by the Historical Society so the gate is always closed and locked. I seized today's opportunity to duck through the gate to get a picture.The house was built for James J. Hill, the Empire Builder, the founder of Great Northern. The house was completed in 1891, constructed of reddish Massachussetts sandstone. It appears much darker due to the effects of over a century of accumulated air pollution. The Hill house is still the largest private residence in the city.

It was very grey and cold but I never even thought about the conditions that suddenly appeared as I rode into the driveway. I was startled when stuff started to hit my jacket, my absolute first indication of rain. It ended up being real rain. It eventually rained enough to completely wet the street, real rain, not just sprinkles. So it wasn't cold enough to snow but if I had gotten myself caught out in a rainstorm it would have been a considerably more miserable ride.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Some things still open, some closed

It was cold today. There were a few bits of water in its solid state floating around in the atmosphere this morning. It wasn't actually falling to the ground, but it was the most significant appearance by that substance so far. It was for me the coldest weather that I have ridden in so far this season.

It was 36 when I started out. I have been out at 38 and I thought I could just tweak the 38 costume and be good at 36. I went with a heavier helmet liner, balaclava and stuck a thin knit glove under my bike gloves, covered with the Craft winter bicycling gloves that I have been wearing. The tweaks were successes except for the knit gloves. They actually ended up making my hands colder as I did not have sufficient room to wiggle my fingers. You need a little room to move and I took the room away from myself. My fingers got cold but it was tolerable, I was never extremely uncomfortable.

With 8-12 mph winds from the NNE I headed off towards the northeast, towards Lake Vadnais. Once again I discovered that the park is still open but today for the first time ever I was the only person there. Two or three cars drove through during the time I was off the bike at the picnic area but I was the only human being actually out in the cold. I have been to Vadnais many, many times. Today is the first time I was there alone.

I was the only person there and here is what everyone else missed:

There were some big white birds swimming in the middle of the lake so I tried to get a picture of them.I was having a little difficulty making a positive identification. I thought I knew what they were but I just was not sure. I hoped that they would swim a little closer so I could get a better picture and eventually they did. Even then I wasn't sure, if they were what I thought they were they are a species only very rarely seen by me in the wild. I just wasn't positive but I came home and Googled the species that I suspected and there just is not any doubt.

Swans. Swans don't come to town very often.Eventually I gave up hope of anyone else coming along to share the experience and started on home. It was a little warmer with the wind behind but the sun made only occasional brief appearances and it never got very warm. The Rice Street A&W has a sign saying closed for the season and a thermometer across the street saying 39.

The Roseville par 3 golf course (Cedarholm for those of you who know) is also closed for the season with protective tarps laid out over the greens.

But the absolute oddest thing is this: I have ridden in colder weather than today's in those years when I rode completely through the winter. But today for the very first time ever I went for a bicycle ride and did not see a single other moving bicycle. No road bikes, no mountain bikes, no comfort bikes, no commuters, no kids navigating the neighborhood, no moving bikes period.

I thought it was a fine day for a ride.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Today's menu item

Bon voyage to the traveller. Have fun, sweetie.

It is now official, USSA Vertou and FC Nantes will contest the 7th round of le Coupe de France at Stade de la Beaujoire on Saturday, November 24 at 2100. I followed some links I found at the FC Nantes site and did a little Googling and discovered that Vertou is often referred to as Vertou (DH) because they play in the Division d'Honneur.

The structure of French football has at its top the two professional leagues, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 with 20 teams each. Next in line are a number of leagues run by the Fédération Française de Football.

At level 3 is the semi-professional Championnat de France National, again a league with 20 teams.

At level 4 is the amateur Championnat de France Amateurs, which is divided into four parallel regional divisions, each with 18 teams, a total of 72.

Level 5 is the Championnat de France Amateurs 2, which is divided into eight parallel regional divisions, 16 teams each, a total of 128.

Underneath that are many more regional leagues and divisions. If I counted correctly there are 24 regional leagues, each divided into divisions. The top division of each is the Division d'Honneur, usually 14 teams. It is in this sixth level of football that USSA Vertou competes, in the Ligue Atlantique.

