Japanese tree lilacs

Today while at work I was looking out the window and noticed that there are a couple of those white flowering trees on the boulevard across the street. I asked around among all of the suspected plant people. No one knew what it was but as I proceeded down the row of cubicles a couple of them googled behind me.

They are Japanese tree lilacs. Apparently they do not bloom in profusion every year which may be why I never noticed them before. This year seems to be an on cycle year. As I noted previously a couple of my neighbors have them. So today as I finished up my ride I pulled into John and Betsy's driveway and eventually got this nice shot of the one next to their house.They are very, very fragrant, extremely pleasing.

While I was framing up the photo another of my neighbors took an interest and pointed out to me the rose bush blooming next to HIS house. The bush is just a tiny bit past peak but these are spectacularly nice Roseville Roses.The month ends. I have no milestones to report this month but it was a good month, I rode lots of miles. I feel strong and today when I rode I even felt a little bit fast.

Almost mid-year

It was a windy day but only in that one direction. We rode out to Lake Vadnais where in lieu of the usual BB photo I captured an extremely large family of geese.We felt strong in the other direction. We arrived at the corn field without any need of lying down or whining.Today's event on world wide TV: España 1, Deutschland 0. And in another demonstration to the USA of how different Europeans are from us the Euro2008 theme song was sung by Enrico Iglesias. At least the football was good.

Play Misty for Me

Today I recycled. I actually rode twice, once just before noon, and then again in late afternoon.

On the morning ride I was about a mile and a half from home when I felt a drop of moisture. I made it to the garage and locked the bike up, preparing to call it a day. Then I noticed that it wasn't actually raining and the sun seemed to be trying to come out. So I went out again. This time I never actually got into any rain but I did have the odd experience of riding right at the very edge of where it had rained. I was riding on a dry street, turned a corner, and I was riding on a wet street. All of this without actually ever being in the rain.

But soon enough I got hit with another few drops and when I made it back to the garage that time it was lunchtime anyway so I stopped.

Then later this afternoon I went out again. Once again after only a few miles I felt moisture through my helmet vents so I stampeded for home. This time when I reached the garage it was so obviously not raining that I didn't even actually pull into the driveway.

I headed out again. On the final excursion I rode in some heavy mist including one episode where the street got wet.

But I persevered and got the miles that I wanted.

Those white trees that I featured a couple of days ago with the claim that they seemed to be illegal in Roseville? Today I noticed that not one, but two of my neighbors on my street have those trees in their yards.

The Drunk Cyclist, aka Big Jonny, was run down by a car over a year ago. One of the interesting things about his blog is observing how his recovery goes. He is a young man, by my standards, but now eternally old as a result of his very serious injuries in the crash.

Here is his June 26 entry, quoted here in its entirety:

Recovery

My pain is with me always.
It is the last thing I feel before I fall asleep,
and the first thing I feel when I wake up.

When I get up from this chair,
it’ll take me a minute to gather myself.
The pain will be there.
It is always there,
waiting for me.

And, in football news, FC Nantes has signed another player. It is not an absolute rule but it is a widely observed protocol that no team can be considered to be truly "big league" unless they employ at least one Brazilian. FC Nantes has signed a Brazilian defender to a 3 year contract. The player is 22 year old defender Douglas Ferreira, who like most Brazilian footballers at this level is known by a single name, in his case "Douglão" which apparently is Portuguese for "Big Doug".

Allez Nantes.

Allez España.

Allez Big Jonny.

Driveway art

I was just spinning today, trying to get some recovery miles.

I was investigating the neighborhood just east of Raymond between the 2 sets of railroad tracks. I rounded a corner and came upon this:I stopped and spent some time really scrutinizing this. Those numbers are a little confusing. Unseen in this photo are a couple of hopscotch games on the pavement just out of frame. I wonder if those numbers on the USA are part of some sort of hopscotch game for which I do not know the rules. In any case, that's pretty ambitious driveway art.

In Suisse today Spain was too good for Russia. Spain 3, Russia 0. Sunday's final will feature what coming in I thought to be the two best teams, Spain and Germany. Prediction? Germany is really, really good but I think Spain.

Anybody know what these are?

I had a CLE this morning. I came home for lunch. Instead of going back to work I took vacation time and watched Euro 2008. Germany 3, Turkey 2, in an unusually dramatic game. Germany, of course, has the 2 Polish born players. Turkey on the other hand has 2 German born players, an Englishman, a Brazilian and an Argentine. And unbelievable grit.

