Sunday, November 30, 2008

Finis

The first snowfall that stays, the REAL beginning of winter, is pretty consistent here, coming very often on Thanksgiving weekend. It appeared as late as yesterday when the official high temperature crawled above 40 that winter would be arriving a bit later this year.

BUT . . . here is what our side yard looked like today at about 7:30am as I ventured out to retrieve the Sunday newspaper from the front steps.The weather service is reporting up to 1.9 inches have fallen in Saint Paul and the forecast for the rest of the day is for continuing snow showers. It looks like winter is here, the bicycling season is officially "finis".

As is this blog every day challenge issued by Wireless. The content was often pretty spare but I put something up every day. I had to. I am, after all, her father.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Nantes gains sweet revenge

Le Havre and Nantes today went head to head at Le Havre's Stade Jules Deschaseaux in a battle to pull away from Ligue 1's relegation zone. Those who have been following along will know that Le Havre and Nantes were rivals last season in Ligue 2. Before that season most observers expected the bigger city, bigger stadium, Ligue 1 tradition rich Nantais to forge their way to the top of the league and to eventually take home the league championship on the way to promotion back to the top league.

It didn't happen that way. Nantes was a superior team against most of the league but came a cropper in the head to head with Le Havre. Le Havre won both the early season game at Le Havre and the late in the season match up at Nantes, each time by a score of 1-0. Le Havre won the league and Nantes came second, the two teams joining Grenoble in promotion to Ligue 1.

Le Havre chose to bring substantially their Ligue 2 championship side to Ligue 1 even though considerably weakened by the signing away of its best player and Ligue 2 leading goal scorer, Guillaume Hoarau, to Paris Saint-Germain. Nantes took another tack, chosing to rid the roster of many of the stalwarts of Ligue 2, stalwarts whose main playing credentials had been established in Ligue 2. Instead Nantes aggressively signed new players, players deemed capable of competing immediately in Ligue 1.

Both promoted sides have struggled in the top flight. Going into the game they were level on 12 points from 15 games played to this point in the season. They found themselves hovering just two points above the bottom three relegation zone. Further the league's bottom five in places 16 through 20 have been set adrift, with 15th placed Nancy standing seven points clear of 16th place. With rock bottom Saint Etienne expected to find their form under new coach Alain Perrin, one of Le Havre or Nantes have been expected to drop into the relegation area over the next month.

With all of this on the line Nantes have taken the victory today and have at least for now separated themselves from Le Havre and the bottom three.Nantes had the better of chances in a scoreless first half and continued to press after the break. Early in the second half Aurelien Capoue controlled a clearance on the edge of the area before unleashing an effort which came back off the crossbar. Les Canaris finally went ahead in the 69th minute when Filip Djordjevic volleyed Guillaume Moullec's free kick past Le Havre keeper Revault from close range.

David De Freitas, who had come off the bench midway through the second half, made the points safe six minutes from time when he shot home after receiving a pass from Capoue.

The points were extremely important for Nantes as the game next week is against seven time defending league champion Lyon, a match in which Nantes will certainly struggle to achieve any points in the table.

Later in the day we went to another hockey game. Yesterday Minnesota wore white and Harvard wore crimson as Minnesota won 3-1. Today Minnesota wore gold and Harvard wore black, Minnesota 3, Harvard 2.

Friday, November 28, 2008

After this one, only two to go.

I was just scanning through Bike pictures 2007 again. I ran across the series on pictures of water towers. I admit to having forgotten nearly all about that series. Here is a water tower on the farm campus, only a couple of blocks from my friends, the cows.I thought the University water tower and the University logo were both particularly appropriate as TOPWLH and I just returned from our other lives as season ticket holders for Gopher women's hockey.

It was an exciting game, not only for the hockey, but also for TOPWLH as she got hailed by and then engaged in conversation with the mothers of two different players both of whom are likely to be members of the next US Olympic women's hockey team. TOPWLH is incorrigibly gregarious.