Stay with me a minute here, Nantes is currently second in Ligue 2, making them arguably the current 22nd ranked team in French football. In the top 5 levels there are 20+20+20+72+128 teams, a total of 260. There are 24 regional leagues, Vertou is 4th in the one they play in, making them, oh say, 73rd amongst that classification. Vertou is approximately the 333rd ranked team in French football, being given an opportunity to play at one of the biggest stadiums against one of the most storied teams in France.

It is no wonder that the Vertou chairman has said that the amateur club is honored to be playing at la Beaujoire. It is 6th division against 2nd division, number 333 getting a shot at number 22.

I found a Vertou fan website. It is in French but I try to follow along. One of the comments left by a fan is this:

N'ayant pu servir les "merlus" au beurre blanc, il est à souhaiter que les "canaris" soient préparés au Muscadet pour un excellent spectacle auquel un grand nombre de vertaviens devrait se déplacer.
Allez l'U.S.S.A. nous sommes tous avec vous

I don't get all of that but I am pretty sure that he is saying that Canaries are best prepared in a sauce of white butter and Muscadet, that it makes an excellent spectacle for a great number of vertaviens? (Vertou fans?) to enjoy. Allez (Vertou), we are all with you.

This could be fun.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

I am a bike geek

Winter approaches and temperatures fall. Each trip out the door of the house requires an assessment of gear, what do I need to wear to keep from getting cold?

For me, first comes the vest, usually in mid-September. The coverup continues through light jacket, heavier jacket, heavier jacket with some kind of hand cover, pretty soon maybe a hat, serious hand cover, and so on eventually to mid-winter gear of scarf, heavy winter coat, full down mittens, head cover appropriate for wind and temperatures of the specific day.

Right now I am at the final stages of heavier jacket (fleece) and serious handcover. Today was a bit colder and I went to FC Nantes scarf, winter jacket but without the heavy liner installed yet, hat and gloves. I deemed it cold enough for serious gloves but not quite cold enough to require mittens.

So what passed for serious gloves?

Well, I have a nice pair of Specialized Sub-Zero full finger bicycle gloves, complete with ulnar nerve pad, that I am not using for biking any more. They make fine driving gloves (and at the same time shield me from the dangers of ulnar neuropathy).

My name is Gino and I am a bike geek.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

What the definition of is is

A thoughtful commentator should rather quickly concede that the verb "to be" is highly nuanced. Any scoffing dismissal of an explanation couched in this nuance should itself be firmly rejected.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Rasmussen admits deceit

At a press conference in Denmark on November 9, former Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen admitted that he lied.

Rasmussen spoke aware of the fact that an independent investigation commissioned by team sponsor Rabobank had completed an investigation and would be revealing its findings this week.

Speaking for the first time about the events leading up to his firing by Rabobank and dismissal from the Tour, Rasmussen admitted that he has not been telling the public the truth about his whereabouts in the period during which he missed crucial out of competition drug tests.

"I would like to clearly state that I was not in Mexico in June. I have therefore misinformed both the UCI and the public."

This week the Rabobank investigators reported that Rasmussen "deliberately provided incorrect whereabouts information on multiple occasions and could therefore deliberately not be tested for a given period. When an athlete is deliberately out of reach for doping testing organisations during a specific period before the Tour de France, and does not provide a credible explanation, this creates a strong suspicion that he may be using substances from the forbidden doping list."

Monday, November 12, 2007

160th ride

It was a very grey day today. The morning was about as warm as yesterday but today I stalled around instead of heading out early thinking that today might warm up as satisfyingly as yesterday did.

Alas, by noon it was obvious that grey was the dominant color of the day. And by that time I pretty much had to get out there if I was going to finish before dark. I jest, but barely, sunset is 4:37 today.

One of the hallmarks of the season for me is my appearance at the gates of Lake Vadnais to discover that the county parks department has shut the road down for the season. I thought that today might be the day. Nope, still open but very nearly deserted. And grey, very grey.The ride was, however, my 160th of the year, so that goal is attained. Pretty much anything that was possible has been accomplished, I guess from now on I ride for entertainment.