I also watched some tennis. French doubles specialist Nathalie Dechy extended current world number 1 Ana Ivanovic to 10-8 in the third set but finally succumbed.

And I got out on the road about an hour earlier than usual. It turns out that an hour earlier is a really good thing. Racer boy and his unresolved angst is still pretty much still at work at 4pm. I had a nice mellow ride along the river.

I thought the flowering shrubs were done but today I came across two different species in full bloom. These are apparently barred by city ordinance in Roseville. In Roseville I saw not a single one of them. But just across city lines in Falcon Heights and then in Saint Paul these were fairly common.These are along Hamline Avenue just outside Como Park at Midway Parkway. The white flowers are small and fancy, maybe sort of like lace. They smell nice when you get close enough to them.

There were two trees in close proximity to each other featuring these large white blossoms.These are just around the corner from the above trees, on the corner of the street that features all oak trees as boulevard trees. The trees are very striking but don't seem to have much odor.

It was hot today, upper 80s, and very windy. Wind always makes for hard work on at least part of the ride but I enjoyed being out there.

Summer racing

True stories:

Sunday as I was riding on Otter Lake Road on the way back from Bald Eagle I got passed by a bicycle racer. I know he is racer, and a good one because he is a person actually known to me. I know that he actually races, he actually enters sponsored bicycle races on weekends. I was riding along Otter Lake Road at a respectable rate, good even, at least for me, when someone touched my arm. He arrived without any other notice than the touch and hello. But the way in which he arrived was not startling or rude in any way. He slowed slightly and we were able to exchange a few words before he rode away. As I say, he actually races, he is way faster than me, I expected that he would quickly leave me behind. He did exactly that but in a manner which made the encounter all together cordial and enjoyable, at least to me.

Today I rode over to the river (south wind, don't you know). It was hot. Well, not hot, but hot by comparison to the putrid coldish spring. Racer boy was out in force. I got passed by a girl on a mountain bike who I had to wait behind on the next upslope to avoid passing back. I got passed by a helmetless college student on a Schwinn Varsity when I slowed to avoid riding up next to a right turning SUV. The idiot kid went ahead and rode past the truck, I didn't. I got passed by lots of people racing, almost always rudely, competitively rude. Not a single one of them struck me as actually fast, I doubt that any of them actually enters bicycle races. They do all their racing on the River Road on summer evenings.

I intended to ride the more or less regular River Road route but racer boy was such a hassle that I broke it off and turned around and came home, completing the desired mileage with a short loop in the neighborhood instead. This is an overlook on the Mississippi where I turned around.It somewhat continues the whole forms of transportation theme as a river buoy should be visible down there through the trees. The buoy marks the Corps of Engineers guaranteed 9 foot deep channel through this part of the Twin Cities.

My legs were better today.

Nina's piano teacher

I examined the earlier blog entry commented on by Nina. I remember that day. The lighting was bad, I was shooting into the sun. The photo of the house across the street is much better.

I ride in that neighborhood a lot, my regular southern ride route crosses the freeway on Pelham and then follows Saint Anthony Avenue down to the River Road, passing within a couple of blocks of this house.Today the light still wasn't optimum but I got a better angle and a better photo. Also today I was fortunate enough to have remembered to insert the memory card back into the camera. Visible this time is some of the detail of the front facade, sort of bas relief panels under the windows.

It is a great house and I am glad to have been reminded of it. This time I think I got a much better picture. But a fig tree?

I didn't have good legs today.

Unseen images

I took a couple of really good photos during my ride today.

I have been stopped by a train on the railroad tracks very, very rarely, perhaps never before. But today I arrived at the Soo Line crossing of Victoria at County Road E just as the train arrived. I ducked around the barrier and got within a few feet of the rushing boxcars and snapped a photo showing the train going down the tracks away from me. I was inside the crossing arm but completely safe from the train. It was a perfect illustration of the rule that the train only comes between the rails.

Then as I was riding around Bald Eagle Lake I stopped to photograph the eagle platform. I spent some time lining up an arty shot and had to wait for the lady walking her three dogs to clear the frame. But eventually I got the angle and composition I wanted and snapped away.

It was too noisy next to the tracks to hear the beeping but out there by the lake it was quieter. The camera informed me with a message in small print on the viewing screen that recording the image was not possible because the camera did not contain a memory card.

