Confluence

This riding in the middle of the day is tricky. Issues never even briefly considered at 6pm have to be carefully considered at noon suntime. Like sunscreen.

One-fourth of my genetic material comes from north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. I have very fair skin, the kind of skin that the sun can and will, if given the opportunity, brutally torture. I have to be careful.

Yesterday I rode with a jacket on but I forgot my helmet liner. I came back with my legs a little red and an itching sensation on my scalp. My legs are fine, I have been outdoors with bicycle shorts on enough to have at least the beginnings of a base layer. But this scalp thing, while not yet a problem, clearly called for a strategy to minimize direct sun exposure for today's ride. This was especially true considering that the departure time was approximately 1pm Central Daylight Time, also known as high noon, sun time.

I have three summer weight helmet liners, two blue and one white. It was going to be warm today and the sun was out in its full glory, I needed the white one. I found it with only a minimum amount of searching. While searching around I also came across my SPF 45 sunscreen. This is, I believe, industrial strength sunscreen. I went with bare arms, helmet liner and SPF 45 on all exposed epidermis, including skin that only became exposed when my helmet straps pulled my hair down off my ears. Side note, what is the approved strategy for applying sunscreen to your ears? Just the tips? Or do you have to rub it into the entire ear? And how do you do that?

The temperature rose into the 80s and I extended the range of places I have ridden this year by riding the full southern route. This is the general maximum southern extension of my more or less regular rides, as far south as I regularly get. I had not been there previously this season but today I rode to the River Road overlook above one of the candidates for the spot of confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.That's Pike Island on the left and the Fort Snelling mainland on the right. That channel between them connects the Minnesota and the Mississippi so this CAN be considered the confluence.

However, I believe the generally accepted confluence is at the tip of Pike Island, another mile or so downstream. I know that the tip of Pike Island is much more visually impressive. There is a path to the end of the island, I know that one of the more or less regular readers of this blog has taken that hike within the past several weeks. However, as is perhaps evident from this photo, although barely, the path is a dirt path for which I would need a mountain bike, although perhaps I could do it on my cross bike. In any case I was on my LOOK, and furthermore I was on the wrong side of the river.

Therefore I am posting this picture and I am calling it "Confluence". Those with better photos of the real confluence are invited to respond.

Cool and blue

It was pretty windy at Vadnais today so we didn't linger long. We took about enough time for a hurried photo and then started back.It's a little bit too bad because the lake was really blue and really pretty today.

As soon as we started to ride again the wind which was so onerous at Vadnais was behind us and conditions quickly became more tolerable. We stopped at the foot of the lake upon seeing some unusual visitors in the shallows. I have seen swans there before but only in the fall.TOPWLH wanted to label this as a Great Blue Heron but I don't think so.I don't have any idea why I know this but I was pretty sure that there is a Great Blue Heron and then there is a Blue Heron. Wikipedia reports that it is actually called a Little Blue Heron. I like plain Blue Heron better than Little Blue Heron and am going to continue to refer to this bird as a Blue Heron.

The ride home went well enough (with both riders feeling pretty strong most of the time) that we arrived at the corn field without any need to practice looking knackered.It is a nice enough looking day out there but as of the completion of the ride 70 degrees it has still not been.

Cool and blue.

Today in Ligue 1 FC Nantes has defeated Auxerre 2-1. However Caen has lost by only 1-0 to league champions Bordeaux, failing to provide the change in goal differential that Nantes needed to avoid relegation. Furthermore, Saint Etienne has won. Nantes finishes tied on points with Caen but finishes 19th on goal differential. The season is over, relegation is official. *sigh* It is much harder to follow a team in Ligue 2. Ligue 1 has English language coverage. I intend to remain loyal to Nantes but may have to also adopt a Ligue 1 team. In England today Chelsea has won the FA Cup by defeating Everton 2-1.

Sprinkled on but not rained on

It was another spectacularly beautiful day until about 5:30.

I rode pretty hard for the riding that I did do. It was the shortest ride on the LOOK this year but it was still hard considering that a sprinkle hit me in the face while I was on the other side of the Fair Grounds. All miles ridden from that point on were ridden at full sprint.

Consequently I did not get a photograph while bicycling. I got a couple today at work though. Here are my much admired and highly coveted antique oak office chairs.These chairs are so highly thought of (as they deserve to be, these are great, great chairs) that practically the first thing that happened once word spread that I would be leaving the building was that random folks showed up and made comments about how nice those chairs are, obviously fishing for information about possible procurement. However, the chairs new location was finalized long ago. In fact, one of them is already in the cubicle of Guitar guy, Mars Volpatz. I had to go over there today and borrow it back in order to get this picture. Mars did me a major favor during the big carpet laying trauma of last spring and summer and I promised him these chairs in return. Of course, I suppose this is all dependent on no interference from the principals of the space committee.

