Monday, August 31, 2009

Someone else's milestone, part deux

I finished up the month with a two hour bicycle ride. This allowed me to achieve a milestone of sorts by having more miles ridden on my bicycle in Minnesota for the month of August than miles ridden on my bicycle in Michigan for that same period. By two miles. OK, even I concede that that isn't much of a milestone. I note that for this year I am 26 miles behind the total that I had by the end of August 2008. This is OK, as I am still plenty ahead of where I need to be to be able to expect to reach my year end goal and further last September I had an all time low for September in the midst of if I recall correctly, the rainiest September on record for this reporting station. I hope this means that September 2009 will be a month with plenty enough miles to move my 2009 total back ahead of 2008.

My milestone is pretty puny today however when compared to this.Here is a semi-official announcement from the USTA Northern Section website. A trip to the national tournament is way cool, official blog-u-lations to TT. I suspect by now he has obtained a better photo but this is the only one I could get off the USTA Northern Section website so this is the one I have to use.

Of course, there is still plenty to aspire to. The record compiled by Dodo Cheney and her many national championships is still out there, Dodo has set the bar pretty high. The linked article is dated 2004 and credits Mrs. Cheney with 347 championships, I found another link from July 2009 which credits her with 382.

This evening in France: Brest 1:2 Nantes. Nantes gets their first road victory of the season and moves into third place, tied on points but ahead in goal differential. I thought Brest was off side on their goal, a view supported by the replay.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Someone else's milestone

August.

Yesterday was cold, not really too cold, but cold. It was sunny and bright and pretty but it was cold. The high temperature for the day reached about 65 but the real source of the cold was a 15 mph wind gusting to 25 mph. I hate to lose a bicycling day in August and I really hate to lose a bicycling day at the end of the month but in the end yesterday I just couldn't get myself out the door.

Today was cold, not really too cold, but cold. It was past noon and the available hours for bicycling were rapidly departing with a temperature that had just barely crawled above 60. But there was only a light breeze so we went for a ride.

I don't keep extensive records for TOPWLH but I do have some rough totals of miles she has ridden. By my rough totals she today exceeded 500 miles for the year. Anyone who thinks 500 miles is not a lot of miles should try to ride 500 miles in a year before making that comment. I think it is probably her second highest total in a year following behind only the year when she rode across Minnesota.

By the time we finished it was actually starting to feel pretty pleasant. But this photo illustrates the steps we had to take to even attempt a dog days of August bicycle ride: long sleeved jersey and no longer worn but tied around her waist a full sleeved jacket.Corn for scale.

Closed circuit to Renee and everyone at Renee's: Thanks to everyone, especially Renee. It was great for me to see everyone again. Most of all, we had fun.

Somebody please make sure Heather sees this.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Fireworks

It just seems to not register on me until that first explosion every year. The State Fair has a fireworks display every night at the conclusion of the Grandstand show. They have been doing this for as long as we have lived here in Roseville in the shadow the Fairgrounds. But still, it just doesn't seem to have made a permanent impression.

So there I was, early to bed so that I can be early to rise, peacefully on the edge of sleep, not asleep, not fully awake, when KA0BOOM. Fireworks. It just shouldn't be a surprise after all this time but they surprised me again last night.

*sigh*

With a strong northwest wind this afternoon I tried to get more west than I usually do into a north wind. I visited several municipalities seldom visited. I rode through parts of Arden Hills, New Brighton, I think Saint Anthony and definitely a big chunk of Nordeast Minneapolis.

I got as far as the corner of 29th Avenue, Arthur Street NE and Saint Anthony Boulevard. Here is a picture of the house on the corner where those three streets meet.That house is pretty typical of the houses in that neighborhood, a smallish but solid stucco with considerable care paid to the yard plantings. Nice house, nice neighborhood.

