Family photo

A couple of those of us gathered at Skillman Acres last evening started to try to complain about how old we are and how GOINFS. The pretty well preserved looking older fellow in the middle of the photo completely trumped our complaints. He and the attractive lady sitting next to him have been married for 66 years, longer than either of the would be complainers have been alive.Another Merry Christmas to Bud and Opal, and to their dafter, TOPWLH, and her dafter, TCWUTH.

Christmas Eve video theft

TOPWLH was carrying on about my ClustrMap. She seems astonished by the variety and number of countries from which at least one visitor has come to this site. I like the map, I think it is fun. I know that someone has viewed this blog from Iran, Korea, Greece, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Singapore, New Zealand, France, Finland, and even something called Réunion.

After careful consideration of the observations of TOPWLH and in view of the worldwide reach of this blog, I have decided that Wireless has something posted on her site that deserves the widest possible internet distribution. So, here it is, as performed in front of our Christmas tree, a video stolen from Wireless, and as she says, courtesy of our local Hallmark store about three years ago.

By the way, Réunion was known previously as Île Bourbon. It is a tiny island located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about 200 km (130 miles) south west of Mauritius, the nearest island. Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas départements of France. This means that it is considered to be a part of France, as much a part of France as any of the mainland France départements. Réunion sends five deputies to the French National Assembly and three senators to the French Senate. The currency is the Euro.

Very dark, very cold

We had about 5 inches of snow here, not as much as some places, but when you are outside in -12F shoveling, 5 inches seems like plenty. The wind blew hard from the NW, 20+ mph, not as much as some places but when you are outside shoveling in -30F wind chill, 20mph seems pretty windy. It was very dark here but I guess today it is about as dark as it gets everywhere in the northern hemisphere, it is the day of the winter solstice. Still, it seemed very, very dark here.

The child we used to have (TCWUTH, she isn't a child anymore) came over to help TOPWLH with decorating for the winter holiday. TOPWLH and I had put the tree up earlier in the week but the hanging of shiny things is left to TOPWLH and TCWUTH (but she will always be our dafter). TCWUTH was also keen to display our nativity scene for her MS as apparently she had bragged on it some to him.The hockey player is new this year but we seem to have lost the troll. H-R-Bek is standing in amongst the other wise men for the first time instead of next to them. They are the only ones his size so it seemed a logical place for him to stand. The problem is with him there no one is guarding Wilt. But she got to make most of the decisions on the arrangement and this is what she settled on this year.

After arranging the characters she was taking three photos which she will be stitching together, possibly for display at some other place on the internet. While she was taking photos I took also took one.

Spoke cards

Spoke cards originated as a kind of race number for competitors in Alleycat races held between bicycle messengers. Originally tarot cards were used, with the race number written on them, but now cards are most often printed specially. Messenger/racers often retained spoke cards after the event, accumulating several on the wheel. In certain circles it became fashionable to have a card or two stuck into one's spokes, and now other city riders fix spoke cards to their wheels as an homage to bicycle messenger culture. Cards are prepared for many sorts of events and are sometimes prepared just for fun.

Bicycle messenger culture is one of the principle breeding grounds of fixed gear riding, a fixed gear bicycle having been found to be a superior vehicle of choice for big city bicycle messengering. Many young hipsters prefer to commute on a fixed gear and many of those young riders will be found to have a spoke card jammed in the rear wheel. One of the current most popular spoke cards is the Obama card.As is usually the case for matters of urban cycling, much more of interest on this subject is available at Bike Snob NYC.

For a BSNYC take on a certain growing disaffection between fixters and road riding types I recommend Roadie Rage and How to Avoid It.

Today in France the Derby of the West was played for the 63rd time. Rennes, the modern political capital of Brittany the state in France, hosted Nantes, the historical capital of Brittany the area populated by Bretons, a group historically and linguistically separate from the group centered around Paris who came to dominate the government and politics of France and who eventually became known as THE French. Rennes is modern Brittany, Nantes is the site of the castle home of the Dukes of Brittany, le Château des ducs de Bretagne.The rivalry is important to the teams but probably even more important to the fans of the two teams as the cities are located just 100 km apart in western France.

Today homestanding Rennes came in unbeaten in 15 straight games this season, Nantes came in seeking to solidify recent positive results. The teams played to a 0-0 draw, another good result for Nantes.

Follow up.

The Midtown Greenway is for the most part, located on the abandoned railroad right of way which traverses south Minneapolis along the route of 29th Street. Wireless and her BR live near 44th and Lake Harriet. Minneapolis on its north south axis is quite reliably 8 blocks to the mile. 44th to 29th with some lake dodging to do along the way means that at its closest passage to the Lake Harriet pile of bricks that the dafters call home, the Greenway is about 2 miles distant. This incident occurred at Cedar, a considerable distance along the bike path towards the east, making the whole thing about 5 miles and several socio-economic class shifts distant from where they live.

There are not nearly as many socio-economic class shifts between them and the victim. That young man in the photo was trying to sneak raw hamburger past a starving dog.

Let's examine the photo. Castelli jacket. That's no backpack, that's a messenger bag. Single speed fixed gear bike (note the absence of brake levers and tape on the bar). iPod. Spoke card. These things are all de rigeur for a certain set of bicycle commuting hipsters who are anything but economically deprived.