I hereby for the first time in the blogging context reveal that I have yet another alter ego that most of you are not aware of. Here is what that alter ego posted about today's hockey game in yet another place on the internet where I sometimes leave my thoughts. Many of you are not going to understand the references and I am sorry if you do not. But when I write about hockey I am writing for hockey fans, all of whom DO understand all of the references. So here goes:

Minnesota 3, Harvard 1.

An excellent, high tempo game between two quality teams.

Minnesota (MLam) got a goal after 32 seconds. Other than that single play the first period was very even, ending at 1-0.

Harvard outplayed Minnesota in the second but it remained 1-0 going to the third.

Minnesota's fourth line got a lot of ice time. Harvard played its fourth line some but that line seemed to me to get a lot less time than Minnesota's fourth. By the third period Minnesota got the most of the best of the play. It was 3-0 before Harvard got the game's final goal.

Attendance was 1,226, a very nice crowd for the day after Thanksgiving.

I pronounce myself satisfied with the JLam, MLam, Marvin experiment. I have seen enough, let's move on. In this configuration Gigi does not have the puck enough. Minnesota has several wings who can perform the functions for the Lams that Gigi is performing with this line configuration. The second line tonight was Schoullis, West and Francis and I would now like to see Schoullis and Marvin switch places. I would like to see them go back to the configuration they displayed in the very first games of the season, Marvin, West, Francis, then JLam, MLam, Schoullis.

The fourth line played a lot and was actually very good. They got caught out against Harvard's top line two or three times but even that was not catastrophic. At other times they held their own and even created chances.

Grogan is very good.

Vaillancourt is every bit as good as her reputation, always one of the best players on the ice every time she was out there.

Ludwig and Perrault refereed. Those guys are NOT very good. In addition, AR Langley made a key clear of the zone for Minnesota while Harvard had a 5 on 3 power play, letting a Harvard pass hit her in the skates and redirecting the puck to center ice, thereby killing off most of the remaining time with the 2 player advantage. It was not a banner night for the team in the striped shirts.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving game

The meal is over, the table is cleared. Most everyone has had a little walk. There have even been a couple of field goals kicked. Pie is past tense. Now, now at last, let the games begin.We had a nice full house for the feast (and for the game). Jim, Adam, Kelsey in the corner, Kim, Jim, Anne, Jane, Emily, and B.D.

A very nice time was had by all.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Do they need a kirk today in Mumbai?

Kirk Park, August 2007. TOPWLH for scale.It was a nice day and a nice ride to the park.

Kirk Hall. In academic year 1966-67 that was Charley Welton's and my room on the right, just before the open arch.I have lots of fond memories of that place and probably TOPWLH can also reel off a memory or two.

An ancient church in Chartres. This is not the really famous one on top of the hill. This is a really old one down next to the river. The part of the church called the choir long ago lost its battle with the force of gravity and collapsed into the river.The continuity in the last one is that kirk is the ancient Scottish word for church.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Great gas, good goods.

Three weeks ago I posted a picture of a sign at a gas station illustrating what seemed at that time to be a historically low gas price, under $2 per gallon. Today I bought gas again.This picture was taken at 5:56pm. Yes, the background is an accurate depiction of how dark it is here before 6 o'clock on November 25. Dark, very, very dark.

And yes, gas today was $1.619.

I have a vague recollection of how outraged I felt the first time I had to part with more than a $20 bill for a tankful of gas. That all seems so very, very long ago but today I filled up for $21.53. Another few days of gas prices heading in this direction and perhaps I could once again get a fill for just a single Jackson.

Fat Cyclist has a sister who also blogs. I read several of her posts and recommend her post "He Ain't Fat, He's My Brother" and in fact any of the other posts that I also read. It appears that really good writing runs in that family.

Monday, November 24, 2008

IDS

Remember this one? It is one of my personal favorites from 2007.LOOK at the Crystal Court.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

When you run out of clean underwear you have to wash clothes

Wireless called shortly after noon and inquired if we would be around so that she could drop over. I insisted that I wanted to be loved for myself.But as you can see, she loves us for our laundry facilities.

She has laundry where she lives but reports that her current dirty clothes situation had gotten completely out of control. She also reports that she does love us for ourselves, the laundry thing is just a perk.