Here's another house I rode by in a neighborhood which is actually extreme northwest Roseville.This corner of Roseville is on the far side of Highway 8 which means that I had to ride through New Brighton to get there. It is possible that some readers may recognize the house but then again they may not.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

First day of the Fair

I did ride yesterday and for I think the second time ever on a day when I rode I did not post. It was way overcast which meant that I never really had good lighting conditions for a photo and it was way overcast threatening rain which meant that I stayed pretty close to home meaning I didn't ride anywhere new and interesting AND it was way overcast and I found I didn't have much of anything to add to whatever content already existed on the internet.

Today, however, new day, new deal.

I got out for a late morning ride, hitting this spot at about 10:45am. This is the view north along Snelling from approximately Garden.From Garden it is still a half mile until the first opportunity to turn into the Fairgrounds. The traffic is at a crawl, mostly at a dead stop, both lanes full all the way back past Roselawn to at least the HarMar light. That means both lanes backed up full for a mile or more.

The interesting thing to me is that if you asked the people in the cars they would respond nearly unanimously that they left early to get to the Fair before the crowds. As a point of information, the Fairgrounds are open from 6am daily with nearly ever building and exposition available by 9am. It would be my position that arriving at 11am is not exactly leaving early.

I went the other direction.

I turn around at Lake Vadnais a lot. It is the right distance away from home to make the ride distance that I want and it is always pretty. The route varies at least a bit each time I do it, but the truth is that I turn around at Lake Vadnais a lot.

Whose woods these are I think I know.I have passed that sign many, many times and may even have posted it before. Today seemed like a good time to post it again. Vadnais is really pretty and one of the main reasons it is so pretty is that the lake is surrounded by a nearly 100 year old stand of mostly red pine. All hail John H. Allison.

But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

These are, of course, lines from Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. They seemed somehow appropriate today when I rode down to the lake. Vadnais was really pretty again today but today the lake lived up to the reputation of the dog days of August. Today the lake ambience was dominated by the late summer algae bloom. The lake smelled bad. Summer's almost gone, soon we will be watching

. . . the woods fill up with snow.

I wasn't going to photograph the lake to punish it for smelling so bad but on weekdays the wildlife is considerably less spooked than it is on weekends. The egret refused to acknowledge my presence and instead posed for a photo down in the corner of the lake.Last night I went out into the field next to my house and watched as three separate little kids football teams practiced and two of the three held a brief scrimmage against each other. Long ago I myself, with the assistance of most importantly Nagel, but also the Mayor, Yanker, Mr. Wold, and my brother Jim, coached little kids football. I used to say that my favorite opponent was any team coached by a father. Give Nagel and I a team coached by a father for an opponent and we were pretty uniformly successful. The father coaches usually only see their own son, they don't see the football TEAM and the way that the TEAM is playing. I watched practice last night, and Nagel, if you're listening, we could do it again. One team was lined up in a double wing T running plays against a 4-4. The only thing any of the three fathers standing behind the offensive team as coaches ever, EVER commented on after any of the plays was the play of the backs. Meanwhile no effort was made on any of the plays to create a scheme by which an advantage would be gained on the LINE, no effort was made to exploit any advantage they may have had up front. All any of the fathers could see was whether or not the back went wide enough on the attempted sweep. Further more, for crying out loud, they had their biggest kids lined up at GUARD.

Here's what I would do, sorry if this seems like Finnish. I would go to an unbalanced line, two backs behind the QB with a strong side wingback. I would double team the defensive tackle on the strong side with my strong side tackle (who by the way would be MY biggest kid), and the strong side end, quarterback turn and hand off to the weak side halfback, have the wingback kick out the widest defender (might be an end, might be a linebacker, might be a cornerback depending on how the defense is lined up) and have the strong side halfback and the quarterback lead into the hole looking for the player assigned by the defense the other team is playing to defend that gap, most likely a linebacker but maybe an end. That gives us five blockers for the three defensive players we are likely to encounter and if we get those three people blocked we put our halfback, presumably one of our two best athletes, into a one on one with the defensive safety, almost never one of the other team's best athletes. As a coaching decision I am willing to accept that the success or failure of our team's offense will hinge on the outcome of encounters between these two athletes. I expect that our team will win those encounters often enough to make our offense a success. Then if we can just stop the other team with some regularity we will win the games most of the time.

