Wednesday, September 30, 2009

First frost

Everyone who isn't a bicycle or at least a number geek can probably just go ahead and tune out now. It is the end of the month near the end of the season and the weather has just turned cold for the first time. What follows is going to be heavily dominated by discussions of proper layering for riding at these temperatures and bragging about how many miles already ridden.

I will wait, leave quietly, no one of those who are staying will think any the less of you.

OK, today was officially cold, not just whining about it cold, it was officially cold. The temperature in our yard shortly after sunrise was only 37. Here's what that looked like on my across the street neighbor's house.That's frost, folks. The picture was taken from inside my house through the front window. Obviously I could have gone out and gotten a photo of my own house illustrating the same effect, but why would I do that? It was cold outside.

Today was unlike yesterday in that yesterday's overcast has gone away. Today the sun was out and it was a really, really pretty fall day, cool, crisp, clear blue sky. With the sun out the temperature got to 53 right after lunch. Yesterday I averred that I could for sure ride at temperatures in the mid-50s and today I got my first chance to prove it. Out I went.

I spent some time agonizing over proper layering (Note to non-geeks still hanging around: You were warned!). It was 48 and overcast yesterday, I wondered today whether I needed all of that gear. Most significantly I wondered about the ear flap helmet liner, the heavier weight jacket, the windstopper vest and the full finger gloves. Eventually I jettisoned only the vest although I did take my regular gloves with me and also promised MySU that I might be back shortly if I quickly discovered that I had misjudged the costume.

It was sunny and very pretty, but NICE it wasn't. There was a COLD wind out of the east mostly, but also the south. My ride begins with a trip down the street where we live with me heading east, directly into that cold wind. I never ever even considered turning back. I needed all of the gear I had. But I was right yesterday, proper gear made today's conditions completely tolerable. Riding in the mid-50s is WAY reasonable, no problem at all.

On to the numbers, I had a LARGE September. It is the most miles I have ever ridden on the LOOK in September even though not an all time record. I used to spend September preparing for that age in miles ride on my birthday in October (something I no longer do) which meant that 6 and 7 Septembers ago, before I was riding the LOOK, I had more miles than I had this month. But this September is still significantly large. It was the most miles ever ridden in September on the LOOK by over 100 miles over second place. It was 268 miles more than September 2008. Further it marked the fifth straight month this year when I have ridden at least 600 miles. I have never had five straight 600 mile months before. September 2009 was LARGE.

In view of what happened yesterday in the comments section I thought it appropriate to post this video:

We're having some fun now, eh?

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Great coverup in full swing

In addition to this bicycle blog I maintain a bicycle log, a spreadsheet where I note all of my miles with notes about each ride. The notes often provide interesting items for comparison. That happened today.

It is cold here. The overnight low was about 40. On the bright side the wind had greatly diminished. I was determined to ride even though the morning was persistently overcast. I was waiting for 50, naively assuming that if it was 74 a couple of days ago that surely 50 was still on today's weather agenda. At 12:30 I headed out into the gloomy overcast, temperature 48.

I checked the log. On April 5 I noted "snow" and on April 7 I have "only 48 but sunny, cold". So the last time I rode when the temperature was as low as 48 was April 7. Bon anniversaire TOPWLH.

But I have the gear. Some time not too long after April 7 I organized my cold weather gear and stored it all in one spot. That made today's great coverup quite a bit easier than it has been when this particular turn of weather has occurred in other years. I intended to apply gear to cover up exposed flesh, here is a list of the new gear, starting at the bottom: Smartwool socks, full length tights, base layer, Windstopper vest, the heavier of my two bicycling jackets, full fingered gloves, the heavy duty helmet liner, the one that has flaps that cover my ears.

My impression? Much like April 7: cold, particularly on the way out into the north wind. But not intolerably cold, a little unpleasant but mostly OK. It was, as usual, pretty nice to be out there in conditions which nearly every other bicyclist had decided were intolerable. It is nice to have the streets to yourself. However, I was glad for every new piece of gear even if some of it is going to be replaced with more heavy duty versions before I try 48 again.

The harvest of the corn had begun. There was no one actually working in the field as I headed out but I wanted to be sure to document this if I could so I stopped and got a picture of the progress on the edge of the field.When I got home the overcast was not as pervasive. Blotches of blue were appearing and the sun was sometimes out. The harvest crew had arrived and the harvest was on at full bore. I took a couple of pictures which I wasn't very satisfied with and rode on home. I got changed out of my cycling gear, refueled, and headed back over there on foot. I wanted to be sure to get a good vantage point for a picture, something I was sure I could do on foot, but wasn't sure I could do with my bicycle in tow.