Without the sun the day remained very cool. I rode past the temperature display at the A&W on Rice Street and it said 50. However, just before I reached home the sun poked through. The sky was blue and I extended the ride.
I got this shot for contrast with yesterday's picture of Sheldon Street. This is Albert Street, one block west of Sheldon Street, again looking north from Frankson. The trees on Albert Street are just a little bit more bare than the oaks on Sheldon.

Having gotten that far off my originally planned path I continued along down Frankson and eventually crossed Snelling into the Fairgrounds. This path led me back through the farm campus and back towards home. I noticed that the fields have been cultivated and I briefly considered a photo of the corn field. There really isn't much to see, though. The stalk remants are mostly gone and there are shallow furrows, really not much to see.

There was plenty to smell, however. What the farmers on the farm where I briefly toiled as a high school student used to call the honey wagon had been out and made several substantial deposits. Ah, the smell of manure.

FC Nantes is on a three and a half week break from Ligue 2 competition. The team will travel today to Les Sables d'Olonne for training and what the website calls regeneration. The only scheduled fixture before the resumption of Ligue 2 is the Coupe de France game against Vertou which will be either Saturday the 24th or Sunday the 25th at the big stadium in Nantes.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Armistice Day

It was nice enough today to ride my bicycle. Actually, it was way nice enough. I headed out at about 10:30am into 46 or so degree temperature with light southerly winds. The haze cleared off, the sun started to shine, the temperature quickly rose through the 50s so that it looks as though the high temperature for the day will be above 60 before the sun goes down. As I commented to another cyclist who rode up alongside me as I waited for the light at Summit and Lexington, you don't get many days like this at this time of year.

The picture at left was taken today. The location is in Saint Paul near Como Park, about 2.5 miles from home. It is Sheldon Street, looking north from Frankson. The street is lined, both sides, for the entire block, with oak trees. The oaks have not completed the color change and as perhaps we all know, they will be the last to drop their leaves, possibly hanging on until mid-winter before they go bare.

I took a longish ride, intending originally to ride to the Cathedral but as I cruised down Summit it occurred to me that today is the actual Armistice Day as opposed to tomorrow's Veterans Day Observed. Yes, I am old enough to remember that when I was a child some of the older folks referred to the day as Armistice Day, a reference to its true significance as marking the end of World War I. The war to end all wars ended with a cease fire at the 11th minute after the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918. It was only after civilization managed to arrange for a second World War that the necessity came to recognize another group of veterans and therefore to change the name to Veterans Day.

Wikipedia reports that as of today there are 22 surviving veterans of WWI, including in the USA only three who had completed training and served in the Army before the Armistice. Of the other three, 106 year old Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia, is the last US veteran to complete training and serve overseas. I am also old enough to remember when Albert Woolson, the last surviving American Civil War veteran, died (in 1956), and to remember that he was a resident of Minnesota at the time of his death.

I suspected there might be ceremonies at the veterans memorials on the State Capitol grounds and so I changed my destination to check on the ceremonies.They had a band, a color guard, and a rifle squad to fire the 21 gun salute. The main program was at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial before moving to the WWII and Korean War memorials for the firing of the rifles.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

The Gates of Hell

It was a very November day today. It started dark, got wet and windy, stayed dark, proceeded through a gray period, got darker, and has just recently gotten really dark. It wasn't really too cold, but it never dried out. It was always dark and raw. It was November. But it wasn't really nasty enough to consider today to be the gates of hell.

The post caption refers to more artwork. Because it got a mention yesterday I today include my picture of the bronze copy of la Porte de l'Enfer from the garden at the Musée Rodin. The museum itself refers to this work as Rodin's monumental masterpiece. At least 10 of what today are considered to be individual works by Rodin, including both yesterday's Thinker and le Baiser (The Kiss), were originally conceived as elements of this work. The Kiss was removed after Rodin realized that the state of pure happiness portrayed in that sculpture did not really fit in with the rest of the composition of this work. However, the Thinker remains, set into the upper panel.

I had to wait for the photo as most photographers were getting a companion photographed with the work (for scale I assume). As I waited the Italian lady standing next to me breathed, "Bellisima". I speak less Italian than French but I know that word and I offered for comparison the English words, "Beautiful, indeed."