What I propose is what is known in the game as running off tackle. When Nagel and I coached we didn't have lots of fancy plays but I guarantee that if we had the personnel to be able to do anything at all the thing that we could do was run off tackle to our strong side. We always tried to have a strong side. I believe it was stated by Woodrow Hayes or maybe it was Paul Bryant but in either case the statement is enthusiastically endorsed by both Nagel and myself: If you don't have a strong side you probably don't have a side. We always endeavored to have a strong side.

A team that can run off tackle is a team that is usually very difficult to beat. I know, Nagel knows, we have been there, done that. It looks like it would be easy to do again. Apparently some things never change.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Something completely different

And I don't mean this, more on that later.

It rained overnight, today started off cold and wet. But August eventually prevailed and it was dry by about noon and plenty warm enough shortly thereafter on its way to 80 something small.

I rode out towards the north and passed the library construction. I cannot tell for sure but it looks to me like there has not been much actual construction yet, that it has been mostly DE-construction. However, pieces of the new library have arrived in the parking lot and it certainly looks like the project will soon begin to move forward.At Lake Vadnais I saw something completely and totally different, something never before seen by me on that lake. There was a boat out on the lake.It seemed pretty scandalous at first but it turned out to be a water utilities worker out to service the aeration system. Not a single one of the dozen or so fisherpersons in attendance so much as batted an eye.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Déjà vu all over again

Today's wind conditions were very much like yesterday's and I ended up with a ride for which the route very much resembled the route of yesterday's ride. However, with no infusion of either sausage or mustard there was a change in the quality of my legs, today I completely lacked the bouncy quality that I experienced yesterday.

*sigh* Once again I am returned to the status of mere mortal. It wasn't actually too bad, I felt okay, I just felt considerably less strong than yesterday.

On my way out of the garage I noticed my tax dollars at work as a school district employee mowed the athletic fields next to my house.This appealed to me as a photograph for the fairly obvious reason that it is no longer possible to get a "tax dollars at work" photo with me in it.

I ended up at Minnehaha Park again. I was surprised to find that there were still quite a few people there. The crowd on Monday compared to on Sunday was greatly reduced but there were still several groups of people around the Falls.

Still, with the reduced congestion I felt safe enough to soft pedal my bicycle into an area where I would never consider riding with the always dangerous pedestrians around. I very slowly and gingerly pedalled down to the geology marker at the corner of the twin gorges and got this shot back towards the Falls.On the ride back along the River on the Minneapolis side I came upon some paving activity. It isn't the hottest day of the year but it was warmer today than it has been of late so today was a good choice for laying down some asphalt. A crew was paving the furthest south parking area, no paving yet on the path but there were various pieces of equipment working on the path making it clear that path pavement is soon to come.

There were ominous looking signs up yesterday that stated that Como would be CLOSED on August 24 at 9am. This interested me and as I started out on today's ride I intended to see what was up over there. Well, it may well have been closed at 9am but by 10:30 when I rode through there was no sign of any obstruction. I suspect that the placement of this pedestrian bridge may have occurred at 9am and that that may have been the cause of the closure.That's another sign that the Fair begins on Thursday. That's the "Space Needle" and the building formerly known as the Hippodrome for perspective.

More news on English to Finnish translation tools on the internet. Google seems to have gotten up to speed since I was there the other day and provides this translation of "I love my thumb levers":

Rakastan peukalo keinoja.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Fair approaches

I had good legs today without any infusion of sausage. I reached the standard ride length in under two hours and therefore had to extend the ride for two more miles to reach the desired ride time. This means that I felt strong, I felt fast.