I found the memory card when I got home just where I had left it, still in the multi-card reader slot on the front of the computer.

I did have this picture that I took one day this week but did not use because I liked the picture of the drive-in menu better. It is Lake Owasso from an angle not usually seen. You have to pause and shoot between a couple of houses to get this view.I was riding home from Bald Eagle, plenty tired but determined to keep to the regular route past Lake Vadnais. I was riding along the less often ridden south shore of the lake. The road goes up and down and up again and down again along that shore before ending with that final climb up to Rice Street. On the first uphill away from Centerville Road I came upon a youngish person on a mountain bike. I came up behind him without any great difficulty but hesitated and chose not to pass. He was doing pretty respectably and I hate nothing more than someone who passes and then cannot stay in front. This person looked young, was riding strongly, and looked as though he might want to race downhill. I didn't want to race.

So we topped the crest and he started clicking through his gears climbing back up to something in which he could ride fast. I shifted up to the big ring and gave a single push to get me started on the downhill. I then sat tight, figuring he would speed away.

He kept clicking up through the gears but his fat knobby tires absolutely betrayed him. He was pedaling furiously and I was just sitting there. I started to gain. He kept clicking and pedaling, picking up speed, as I just sat there, picking up speed faster.

Towards the bottom of the hill he was still pedaling furiously as I coasted past, still not having pushed a single stroke since the top of the hill.

I think I won a race but actually it was tire efficiency, not human effort, that won this race. It was an interesting demonstration.

No damn cat, no damn cradle.

Yesterday I made my final check in with the jury pool. I was relieved of further duty. I had a week of jury duty and never got out of the waiting room. I have no impressions, nothing at all to report except that the tint on the jury waiting room TV is horribly out of adjustment and the chairs are not too comfortable.

The morning was spectacularly beautiful and then it was really nice all day long. In fact, of the 24 hours there were about 23 and a half when I could have ridden my bike. I like to ride my bike. During that moment when my job allowed me to ride a squall blew through and rain fell.

No jury, no bike ride.

Today I thought it would be easy to get a picture of one of the old cars. *sigh* That didn't work out either.

Here is a picture of the TOPWLH. We rode pretty much the same route as last week but without the headwind issues. What wind there was was a head wind on the way out and not so brisk as to be unmanageable.In contrast to last week when she was collapsed next to the seedling corn, this week she demonstrates that her strength has returned (and the corn is starting to thrive).

Still no jury duty

No jury today.

I don't get downtown much and to the Courthouse even less so today I took along my camera. The formal name of the huge sculpture in the lobby of the Courthouse is "Vision of Peace". It is carved from onyx and is more popularly known as "Onyx John".

The statue is the largest carved onyx figure in the world. It stands on a motorized turntable which slowly rotates throughout the day.

They called two panels this morning and the remaining numbers in the spacious waiting area were reduced to about 20. This is a huge reduction from the mob of well over 100 that originally mustered for duty on Monday morning. We 20 were absolutely the last available panel for this week. They told us that there were parties in a conference room upstairs trying to reach a settlement. Failure to reach this settlement would result in the final dregs of the weekly jury pool, us, being summoned to the courtroom in the upper reaches of the building. We weren't doing anything but our presence was still required.

Jury duty when you don't get called for any juries is a matter of sitting in the waiting room and taking the occasional break. When you are already not doing anything it is a bit hard to take a break but I went outside with my camera on morning break.

This is a view of the Mississippi from the Wabasha Street Bridge with the High Bridge spanning the gorge upstream.The jury pool settled in after lunch to do our duty. I did mine in the TV room where I had no trouble convincing the 2 other people in the room to watch Euro 2008. Eventually by game time there were 5 of us in there, one doing a jig saw puzzle, one reading and believe it or not, 3 guys actually interested in the game, including one other guy who seemed fairly knowledgeable about what was going on. What was going on was that the Germans were pretty impressive. Germany 3, Portugal 2.

There has been a repaving project completed on Hamline Avenue north of County Road C all the way to the end of Hamline where it joins Snelling. The bicycling news is that in addition to newly smooth pavement there has been a major restriping of the paved area. This section of road formerly featured white lines about 8 to 12 inches from the edge of the street. The area outside the lines could best be described as "gutter" and it was full of gravel, glass and other usual detritus of the streets.As you can see, the new configuration features markedly narrowed car lanes and 3 or 4 feet of smooth new pavement outside the line. I ride this area a lot. I have always sought out the parallel street a block away, not so much because of the traffic, although it wasn't particularly pleasant. I rode a block over because the pavement and trash on the pavement were more likely to produce a flat tire than a smooth ride. With the new pavement and striping I am going to have to reconsider where I want to ride.

