I know what average means

It snowed some over the weekend although to be fair there was never ever a single snowflake that did anything other than instantly melt once it came in contact with the still relatively warm ground. But it did snow, temperatures were only in the 30s in the daytime with quite emphatic freezes overnight bringing an unquestioned end to that whole growing season thing.

But the average high temperature for today where I live is 50 (I know, only 50?!? Who can live in such a place?) But if you are going to have days in the 30s and the average is going to be 50 then you are going to have to have days like today. When I arrived home from work the weather channels reported a temperature of 72!

It was quite windy but it was just way too nice to even think about not riding. I rode in shorts, probably the latest in the year I have ever done so. I did have a long sleeved jersey on because I knew what would happen as soon as the sun started to slip away from the sky. In fact, I had my jacket rolled up and stuck in my jersey pocket and also in fact, I did stop a couple of miles from home and put it on.

But it was a great day, a spectacularly nice day, perhaps OOTND in THO October 30.

I knew it would get dark so I took some pictures in the back yard before I set out to ride. Believe it or not, there are still a few leaves on the trees, particularly the cottonwood. But the ash and the maples and the chokecherry have all given up. This is what the preferred after work spot of BB3k, the picnic table on the deck, looks like today.Turning slightly to the right to more clearly show the carpet of leaves on the ground in the yard.Roseville has a leaf pick up program, perhaps the greatest municipal service in the history of municipalities. We only have to gather the leaves into a large pile in the front yard. The city comes by with a vacuum truck and, voila, no leaves. No bending over to pick up leaves, no holding the bag open, no hauling to the recycling center. Just rake and watch. Life is good.

And one final view of just the yard, we are going to have a large pile of leaves.For example, here is our 2006 pile, photo taken November 6, 2006.Moohoo and BB3k for scale, although to be accurate it was more like BB2.1k at that time.

Wireless helped us rake that year.Very sad times at Fat Cyclist.

Traditional end of DST

It is the last Sunday in October, the day when, until very recently, the clocks were restored to standard time.

Today at 11am water in one of its solid forms made an appearance floating down out of the sky.

One Tree Hill Park

Well, obviously not. It was a beautiful October Saturday, at least it sure looked beautiful from the inside side of the front window. In a minor upset, one which I am sure will surprise many, I decided to ride my bicycle.

W I N D Y !

It was so windy that I as I rode I settled on an explanation of why I rode which begins, and ends, with the Auckland rule. I intended to illustrate the Auckland rule by going to Auckland Daily Photo and finding some sort of photo illustrating windy conditions. I went there and found a couple of quite nice photos of One Tree Hill but started to feel sheepish about taking a photo without permission (just look to the left under my own copyright declaration for an explanation of why).

So I ended up illustrating the ride with this photo of Ole Olson Park.It's the kind of thing that I would make up but I didn't have to. It actually is Ole Olson Park.

I rode southwest into the strong wind, crossed the Stone Arch Bridge and rode to the end of the River Road in Minneapolis. I think the sign is new. I have ridden there several times before but it never penetrated my consciousness that the piece of public land along the river there is Ole Olson Park.

Parks and public buildings should be named after citizens. On the way home I rode past the U of Minnesota's new football stadium.TCF Stadium is nearing completion. I have no trouble declaring that I much prefer the name of the park to the name of the stadium. I suspect that Orvin "Ole" Olson made some sort of contribution to the public good and has been honored by having his name put on a park. TCF has made a huge financial contribution to the stadium construction and has been awarded what is now referred to as "naming rights".

It is my belief that we would all be better off today if the new University football stadium had been named in the way the old University football stadium was named or in the way the stadium in which the University football team currently plays was named.

I refer to Memorial Stadium and the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

Sunset at 6:13!?!

It is very hard to get very many miles after work if sunset comes, as it did today (according to the Weather Channel) at 6:13. It is even harder to take a couple of minutes to get a decent photo. It is even harder if it is too overcast to provide decent lighting for any such photo.

But I did get to ride. The temperature was OK, the wind was tolerable.

We curled last night. The game turned, as it often does on a single shot. Our highly paid final shooter failed to execute a shot in the 4th end. We were lying 1, opponents had the hammer. We were down 3-1 but were in position to steal 1 to get back to 3-2. The attempted shot with our final rock was to place another rock near the button, allowing us to lie 2, making the final shot takeout by the opponent as difficult as possible. This was necessary because the opponent looked to be able to score 4 if they could take out our shot rock. The takeout looked to be a very difficult shot but we had to defend against it. It was such a difficult shot that our final shooter failed to adequately consider the possibility that he would make that shot on behalf of the opponent. Yup. I took out our shot rock and set the opponent up for an easy coast in 5. In a six end game coming back from down 5 is pretty much out of the question. Closed circuit to TT: We might well have done better if we had had another sweeper for several shots which just missed from unavoidable lack of sweeping.

