Probable gin and tonic party day

Many years ago but also for a duration of many years, Mr. P used to have a gin and tonic party on the first day of the year that the temperature reached 65 degrees. There were no party announcements, no invitations, no other planning other than that a lot of people knew to show up at his house on the first day of the year when the temperature reached 65. The first reaching of that threshold was significant enough that one year when Sid was in town, Mr. P got married in a ceremony which was totally unannounced and unexpected to all except obviously the participants.

Most of us, including Mr. P, are no longer active in that sort of holiday. If we were, today would have been the party. I am not sure if the official high reached 65 but today was the day.

I rode my bike.

It was a windy day, as spring days often are, with a touchy headwind from the southwest. As all bicycle riders know, the wind only blows from one direction. But as all bicycle riders who live in urban areas laid out in a predominantly north-south east-west grid also know, the wind usually affects two legs of the usual four leg bicycle ride. Today was a head wind heading south and heading west. As is my usual practice, I headed out intending to ride mostly south and mostly west.

Today's quiz is guess the location.Those who can identify the location and who are familiar with Saint Paul-Falcon Heights-Roseville geography will recognize that this is farther south than yesterday's photo and also that it is farther west than anything posted so far in this admittedly brand new season.

My turn around point was the Saint Anthony Park Branch library.My architecture book reports that this is one of three classically inspired neighborhood libraries constructed by the City of Saint Paul in 1916-17. They were designed by the city architect but financed by Andrew Carnegie. These three were among the last to be built under a program sponsored by the United States Steel titan who died in 1919. I grew up in a town which had a Carnegie public library.

The book says that the building has Ionic pilasters, arches, simple parapet and strict symmetry, and that the library is an excellent example of how even small public buildings of this period could achieve a monumental effect.

The library today illustrates two things. One, I know where the libraries are. The significance of this is unknown. Two, this is a for this year the new furthest south and furthest west distance achieved.

Those who were following along with the discussion above of today's wind direction will recognize that after leaving the library I felt strong, I felt fast.

I had hoped to get to a lake today. Como was actually the one I thought I might reach but the roads heading into that part of Saint Paul were still very wet and sloppy. I did not reach an actual lake but I did reach a body of water which these ducks are treating as a for all practical purposes lake.It may not be an actual lake but it is the first appearance in this year's entries of the corn field. It is extremely unlikely that it will be the last.

It was 14 miles today and it was hard. It was hard but it was a whole bunch easier than yesterday. A general rule of thumb that I always used for the teams I coached was that the largest improvement is made between the first and the second games. I think it may also apply to the start of the bicycle season. The improvement that I made today was probably the largest single day improvement of the season. It was hard, but compared to yesterday, I felt good.