Doesn't it look nice?

Owasso station

No jury today.

I went to work today and while rummaging around on some other task rediscovered an old map posted in someone's cubicle. It is a map of the State of Minnesota but instead of the more or less expectable road and highway grid this one has all of the old railroads. And instead of towns it has all of the old stations.

So I looked at the Soo Line where it passed through what is now Roseville. I knew this but for some reason during the last discussion of railroad stations I failed to make the connection that Roseville as a city is only about 60 years old. Prior to that it was Rose Township. And that old map had a Rose station and an Owasso station.This is the Soo Line main line near Lake Owasso. I was looking for a sign or perhaps at least a spot that looked like an old station site. I got this nice picture of the tracks.

For any former railroad employees and also for my dafter who knows the rule I realize that at the moment I took this picture I was violating the very first rule of being in the vicinity of railroad tracks. I am stopped between the two rails for the purpose of obtaining an optimum angle for the photo. But as we all know one should never ever under any circumstances stop between the rails. If you are between the rails you are in the only place where a train might come. If you are stricken by lightning or some other calamity and collapse to the ground, if you are not between the tracks you will not be injured by the next passing train. If you are on the tracks your chances are not nearly as good. First rule, never ever pause between the rails, that is where the trains come, that is the only place where the trains come.

Menu

On call today, still no jury.

The main entertainment this afternoon was the football. French fans, including moi, dared to hope but it was not to be. Nederlands did its part by defeating Romania, opening the door for the winner of Italia-France. An early injury to France's main playmaker followed shortly by a France red card in the penalty area and subsequent Italian goal started the spiral down. France played with only 10 and could not produce a miracle. Final score: Italy 2, France 0.

I think the likely analysis is that France played the first and last of the three games without two of its best three players. And even in the middle game when they had two of the three they still played without their captain. In the end France didn't scare anyone with the lineup they put on the pitch and home they go. With France out I have donned the oranje cap and I am totally, completely, without reservation for the Dutch.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the annual Back to the 50s car show at the Fairgrounds. Lots and lots of old cars in town and this place, a drive-in, will be jumping. Today instead of riding past I swung in to get a look at the menu.As I suspected, burgers do seem to be available, although I do admit to surprise that they are not at the very top of the menu. It may not be too obvious from the photo but each sandwich includes a combo offer which is fries and a mug of root beer. That looks like the traditional "basket" to me.

The A&W Root Beer Floats start at less than $2 and top out at jumbo for $3.69, I think.

Also you press one of those buttons at the bottom right to order from the car. The other button is to summon someone to come and get your tray. I didn't hang around long enough to see if that is actually possible but with all those old cars hanging around next weekend it would be only fitting and proper if activation of that button brings out a high school girl on roller skates. If I ride past that way I will try to find out if that is true.

Jury duty

I reported to the court house at 8:30. Orientation lasted a half-hour. The newspaper lasted another hour or so. Then I read for a while. Lunch was an hour and a half but I came back early because the US Open golf playoff was on TV. That lasted most of the rest of the day.

I got home in time to ride my bike.

No jury so far.

Fathers Day circumnavigation

There was fairly vigorous weather blustering after dark yesterday, including a sounding of the sirens. We had some wind and some rain but the worst of it, including whatever it was that triggered the siren, stayed away from here.

Today dawned a bit cool but quickly warmed and has evolved into another one of the nicest days in the history of days.

TOPWLH and her dafter (also mine I hasten to add) went off late this morning to visit with TOPWLH's father and the dafter's grandpapa. Those two seem to be Bud's favorites, I cannot imagine why. They will be here later but I was left free to ride.

Sunday is long ride day. The previous long ride was over to the Bald Eagle Lake area. Today I made that additional left turn off Otter Lake Road and went over to and around Bald Eagle.

I was riding across the north end of the lake, the less developed end. I was idly thinking about how this lake got its name. I guess that someone saw a bald eagle there once. I was thinking to myself that it has probably been a while since there has been a bald eagle sighting at this lake. Just as I was thinking that I rode around a bend in the road and there in the swamp to my left was an eagle platform. The eagles haven't settled in yet but clearly someone other than just me has had the thought about not enough bald eagles at Bald Eagle Lake.