The thieves displayed their lack of knowledge by taking the iPod. It may have been the least valuable object in the possession of the victim.

As to how hard core he is, the report says he was robbed on November 20. That was before it had snowed here. The picture with the story looks suspiciously like it was taken in a parking lot, quite possibly the parking lot of the apartment building where young Mr. Biglajzer lives. I know a few people who ride all year round and I do not think the costume worn in the photo is an accurate depiction of what people who are still out there riding are wearing. Which is not to say this guy is not hard core, the story says he is still commuting. If he is still riding I seriously doubt that he is dressed for riding in the same clothes that he has donned for the photo.

Reprinted without permission

This just in from today's Star-Tribune:

Minneapolis Midtown Greenway robbery spree: Bikers beware
Jerry Holt, Star Tribune
Erez Biglajzer was mugged last month by three guys at knifepoint while riding his bike on the Midtown Greenway. “I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.

A series of robberies on the popular Minneapolis bike route prompts a police warning. Police presence will be increased in the area.

By STEVE BRANDT and DAVID CHANEN , Star Tribune staff writers

Minneapolis police issued a warning Wednesday after several bikers were robbed -- some at knifepoint and one with a gun -- on the popular Midtown Greenway and a connecting route.

The safety of greenway users has been a concern since before it was even built because the middle third of the 5 1/2-mile route paralleling Lake Street lies in a former railroad trench. So extra features such as 911 call kiosks, security cameras and extra lighting were installed.

But that hasn't prevented about 10 attacks in recent weeks aimed at bikers on the trails. Typically, police said, they involve several men who block the trails and take backpacks, wallets, electronics and purses, but not bikes.

The robberies prompted police to step up patrols and some riders to ride without lights to avoid detection by assailants. A grassroots, Web-connected group has organized a Saturday afternoon ride called "Take Back the Greenway."

Erez Biglajzer was knocked off his bike at around 10 p.m. on Nov. 20 by a man who rushed onto the trail on a curve, joined by two accomplices. He said he was kicked several times in the ribs and threatened with a knife. The attack, near where Cedar Avenue crosses the greenway, ended as another rider neared. Attackers wrestled away his iPod but not his backpack.

Now, unless he's riding with a friend, he avoids the greenway at night. But he still commutes on it during the day and will return at night if police patrols leave him feeling safer.

"I just couldn't believe it. I didn't expect it," he said of the attack. "I probably should have avoided the greenway at night but it's just so convenient."

Police think there may be more attacks that haven't been reported, and there also have been close calls.

"We also know of near-misses where the cyclists were going very fast and the assailants moved out of the way for their own safety," said Tim Springer, staff director for the Midtown Green Coalition advocacy group.

Unexpected victory in Nantes

In an unexpected result tonight from the stadium in Nantes, Nantes has defeated seven time defending league champion Lyon by a score of 2-1.The major off season acquisition by Nantes, Croatian international Ivan Klasnic opened his account with Nantes by scoring two goals, including the conversion of a late penalty to earn Nantes an unlikely win after Lyon had appeared to be on their way to victory. Lyon scored first and led 1-0 at the end of the first half.

Klasnic, who was the hero for Croatia in their successful run at last summer's Euro 2008, had failed to score a single goal to this point for Nantes. His results had been so disappointing that he was left out of the starting eleven for today's match. However, Klasnic came on as a substitute after 59 minutes and equalized soon after when Aurelien Capoue pinched the ball off the feet of a Lyon defender on the edge of the Lyon box. His shot was turned away by the Lyon keeper but it went directly to Klasnic who scored easily.

Then in the 89th minute a Lyon defender pulled down Mamadou Bagayoko in the penalty area. Klasnic took the ensuing penalty shot and sent the Lyon keeper diving the wrong way as he scored into an open side.

Les Canaris move six points clear of the relegation zone.

LOOK in the basement

The last couple of days have had another aspect added to cold, the ability to chill the bones. Admittedly we are only discussing temperatures in the teens but for the first time it has felt winter cold, bone chilling cold.

The snow from last weekend has lingered on and this evening brings the start of what is probably going to be the first plowable snow. Snow accumulating on the ground means snow sticking to the car, packing up into the wheelwells and clinging to the rocker panels. This means that snow is about to start being transported into the garage. Snow in the garage means melting, melting means wet floors, a whole range of events which do not suit what has been a resident of the garage for eight or so months.LOOK in the basement, parked next to the esteemed Crown Jewel, joining the Ruby in the company of high mileage bicycles with several doors between them and the outdoors.

Season truly finis.

Square One

This is a fan video for the Tom Petty tune I vaguely thought I heard in Emily7m's Xanga challenge:

The tune is not one of Petty's high visibility main stream hits so I am not absolutely sure why it rang a note in my head but it did.

This video is also my first attempt in almost two years of blogging to embed a video in the blog. I hope it works for you.

If not, click here for the YouTube link. Here also is a link for a live version which is in almost all respects superior except for what if I find to be really irritating background crowd noise.

This habit could be hard to break

But the truth of the matter is I got nothing. Absolutely nothing.