*sigh*

We are contemplating a trip to Paris in the spring. In the process of just thinking about it I recently reread Michael Palin's account of a walk he took in Paris of sites associated with Ernest Hemingway.

Here is a passage from near the end of his account:

"Here you have a choice of classic brasseries, all well known to Hemingway — La Rotonde, Le Dôme, La Coupole, Le Select. Pass them by for now and turn off the main road up rue Delambre, where you will find the site of the fabulously named Dingo Bar. It’s now called the Auberge de Venise, and the cooking is Italian, but surely that’s a small price to pay for eating on the spot where Hemingway first met Scott Fitzgerald and the two English aristocrats on whom he based the characters of Duff Twysden and Mike Guthrie in "The Sun Also Rises," the book that made Hemingway, and Hemingway’s Paris, famous."That is TOPWLH standing in front of the Auberge de Venise, shortly after we dined there during our first visit to Paris in 2004. This was one of our first outings after our French speaking guide had departed to return to Nantes, leaving us alone in Paris with our very, very limited French.

Hint: the waiter spoke much better English than our French. Indeed, it is true, we have dined at the Dingo Bar and we have enjoyed cocktails at Harry's New York Bar.

Tall bike exchange

This bush is at the corner of our house. It is one of several species referred to as "Burning Bush" because it turns red (with red berries) in the fall. This is not part of the new shrubbery, perhaps obviously, it has been here awhile. I picture it here because it is over there slightly around the corner of the house and just doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. It's actually a quite attractive piece of shrubbery.It was cold today and a tiny bit windy. I was riding down Como and came up behind the Tall Bike Guy. His bike was built very clearly for effect, most emphatically NOT for speed. I quickly overhauled him.

Establishing once again that apparently we are pals, of some sort, we had a pretty nice exchange. My head was approximately at the level of his pedals as I passed. He remarked on the wind (no kidding, as far up there as he is, wind has to be an even bigger issue for him than it is for most cyclists). I remarked on the temperature.

It went like this:

TBG: At least we have the wind at our backs!
Senor Moohoo: It is getting a little chilly for this.

I do this blog mostly to entertain myself but also to entertain my wife and daughter. For those not familiar with the history this blog was created after my daughter said, "Dad, this bicycling thing is, like, totally blogable." Many of my favorite moments in blogging are when I am fooling around on the downstairs computer and hear my wife at the upstairs computer laughing and then discover that it was me who made her laugh.

Recent comments have confirmed that some others are reading. I want all commenters to know that I read the comments and I appreciate that you appreciate my postings here. If you are entertained I am pleased. It is a public blog, you are absolutely welcome to read, welcome to comment. I enjoy hearing from you. This applies most primarily to my primary commenter, GFR, but also definitely applies to the recent comments from elsewhere on my block and also from out there on the Anoka sand plain. Thanks for checking in. I appreciate it very much.

Back to basics

Today I post the next to last of the big end of year statistical milestones.

Since I tweaked my back I have been riding loops relatively close to home and avoiding the big climbs that are out there near the turn around points of a couple of my most common routes. But my rides of late have convinced me that I can return to the basic rides.

Today was gorgeous again, and warm to boot. It warmed into the 60s shortly past noon. The wind was pretty much straight out of the west and pretty light. I headed north towards precincts not seen for over a month.

The big statistical milestone came just after the turnaround. I recall that last year's biggest event, LOOK 10,000, occurred at the top of the road down into Lake Vadnais. Today I got all the way down to the Lake before the odometer made its final change. It seems appropriate that lots of these things happen at Vadnais. It is a beautiful spot and one I seek out whenever I can. Here it is: LOOK at Vadnais, LOOK at 14,000.This is an extremely important moment for triskaidekaphobiacs, of which I am apparently one. I started the year with just under 11,000 miles on that bike. When considering my yearly goals I had to consider that if I set out to ride 4,000 miles again it would mean 3 or so thousand miles on the LOOK. Anything less than 3,124 would leave me with a bicycle and a bicycle log which over the coming winter would feature a mileage total beginning with those two digits which I scrupulously avoid: 1 and 3. I set out for 4,000 anyway and today I reached safety.