This view is from the east shore, the more developed end.I got to the park in White Bear Lake where I know the water fountains are on and the toilets are open. I had a snack and a thorough hydration. I was sitting there thinking that I was 28 miles into a ride and that 28 miles isn't too bad, it is only a bit farther than my more or less usual ride. But I also was aware that I was still 16 miles from home.

So I planned carefully. I decided to avoid Lake Vadnais and the climb from the lake up to Rice Street. I turned on Centerville Road and was soon closer to home than I would have been for the Vadnais climb and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. But about then I came upon the hill on Western up to County Road B2. I was reminded yet again that it is a zero sum, if you finish at the same spot where you begin your net climbing is zero. And if you ride across that deep glacial valley between where I live and where I rode to today, you are going to have to ride back. Down the hill, up the hill, there just isn't any escape.

I had fun and today's ride is the new longest ride of the year.

I love the 8 lake tour

We left at about 10:30 while it was still not quite warm enough. But by the time we reached Lake Vadnais what has turned out to be another beautiful summer day had begun to assert itself.We had headed north despite a fairly strong west wind which the weather prediction sites said was going to gradually swing around to northwest. It was slighly southwest on the way out and instead of coming around the breeze freshened a bit. This led to headwind issues on the return trip.TOPWLH is sprawled along the side of the road. She proclaimed that she had spent the last few miles trying to pick out a spot where she could sprawl and this must have looked finally like the spot. Corn for scale.

In her defense, there was no whimpering although I believe there may have been some cursing.

The Oranje are indeed the Dutch.Here Ruud van Nistlerooy celebrates with teammate Joris Mathijsen, after scoring the opening goal against Italy on Monday.

My reaction to today's results in Suisse.

The business traveler brought me the orange hat as a Euro2008 souvenir. The tag said it is from the "Oranje Collection" and it cost 9.95 Euros.

And the score today was Nederlands 4, France 1.I don't want to be a complete fair weather fan but it now looks to be very difficult for France to advance. The group next plays on Tuesday with the two games being played at the same time. The official line from the French team is that France can still salvage their tournament with a victory over Italy, provided Romania does not defeat the Dutch. France will have to defeat Italy AND have Romania NOT defeat Nederlands if Les Bleus are to advance. The problem for France is the Dutch have clinched first place in the group and will have nothing more to play for. Romania advances if they win. If Nederlands win or that game ends in a tie the winner of the other game advances but only if that game produces a winner. If France and Italy tie Romania would be the most likely to advance. Romania would advance with a tie but even with a loss they would advance on goal differential if the loss is by less than 3 goals. Complicated enough? The Dutch are in, the other three are all fighting for their lives.

If France exits the tournament I shall be officially shifting my allegiance to the Oranje. It is the logical choice, I have the hat and I have the orange clothing. I do admit to being intrigued by Espana in Group D and Portugal in Group A. In Group B it is impossible to not admire Croatia but I still think Deutschland has the best team. A Germany-Holland final looms as a possibility. As does Portugal-Spain. I guess it is too early to tell. France is not yet dead.

The bicyling was abbreviated today. The last eight-tenths of a mile were ridden in the rain. Plus it was cold, less than 70. Cold rain is not a combination that I can endorse. The bicycling was abbreviated.

New member of a bicycling elite

Tuesday I noticed something new while shifting during my ride. There seemed to be something sharp on the underside of the left shifter, the shifter for the front derailer. Further investigation after I got home revealed that the cable was fraying with several of the strands already broken. The sharp something was one of the cable strand ends poking out of the shifter slot. The cable was about to break and needed to be replaced.

I am pleased to announce that this marks my entry into a fairly exclusive bicycle elite. I join the great flatlands rider as someone who has worn out a bicycle part.Today I decided not to go to work in order to allow me time to fix my bicycle and also time to pick up the business traveler upon her return from abroad.

It rained hard yesterday and overnight but I got out into the garage early and set up to try for the repair. I had obtained the part yesterday from County Cycles and used that opportunity to pump Scott for some tips on how the repair should go. The only hard part was getting that stub with the cable stop and the ragged wire ends out of the shifter. After that the repair was every bit as easy as Scott said it would be. I was done by 10:30 and lo and behold, rain over, sun out, the beginnings of a spectacularly beautiful day.