How does a guy get such nice chairs? Well first you work there for a loooooong time. When I started I acquired a cubicle with a wooden chair, but a wooden chair with a ruined finish. A nice old chair but quite unattractive. Irv, in the cubicle across from me had a really nice chair. Soon enough Irv transferred to the Division of Waters. It was more or less understood that his chair was not being transferred so I prevailed upon him to trade chairs. So that's one. Then Karl got a job in Washington and left the building. I moved into his office to discover that Karl had had another really nice chair. They are not a matched pair but they have been fixtures in my office ever since.

Nice chairs or what?

Experts said don't plant that bush there. It will never bloom, it doesn't get enough sun.In the springtime there are no leaves on the ash tree that was shading this location when those judgments were made. No leaves means that the miniature lilac got plenty of sunlight.

Nice flowers or what?

Minnesota can be extremely beautiful at this time of year

It's so pretty out there right now. The emerging vegetation produces several hundred shades of green. Even if green were the only color the display would be spectacular, But then there are the flowers. Here is a particularly well planned display that I have ridden past several times before finally deciding today to picture.That's on Huron Street just before I arrive at County Road C2.

The big bicycle news for today is that I achieved a hugely significant number on my odometer.I am going to say here without any source material to support what I say other than the fact that I have ridden the miles that less than one percent of the people who ever ride a bicycle at any time in their lives ever end up with a lifetime total of 15,000 miles. I have 15,000 miles on THIS bicycle. This is my fifth season on this bicycle. Can it really have been more than four years since I bought the frame, ordered the components and spent part of the winter assembling the parts into this bicycle? Clearly it is, 15,000 miles says that it is.

I love my bicycle. Two hour bicycle rides are saving my life and this bicycle makes two hour bicycle rides a breeze. About my bicycle, it is a Campagnolo equipped bicycle. Without attempting to downgrade Shimano, because I have two Shimano bicycles, people say that you ride Campagnolo because of the durability, because Campagnolo is rebuildable, and because once adjusted you don't have to readjust Campagnolo. I have 15,000 miles with only having to have replaced a front derailer cable, front brake shoes, about 3 chains and one replacement of the 17-18 cog in the rear gear cassette. This amounts to virtually no replacements at all. Rebuildable? I have no idea, nothing has worn out. Lack of need to readjust? I can vouch for that. I set it all up when I put the bicycle together and have never had to do an adjustment since.

I love my LOOK.

The ride home led to a circle through familiar territory. The sun was by now in a position that made photos into the sun unlikely. For this one I hid behind an ELM tree (one of the few survivors) to shield the camera lens from the sun and got a photo of my old friends with flowering shrubs in the deep background.Minnesota is so beautiful at this time of the year that if it was like this all of the time it would be necessary to put up a fence around the state to keep people out.

Unspecified farm animal

We had a heavy overcast here pretty much all day. While at work I was resigned to the idea that no bicycling would occur. But all precipitation stayed south of us and when I walked out to my car in the parking lot I changed my mind and decided to give it a go.

I live near the farm campus which means that occasionally I see farm animals. Anyone have any idea what this thing is ?Two weeks to go, the person who is apparently going to take over my tasks has suddenly become very, very interested in spending time with me. This is plenty OK with me, I am pretty sure I won't be accepting any new tasks so I might as well spend my time discussing old ones with the new guy.

I am now so short that I need a step ladder to get out of bed.

Laundry

The visitor doing laundry (TVDL) suggested that I was invoking the Auckland Rule when I expressed an intention to ride my bicycle. I denied it, saying it really wasn't that windy.

I was wrong.

One way I can always tell that it is too windy is that my average speed plummets. Clearly I am not getting enough benefit from the tailwind to overcome the additional work of riding into the wind. The reason for this probably is that I ride out into the wind and by the time I start back I am usually pretty knackered. The result is that when I have a tailwind I am not really concentrating on making up for the time riding into the wind. If the truth be known I am mostly resting, just kinda coasting along with the wind.

Today I rode over into Saint Paul. This is my turnaround point at Summit and Pascal.Pascal is a friend, I ride on Pascal quite regularly. But usually I ride on Pascal in Falcon Heights, I was a little surprised to glance at the sign and notice that it was Pascal. The paths in the Summit Avenue median are made by joggers, which are numerous, nearly as numerous on a day like today as bicyclists.

Here is a result of last year's landscaping project. Our miniature lilac looks like it is going to bloom.Today is another OOTNDITHOD.