I am a little disappointed. I did such a good job of getting BB3k's (and yes, I have changed the spelling of the abbreviation of her new moniker) odometer in focus yesterday. I thought I had conclusively answered this particular question. But no, I still seem to be able to photograph my own odometer only slightly out of focus. At least the pebbles on the ground are in sharp focus. *sigh*This mileage total is also an important milestone as it moves me into a formidable and completely comfortable 11,000 mile lead over BB3k in the category of miles ridden on the bicycle on which you have the most miles ridden lifetime (MROTBOWYHTMMRL, if you will). I feel safe, I feel strong.

I rode another mile and had to stop again. It was time for my annual picture of swans at Vadnais.Last year's photo was taken on a day when it was raw and windy. The swans were cruising about a fair distance from shore and seemed about as uncomfortable as the human. Today the swans were up next to the shore, feeding. Also visible in the picture are Canadian geese and mallard ducks. I stayed awhile and soaked up the good vibrations, it was very cool.

And then I stopped again about a mile later. The road construction project which has been a subject of wonder all year is now completed. The road up from the lake now leads off to the right over a new bridge structure. The old road went straight up the hill and is still visible on the left.The new route makes the hill a much more gradual climb. But the truth is that no matter which route you take you have to end up at that stoplight visible at the top of the old climb. It is also just a tiny bit of a shame that the old route is no longer available. That climb had become one of BB3k's favorites. It was the first really difficult hill that she figured out and conquered. She approached that hill not with trepidation but with relish. By the by, just want to throw this out there, BB3k is the REAL Queen of the Mountains.

Closed circuit to Wireless: Julie and Laura's parents have an Obama-Biden sign in their yard. Surprised?

New moniker

We had another pretty huge numeric milestone here again today. I will not be posting information about the milestone here but I believe that TOPWLH will be posting a narrative and photos on her Xanga site. My only comment would be that as a result of today's ride she has achieved a new, for this site, moniker. Henceforth she shall be known here as Bianchi Babe 3,000.

It was cold overnight and still under 50 when we headed out. This in itself is a milestone as BB-3000 had never before ridden at that temperature. But the sun was out and the day was warming towards 54 as we rode. It was just fine.

The wind was from the southwest which meant a ride towards that compass point. We turned around at the Stone Arch Bridge.On the way back we deviated from the most direct route. Here is a LOOK at Ridder Arena, Babe and Bianchi for scale.This view of Ridder shows the doors through which we enter for the hockey. We entered there twice this week, once last night and then again today after our ride.Last night's game was punctuated by the 4th win by a family member in Chuck-a-Puck. If you don't know what Chuck-a-Puck is ask Kelsey. Ask her to show you her souvenir helmet autographed by the entire Minnesota team.

The football news today from France is good again.

Nantes continued their revival with a 1-0 victory over St. Etienne. After a disappointing start to their Ligue 1 campaign, Nantes have today recorded their third win in four games. The victory puts Nantes level on points with St Etienne, just behind them on goal difference, and continues a climb towards mid-table.

Cool and crisp

The sun was out for most of my ride today. I had much better light for a picture of a stretch of road where I ride pretty often.I say most of the ride because if I tell the absolute truth I rode the last mile or so after sunset again. Yup, even though I got home at 6:30, it was officially nighttime.

Riding after dark

Fall. Dark. And cold. It was 53 when I set out today.

I got a little bit of a late start. I tried not to ride very far but I felt good. I rode a bit too far and it got dark. All of the cars with headlights on dark. The street lights actually illuminating street corners dark.

The last couple of miles of the ride were pretty dark. Particularly the .12 miles that I have to ride on Fairview to get from virtually any route home to the head of my street, that fraction of a mile was too dark.

But I am home. I felt good.

In other items of interest to bicyclists, this is actually yesterday's news but another Tour de France jersey winner has tested positive (or actually non-negative). This time it is Bernhard Kohl, this year's winner of the mountains classification (the spotty jersey). I haven't seen any announcement of the official disqualification but it has to come.

So here's the deal as I see it. Kohl was the winner as of the end of the race, yellow jersey winner Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck were tied for second. As you know by now, Schleck is already under suspicion for sending 7,000 Euros to a well known doping doctor he claims he had never met as some sort of I'll be coming to see you gift. It seems inevitable that Schleck will be DQ'd at some point in the future.

Sastre rides for the same team as Frank. The team leader, Bjarne Riis, has admitted that he doped when he was a rider. Sastre had that extremely suspicious Tour de France result where a pure climber has the time trial of his life to secure his position as race leader (see the whole sorry saga of Michael Rasmussen for further illustration of this phenomenon).

So, let's recap. First place finisher has already been tossed out. Second and third seem likely to follow. The fourth place finisher will have to be declared to be the winner.