I rode my bicycle and I must say that Thursday morning at 11am is a wonderful time to be out on the road. I suppose I should try to figure out some way to be able to ride at that time more often. I carried the appropriate hex wrench with me in case the cable repair needed some tweaking but tweaking turned out to be not needed. It was a very nice ride complete with flawless shifting. A good day continued as I got to watch some Euro 2008 football, Croatia 2, Germany 1. And I still got to the airport in plenty of time to greet Miss Wireless. It was, in sum, a successful day.

Today also marks 1,000 miles on this bike this year.

Point-Counterpoint

Or perhaps in this case, bike-counterbike. Here is another Serotta, this one with an outrageously long head tube.But the tall guy looks like he might be a rider.

Bicycle photos

Kerry's Serotta: Bicycling doesn't usually play much of a role in politics. I ride, I approve of bicycling and I am going to say that I think this picture cost the candidate more votes than it gained him.The problem for this candidate was that he was widely perceived as an elitist and then he showed his common touch by being photographed on a $6,000 custom made bicycle.

Bush's mountain bike: I ride, I approve of bicycling but I don't approve of this bicycling picture either.How many times did he ride past that flag before they got just exactly the image they were seeking.

Oberstar's Lemond: I ride, I approve of bicycling. This is Jim Oberstar, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee. He represents northeastern Minnesota.Here in Minnesota we always have lots and lots of federal money available for bicycle paths.

Obama's comfort bike: I ride, I approve of bicycling. I am sorry, this picture seems hopelessly contrived.If Kerry hadn't been photographed on his Serotta wearing lycra would Obama have gone out of his way to be photographed on a comfort bike wearing jeans and with a pull along behind. It does not seem genuine, it seems calculated and definitely politically motivated.

Minnesota milestone

When I was out in my car on Saturday gas was $3.899. Today there was a story in the newspaper saying that $4 gas was just a click away. The story featured interviews with people filling up on Sunday when gas was $3.999. Today I went for a ride on my bicycle.So it is here.

We spoke to Wireless today on her Amsterdam birthday. It turns out that she is in Holland for her job and they are mostly making her work. Quelle drago. She is seeing virtually nothing except the hotel. This job thing is not as much fun as tourism. She will be home Thursday.

Today in Suisse:
France 0, Romania 0
Netherlands 3, Italy 0.

Next up on Friday, France v. Netherlands and Italy v. Romania. The round robin will be completed next Tuesday (France v. Italy!!!) with the top two teams advancing to the knock out round.Allez les Bleus!

Euro 2008

Wireless is in Europe, Amsterdam, for a boat meeting. She will have her quarter century birthday there. Happy Birthday, sweetie.

Her presence in Europe certainly is a contributing factor in my thinking a lot about Europe. But another reason that I am a bit more EuroAware than usual is the major sporting events taking place there this weekend.

Closed circuit to TT: Geez, that Nadal is good, isn't he? They may have to change the rules or something to outlaw that ad court serve high to the backhand of right handed players. That shot just isn't fair. Obviously his match record over the past four years at the French is 28-0 but almost as impressive, if the graphic I observed is correct, is his set record in those 28 matches, 84-7.

The world's second most important football tournament is underway in Suisse and Ostreich. Today Deutschland defeated Polska 2-0. This is an interesting result to me because Germany has 2 players who were born in Poland. They speak Polish as their first language, even apparently communicating with each other on the pitch in Polish. One of them, Poldoski (how's that for a good German name?), scored both goals, one of them set up by the other semi-Pole. Obviously they are both German citizens, each having a German and a Polish parent, so it is completely legitimate. And don't feel too bad for Poland, they have a Brazilian playing for them. In fact there are Brazilians all over the place. Germany also has one, Turkey has one, Portugal has two. The first round of games is half-completed, 2 of the 4 groups have played. Group C begins tomorrow and France plays Romania in Zurich. Allez les Bleus!

It rained overnight but around noon I perceived a window of opportunity and rode. It wasn't ever particularly sunny but it was still an OK day as it is a particularly fragrant season right now. It is almost impossible to not be downwind at every moment of some sort of flowering shrub. Lilacs seem to be everywhere.

But I did come upon additional evidence that Friday may have been too windy to ride.It was long ride day but the uncertainty of the cloud cover kept me from trying the really long ride. I settled for longer than usual but shorter than last week.