We believe her.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Not Thanksgiving

The Minnesota Gopher Women's Hockey team defeated Minnesota State Mankato this afternoon by a score of 6-3. Freshman Monique Lamoureux had 2 goals and 4 assists. The Gophers got 6 and MLam had a hand in each and every one, scoring 2 and assisting on all of the others.

I was just doing some surfing and passed by the telecast of the Gopher men's hockey team. The long time play by play guy, Frank Mazzocco, gave the women's score and MLam's point total. Long time analyst and former Gopher head coach (and long ago Gopher player and Minnesota high school standout at South Saint Paul) Doug Woog, aka the Wooger, whoops, "Whooooa! 6 points! Only a freshman!"

This picture was taken on November 22 last year. November 22 last year was Thanksgiving. The post from last year is titled 8am, 22 degrees.This morning at 8am we had a dusting of snow and it was about 22 degrees. Looking out our back door it looked pretty much like last year.

It wasn't Thanksgiving today but everything else was deja vu all over again.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Quarters and twins

Ten years ago the third person living in our house at that time was working in retail at the shoe store. As such, she was at the epicenter of monetary circulation, a cash register. Making change one day she was one of the first to come across one of those new Delaware quarters. She rounded one up and brought it home for her Dad, a person she knows sometimes for reasons unknown decides to collect random things.

She hustled out to Target and scored an album and presented them to PaPa with a merry here you go buddy, have at it.

And I hung in there and today finally finished the project.Friday night this week was once again hockey night. Flash photography is forbidden in Ridder arena (cue the alumni band guy at this point to bellow out "NO Flashing"). But I got a picture during the warmups before the game that came out mostly OK and also highlights our newest favorite players.There at the bottom of the picture, that's #12 JLam and her twin sister #21 MLam. They are only freshmen, but golly, golly, golly, they are sure good.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

First pitch

September 16, 2007. Wireless took us to a baseball game. I have this labelled in my pictures file as "First pitch".I think that's Detroit as the opponent, Curtis Granderson at the plate. This conclusion is based mostly on the large script "D" visible on the outfield scoreboard. I also have a vague belief that Granderson bats leadoff for Detroit (switch hitter, batting left against the right handed pitcher?). I don't see as many games as others who may observe this photo so I am little unsure but to me the pitcher's delivery looks most like Baker, although it vaguely says Slowey to me. I think the catcher is Joe.

In the 2008 season the local baseballers stayed in the pennant race until and beyond the last day of the season. As a result, September baseball games in Minnesota in 2008 were played before much larger crowds than the crowd evident in this 2007 photo.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Curling

This photo is another greatest hit of 2007.However, it could be taken tonight as the team roster is the same.

Note to Wireless, I already had this ready to post before I knew your plans. Blogger gives you an option to hold the draft and post it at a specified time. I set it up to post at 11:30.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Band

The Calhoun-Isles Community Band dons baseball caps as they prepare to perform "Casey at the Bat" with guest narrator Boyd Huppert during this evening's performance at Edinborough Park in Edina.I thought the flutes were good.

Monday, November 17, 2008

The final chapter

I recommend emily7m's Xanga and La Vie est Belle for comprehensive and final and definitive coverage of the completion of the leaf saga.

I recommend this site for this sweet picture of Dad and Dafter on a long ago vacation at Izaty's on the shore of Lake Mille Lacs.French speakers will no doubt notice that Lake Mille Lacs is a redundancy. The redundancy is not the fault in any way of the girl in the photo. To the best of my knowledge, she did not, at the time of the photo, speak French. She does now.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Good enough

We had a pretty bloggable event here today. I expect that a sufficiently curious internet searcher would find some version of this photo and these events on at least three blogs.We are connoisseurs of leaf piles here and today's pile leaves us just a tiny bit disappointed. The problem is that the weather of late has featured pretty regular precipitation. The rain and snow and melting snow had a couple of effects. It kept us from getting the raking done earlier and it left the leaves still a bit wet. Wet leaves pack themselves down. Dry leaves fluff up and make a much more satisfying pile. The pile doesn't have the volume of some other years but we are all prepared to testify that the bulk is still there.

The job is done for another year. As usual, our clean up was not perfect. As usual, it was plenty good enough.