In anticipation of this moment I present to you all, but particularly to his biggest fan, Ms. Wireless, the probable winner of the 2008 Tour de France spotty jersey: Thomas VoecklerRichard Virenque will be proud.

Chad* and Wireless for scale

A couple of days ago I showed some leaves in our driveway which had fallen from our front yard ash tree. I said that once the ash leaves started to drop they would go fast and that the tree would be mostly bare within a week.

Here is the ash tree as I finished my ride today, Chad* for scale. The tree is mostly bare and well within a week.I got in a middday ride and it was another beautiful day for a ride, temperatures in the mid-70s, about 15 degrees above normal. On yesterday's ride we rode a pretty difficult hill, somewhat inadvertently. But as a result of having ridden that hill yesterday I felt capable today of doing some hills I have been avoiding. I felt pretty close to back to full strength. It was a spectacularly nice ride.

TOPWLH had her family over today to allow them all to inspect her home improvements. Wireless came over a bit early to assist and was already here by the time I finished my ride. I took the above photo and then after getting in the house I asked Wireless to come out and model. The ash tree isn't as visible this time but this is the ash tree with Chad* and Wireless for scale.TOPWLH had lots and lots of fun, as did everyone. We sat OUTSIDE on the deck and it was all very, very nice.

*-ask Wireless, it's her car.

OOTND in THOD

My once a week riding companion, TOPWLH, at a very early moment in today's ride declared it to be one of the nicest days in the history of days. I am mildly flattered that a phrase originally declaimed by moi has entered into the public lexicon. However, I feel it is now necessary to declare a copyright, or perhaps a trademark. All future uses of OOTND in THOD should appear with a footnote recognizing the owner. So there.

I warned everyone that these were going to be coming and here another one is:

3,000 miles this bike this year.It is a French bike, I was wearing my Cycles Laurent Paris jersey (obtained for me by the French girl), we were right in the neighborhood, it seemed appropriate to stop at the State Fair Creperie. I suppose it doesn't really count as a very Frenchy spot as it is only open for business 11 days a year. This is particularly true when you consider that right at the end of the block is one of several stands at the Fair selling "French" fries.

So we continued on looking for other vaguely French references.BB rounding a roundabout.

After that we headed into the wind, trying to get to the top of the wind so that the ride home would be made by riders feeling strong. The wind was from the east mostly, along with a southern component. South of our house and about as far east as we can easily get we came once again to the Capital.It was a beautiful day. On the way home we felt strong, we felt fast.

Unremarkable

I rode pretty hard tonight, occasionally up on the pedals and trying hard. My level of fitness has slipped quite a bit since I started to baby my back. Tonight I felt pretty good, almost back to normal. Just in time for the season to end.

*sigh*

I like digital photography. You open the shutter and the hardware produces a digital file of whatever it was that was in front of the lens. The whole uncertainty about whether or not you have enough light to expose the film is removed.

These are her "garden shoes". The photo was taken well after sunset, well after it became dark.She loves her garden shoes.

Not news

This time of year is not a good time to be losing potential riding days to rain. I consulted last year's log and notice that October was rainy last year. The last three days have been rainy again. Oh, I think I could have ridden on Monday, but it was threatening and windy. Today was nice, a nice day for a bicycle ride.

This is not going to be news to anyone but fall is here. This is a view of my driveway from next to the mailbox.The ash tree in the front yard is one of the first to start dropping leaves. The maples change color sooner but when the ashes start to go it is a process that literally spans only days. The leaves go yellow one day and then a few days later they fall to the ground. Within a week the ash trees will be mostly bare.

But I got to ride today. It feels good to be back on the bike after three days off. Even with my continuing back issues it feels good. I am still not trying anything very strenuous, but I had a nice ride and I felt good enough.

I rode out past Lake Josephine. I have intended to get a picture of these bushes out there but I was hoping to get a picture with decent lighting. The sun dipped behind clouds today just as I arrived, declining to cooperate. I took the picture anyway. Who knows? This might be the best picture I get of this scene between now and blizzard season.Tour de France surprise time trial master Stefan Schumacher has tested postive for the third generation EPO product known as CERA. His future is in doubt. This was predicted by me during the race here and here.

His teammates were suspicious as reported here (second story down). Here is the most interesting bit:

"Sebastian Lang of Team Gerolsteiner said that the team had its suspicions of Stefan Schumacher during the Tour de France when they observed his reaction to news of the new CERA test.

"When it was announced that there was a new test for CERA, we were all happy. We sat on the bus and really celebrated," Lang told the Thueringer Allgemeine. "The whole team... except Stefan. He was suddenly very quiet and withdrawn."