As I approached home I could hear the band concert at the Como Park pavilion from across the lake. The band was playing, the nearby lilacs contributed their lovely aroma, it was just plain nice.What is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays.
-James Russell Lowell

New construction

It rained overnight but the predicted redevelopment of thunderstorms for today moved past to our south and today became the nicest day so far.

It is the first Saturday of June, the first Saturday of summer and much of the population of the city was out to enjoy it. Including TOPWLH and me.

The wind was from the southwest. Southwest from where I live is the Stone Arch Bridge and downtown Minneapolis. On the way we passed through the University campus, allowing this update on the progress of the new football stadium.As we paused for the photo a group of 15 to 20 folks on road bikes (including 2 on a tandem) passed us. I could hear one of the followers ask the ride leader about the construction ahead. The leader insisted that it was the new Twins baseball stadium.

Someone must have put him straight, I hope, but shortly thereafter we followed the group through Dinkytown as they sought the way to the Bridge. I overheard the leader as he explained that he only knew that it was sorta "that way" just before he led the entire group the wrong way down a one-way street.

Leadership can be a burden but I assumed at least direction finding leadership for out little duo and we turned at the corner which confounded the large group and proceeded over a block to the parallel one-way street, the difference being that our chosen street allowed us to proceed with the traffic flow as opposed to against (much safer, don't you know?). We crossed the Stone Arch and rode to River Road's end in near north Minneapolis. Shortly after the turnaround we stopped at a new park amenity near the Hennepin Avenue Bridge at the former site of the Great Northern Depot.Beer sign and Babe for scale.

We crossed back onto the east bank of the river and proceeded towards the campus on University. That route brings you to this scene.There is a bridge up completely crossing the river although it will still be a while before there is any traffic on it.

The Babe is a city girl, through and through. On the way home I sensed that she might be a tiny bit knackered so I tried to rally her with the old "horse can smell the hay in the barn" analogy. She admitted to the knackered part but then required an explanation of what I meant about horses. *sigh* After receiving the explanation she pronounced herself the horse and bolted for the barn.

It might have been too windy.

It rained this morning. When the rain let up a little bit the wind started to blow. Like, really, really blow.

But I am a weather optimist. This afternoon I got my stuff on and headed out of the driveway. It started to sprinkle while I was doing a lap around the cul-de-sac. I did another couple of laps trying to convince myself that it wasn't actually happening. Eventually I pulled back into the driveway. I got the bike into the garage and stood in the open garage door surveying the possibilities. The wind started to blow, like really, really hard. Branches went flying across the cul-de-sac, leaves knocked off the trees by the earlier session of wind swirled around and began invading the garage. I gave up.

I was inside taking my stuff off but looking out the front window as I did so. Suddenly it was bright out. I paused in my task and went closer to the window for a better look. It was not only brightening up but the wind seemed to have stopped.

I got my stuff back on and rode out.

The corn is up. It might not be terribly clear from this photo but there are lines of green now visible to the naked eye.The whole wind stop thing proved to be very temporary. It came back with a vengeance.

I already have had three days off the bike out of the first 5 days of the month. When you miss 4 of the first 6 it sorta puts that whole most miles ever ridden in the month deal completely out of the question. In fact, it puts the whole reasonable number of miles you need in June if you are going to reach your annual goal deal in jeopary as well. So I persisted, despite the wind.

It was really hard work but I got the miles that I wanted.

It might have been too windy.This is on Tatum Street within a mile of my house as I finished up the ride.

Break in the clouds

I spent the first half of the ride with any eye out for something interesting to photograph. I spent the last half of the ride hoping for the sun to come out when I was somewhere near something colorful.

The sun sorta came out as I passed the University Horticulture demonstration plot. I settled for pink flowers.I don't always read Bike Snob NYC but I did read it today. And discovered that the the blog was right, completely on on Monday. The NY Times has a blogger who intends to ride L'Étape, a citizens ride following the exact route of a Tour de France mountain stage. BSNYC is outraged in a fairly snobbish sort of way but it is pretty good stuff. Follow the link.
I did some research to determine just exactly which year Jan Ullrich won Paris-Roubaix and discovered some interesting facts. For example the race is known as l'Enfer du Nord (Hell of the North) not because it is held over hellish roads early in the spring when the weather is also often pretty hellish. Actually the term was first used to describe the route of the race when it was run immediately following the the Great War, or World War I. The course followed the front lines of the war and passed through the ruins, craters and destruction. Journalists covering the race that year dubbed the race l'enfer du Nord.

