Well, that was hard.

I was downtown for a CLE today. The seminar was at the MSBA CLE center in the City Center between 6th and 7th on Nicollet. Usually in the past I have parked at the City Center ramp but the last time I parked there for a CLE the fee was finally so completely outrageous that this time I decided I had to find somewhere else to park. I ended up parked in a City of Minneapolis ramp, what they refer to as Ramp B or as the 5th Street ramp. When you walk out of that ramp onto the Skyway you are confronted with the new baseball stadium. So I can confirm that stadium construction is in an advanced stage. It is an impressive looking structure. As is the usual case, the major source of funding for the stadium is public money, I hope we get out money's worth.

I got home and clicked on the Weather Channel and it said 83 and a south wind at 25 mph. Well, that's a little different.

And it was really, really hard.

The outward leg into the teeth of that wind was one of the least enjoyable bicycle rides ever. I literally felt ill. I was extremely pleased to find baseball again, allowing me to take a short break to watch half an inning. This time it is Saint Thomas v. Augsburg. It was 3-3 when I arrived with Saint Thomas coming to bat in the bottom of the third.It went line out to center, hard single to right, attempted pick-off which went awry when the runner broke for second and beat the throw for a stolen base, a funky line drive (sequence pictured above) that ended up short hopping the shortstop but he came up with it and got the batter at first, runner not moving up, then an infield single to deep short, runner to third, a Texas league single to score the run, runner moving up to third, ground out to second to end the inning, one run on three hits, Saint Thomas takes the lead 4-3 (F8, 1b (SB), 6-3, i1b, 1b rbi, 4-3).

I am going to have to check the league rules but I believe that if I see one more game I become eligible to vote for the all-conference team and other post season honors.

I rode a little bit farther east to get out of the rude traffic patterns and then circled around and started for home. When I get as knackered as I did today on the way out I never, ever feel any good on the way back either. Except today the wind was so strong and so directly out of the south that I did, in fact, feel strong on the due north streets. It was different.

As I approached home I noticed that there has been additional activity in the corn field.Can you see it?

Those tire tracks are new, they were left by the corn planter. The seed is in the ground.