The State Fair begins this week. With a south wind blowing I headed over that way with the idea in mind that I will soon have to start avoiding that route. I cannot ride there when the crowds arrive so today was one of my last chances to ride there. Preparations are already well under way which means that the Fairgrounds are closed to the public. Here is a view of one of the most popular approaches to the Fair, the front gate as it looks today, clearly not open.One of last week's rides in Michigan passed by the Cardinal flowers in the ditch. It reminded me that last year after returning home I discovered Cardinal flowers in a couple of the catch basins near Como Park in Saint Paul. Here is the catch basin at Frankson and Albert.I now recognize the red flowers but I still have no idea what to call those light purplish colored deals. Or the yellow ones. Or the grass.

The turn around point for today's southern route was once again Minnehaha Falls. There has been a fair amount of rain of late and the Falls look fully replenished.This is quite a bit more water over the Falls then the previous two times I have been there, the fairly recent and fairly wet August 2 when we were accosted by foreigners, and the pretty darn dry June 22.

The ride back again featured a stretch on the Minneapolis side. Path reconstruction continues although at what is certainly not a breakneck pace. The concrete work has been done on places where concrete curbs have had to be reconstructed, mostly parking lot entrances crossing the path. Grading seems complete for the laying of asphalt but no asphalt has been put down yet. I suspect the city is waiting for the hottest day of the year in order to require nearby residents to smell tar all day. For those who don't get that reference, don't worry, it is pretty inside, you had to be there.

Closed circuit to Wireless: Go ahead and open that Google translator and type in "I love my thumb levers" and then let me know what you think of the translation.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

3,010

Another mileage milestone was achieved today as I rode through the 3,000 mile mark for this calendar year. I remain ahead of schedule for the year end goal.

TOPWLH and I rode out to Lake Vadnais. As usual, Vadnais was gorgeous. I got a photo of MySU in our usual break spot, the parking lot between the two lake halves.Formerly known as Bianchi Babe, MySU rides a Bianchi with Campagnolo components. I did a pretty extensive search of the internet this morning and finally found an English to Finnish translator. It was necessary to do so because as is illustrated by this photo:TOPWLH also loves her thumb levers. I needed to find a Finnish translation for I love my thumb levers.

"I-KIRJAIN lempiä minun peukalo vipu."

We stopped to take a look at the corn.The height of the stalks hasn't changed much, the only thing still growing is the size of the ears. The model demonstrates that the ears on these particular plants are coming along nicely.

I ate one of the Beacons this morning and TOPWLH ate the other this afternoon. We are able to report that Beacon is an excellent apple, slightly tart without being acidic, firm without being too hard. Our verdict is that Beacon is an excellent eating apple with TOPWLH adding the possibility of pie.

Friday, August 21, 2009

I love my thumb levers

I have a really nice bicycle in Michigan. On every trip there I am always a little bit surprised by what a nice bicycle it really is. It serves me extremely well. There is just the one thing about it that in a perfect world I would change. I request forbearance from any bicycle geeks in attendance but on the other hand I know that they will understand when I say that my Michigan bicycle has components manufactured by a manufacturer of fishing equipment. The bicycle that I love the most, the one that I ride when I ride from my garage at home has components manufactured by Campagnolo. Any others in attendance who, like me, love our thumb levers know just exactly what it is that I mean. I love my thumb levers.This photo is another foray by moi into the world of on the bicycle one handed digital photography. It is worth noting, however, that the speedometer function of my bicycle computer is visible and I clearly wasn't going very fast.

It rained quite a bit yesterday and continued overnight. It was dry enough this afternoon but not really warm enough for August. I just pretended that it was September. I put on my jacket and went for a ride. This is the prettiest lake I saw.Compared to other photos posted recently which feature a lake this one is pretty lame. I mean, you can see the opposite shore. What's the deal on that?

We miss you Lake Michigan.

What do you think of this?I arrived home from my ride to discover that TOPWLH had been on an inspection tour of the back yard. Those are apples off our apple tree. They are not big apples but the truth is the tree is a Minnesota variety (Beacon) which doesn't produce those big Washington state sort of apples. Those are actually pretty nice Beacons (retirement jewelry for scale). TOPWLH reports that there are probably at least a dozen more still on the tree and that there were also several on the ground. All previous comments about never getting any fruit from the apple tree are hereby revoked.