Relegated

Today's schedule seemed completely devoid of hooding so the hooder and I were available for a bicycle ride. We hung around long enough to make selections in the family Indianapolis 500 pool and to see the first two crashes. Then we rode off into what was well on its way to being a spectacular day in Minnesota.

We rode to Vadnais, a long ride for the undertrained hooder. She was holding up fairly well when we stopped at the lake but in perhaps a foreshadowing of things to come she declined to move out of the shade for a photo.Vadnais was its usual summer spectacular.

The corn is off to a good start. The hooder is practicing her "I am knackered" look.
We got home in time to see the last 20 or so laps of the race, long enough to see the hooder's first choice, pole sitter Helio Castroneves cross the line first. It was a satisfying result for all fans everywhere of fence climbing.

The news from France is not good. Yesterday's game in round 37 of 38 in France's Ligue 1 produced this score: Souchaux 2:1 Nantes. The outcome means that FC Nantes faces with near certainty relegation back to Ligue 2 for next season. As reported by Presse Ocean: Salut les amis! "Cette fois, c'est bel et bien fini: le FCN, vaincu à Sochaux, évoluera la saison prochaine en L2. Quel gâchis!"

There is still a mathematical possibility of survival but to stay up Nantes must win next week while Saint Etienne and Caen both lose. Furthermore Caen must lose by a wildly improbable margin large enough for Nantes to overcome a current minus 16 in the first tie-breaker, goal differential. So Nantes must win by say 3-0 while Caen loses 0-14. Wildly improbable.

Photo from FC Nantes website:Il faudrait un miracle... One would need a miracle.

Turtle crossing

TFMWLH (the faculty member who . . .) was not available to join today's ride. She begged off saying that she had a previous engagement as a "hooder" and that she had to go somewhere to "hood" people. It all sounds more than a little criminal to me but I am a simple nearly retired person. In a related note, everyone should ask her for the details of the goings on at the Friday evening faculty dinner.

It was overcast when I set out but the radar appeared promising and the sun eventually did break through. I rode a bit beyond the standard ride, venturing once again across Highway 96 into the residential enclave behind the gate.

Just before I came to this sign I passed the remains of a former turtle crushed on the road.Such are the penalties for turtles attempting to cross the road outside the marked crossing. As I say, former turtle.

I also found out why that uphill where I got caught in the big ring last time was so hard. Today I knew it was coming and got myself into an appropriate gear but the hill was still plenty hard in the small ring. It is a nasty little rise that does that especially unpleasant trick of going around a curve on the way up. You cannot see the top of the rise from the bottom and can be easily lulled into a false sense of "this won't be too hard". Then it hits a short false flat which is, in fact, still slightly uphill before once again hitting a shorter but still nasty second rise. As on the first, the second rise goes around a curve, and again, you cannot see the whole hill from the bottom to allow you to gauge the effort. It's a tough little hill, visible just after the three mile mark on my North Oaks ride. The upside of the climb is, as always, the downhill on the backside where I hit 35 mph. I suppose I am going to have to ride out there again and try that sequence while traveling in the opposite direction.

Five day work weeks are a drag

But today was the end of the last time I will ever be doing that.

There is construction on Como complete with lane closures and traffic furniture. Rather than compete with the cars I detour through the Fairgrounds. This weekend there is a horse show at what they now call the Coliseum but which I still think of as the Hippodrome.This is the back entrance between the arena and the cow barn. I have absolutely no idea what class or category this is but I think it should be called, even if it isn't, horses with people wearing dark colored clothing. I am pretty sure it isn't anything to do with "hunt" as for that group there are always at least a few people wearing red.

I also passed by Como where geese fecundity was on display.They may look cute now but geese, like rabbits, are vermin, and extremely messy vermin at that. I am a long time advocate of some sort of open season on geese. I am opposed to a firearms season in the city, for obvious reasons, but I am willing to consider a season where if you could catch it and wring its neck you could keep it and take it home to roast. The geese are currently way, way too comfortable around human beings. A hungry crowd chasing after them for even a couple of weeks once a year, say in the fall, would go a long way towards restoring a much more natural order to the urban geese-human relationship.

Reversal

It was way too windy yesterday to ride and then it rained a bit over night. All day long the conditions looked pretty questionable. But in a major reversal of form the weather cleared while I was on the bike. I was out on the road during the only really nice part of the day.

Dusk, as calm and quiet descends over the field.