The day also featured our tech guru teaching us how to use the auto-timer function on our cameras, allowing us to have this swell photo of the entire raking crew.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

One-third

One more time this fraction is NOT a bicycle mileage milestone.

It has been wet nearly every available day since November 1 or so. But the leaf pick-up crew is coming Monday so a start had to be made. This is probably one-third of our leaves. These are what had accumulated on the deck and what we got up in a pretty cursory first pass over most of the front yard.The back yard hasn't even been touched. The back yard is where the trees are. The back yard is where most of the leaves are.

Raking is not a recommended activity for a guy with a tender back. I helped a little but TOPWLH did most of the work. That's our neighbor in the background getting a start on his own leaf program.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Pizza

Routine Friday, including standard dinner fare.Ah, pie.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Anderson

The other day while looking in places in the house not often looked into I also came across these. Grandchildren of Richard and Hansine may find them to be of interest. They are quite likely the last pictures ever taken of these structures while they were still standing.

My recollection is inexact but as near as I can I would suggest that this was late summer 1973 or 1974. Pete and Mickey wanted to go camping. I owed and owe them both plenty. I wasn't doing much of anything that weekend so I suggested that we could go up to Yellow River where I was (and still am) part owner of some land and we could hang out for the weekend. I took my camera along and by random chance was running a roll of black and white. Don't try to colorize these, black and white is what they are.

The buildings were still standing. I was back again a couple of summers later and the buildings were all down. Considering that the building site was already abandoned when we were there I assert that these are probably the last photos of these structures.

We slept (in sleeping bags) inside the house.I slept in the room that I had always slept in as a child, Kenny's room. Pete and Mickey slept in the big bedroom with the grate in the floor through which heat arrived in the winter months and through which children who were supposed to be in bed sneaked peaks at their parents and grandparents and uncles and aunts.

The barn still seemed mostly structurally sound.However, when I went inside and climbed to the hay mow I discovered that the farm had been abandoned with a relatively small amount of hay still in the loft. The hay, visible through the open access door, was gradually rotting away. The rot was also affecting the floor and supports underneath that remaining pile. My surmise has always been that the barn failed because of that slowly advancing rot, the supports fell and the barn collapsed. The owners of the property then were forced to take appropriate action with a bulldozer, knocking down the remnants of the barn, and while they were at it, the rest of the buildings, including the house.

I am not positive, correct me if I am wrong, I think this is the machine shed.As I recall that weekend the apple tree, located immediately adjacent to the machine shed was full of apples when we were there.

And a view of the yard, towards the barn, from near the front door of the house.The chicken coop is visible on the left.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Six or seven hours later

I note that TOPWLH was up observing the deck after midnight. I am an early riser.Deck about 7am.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Armistice Day

I had a unique experience yesterday at work and then I had it again.

In a casual conversation with a co-worker about my recent absence from the workplace a reference was made to the fact that we would all be absent today in observance of Veterans' Day. And he said, "By the way, thank you."

Never, ever, happened to me before.

And then later in the day I was on the phone with the boss. His daughter is in the Army and he has become a bit sensitized on the subject and he said, "By the way, thank you."

I know what unique means and the first time was unique. The second time moves the whole thing towards commonplace.

So I am a veteran and I deserve the day off. I scrounged around this morning in a couple of seldom looked into spots in the house and came up with a couple of pictures. I have a scanner, so . . .

This is Private Miller, standing at his locker in Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia.That would have to be October 1969.

This is Specialist Miller, sitting on his bunk in the barracks at the United States Army Depot, Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of South Vietnam.That's fairly early in my time in Hell, I am guessing June or July 1970. I wish I still had that poster.

I took typing in 9th grade and in the final exam was the second fastest typist in the class. In my prime I could do about 75 words per minute. The Army recognized this talent and made me into a clerk. I was also a pretty good shot but that skill was not as valued as my typing skill by the huge bureaucracy that was and is the military. For this I have always been grateful. I was a clerk in a large military supply depot.