This evening in France: Nantes 5, Istres 0.

This whole watching the game on steaming video is a much, much more rewarding experience than trying to keep up with the team from text updates (in French) on the team website. The net stream picture quality is obviously not network HD quality but I can actually SEE the game.

Today's game result is HUGE for the team. The team website headline is that the team affirms its ambitions. Midfielder Djamel Abdoun looked this evening like the Ligue 2 equivalent of current FIFA world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo. The first half ended with Nantes leading 1-0. Abdoun scored the second goal with a play that greatly resembled many of the goals produced last year for Manchester United by Ronaldo. On a free kick from about 30 yards, Abdoun curled the ball around the wall and inside the far post to completely defeat the Istres keeper, a wonderful goal. Then on the third goal he again channeled Ronaldo with a series of high speed step over moves which freed him to cross the ball into the box where both of his strikers had arrived with only one defender to mark the two of them. The defender was in position to do what he could but he wasn't able to prevent an easy header from 5 yards out by Ténéma N'Diaye to put the game completely out of reach. FC Nantes advances to fourth in the table, on the outskirts of the top three promotion zone.

It is obviously very, very early in the season but Nantes is again raising the hopes of its fans for a return to the top league in France.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Probably no sunset pictures for a while

Here's where we were when the tornado touched down in Minneapolis.The airplane wouldn't leave Grand Rapids while all of the heavy weather was resolving itself in Minnesota. But eventually the weather in Minnesota calmed and we were released from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.

We are home.

I checked in with my former employer today. I was hoping to post a photo of both of the watches but the report is that the missing watch is still dedicated to Mrs. Smith and is therefore still not available. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Bad influence

On her last full day on the mountain MySU continues to prove herself to be a bad influence on all of the young people she comes into contact with. Here she persists in convincing one of those youngsters that it is OK to HAVE FUN!There was early morning rain yesterday and we went to the mall. MySU counted 32 closed stores in the mall. There were more stores out of business than stores still trying to sell stuff. This meant that the mall had limited entertainment value so we headed to the giant Meijer's store nearby. Entertainment was slightly better there. I fired this one of the parking lot while we were pulling out.Other stores say they have lower prices. Sounds like they have baloney on special this week.

And on our last night our last sunset.This evening in France: Vannes 1, Nantes 1.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Tough edit

It was hot early today, then hot and sultry, then windy threatening, then some rain, then clearing and windy, I guess in sum it was a day in need of an editor. It ended with a deserted beach and finally with the sun and clouds putting on a show.I started out with about 25 pictures (it is only memory) and gradually whittled them down to only about 5 to keep but even at the end I couldn't quite get it down to only one to post.Even now as I prepare to post the light on the horizon where the sun set now about 30 minutes ago continues to interact with the clouds to produce interesting perspectives. Tonight we watched the sun set.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Another tale of sausage

Early predictions are for a bad air day here. At first my reaction was that this is not even possible. There just aren't any cities here. But ozone apparently knows no city limits and actually, Chicago isn't THAT far away. Bad air later in the day calls for an early morning ride.

Here is a view of a rural Michigan roadway, Greenly looking west towards 168th in Park Township. The sun was behind me, the lake is out in that direction, there was still a little morning haze in the air, it just seemed pretty bucolic and pretty idyllic.The ride eventually led past the PSPS, an local landmark not previously photographed this year except for one I took a couple of days ago with my finger and the wrist strap over the lens. I tried harder this time and got a better image.There were pigs. Those who have been following along will have no difficulty identifying which of the sausage delicacies was being consumed by the local and which was going down the gullet of the outlander.Back on the mountain we discovered that Sailing 101 appears to have broken out on the big lake. Local knowledge informs that this event usually takes place on the inland lake but on Saturdays when there is only light wind on the big lake they come on out and play in the big arena.I watched for awhile and there was at least one kid who wasn't getting it at all. He could sail in the downwind direction but when all of the others turned around and started for home he pretty much stayed where he was. One of the power boats appeared along side, probably to shout sailing instructions. I assume eventually he will get home, either after learning at least a little sailing or after being taken under tow.