Possible all time record

I know what average means and today was not average. Just last Saturday I dressed in complete winter gear, tights, long sleeve base layer, long sleeve heavyweight jersey, windstopper vest, windbreaker, full finger gloves, full under helmet cap including coverage for forehead and for ears. Today I dressed in complete summer gear, basically two garments, shorts and sleeveless jersey.Also visible in the picture is our newly repaired lawn mower. This time it was more severe than the time when my sister essentially completed the repair, with help from my brother, by cleaning the air cleaner. This time the carburetor was leaking and it had to go in for professional care. But the repair was relatively inexpensive, just $59, although there was a $121 surcharge related to delivery. I know that seems like a lot, ask TOPWLH.

The morning newspaper reported that the all time record high temperature for today is 89 achieved in 1978. This is only a video board on the grandstand at the State Fairgrounds and is therefore far short of official, but if the official temperature ends up being reported as close to this then we have ample reason for suddenly appearing in public with bare arms and pasty skin.On the way home I came across this. This is the same catch basin pictured here, last August. Most of this stuff was in full bloom last August, here it is in the formative stages.Any master gardeners and/or native plant experts out there are welcome to comment on the plants, either as the sprouts of spring or as the full blooms of August.The only I know for sure, and again I owe this knowledge to my sister, is the bright cardinal colored Cardinal flower.

I rode hard yesterday. Yesterday's effort was evident today. Today the effort necessary to maintain momentum into the wind was occasionally painful. The operative phrase here is, I believe, no pain, no gain.

It was a spectacularly nice day for a ride.

Ford overlook

I rode over to the river tonight. There is something about that ride that always produces a higher average speed than I usually achieve. It is almost always a pretty tough work out. Today was no different.

I was coming down the hill from Saint Thomas to the monument at the end of Summit. There was a young woman on a road bike ahead of me and a fit looking young couple ahead of her, also on road bikes. They were all strong riders and they easily got a gap on the downhill. Still I was up to speed retaining the momentum of the downhill and I hung around only about a half a block behind. It is only a couple of blocks along the road from the bottom of that first big hill until the road does a couple of quick little uphills. I am not fast but I am strong and, sure enough, on the hills I reeled them in.

The young woman directly in front of me seemed content to hang behind the couple as they were moving at a quite reasonable clip. I did not want to be like racer boy and have to pass everything that I see in front of me so I fell in fourth in line. And we hammered together down to the Ford Parkway bridge where all three of them turned to cross the bridge back into Minneapolis. We were fast, we were strong.

After parting company with the rabbits, I continued on along on the Saint Paul side and achieved a new furthest distance south milestone for this season. This is the across the street from the Ford plant at the overlook above Hidden Falls.I think that limestone wall might have been a WPA project. I know the walls farther down into the gorge along the creek up to the actual falls were constructed by WPA. I am not certain about the wall at the top of the bluff though.

Emerald ash borer

TOPWLH and I had a nice early afternoon ride.Lake Como for scale.

Here is a scene coming very soon to most of the Twin Cities. The Emerald ash borer has been discovered in Saint Paul. In fact, these are the actual trees on Long Avenue in the Hampdem Park neighborhood where the pest was found. The trees die. It is expected that eventually a large percentage of the ash trees in the city will succumb.This is a problem for us, we have two ash trees, one in the front yard and one in the back. The one in the front is not critical to our enjoyment of the house although it does provide important shade in mid-afternoon. The one in the back is the primary shade tree for the deck. It appears that we will be finding out how critical that one is but again we have the giant cottonwood and the weed maple back there so we will not be completely devoid of shade. We may not be damaged as severely as I feel but almost for sure we are going to get an opportunity to investigate which species of maples we like the most for replacement trees.

The other place where this hurts us is that the Emily tree, the tree that during the summer after Emily was born we planted in the front yard of the house where we were then living, is also a green ash. TOPWLH knows the people living in that house now and we keep track of the tree. It is now a stately mature tree. It will be a shame if the borers gets that tree.

Our turnaround point today was Desnoyer Park. I was leaning against the softball backstop having a banana when I noticed that the radio tower down hill towards the river appeared to be sprouting directly out of a tree top. I tried to get a picture.I call it "Radio Tree Europe".

Interesting business at the Giro today when the riders declined to race. The riders decided that the course was too dangerous and they rode slowly in protest. The first six laps of a ten lap race around Milano were run at an average speed of only about 32 or 33 kmph. There were several instances on our ride today, most of them downhill, when TOPWLH and I were going fast enough to keep up with that pace.

Eventually race organizers prevailed upon the racers to actually race and the last three or so laps were turned at a more respectable 50+ kmph.

There is a Wikipedia page that lists doping cases in cycling. Current race leader Danilo di Luca gets the following mention in the 2007 section of that page:

"Danilo Di Luca of Italy was revealed to have had unspecified low hormone levels in urine tests during the 2007 Giro d'Italia. Italian authorities investigated whether this was a natural consequence of racing at a high level for three weeks, or some kind of masking agent. On 28 September, Di Luca withdrew from the UCI Road World Championships calling his treatment "a scandal" after he had been accused of doping allegations. Di Luca was leading the 2007 UCI ProTour when he was suspended from the competition before the final race, the Giro di Lombardia."