Armistice Day is on the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on November 11, 1918. The observance commemorates the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, for most, the end of the war. In accordance with the armistice agreement, the cease fire took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning, the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month". I have seen it reported that many who were present that morning when silence fell on the battlefield considered the silence to be the voice of god speaking clearly to mankind.

Monday, November 10, 2008

One-third

This time it isn't a bicycle milestone. It is one-third of the way through a month of having to post every day. In bicycle related minutiae, eight days without a bicycle ride. *sigh*

This first appeared during the 2007 series on barns.OK, that's about it for different versions of cows. I have several more pictures of the campus cows and I do not promise to not throw another couple of those up at some point but this exhausts alternative versions for now.

I wore my winter coat to work today.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Brrrr

The posted high temperature for so far today is 29. It appears that at the end of the day that bicycling will have not been possible as I do not ride when my water bottles would freeze.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Over so soon?

There were ice pellets on the deck this morning. It is wet outside and too cold to ride. It comes always as a bit of a shock but each year at this time it comes: the realization that that last ride I took may have been the last ride of the year. I expect to ride at least a few more times but . . .

So I return to Greatest Hits 2007: This is Cows, other.I am following the FC Nantes game on the live update feature at the FC Nantes website. As we all know my French is rudimentary and following the games this way is a learning experience. I do suspect that I may be learning a lot of football terms and not so much actually useful conversational French. For instance, I know that "coup franc" is a free kick.

I can translate the following: "Long centre de Paulo Cesar, mais c'est derrière le but d'Alonzo" as a long centering pass by (Toulouse player) Paulo Cesar, but it is behind the goal of (Nantes keeper) Alonzo.

Today I read this in the update notes:

"Il pleut à torrent."

I believe that today it was raining very hard at the stadium in Nantes.

Nantes scored in the 4th minute, surrendered a tying goal in the 19th but then held on for a 1-1 draw with a Toulouse team which as recently as last week had designs on seizing the top spot in the table. It is not a win but it is a "useful" result.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Arrivals

I got the newspaper off the front steps at about 6:15. It had rained overnight and the falling temperatures as dawn approached produced a change in the form of precipitation. A light snow was beginning to fall.

This is about 7am, our deck.I have been fighting a cold and I hadn't been out of the house since last Friday except for voting. Today I had to go out for a previously scheduled medical check-up with my alternative provider, the Veterans' Affairs Medical Center. It was very obvious that I had not been out when the first thing I had to do after starting my car was to switch the clock to standard time.

It was all OKey dOKey at the VA and I was on my way home by a bit after 9. The VA is a place I only get to once a year. I keep exploring alternative routes to get home, so far with pretty unremarkable results. Today I ended up, as I usually do, driving semi-aimlessly through town.

I found myself on Cleveland returning towards Roseville, instead of the expected Snelling. I was driving past the farm campus and decided to visit my friends.The gas gauge light had come on during my trip and the price of gas at the stations I was passing were too unbelievable to pass up. I stopped at the corner of Larpenteur and Snelling. I freely admit that this is a sign I never expected to see again.The snow was gone by shortly past noon.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dark. Very, very dark.

Already.Today's picture is a continuation of Greatest Hits of 2007.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Big, new house?

It's big, it is new, it is in the right neighborhood.

Someone should knock on the door and see if Lucas or Weather, or possibly Lettie, answers.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day

No line at 10:30.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Standard time

TOPWLH and TPWUTLH can both confirm that I prefer to do the seasonal re-setting of clocks as soon as I get home from work on Friday. It seems to me that the significance of the change is most related to when it is you have to get to work (what else are clocks for?) so my preference is to get the clocks changed as soon as possible so that you can start adjusting.

After monumental complaining from the above two individuals, most notably from the first, not so much from the second, I don't do that so much anymore. But what goes around comes around and today I received payback as I had a couple of clock related moments of confusion while riding. I have the clock function on my bicycle computer set to DST. This is as it should be seeing as probably 98 percent or more of the time I spend on that bicycle is during DST. I don't set it to standard time when it comes around, why bother? The season will be over in another minute or two.