Rodin began the work on a commission in 1880 with a scheduled delivery date of 1885. He never finished, and would continue to work on and off on this project for 37 years, until his death in 1917.

The plaster original was restored in 1917 and is displayed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. A series of plaster casts illustrating the development of the work is on view at Rodin's workshop in Meudon. Also in 1917, a model was used to make the original three bronze casts of which this is one. The others are at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

Subsequent bronzes have been distributed by the Musée Rodin to a number of locations, including Zurich, Stanford University, and the Rodin Gallery in Seoul, Korea.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Le Penseur

I see that there is now an accepted protocol which allows me to take inspiration from someone else's blog for details about my own post.

OK, I noticed that Legend had a photo of her office including a bronze of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin.

Le Penseur was modelled in 1880-1882 for la Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell), and exhibited in its original size (height 71.5 cm, about 28 inches) in Copenhagen in 1888. It was enlarged in 1902. The statue was the first work by Rodin to be erected in a public place. It was inaugurated in front of the Pantheon on 21 April 1906 during an intense political and social crises which turned this sculpture into a socialist symbol. In 1922, using as a pretext that the statue created an obstacle during ceremonies, it was transported, with its pedestal, to the garden of the Hôtel Biron which had by then become the Musée Rodin. It was photographed in that garden in May 2006 with the Babe for scale.

The dome visible over the shrubbery is the Eglise du Dome, the tomb of Napoleon, located across the street from the museum grounds.

In Friday night Ligue 2 football, Nantes used a second half goal from Czech international Marek Heinz to forge a 1-1 tie with Angers. Angers is only about 50 miles upriver from Nantes which perhaps facilitated the large turnout of 31,370, a new high for a single game attendance for Ligue 2 this year. With a game starting a half an hour earlier, homestanding Le Havre had set the bar high with 2-0 victory over Châteauroux. Last week's 4-0 loss for Nantes comes back to haunt them as this week's results place the two teams equal on points but with Le Havre assuming first place in the general classification on goal differential.

The Nantes-Angers clash of neighbors is small potatoes, however, when compared to the news from the drawing for the 7th round of la Coupe de France. La Coupe is open to every organized football team in France, including all teams playing in the three levels of professional leagues but also all of the teams in the various descending classifications of amateur football. The lowest level of amateur teams begin play in the first round and as the rounds go on teams from higher classifications are gradually added to the mix. As long as you keep winning you keep playing making it theoretically possible for the most lowly side of butchers and shopkeepers to reach the finals in Paris against, perhaps, one of the giants of French football.

The teams of Ligue 2 enter the draw for the first time in round 7 and the draw was held earlier this week. Nantes has drawn amateur side FC Vertou as its opponent. What makes this big news is that Vertou is a Nantes suburb. Vertou plays in the amateur Ligue de l'Atlantique, the District de Loire, where it currently occupies fourth place. Vertou being accorded what even its own website calls the privilege to host Nantes is akin to the Dundas Dukes being named to host a game against the Minnesota Twins, a game that is not an exhibition, but a game that is a real contest on the road to an important trophy. The Vertou players are being given the opportunity to live a dream.

Vertou has drawn the role of host. The side plays its home games at several different sites around their town, none of which are equipped to handle all of the Vertou supporters who are likely to turn out for such an event to say nothing of the 31,000 who attended tonight's game in Nantes and might be expected to also show up for the first foray of this season by Nantes into la Coupe de France. Indeed, the main field in Vertou visible on Google Earch is only about 10km from the Nantes stadium, perhaps not even as much as a 15km drive. No doubt most of the Vertou supporters are also Nantes supporters, fans of the local side on the weekend but also supporters of the major league team in the big stadium just up the road.

Vertou as the host has the option of naming the field where the game is to be played. In connection with this the following announcement was made today:

Sous réserve de l'accord de la Fédération Française de Football, le FC Nantes et Vertou se sont entendus pour évoluer au Stade de la Beaujoire à l'occasion du 7ème tour de la Coupe de France.

Subject to approval of the French Football Association the game will be played in Nantes at Stade de la Beaujoire, the Nantes home stadium. It is as though the Dundas Dukes have been granted the right to be the home team against the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome in a game which might lead to one or the other of them qualifying to play in the World Series.