Yup, this race looks clean.

1,000

Yesterday was another one of those days when it was nice enough to ride most of the day but I ended up with zero miles. It wasn't raining when I got home and some iterations of me would have started a ride. But I had checked the weather radar and I knew it was going to rain, and it did, at about the time I would have been far enough home to end up wet and cold. I am less upset about this than I was the last time I complained because I now am starting to become acclimated to the idea that this problem is about to go away.

Today dawned dead clear and deadly cold. It was crystal clear and very windy but through the window the day appeared as one of the prettiest days you will ever see. Looks were, in this case, quite deceiving. On a weather channel on the digital tier of my cable system (not THE Weather Channel, a local TV station weather channel) they were giving wind chill. At about 1:30 when I headed out the door it was 49 with a wind chill of 40. Yup, 40. It looked nice through the window but the weather that came across my handlebars was very cold, and very windy. But as I told TOPWLH when she reported that it was too cold for her to take a walk, there is no such thing as too cold, there is only not properly dressed for the conditions.

It is probably best to get this out of the way right away: The corn is up. You may have to blow this photo up a fair amount to get a clear view, but there are definitely rows of green there.I had a pretty specific mileage goal for today as can probably be gleaned from the title of the post. I wanted enough miles to reach 1,000 for the year. Along the way here is just about the only bicycle path that I ever ride on. This is in the Shoreview neighborhood behind Snail Lake School. The neighborhood appears to have been built in two waves and apparently by competing builders. There are North-South through streets but no way to get from the northern neighborhood to the southern on any but the main streets a half mile apart at the two ends. Except for this bicycle path.I like to cut through that neighborhood so I use this path. It is just the length of two lots, one facing this street, one facing that street down there where that tree appears to be growing in the middle of the path. That tree is actually across the street at the other end.

I didn't want to add any miles (see above mileage note) but I rode up to the gate of North Oaks and got a picture of their "Keep Out" sign and the guard house.This is the only road in. Fairly obviously they are pretty intent on keeping the common people at bay.

Vadnais was really pretty today. The bright blue sky and intense sunlight combined with the lake to present this vista at the north end of the lake:There were still lots of anglers about. The crowd was down from opening weekend but still quite a bit above mid summer norms.

I love Bike Snob NYC. Here is a public service announcement that he has created and posted on his blog about the bane of urban street riders everywhere, the wrong way rider, a species he has labeled as "Bike Salmon".In response to the comment question, yes, every thing will fit easily into one box. I think one of those handle boxes with the fitted cover will do nicely.

And the space committee has not made any threatening gestures towards my space just yet but management did produce a reference to "cleaning off my desk". I think once I am gone for a few days the emptiness will dawn on potential space claimants and plans will begin to be made.

As with the whole rain in the evening problem discussed above, I can feel the whole not caring thing coming on strongly.

June 9/August 4

I am not positive but I believe that yesterday was the first time since I began this bicycle blogging thing that I rode my bike but did not post. My excuse is as follows: It was gray, unbelievably gray. It was a world without color or contrast, both of which are important elements of photography. But that wasn't the worst of it. The wind was just plain brutal, way, way too strong. I got my miles but I was totally done in. I whimpered quietly and snuck off to bed.

A new day. Today there was lots of sun and the wind, while still definitely present, was only strong instead of intimidating. But it was quite cool, about 59 when I headed out.

This stone being guards a driveway and some tulips not too far from home.Is it a lion do you think? Or a gargoyle? Or perhaps some completely other thing?

