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.