We're still coming.

On days when I am uncertain about wind conditions it has become my custom to do a loop around a block right here in the neighborhood before I commit to a route for the day's ride. It is a SUBurban block which means that it is pretty much square unlike those urban blocks which are always, at least in this metropolitan area, twice as long as they are wide. The square block gives me an opportunity to assess the wind and its effect on bicycling into each of the four main compass points. Of late this loop has acquired a second extremely useful function, it allows me to evaluate my costume.

The local weather channel that I watch the most on TV (as opposed to on the internet) is 11.2. This is 11.2 business is new to me, something I was first exposed to in August in Michigan. I think I have this right but maybe not but I think Terry is on 8.2 the WOOD all weather all the time deal. Or maybe it is not Terry and it is that other network affiliate, maybe 13.2? But anyway, KARE 11.2 is the same thing except, of course, it is here, not Michigan, but it is all weather all the time. My cable provider presents it on a channel somewhere in the 240s but it is KARE 11.2.

I noticed today for the first time that they have begun including Wind Chill as a standard fixture on the display that they run when the weather guy is talking in the background. Today the wind chill was in the 40s despite an ambient air temperature in the mid-50s.

To make a long story short (I know, way too late for that) I took a loop to check wind conditions and ended up stopping back at home with slightly less than two miles ridden to modify my costume.

I took the loop again with the new costume and as a result ended up reaching five miles and the mandatory drink of water at the corner of Roselawn and Fairview, obviously well before I had even left the neighborhood.

During my ride yesterday I rode through the re-paving project currently ongoing on Roselawn between Hamline and Lexington. I had a quite surprising experience when I and my bicycle actually SANK into the new asphalt. I am fairly sure this has never happened to me even in my car but I know for sure it has never happened on my bicycle. Apparently the new asphalt is quite insubstantial in those first moments and I must have been within a minute or two of the paving machine. I was mortified. My first thought, as always, was the LOOK. I immediately stopped and found a stick and started to scrub the residue off my tires, fearful that if I left it on the tires that when it did dislodge it would then stick to the frame. Only as I neared completion of my tire cleaning did it occur to me that something extraordinary had just occurred and that even in poor light conditions this was a spectacular photo opportunity, bicycle tire tracks 3 or 4 inches deep into asphalt. Alas, I had spent too much time on tire cleaning, when I returned to the paving that big heavy rolling flattening thing had already made a pass and the evidence of me and my bicycle had been obliterated (or squashed out of existence if you will).

So today I rode past another paving project task previously never seen by me and got a block away before I realized I was on the verge of doing it again. It was a grey, grey day, so grey that I almost didn't bother taking my camera along. Photo opportunities were going to be few and far between. I turned back.

I got two pictures of these guys working. They are using a gas torch to free the manhole covers from the effects of the recent paving project. There are two guys there but the one nearest the camera noticed my camera as I was taking the first picture. He seemed disinterested in being photographed and turned his back. The first picture is therefore a better display of the roles of the workers in what is going on. I used this one anyway partly to honor that guy's apparent disinterest in being photographed but mostly because in this shot you can see

FIRE!!!

It was an ugly day and I again felt fear about getting too far from home. But today I was a bit braver than yesterday and decided to go ahead and get farther from home. I ended riding what is a more or less standard early and late season route, the Shoreview water tower loop. It was a nice enough ride but it was an ugly day and no further photo opportunities presented themselves.

It was an ugly day and as I neared home I began to feel the occasional bit of something liquid hitting me in the face. It wasn't so much rain drops as an occasional bit of mist and for a change I didn't immediately panic. I did cut off any additional loops and steered resolutely towards home. I never felt anything like rain but as I neared home I did find myself riding on streets dappled with moisture from the light rain which again, somehow, didn't fall on me.

So today was my 160th ride of the year. The goal at the start of the season is 160 rides at 25 miles per ride to get to 4,000 miles for the year. The 4,000 thing has already passed but 160 rides still seems significant, another bit of business accomplished. The 160th ride thing caused me to consult the log and I discovered that 2009 has already surpassed mileage ridden last year and also in 2006. Further 2007 seems within easy reach. This could put 2009 as the most miles ridden in the past four years and the most ridden in any year except those years when I rode TRAM. In fact, even 2002, the first TRAM year seems vaguely within reach.

I must be retired or something.

After the ride I took my car and went to the grocery store. I noticed that car mileage is now 17,564. Current LOOK mileage is 17,532. We're coming, we're coming. One final weather note, it rained on my car both coming and going from the grocery and it is still raining now.