Well, then, how about two of them?I rode over to the river today and decided I wanted a photo of the Marshall Avenue Bridge. The Minneapolis Rowing Club has its boathouse on the river bank on Minneapolis side of the river, the Lake Street side. Anyone wondering about my use of Marshall Avenue to designate the bridge need only know that it is a Saint Paul thing. The eights and the coxed fours from the rowing club cooperated by sweeping under the bridge as I composed my photo.The days are now set. My proposal to management was that June 9 would be my final day and that I would then take my accumulated vacation and retire, an actual effective date of approximately August 1. Management demurred with the explanation that personnel has a written rule against granting that much vacation at the end of employment heading into retirement. They offered a cash settlement. There is an early retirement incentive proposal currently before the state legislature. This incentive would make a significant contribution to continuation of health insurance for up to 3 years after retirement. One of the considerations is that one needs to retire after the effective date of the legislation. Whether and when the incentive will become effective is still pretty uncertain but I wanted to remain technically employed for as long as possible to maintain eligibility for that incentive. A cash settlement in early June was not necessarily what I had in mind. Management apparently feels that it would be helpful if I can be around a bit this summer to help train the person who is going to be doing the work that I have been doing. They offered 2 weeks vacation, work a week, 2 weeks vacation, work a week, etc. We settled on June 9, 3 weeks of vacation, one week of work, 3 weeks of vacation, one week of work. That brings me to August 4 and uses up most, but not all of my accumulated vacation time. I can take most of the rest as deferred compensation which involves a management match of my contribution. This works for me and apparently it works for management. We reached agreement on that schedule. I am pretty sure that on June 9 I will be mentally and spiritually retired. My enthusiasm will go home for the last time on that day. But it will be August 4 when I make my final appearance in the building, the day when retirement will be fait accompli.

No entry today

But I highly recommend today's Bike Snob NYC for a hilarious send up of all the people who each and every time they get on their bicycle for them it is a race.

And bonus video, just because.

One of Lou's best. Anybody know the name of the guy on the Fender who looks like Arthur Bremer?

Cat out of bag

A very odd thing happened today while I was riding my bicycle. I have grown accustomed to a weather pattern characterized by increasing clouds and cooler temperatures. Today I almost did not ride because of threatening looking skies at about the time I became available for bicycling. But I heard a radio weather guy (Dave Dahl if you must know) suggest that sprinkles were very unlikely.

So I tried it and, unbelievably, while I was out there the clouds cleared and the temperatures rose.

I got two photos which I am somewhat surprised to note were both taken within the city limits of Saint Paul. I think when a golf course has turned completely green that spring must have arrived. This is the Town and Country Club, located on the river between Marshall Avenue and the city limits, but definitely inside Saint Paul.I circled through Como Park on the way home. Technically, this is McMurray Fields. McMurray is adjacent to Como Park but not actually part of the park. The distinction, to which I can speak authoritatively as a long, long ago employee of the the Saint Paul Department of Parks and Recreation, is that McMurray is recreation and Como is parks. And yes, they do make that distinction within the management hierarchy.

They have couple of year old artificial turf fields at McMurray. Today there was lots of soccer in various stages of occurring and about to occur. I did not stay but can anyone guess which team I would have favored in a game about to begin on one of the fields?A very unusual thing happened at work today, something that is only going to happen once. I informed the bosses that I am going to retire. The date has been set although not yet set in stone. It depends now on whether or not they will let me take my accumulated vacation after the proposed final date or whether they will insist on some other arrangement which would be more advantageous to them and less beneficial for me. I guess everyone will have to stay tuned, apparently I have to.

Today at the Giro there was a major crash with less than 10 kilometers to go. Maglia rosa Cavendish got distanced from the smallish group of leaders who got through the narrow roadway before the crash blocked the road. A fairly large peloton did reform but Cavendish's team was not able to get him back on. It was another bunch sprint at the end and Alessandro Petacchi was again best. With today's results Petacchi also assumed the overall lead of the race. This means that Petacchi has ridden himself out of drug suspension into the leader's jersey. Tomorrow's stage features the first mountaintop finish of this year's tour although it is reportedly a not that difficult mountain finish. It will be interesting to see if Petacchi is now not only one the world's best sprinters but also a creditable climber.

They DO know about me

It was very grey and still too cold today. The temperature display across from the A&W on Rice Street said 53 when I rode past.

*sigh* I know what average means. This is below average.

I rode out into the northwest wind again. With the new information about the red barn I detoured back into the HIll Farm to take a look. I didn't want to ride the full circle again but the barn is only about a mile or so inside the gate.

It turns out that the barn is at the corner of Red Barn Lane and Hill Farm Circle. It looks to me like they are having a plant sale out there.Here's a link to Wikipedia page for James J. Hill for anyone looking in who is not familiar with Minnesota and/or railroad history.

This substantial looking brick building is not anyone's house, it is the "Dairy Building" and was apparently the site of all of that innovation.Obviously they DO know about me. As I was riding away from the barn down Hill Farm Circle one of the residents, in the guise of walking her dog, attempted to initiate contact by raising her hand in greeting. I instantly realized that I had only two options. I could bludgeon her to death and escape or I could try to go undercover. I chose the latter and replied to her overture with a spoken greeting. It is obvious that I am going to have to be more careful out there.

Today in the Giro Alessandro Petacchi returned from his drug suspension to restake his claim as the world's fastest bicyclist. In a bunch sprint in Trieste, Petacchi jumped early to power past currently recognized best sprinter, Mark Cavendish, and had enough left to beat the Briton across the line. The crowd at the finish was so large that the first 109 across the line were all awarded the same time, allowing Cavendish to retain the leader's jersey, the maglia rosa.