This is the race poster from one of the years when Ullrich did not win the race, 2006, the 104th running. The slogan is something along the lines of "the hard one of the hard ones". That saddle looks uncomfortable.

Herr Ullrich, although indisputably a winner of the Tour de France, not only never won Paris-Roubaix, he never rode the race. Still, I totally understand the reference to riding on bad roads in a big gear. Totally appropriate.

I watched the three speeches last night. It was interesting to see 3 people in a row essentially declare themselves to be the victor of the primary season. For me, I cannot bring myself to think that any of the three would actually be the kind of President that the country needs right now. I am able to establish a preference but that doesn't mean I think he will be any good, only that I think he would be the best of three poor choices. But as to the speeches I thought Hillary gave the best speech. She was focused and controlled and by not conceding delivered a powerful thank you to her supporters. Obama I think has already started reading the punditry comparing him to McCain, particularly the sections siting their comparative strengths and weaknesses. He sees that his perceived strength is his oratory. I thought he spent the whole speech with his head cocked back as if to say, "Watch this, I am a great orator." The problem was it wasn't much of a speech. McCain was the worst. Public speaking is not his strength. He is a heroic figure who has sacrificed much and it looks to me like he is being called upon to make one final sacrifice, to get drubbed by the Democratic tidal wave which seems to be forming.

Of course, this is just my opinion and I could be wrong. The time forward to election day is just as long as the time backward to the Iowa primary. As of today, Obama leads.

Corner local shop

Hooray, hooray the first of June. Summer arrived today without us having passed though the usual introductory period known as "spring". Obviously there is nothing to be done except perhaps utilize this one last opportunity to complain.

But with the return of summer came the return of the morning start to the ride. After waiting until after noon for the midday rise in temperature on each and every ride up to this point, today I left the driveway at 10:30. It was a tiny bit cool for the first couple of minutes, only about 64, but it quickly was just fine. The other advantage about the morning start is that most of the ride can be completed before the nearly midsummer sun reaches directly overhead and dispatches rays which can create serious problems for a person with a fourth of his genetic material from north of the Arctic Circle. A morning start is much safer for a person with "Miller skin" (probably more accurately referred to as "Hanson skin".)

This is a lake not previously posted. I know this because I only rode out there once last year and I distinctly remember bumbling the photo. This is Otter Lake.Otter Lake is at the corner of County Road J and Otter Lake Road. It appears just shortly after the first turn back point on the ride out to the Ramsey-Anoka County line. The first turn back is the furthest north penetration, this is the second turn back point, the point furthest east.

I know that I only rode there once last year because this ride is actually an abbreviated version of the Bald Eagle Lake ride. I only did that once last year. Today I omitted the loop around Bald Eagle Lake and just continued south on Otter Lake Road until I intersected Goose Lake Road (quite near to but not actually in sight of Goose Lake) which leads over to the underpass which gets me back onto the home side of 35E.

Even with the omission of Bald Eagle Lake, this still made today the long ride, perhaps obviously, and I got to 40 miles, as planned. That's a bit over 64 kilometers for those keeping track so that age in kilometers thing gets checked off the summertime list.

On the way back I photographed my corner local shop. Located at the corner of Woodhill Drive and Lexington Avenue is the best bike shop in the Twin Cities area, County Cycles.The photo opportunity came at about 30 miles into the ride and I had a bit of difficulty getting the photo. I couldn't find the camera. I was feeling around in the middle pocket of my jersey when I always keep the camera in the right rear. The middle pocket contains the mini-pump and the multi-tool so I should have recognized immediately why there wasn't any camera in there. But I didn't, a slight bit of confusion I attribute to hydration issues.

I took the picture and immediately rode over to the shop to refill my empty water bottles.

And had a nice conversation with the three young people perhaps barely visible next to the building under the awning. They were fund raising for something called Two Wheel View. The fellow is an employee of the organization and the two girls are high school students who have qualified for a bicycle trip this summer in Argentina. It is a two week ride of approximately 300 miles, riding and camping. It seems like an extremely valuable experience for the young people who participate. I heartily endorse the idea and invite any and all bicyclists to do whatever additional research they think is necessary before making the decision, but to consider donating something to keep this program afloat.