Allez Nantes! Allez Vertou!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Well, sure, as a matter of fact

While we were waiting to curl, the traveler who is going to France next week asked me if I happened to have any Euros. It is useful to have a few on hand when you arrive in Europe so that you are not completely helpless until you locate a cash machine.

What are the odds that any person in that building actually had some Euros? And that the person had the Euros with them, not in a drawer at home?

Well, sure, as a matter of fact, I do, I replied. And opened my wallet and handed over the 35 Euros I have been carrying around since we last left France, May 2006.

Yup, prepared for any emergency, that's me.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Curling night

I felt OK this morning and gave work another chance. It was OK, but I am glad that I didn't have to curl in the early session this evening. Usually I curl twice on Wednesday and although a day at work was acceptable I am not sure that a day at work followed by curling twice would have been that good an idea.

Anyway, curling at 9pm is still on so the following bit of news will have to suffice. Only a small number of my regular readers will grasp the significance of this but . . .

In the 4 Nations Cup today from Ejendals Arena in Leksand, Sweden, Erica McKenzie scored the 3rd goal for the US National team in a 4-0 victory over Sweden. McKenzie skated on a line with Gigi Marvin and Jinelle Zaugg. Anya Miller took a regular shift on defense.

That's all I got.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

No blues

I think the high for today is going to be 33 but at least no sleet. It is dark and dreary with a cold wind blowing. It feels like November.

This morning I considered myself to be still not well enough for work but by this afternoon I felt like I should try to venture out to vote. I walked across the field to the community center and exercised my franchise. It was a quiet election day in my town as the only contests on the ballot were for seats on the school board.

Having voted only for one despite the option of voting for up to three I then walked to the grocery store hoping to procure bananas. They had only extremely green and hard bananas, I passed. I checked the blueberries. The price for 125 grams (about 4.4 ounces) has newly risen to $5.99. I passed. The raspberries were on sale. I got raspberries.

In French football homestanding Sedan defeated Le Havre 2-1. Le Havre stumbles in its best chance to date to acquire outright possession of first place. The team from Normandy sustains only its second loss of the season, the last team in Ligue 2 to be so burdened. Nantes retains its what had become tenuous grasp on first place in the table. After today's completion of the 15th round of 38, the Canaries stand in first place by 2 over Le Havre and clear of 4th place and thus in the promotion zone by 8 points. Nantes and Le Havre are now even on goal differential. I am going to have to find out what the second tie breaker is. I wonder if it might be away goals.

For any number geeks who might be reading along, 11,946 was the announced crowd in Sedan. That is now the 12th highest attendance of the year in Ligue 2 and Sedan now has 4 of the top 12 crowds (numbers 8, 9, 10 and 12). Also, prior to the game the Sedan average attendance was only 3 behind Le Havre for second place in the league. This crowd will raise the average by about 200 making Sedan now the second highest average attendance in Ligue 2. I note that Sedan would stand 18th in Ligue 1 with this average attendance. 18th is, of course, in the relegation zone and Sedan would be facing relegation. Sedan, Troyes and Nantes are the teams that were relegated at the end of the 2006-2007 season. Sedan looks to be where they belong. Nantes belongs in Ligue 1.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Amid all the lasts, a first

Travels to the north of France have been hazardous thus far this season for FC Nantes. The Canaries had suffered their only previous loss of the season at Le Havre before journeying to Boulogne for a Monday night encounter. Boulogne is a bottom half of the table team featuring the second leading scorer in Ligue 2, Grégory Thil. Thil thrilled the home fans by dominating the game as he notched the hat trick and Boulogne throttled Nantes 4-0. The result may spell the end of the Nantes run at the top of the table as it imperils not only the points lead but also the goal differential lead which has made the difference on those occasions when points have been level.

I was home today, suffering a bit of whatever it is that Wireless and TOPWLH have recently processed. I was reading the newspaper at the dining room table about noon when I glanced up at a slight change in the pitch of the howling wind. Look carefully at the chair on the deck.The first appearance of water in one of its solid forms.