Fishing opener

The sequence of events, including weather, over the past 36 or so hours have again left me resenting the way I spend most of the daylight hours of my life. Yesterday was a nice enough day all day, plenty nice enough for bicycling. But at about 4:30pm it started to rain, wiping out any possibility of getting in a ride. Being stuck on the 4th floor of a building with windows that do not open is not good.

Today was about 2 dozen degrees cooler than the last time I rode. I had laundered all of that winter gear but had not actually packed it away for the season. So about noon I put it all on and headed out.

I have looked at a map recently and have been considering the possibility of riding through North Oaks. North Oaks has a sign at the only entrance to the community saying "No Tresspassing, Private Roads and Lands". I had always assumed that all of the roads are private. I have recently been enlightened that the main road is publicly maintained and that therefore its status as private is certainly open to question. There is a soccer field a short distance inside the entrance and I have been to that field once. Other than that I had never been in there. It looked in a cursory map examination like I could ride the main road around the main lake and add a couple of miles to the 8 lakes tour. So today I crossed Highway 96 and entered into the former private estate of James J. Hill, the Empire Builder.

I headed north along the west side of the lake intending to circle in a clockwise direction. Along the way I saw some things I had never seen before and learned some things I did not know. When I passed that soccer field there was a youth rugby game going on. You don't see much rugby, certainly not much youth rugby.

They have a street in there named Hill Farm Circle. Today I stayed on the main road but some day I may have to see what is on that circle. They have another named Red Barn Lane which when I looked down the road while passing I saw what looked to me like a red barn. There is even a street named Skillman Lane.

Lots of the houses, especially the newer houses are quite clearly the residences of the economically well off. But I was surprised to find a fairly significant sprinkling of ramblers and bungalows.

There were two turtle crossing signs and only one deer crossing sign despite the enclave having a reputation for being overrun by deer. Both turtle crossings are at places where channels flow into the main lake, Pleasant. This is looking towards Pleasant from approximately the location of the second turtle crossing I encountered.I also learned that a circumnavigation of North Oaks is not just a mile or two. I checked my odometer going in and passed seven miles before coming back out.

And the east and south sides of the lake are HILLY. There is scarcely ever more than a few yards of flat pavement, always up and then down, up and down. At one point I got caught in the big ring on an upslope that proved to be longer than I anticipated, and therefore quite a bit harder.

Just before finishing the route I came across the North Oaks Country Club. I have no idea what hole this is but that is Pleasant Lake in the background.It was a pretty nice ride. It is a satisfyingly middle distance between the standard 8 lake tour and the other ride route out that way that I repeat with some regularity. The longer ride is to Bald Eagle and is over 40 miles. I am sure I will be trying the North Oaks loop again.

After getting back on course I made the ride down through Lake Vadnais. As mentioned above, this is the opening weekend of the Minnesota fishing season and anglers were out in profusion, probably the most people I have ever seen at Vadnais. Perhaps the economic situation has caused more people to fish closer to home rather than making the trek to the northern lakes.

The sun made a brief appearance while I was next to the lake so I stopped and got a picture of what looks for all the world like a sand beach on the far side of the lake, something that despite my numerous rides to Lake Vadnais, I have never noticed before.This morning's highlight was, of course, the beginning of the Giro d'Italia. I discovered a website that is streaming the race live. It was a joy to be watching professional bicycle racing again.

It was a really interesting webstream in that it came on the air about an hour before the race actually began. I watched Lance Armstrong signing autographs at the team bus, an interview with Viatcheslav Ekimov, the former oldest rider in the peloton, conducted in English, another interview which I understood very little of other than Milano-San Remo, conducted in French, and introductions of all of the teams and riders, obviously in Italian. And then I watched the stage which today was the seldom contested team time trial. The video is from RAI, Italian television, but the commentator is American. No Phil, no Paul, no Bobke, but also no Craig Hummer. The race is on.

Another OOTNDITHOD

It was another one of the nicest days in the history of days. I spent most of it inside reviewing documents related to the New London dam. That's not good.

But I did get to ride. The wind was straight out of the west. When the wind is directly from one of the cardinal directions it often seems as though you have cross winds that do not seem to help leaving a rider feeling as though there was a head wind in 3 of the 4 directions. This late afternoon I instead felt strong in 3 of the 4 directions, so it was a nice ride.

After I got home I was skulking around in the back yard with my camera. I got a picture of Miller's Woods.Coming soon to a deck at the center of Miller's Woods, TOPWLH.

