It's not the White House but . . .

I did not participate in the employer offered "retirement classes" prior to quitting my job. I always rationalized to myself that once retired I would have plenty of time to figure all that stuff out.

Well, it turns out that probably those "classes" would have been helpful but on the other hand I have plenty of time and I am finally arriving at the point where I have just about every detail figured out. I had a productive day today and solved three of the remaining mysteries. I am down to really only about one tiny thing to get fixed and then I will be done.

And I will be retired.

The wind is still from the south. I am running out of new and interesting things to explore over in that direction but I hasten to add that I am not complaining. A persistent south wind brings the late summer like temperatures that have made the first part of this month extremely pleasant. When the wind shifts back to the prevailing northwest we will start to see the arrival here of the cold air masses that are always massing off the northwest. This condition is so common that the wind that accompanies the arrival of those cold air masses even has a name, Alberta Clipper. When the wind finally blows from the northwest we will begin to have winter. So south wind is good.

Today's ride was different in that I, as is common on Fridays, had a Guest Rider. She complained a tiny bit about the lack of lakes but I think we both enjoyed the ride. She showed some interest in the University of Minnesota president's residence when it appeared here the other day. She even claims to have been to an occasion held by the current president before he was president and when he was still living in the western suburbs.

With this as background we paused for a photo in front of the Hamline University president's residence, across from the Governor's Mansion in Saint Paul (she is employed by Hamline).As far as I know it doesn't have a "name" and it doesn't appear to be an important enough building historically to be able to summon any information about it with a Google search. So, there is is, HU Prexy's Residence with GRider for scale.

The wind was strong from the east and from the south and we ended up riding almost 17 miles to set up our reward but the reward finally came, a seven mile run from the Capitol down Como Avenue heading pretty much northwest towards home. I cannot speak for GRider, but I felt strong, I felt fast (I'll bet she did too).

I have been having a bit of an issue of late getting my pedal cleat covers off and on. Today it finally became irritating enough that I remembered to investigate after the ride. I was missing a cleat screw. The missing screw was either a result of or the cause of a sheared off plastic nub that holds the two parts of the cleat in alignment. The out of alignment part was making it difficult to get the cleat cover on and off.

The last time I replaced cleats I was having an issue with a click as I pedaled. One possible source of the click was a flattening of the wires in the cleat so I replaced the cleats hoping that the click would go away. Nope. Eventually Scott from County Cycles, my favorite bicycle mechanic from my favorite bicycle shop, suggested that the pedals themselves might be loose. Bingo.

But I had replaced cleats that were not completely worn out. Being the save stuff kind of guy that I am I saved those cleats. And the screws.

So today I had used parts to replace the non-working part of the cleat and also spare screws to complete the repair. The new screw is the one with a black head, the others are shiny from being rubbed on the pavement when I put my foot down when I am stopped.I am bicycle repairman, hear me roar.