Schumacher was "suddenly totally changed. So we other riders got together and discussed it. Finally we and the team management openly asked him whether there was something we should worry about." The response? "He just openly lied in our faces and said that everything was OK."

In other news CSC's Frank Schleck (yes, I was also vocally suspicious of him . . . and of his brother Andy) has been suspended by the team and has come under suspicions for his connections with notorious Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Doctor Fuentes has been at the center of what is generally referred to as Operación Puerto.

Isn't this fun?

Sunny and crisp

The Twin Cities Marathon is tomorrow. The race begins in downtown Minneapolis, initially heading south past the Chain of Lakes (including, I believe, right past the front window of Ms. Wireless). The course then follows the creek over to the river and then back north to Franklin Avenue where it crosses to the Saint Paul side. The route then heads south, crossing the actual city limits and entering Saint Paul before turning east at Summit Avenue. The final approximately 6 miles are down Summit to the Cathedral and then finishing in front of the Capital.

We headed over to view preparations and ride the last 5 or so miles of the course. This is at about the 22 mile mark. BB is photographed at the top of the Snelling hill, one of the last significant uphills on the course.After 22 miles many people will be suffering by the time they reach this hill but if they can make it to the top the rest is mostly downhill.

Here BB is at the finish line.As you can see by the stopped clock behind her, if she had turned in this time tomorrow she would be the new world record holder. Of course, she would also have to actually start at the start line in Minneapolis instead of our garage in Roseville, and the Bianchi would not be permitted as a means of transport.

These kinds of tiny details are all that stand between the TOPWLH and worldwide acclaim.

We proceeded on past the Capital and climbed up to the downtown overlook located on the hill back there. It isn't a very good picture as the sun was all wrong for this angle but it puts the two big stone buildings both in the photograph in a way that no other location does.Off in another direction is the building where I work. The horizontally striped building near the bottom and on the left edge is the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center (aka Jail). Behind it across the street are two converted brick warehouses. The left is the PCA. The one on the right is where I work. Just visible are the top 3 floors including on the 4th floor corner what we have been forbidden to refer to as the Jail View Conference Room.There is huge news today from France. FC Nantes got a late goal from Cameroonian forward Christian Bekamenga to break a scoreless tie and went on to steal three vital away points at Grenoble. The good news was compounded just moments later when Le Mans got 2 late goals at Le Havre to overcome a deficit and win that game by 2-1. The combination of the two results allowed Nantes to escape, at least temporarily, from the relegation zone. Les Canaris rise to 17th place in the table as Le Havre slides all the way to the bottom.

Belated lines

I missed the theme day by being inattentive to what the theme was but here I am only a day late with lots and lots of lines. Close examination will reveal a gas pipe LINE, a railroad LINE, an electric power LINE, a fence LINE, and bonuses of a street and a bike path. Also, not visible in the photo but visible to me as I stood out there was the sidewalk where I was standing on the near side of the street.I easily could have posted this yesterday as I rode through this spot yesterday too. The lighting today was almost certainly better. Yesterday's ride was almost always under a heavy overcast. So while I missed the theme day yesterday I almost certainly got a better picture today.

I was riding after work again so as I neared home the sun was nearing the horizon. I stopped a couple of miles from home when I came to a spot where the sunset looked pretty picturesque.The problem with stopping a couple of miles from home to photograph a sunset is, obviously, that you have to ride the last two miles home after sunset.

Themeless

Truthfully, I haven't been to any of the daily photo blogs yet today so I don't even know what the monthly theme is. I promise to go and look as soon as I get this published, but for now, I am without theme.

I visited my opthalmologist today. As an aside, he told me, and this may not be news to certain sectors of my readership, that nearly everyone who is "middle aged or beyond" has at least some evidence of cataracts. I told him that I certainly qualify as "middle aged or beyond". I think he was telling me that I have some evidence of cataracts. On the upside, my vision is still almost 20-20 in one eye (I missed one letter out of 5 on that line), and a solid 20-30 in the other.

The aspect of today's clinic appearance that is of significance to a bicycle blog is that the timing was such that I was able to get an earlier start on a bicycle ride.

I usually get a photograph sometime during the ride but I took this one before I even left my garage to start. It has been extremely grey the last couple of days. Today there was blue sky and sun through midday and even by about 4pm there was still enough blue to make a Dutchman a pair of pants.It turned out to be a good thing that I did get the photo before I started because the overcast moved back in and most of the ride was pretty grey.

And brisk. Today's high was 59 with a 15mph NW wind. Brisk.

Here's a correction, Marcia is no better than second grandmother on the block.