Sky ride

Today's ride was a sky ride. Which is to say that the entire ride was ridden with about one and a half eyes turned constantly to the sky.

I watched the weather radar all day. At about 3 o'clock I determined that the big rain cell developing out to the west was moving at a rate that meant it might not arrive here until 7PM or so. This meant that I absolutely had to, and I did, make a break from work at the earliest possible moment. And then ride with an eye on the sky for newly developing systems. And stay close enough to home to be able to make it under cover without too much time in the rain if and when it did begin.

There is road construction on Como which has limited traffic to one relatively narrow lane in each direction. I tried riding it on Monday. An unexpectedly courteous bus driver followed me without trying to pass for more than half a mile. In return I felt the need to ride as fast as I could to not hold him up any longer than necessary. Riding as fast as I can is always exhilarating for a while but ultimately it is too hard. I was not keen on repeating that experience.

Then on the way back inconsiderate assholes in cars kept refusing to delay themselves for 10 or 15 seconds by staying back and not violating MY rights on the road when they could without danger to themselves pass me at high speed within a foot or so of my handlebars. It's OK, I understand, I don't even feel that much resentment other than to identify them on this blog for what I think they are, assholes.

I digress.

Because of the construction I wanted off Como. I detoured through the Fairgrounds. I was watching the sky and shortly after entering the Fairgrounds I passed one of the termini of the Skyride. It seemed like a photo opportunity meant to be. The problem was that the picture would have to be taken directly into the sun and it is problematic getting a decent exposure in that condition. So I went looking for the other two ends of the line. The first one I came to had no sign at all. The second one had trees growing in front of the sign.But at least they are nice enough trees, displaying the signs of spring that is also enough of a reason to make it into a picture. So there you go, a "sky ride" as illustrated by the "Skyride".

I made it home without getting wet. I didn't quite get the miles I wanted but I got the miles I needed. I took this picture from the end of my driveway after putting my bicycle away. Does anyone disagree with my decision to go inside at this point?As it eventually worked out, I probably could have done another mile or two (at about 12 mph which is for me a fairly good average at this time of the year, especially considering the strong wind) I can expect about 5 minutes per mile, so every additional 2 miles is 10 minutes. It didn't rain within 10 minutes but it was sprinkling within 20 minutes. I maybe could have ridden 2 more, 4 more would not have been a good idea. I think I stopped just in time.

The number for today is 400. I passed 400 miles for the year on this bicycle. I have 400+ miles on each of the two bicycles I have ridden this year. On my next ride the LOOK will assume first place, a position it is almost certain to hold until the end of the season.

Shorts

It was warm enough today to ride in shorts, only the second or third time. The wind was from the southwest and in those conditions I often ride over to the University main campus. Here is our new football stadium.According to the local news media we are all very proud of this new building. It looks much like the one they tore down 20 years ago when local business interests decreed that the University football team should move off campus to the at that time new downtown Dome. Business interests now think the team should move back to campus.

Personally, I think the money could be better spent on other University needs but I do approve of University athletic teams playing their home games on campus. The players are, after all, students.

500th post

It turns out that Wireless was right, this whole biking thing IS totally bloggable.

And sometimes it can be shared.

Her stated ride parameters were always 60s and sunny and today those conditions rolled around. We got her bike down, pumped the tires, and TOPWLH set out on her first ride of the year. For the second of three bikes that I have prepared for the season this one came out of the rafters with a dead battery in the computer. Undaunted, she agreed to ride without one today. Without the odometer to distract her she rode 19+ miles, a noteworthy, even admirable effort on the first time out for the season.That's Island Lake. We ride past it all the time but I do not recall ever previously stopping for a photo, Babe for scale. As is evident in the photo, she rides a Bianchi.

On the way out there I saw this out of the corner of my eye causing us to circle around and go back for a photo. This is something you just don't see every day, a tennis court without any lines.I am sure that the explanation is that step 1 of re-surfacing is complete and that they will be coming around in the next few days to put the lines back on. Family history includes a chapter centered around painting lines on a tennis court, I leave that telling to one of the senior members of the clan. For some reason they always seem to have a more mature recollection of these events than I do.

This morning I saw the neighbor's cardinal in our back yard. I say the neighbor's cardinal because they are the ones who provide habitat and feed. The pair of birds do visit our yard with some regularity.I discovered that when my camera is set to AUTO that the digital zoom still works. This is a surprise, the flash has stopped working and the other functions seem to be disappearing one by one. The manual zoom still works but I thought the digital was gone. I was shooting on the P setting because . . . Well, I forget why I was shooting on the P setting but when you move it back to AUTO you get the digital zoom back.

Just a little tidbit of mostly useless trivia.