The day lived up to advance notice, eventually topping out at too warm and too sultry. I recycled, but kept the mileage low and in the shade as much as possible.

After dinner at Tres Lobos MySU and I walked all the way down to the State Park.There is still what looks like a pretty substantial crowd at the State Park beach in this photo but it is a mere shadow of the throngs that were there earlier in the day. Someone cue the Doors, Summer's Almost Gone.

Friday, August 14, 2009

A live stream

Today's ride took us towards the head of the inland lake, up near the point where it is still a river. We rode around Windmill Island and on the way out I got this shot of what I take to be a great blue heron.I also attempted another on the bicycle one handed digital photo. I am starting to get the technique perfected and am now prepared to offer a few tips. First, when withdrawing the camera from your pocket, do so by slipping your hand through the loop of the wrist strap. This avoids the catastrophic camera drop that I nearly experienced yesterday.

OK, on with the show. The middle rider in the peloton complained about the last picture. Apparently she felt that the angle caused some sort of distortion, that the image somehow did not accurately reflect the size of . . . well, she said there was some distortion.

I tried again, this time from closer.I just don't know what distortion she might have been complaining about.

Later on we were riding a loop near the barn when she caught me unawares, sprinting by before I realized that it was a race and nabbing some spotty jersey points. Well, I have now been subjected to the same bitter medicine which I previously projected onto Voeckler. It is bitter, it is bitter. Her excuse was she had to do it, that she had previously been the only one who was pointless.

Pointless, hmmm. Where shall I go with this? Hmmmm. I guess I will leave it alone. We rode on and forewarned I was able to hold her at bay in the final climb of the day with double points on the line. I continue to build my lead in the competition.

This evening in France: Nantes 3, Clermont 2 in the first home game of the year for Nantes.

An amazing thing has occurred. Being retired meant that I had some extra time to search around on the internet and I discovered a website that was live streaming the game. This is my third season as a full time fan of this team and today for the first time I saw, actually saw them play live. When Klasnic headed in the ball for the go ahead goal I was able to throw my arms in the air in just the same way as those in attendance in Nantes. Allez Nantes. I am fulfilled, I am jaune et vert.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sausage theory

Unnoticed by me at first is the interesting factoid that yesterday was a two sausage day. There was, of course, the morning pig with mustardo (ummmm, good) but there was also bratwurst and kraut for evening meal. The last time I had lots of tube steak was the 4th of July free hot dogs at Canterbury event. Those following along may recall that for the two or three days after that event I had really strong legs. Today promised to be an interesting experiment to determine if sausage history would repeat itself.

There was a morning shake down cruise. I made another attempt at on the bicycle one handed digital photography, producing this shot of, well, one is not a peloton, but perhaps the breakaway.Blueberry bushes for scale.

I had a leftover bratwurst for lunch and sure enough, started the afternoon feeling like a little recycling. I headed out into the woods where there was plenty of shade and rode there for most of an hour. As I returned to the dune I came across this, one of the two giant dunes.Sunset Bluff is a difficult climb, a two stager, relatively easy on the bottom climb of the foredune but then more steeply up and around a corner to the top. I hadn't been up this year but this afternoon I went right up.

Feeling my sausages I headed down the road towards the other giant dune.Spyglass is also a two stage climb but this time the difficult part is the foredune, a steep and long around a corner climb. Once at the midway plateau it is possible to marshall your strength for the somewhat easier top section. Here is a photo from near the top.I made the two climbs so I guess the sausage theory has been substantiated.

Sausage rulz (especially with mustard).

