4,000

I had a baloney sandwich for lunch. My opinion is that a sandwich made of the big round bologna that they sell everywhere as sandwich meat is much inferior to a sandwich made with a main ingredient of actual ring baloney. I cut nine thin pieces off the remainder of the ring, gave them a 30 second nuking and arranged them on the provolone cheese that I had already positioned on the honey whole wheat bread. It was excellent, a fine, fine baloney sandwich. By the by, TOPWLH and I did some musing on the nature of baloney after last evening's meal. Our conclusion is that ring baloney is really just a really fat hot dog bent into a ring.

On my walk yesterday I learned two things. The first was that the pavement was dry. I had expected to find snow melt in many places on the road. This is always the pattern in snow melts in the seasons when we usually get snow. But in early October the ground is not frozen. The temperature was only a few degrees above the melting point which meant that we had a relatively slow melt. All of the moisture seems to have soaked into the lawns instead of running out into the street. With this information I was encouraged to ride. The other thing I learned is that at this temperature my chin does get cold.

It was 42 and extremely grey when I left the house for a two hour ride. I modified my costume by adding the wool mitten liners and by donning the balaclava. However, I did not pull the balaclava up over my face, just up to cover my chin. It was cold and grey but the costume adaptations worked out just fine. At that temperature I was not warm but I was plenty comfortable.

Shortly after beginning the ride I came across a woman in my peer age group out riding in my neighborhood. She was on a comfort bike making minimal headway, probably something in the 8-10mph range. As I passed (even I win that race) I offered a greeting and the observation that it is getting to be a bit nippy for this activity. She may have been slow but she knew the proper response for that. She said that it is all a matter of proper clothing. She is of course correct and furthermore she practiced what she preached with full head and neck coverage under her helmet.

It was so very grey that I almost did not bother to bring my camera. At the last minute I ducked back into the house and stuck the camera in my jacket's rear pocket (it is a bicycling jacket and therefore has pockets on the back as a bicycling jersey would). I decided that if the sun ever actually made an appearance that I would stop instantly and take a photo of whatever it was that was in front of me at that moment.

The sun made one brief appearance. I was at the top of the hill on Como at Pascal. I have often thought that sometime or another I should get a shot of the Minneapolis skyline from that vantage point. Here it is.The sky is grey but clearly visible on the street in the foreground are shadows. The sun was out. It didn't stay out for long and after disappearing behind the heavy cloud cover it never reappeared.

Rides on days like today always seem especially rewarding. There are so few other people out at all, and so very, very few bicyclists out that, at least for me, it feels like I am getting more than my fair share of what is still a very reasonably nice day. I had a nice ride.

Towards the end I rode through two episodes of light rain sprinkles. Neither time was I more than about 3 miles from home but both times I panicked and started hammering for home. Both times I quickly rode out from under the very localized moisture, regained my composure and continued to ride. I never got wet and I never rode on any wet pavement. I had a nice ride.

My mileage total for this year at the end of the ride is 4,000. I expected to reach my annual goal on a cold November day and that is what ended up happening. I just didn't expect the cold November day to be October 14. To date this year I have 406 miles on the Axis, 318 miles on my blue Michigan Specialized and 3,276 miles on the LOOK. More usual weather conditions will probably return at some point and I expect that I will get the opportunity to ride enough more times to push my total mileage enough above 4,000 to eliminate any margin of measurement or statistical error. I may be wrong about that, however, as snow is again in the local weather forecast.

Here's a food related note. I purchased some Holland, Michigan, blueberries at the local Cub food store.Those familiar with the price of blueberries in August at the Bowerman's stand on James will probably be stunned to learn that I paid $4 for this piddling amount of berries.