I also had a chance to spend some time browsing a new website that I discovered today, an English language site hosted by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. There is a section of game attendance which provides plenty more evidence to show that Nantes will not be in Ligue 2 for long.

Ligue 2 has played 140 games coming into today and have drawn more than 10,000 on a total of only 17 occasions. Nine of those games have included Nantes. The top seven games in attendance are the seven games Nantes has played at home. The top attendance at a Nantes home game was 31,310, the seventh highest was 18,333. The eighth highest for the entire league was 17,404 (at Sedan). Nantes also played in the 11th highest attended, 12,748, at Le Havre.

Nantes ranks first in average attendance at 24,320. Second place Le Havre is also second in average attendance at 10,548, Sedan is third at 10,545.

In all French football Nantes ranks eighth in attendance, trailing the likes of Lyon, Paris SG and Marseille but ranking ahead of thirteen of the Ligue 1 teams.

Modern football in France, just as in the USA, is a business. Success in football is dependent upon success in the business. A measure of the business success is number of people coming out to buy your product. Attendance predicts success.

Clearly as a business Nantes is in the top ranks of French football. It is quite reasonable to expect that next season the team will be competing against its peers, the other successful football businesses of France, in Ligue 1.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Falling back creates confusion

Yesterday I headed out the door at 10:30am with the temperature about 36. Today I hung around waiting to see if TOPWLH was going to be able to ride. Finally about 10:30 we determined that she didn't have the proper attire for the conditions. I determined to set out on my own. TOPWLH commented that I was leaving at about the same time as yesterday's departure. I agreed and added that conditions were better, that it was about 8 degrees warmer.

Doh!!! Classic DST confusion. It was, of course, an hour later at 10:30 today and therefore no surprise that the day had warmed to about the same temperature that it was yesterday at 11:30.

I headed off to the north, towards the 8 lakes. But I rode to some places that I don't usually ride instead. I crossed Highway 96 and continued on up towards the Rice Creek preserve for a turn around. It ended up being pretty nice and I got in a longish ride for this time of year.It really doesn't look much like a creek. There is water in there, and it is flowing, but mostly it looks like a swamp. The creek flows into the north end of Sucker Lake and then on into the north end of Vadnais.

I bypassed Sucker and Vadnais on the way home and instead rode through Grass Lake. This involves about a mile on a limestone path, something I don't ordinarily do on my road bike. But the ground was good and hard, there weren't any wet leaves or patches of gravel. The ride itself was not a problem. Grass Lake itself was an intense blue in the parts of the lake with open water. Light conditions were not conducive to trying to get a photograph.

As I stated a couple of days ago, surpassing last year's mileage total was a fairly simple task and I completed it today. This leaves only a couple of things that I have thought about that I still might try to accomplish this year.

I set out trying to complete a ride on 160 days. With today's ride I am at 158 so that looks pretty doable. I have done 180 some years in the past but I will be completely satisfied this year with 160.

With yesterday's ride I surpassed 11 miles ridden for each and every day of the calendar year. I have occasionally considered if 12 would be possible. I suppose it still might be but I doubt it, that accomplishment would require another 300 miles. I suppose it might still be possible but I doubt it.

I caught a tailwind downhill at Snail Lake again today and registered 32.1 on the maximum speedometer. This is a tiny bit below the recent 33 but still pretty fast. It was a nice day for a ride and I am glad I was able to do so.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Brrrr

I joined the rush to ride in temperatures in the 30s today. Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn't too bad.

I wanted to ride this morning so I could watch a webstream of the Minnesota-Wisconsin women's hockey game this afternoon. I had to head out at about 10:30 in order to be back in time for the opening face-off. The temperature when I headed out the door was still only 36. I donned pretty much the full winter costume including mittens and booties. The sun was out, I wasn't cold, it was a pretty nice ride.

I often ride all or nearly all of the daily mileage without seeing anything that strikes me as being worthy of being photographed. Today I didn't even get turn the pedals a single time before the camera came out. This is the field next to our house. All of the grain must have been gleaned from the nearby fields as the geese have returned to their mid-summer dietary choice, grass.I think this is the most geese I have seen on the field in at least a couple of years.