So today while I was riding I was startled on two separate occasions when upon checking the clock function I discovered, I thought, that it was at least an hour later than I expected it to be. *sigh*

Here's a major, major sign of the season. The hockey boards are up at Langford Park.Into the face of a south and west wind I rode over to the river today. It was another day of much above average temperatures, into the mid-60s, perhaps even threatening 70. I had one more of my more or less regular rides and regular hills that I had not yet ridden since hurting my back. Today I finished off that final bit of business by riding to the river, including from the Saint Anthony Avenue hilltop at Desnoyer Park all the way down to the river and then a few miles later and after a turnaround back up that daunting hill. The hill was, to be sure, a tiny bit harder today than it was when I was a regular over there in midsummer, but it wasn't anything like a major problem. I felt good, I was plenty strong enough.

I rode to a turnaround at the Ford Parkway Bridge. This is a view upstream from that bridge towards Lake Street, Saint Paul on the right, Minneapolis on the left side.I have reached the major mileage milestone. The only thing left is to ride a percent or two above the goal, mainly to obviate any negative effects which could result from possible odometer error.

It is best to be absolutely certain that you have ridden the miles that you claim you have ridden. Today I got a good portion of that one percent over my annual goal. I also got my 160th ride.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

4,000

I didn't get quite as many miles as I wanted in October. I checked the bicycle log for last year and discovered that in something of a surprise I have fallen behind last year's pace. Last year at the end of October I had 3,990 miles, this year I had 3,972.

Part of the reason is that this year on the last day of October, a day with definitely rideable weather, instead we went to a hockey game. Hockey was problematic on Halloween, BB3k didn't want to leave her usual role as the wacky lady with the Groucho nose and glasses handing out candy down at the end of the cul de sac. She finally agreed to do so but only on the condition that Wireless house sit and substitute for her in the handing out of snack sized candy bars. I have not heard the full report so I cannot comment on whether Wireless donned the nose and glasses, perhaps she will provide those details elsewhere on the internet.

In any case it was an early hockey game and we were home by about 8:30. Wireless complained that we had only had 4 groups of trick or treaters by that time. BB3k took over and we had another 3 (I think) groups after that. Closed circuit to sugar buzz control: we have lots of leftover candy.

I took this picture before we left, it is the burning bush again.This time it is a little bit further along in the "burning" and the angle is from the opposite side to highlight the nice lighting on the trees in the neighbor's back yard.

But today was plenty nice, with above average temperatures and a light ESE breeze. BB3k wanted to ride. She has never previously expressed any interest in riding at this point in the season when extra clothing is required. I knew that this was very likely to be her final ride as a return to even average temperatures is going to create conditions where only mad dogs, crazy people, GFR and Gzmoohoo will be out there riding. Uh, actually, that last bit may be a bit redundant. GFR and Gzmoohoo may have been listed multiple times.

I mentioned last week that it had been a long stretch since I had been to Lake Vadnais. Considering that every mile that BB3k rides she rides with me, and considering that she missed last week's Vadnais ride, I realized that this might be her final chance to get to her favorite lake.

I therefore decreed that the ESE wind was mostly east and we could go ahead and ignore one of the corollaries of the Auckland rule and ride out towards the north with a quartering tail wind and ride back into the wind.

And it worked out just fine.

Here is BB3k at Lake Vadnais, about 15 miles into the ride, 11 miles until she would be home.I assert this without documentation but with complete confidence that it is true: This is farthest from home BB3k has been in her life on November 1 without benefit of an automobile.

Last week I noted the change in the hill away from Vadnais. Today we discovered, that as I predicted, she liked the old hill better.

But the big news is as seen in the title of the post. Today I reached my goal, 4,000 miles ridden this year. For those who haven't contemplated what that really means, it's 160 rides of 25 miles each (although I got there today in my 159th) in a riding season of 7 months. Each and every month you have to go out 23 of the 30 days of the month and you have to ride 25 miles. That's a lot of days of riding and a lot of miles.

We approached home with only about 26 miles, I needed 28. I took a short loop through the neighborhood as BB3k headed straight for home. When I arrived at home our across the street neighbor said to me as I circled the cul de sac, "I don't know, Gene, your wife beat you home." I replied with the only truthful thing I could offer, "She's faster than I am."

I love my bike.