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Two milestone day

It was a big day for bicycle milestones here in West Michigan. We rode up to Kirk Park, here is my blue bicycle at the edge of the beach.An examination of Santini's odometer at this point revealed a five digit number beginning with a "1". 10,000 miles is a lot of miles and having ridden that far on one bicycle is a major accomplishment. Of course, she does have two other bicycles with more than 9,000 miles each so maybe she isn't impressed, someone should ask her. I am impressed.

Later on, shortly after we passed the Port Sheldon Party Store MY bicycle odometer clicked over 2,000. Now compared to 10,000, 2,000 is, well, 2,000 is one-fifth as much. But this particular milestone still seems pretty cool to me in view of the fact that I DO live in Minnesota and this bicycle has never been outside of the state of Michigan. The relationship between me and this bicycle began six years ago when I rented it for 10 days of riding in Michigan. I liked the bicycle and when I return to the the shop at the end of the rental period they credited the rental towards the purchase price and also applied an end of season discount. Our hostess said I could store the bicycle in her basement when I wasn't in Michigan. This is my seventh Michigan vacation riding the blue Specialized and today I passed 2,000 miles.

We were riding along on the way back when I noticed this blue thing on my right.Naturally enough, I wondered what the deal is with that blue thing. Even so, it didn't seem an important enough concern to stop and get a photo. But I do carry a digital camera in my jersey pocket so I reached back and pulled it out. I have only attempted on the bike, one handed digital photography one other time but I decided to give it another effort.

I was still riding and started to think to myself, well, that actually went OK. So I tried it again. Here is the view from the lanterne rouge of today's peloton:And here we are crossing the Pigeon River:Those pictures actually came out pretty OK especially considering that after I got back I discovered that two of the three pictures I took while stopped were fatally flawed and had to be deleted. One had a finger on the lens, the other had that wrist strap deal in the image both top and bottom.

On the bike, one hand digital photography rulz.

Voeckler has dropped out of the race while in the lead in the spotty jersey competition. Today the new person in the peloton tried an early sprint out, claiming that she wanted to "get a run at the hill" when clearly she intended to steal the spotty points. I was alert and chased her down. She claimed a mechanical while actually on the hill, saying that she had "no gears". I nabbed the points and have reclaimed the lead in the competition.

This one was taken with more traditional photographic techniques (two hands).Tonight I intend to try to stay up and see if I can participate in this Perseid meteor shower business. SU stayed up last night and saw four. Last night was supposed to be the best but tonight is still supposed to be a good viewing opportunity.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Two windmill day

We lost another part of the village today, yet another one of the young ones has to report back to work. Pictured yesterday at sunset and again today in the morning light, Wireless with her biggest fans:It struck me that the deck gets photographed a lot around sunset. It seems a little under appreciated and definitely under photographed during the part of the day when everything is brand new, when the bright morning blues are the main colors. I love that distinct, clear horizon, evidence of clean air and high pressure.Without Voeckler here it became the task of my spousal unit to provide ride partnership. We didn't get out until after having been to the airport to see Voeckler safely through security. As a result it was mid-day, warm although not hot, but high, punishing sun and lots of wind. Naturally we went looking for a windmill. We found one in a park on the north side.Here's another one. These things are necessary to establish context, to firmly indicate just exactly where we are: We are in Holland.Tonight we set out for a walk at about an hour to sunset. The walk down towards the state park took us past the higher dunes. Here is an example of one of the higher stairways, a private stairway used by the homeowner up there on the top to access his beach front property. This stairway also features a partnered powered tram coming down as far as the lower landing.I featured this erosion structure a couple of days ago. Another look reveals that the lake is still winning, still taking sand as a lot more of the structure has emerged from the bank.Just a couple of yards further along is the spot where the most sand has been taken, a huge bite into the dune, MySU for scale.Somebody alert the geologists, I am about to wander into territory where I am completely unqualified. But here is a look at the layers in the newly eroded wall.I am not a geologist but even I can see the evidence of the dozens of events over several years which deposited sand. The accumulation has been reversed by a single season of slightly higher water and prevailing weather conditions which have made the lake take the sand away rather than deposit it.