Then about six miles into the ride I came upon unmistakable evidence of what comes next.Langford Park hosts two outdoor hockey rinks during the winter. The boards have gone up. Winter draws nigh.

By the way, Minnesota 3, Wisconsin 2.

And in France, Le Havre AC 2:1 Guingamp as the pursuers from Normandy draw back to within two points of FC Nantes. Nantes is next in action on Monday when the Canaries travel to Boulogne.

Friday, November 2, 2007

FC Nantes 2:1 AC Ajaccio

Nantes secured a solid grip on first place in Ligue 2 with a 2-1 victory in front of a crowd of nearly 28,000 at Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes on Friday evening.

Ajaccio led 1-0 at the half. Nantes equalized in the 57th minute on a goal by David de Freitas described as a copy of his game winning goal on Monday in Niort. It appeared that Ajaccio had escaped with a tie until Nicolas Gousse rose above the goal mouth crowd to score on a header in the 90th minute. In keeping with the wacky finish earlier in the week at Niort however, the game had still another exciting moment as time ticked away. The 4th official allotted three minutes of extra time. Deep into the extra time, in what the Nantes website describes as the 94th minute, Ajaccio appeared to have equalized. Surely this must have been the last action allowed by the referee before his whistle ended the game and Ajaccio's hopes were dashed at this very final moment. The goal was not allowed for reasons unclear to this English speaker. Here's the description from the Nantes Live Update, someone help me:

EGALISATION d'AJACCIO..... hors jeu !!!! Serge Dié est sanctionné pour contestations.

"Hors jeu"? Except "jeu"? Isn't that play? Or something similar? Whatever the reason an Ajaccio player received a yellow card from protesting the decision. I suspect it must have been an offside call or something similar, a judgment call with which M. Dié did not agree.

As I used to tell the basketball team, you may think it is a foul, it may feel like a foul, but it isn't a foul until the referee says it is a foul and once he says it is a foul there isn't going to be any changing the decision. The referee's decision stands and Nantes wins.

Allez Nantes!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Bicycle blues

This is a bicycle blog but I am also an informal participant in two different blog rings or events. One I stumbled onto myself, the Daily Photo blogring. My favorites are Paris Daily Photo and Arradon Daily Photo. Now Ms. Wireless has challenged the lot of us to participate in National Blog Posting Month. The Daily Photo ring has a theme day the first of each month, this month the theme is "Blue". The National Blog Posting challenge is to post to one's blog each and every day of this month. So this post has to fill all three niches, it has to be about bicycling, it has to have a photo featuring blue, and it has to be the first of 30 this month.

Well, first of 30 is a done deal just by making this post. Here's a picture to complete the other two:Today I made my season mileage goal. When I started out this year I had hoped to complete the miles before the end of October. That stretch of crummy weather early in the month is the primary reason I failed but being as this is only one day into November the failure does not sting. Always in the past the goal was to complete the mileage before the end of daylight savings time. The extra week this year means that I made that goal. The next goal for this year is to pass last year's total. I need 54 more miles for that. Any miles at all at this time of year is no sure thing but I think 54 more is within pretty easy reach. The picture is of my front bicycle tire pointing down a line in my driveway. So far this year I have followed that blue line on the side of my bicycle tire for 4,000 miles. The picture of the blue side walled tire represents bicycling and it represents blue.

By the way, if Joe Valentinetti is reading this, Joe, note the composition, the bicycle tire exactly in the crack of the concrete.

Today was the last ride of the year after work I feel certain. There is still tomorrow but tomorrow is Friday and as the season ends and the daylight fails I have fallen out of the habit of riding on Friday. I probably will not ride tomorrow, today is the end.

And the end had some symmetry. Today on the ride I saw the tall bike guy. I think this is the third sighting this year, the first was on one of my very first rides. The tall bike guy and I exchanged our usual greeting and I once again failed to get a photograph.

And here is the person who told me that this biking thing was totally bloggable.She was over yesterday to help with the trick or treaters. I knew this blue thing was coming today and she was wearing her France football shirt. It is blue and I got the photo not knowing for sure if I would find any other blue thing to photograph. Nice ears and glasses, don't you think?

Allez Bleu!