So here it is, the previously undocumented in this bicycle blog harvest stage of the cycle of corn life.When the machinery makes corners it is impossible to not knock some corn down. This corn isn't available for harvest by mechanical means. The geese will come and clean up the field but I beat then to the punch a bit by gleaning this ear off a downed stalk in the area where the corn was tallest and healthiest looking. This is what the whole deal is all about.By the time I walked back home (total walking distance about 1 mile counting walk over 3/8, some milling about in the field and walk back) the temperature had risen to 54 and the sun was mostly out.

Now, 54. I could really, really easily ride in 54. I am a little uncertain about this whole 48 thing though. Of course, it is still September, there is more to come.

A nice enough day for a ride.

Monday, September 28, 2009

A fan video

There won't be any bicycle ride here today. It is cold and tres windy.

This gives me even more time than usual to root around on the internet and today I found on the French language site PresseOcean.fr a fan video of the FC Nantes goal. Here it is:

As reported by PresseOcean:

"Huit secondes pour l'éternité

Deux passes, une frappe, une bévue et un but, le tout en 8 secondes. Et voilà Mareval entré dans la légende."

Eight seconds for eternity.
Two passes, one kick, one mistake and one goal, all in 8 seconds. And voila, Mareval goes down in history.

Here is a link to the more mainstream video taken from the television broadcast of the game. Incredible indeed.

AFTERNOON EDIT: What do you know about that? A copyright claim of all things. Well, personally I support free enterprise and if the person who took that video is trying to reap financial benefit from copyright and sale of rights to the video I support him (when and if you see the video you will agree that it is probably a "he", and quite possibly a fairly drunken "he" at that). TOPWLH and I have seen the video, it is way more fun than the TV view. I will continue to scour the net to try to make a view of this goal available here.

Since I am already making an edit, here is a bit more. There won't be any bicycle ride here today because of the big wind. Here is what we have in our yard so far, a medium size branch down off the cottonwood tree.We're having some fun now, eh?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

That was hard

It was pretty nice this morning so the Guest Rider and I set out just after 10am for a 3 hour tour (as is often the case, I recommend right click and open in new window to have the theme music play in the background while you continue to read on here). The wind was strong from the west. We took a couple of loops, first in the neighborhood, and then again at the Fairgrounds to determine whether the wind was more southwest or northwest and eventually agreed that it was southwest. That meant that today's ride went down the intercampus transitway again. We turned off just before the stadium and cut over on 27th Avenue SE for the river crossing at Franklin. I wanted to keep heading west so after getting off Franklin into Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood we roughly paralleled that Midway Greenway bicycle path and headed on towards the west into the heart of south Minneapolis.

I wanted to visit the Freewheel Bicycle retail establishment on the Greenway at some time when I had a companion. I wanted a companion so that someone could watch the bicycles while the other person went inside and looked around. So we followed 24th over to Minnehaha and then south on Minnehaha and onto the Greenway to utilize the bridge over Hiawatha. It is about a mile from there along the path until you get to the bike shop.

So we were about 14 miles into the ride when we got to what would be the turnaround for the day at the bike shop. This was a bit beyond the usual distance for a turnaround but it was okay because we had done those loops on the way out. On the way back we would be riding a more direct route and figured to finish with a mileage that would be about the usual for a GRider and Moohoo ride.

It was still pretty nice out when first GRider and then I went in and browsed the store. But when I emerged the weather had changed. It felt like rain.

The wind was strong at our backs and we started to ride hard. Before we even got off the path I was hit full in the face by a big fat raindrop. As I have stated here before I am highly, HIGHLY, motivated by rain. We were a long ways from home. The sky looked bad, the atmosphere felt like rain, we were feeling the occasional raindrop. It looked really, really bad. We started to ride hard.

We rode pretty much full out for about nine miles. It was hard.

It was the most rain I have ridden in this year. But we never rode anyplace where the street was wet. The rain seemed to be holding over Minneapolis and as we worked hard to move ourselves north the rain stayed mostly behind us.

We rode back up the intercampus transitway and as we went over the big, big overpass over the railroad tracks we suddenly rode out from under the clouds into a patch of overhead clear blue sky. There was rain to our backs, rain on both sides, rain ahead of us, blue sky over head.

We made it home without getting wet but we had to ride hard for nine miles. It was hard. GRider reported feeling a bit knackered but to tell the truth she recovered more rapidly than I did. I was better while we were still riding but as evening sets in I am still pretty much over done.

We made it home and even had time to stop for a photo.

GRider has been photographed at this exact spot probably eight or nine times this year.That corn won't be there for long but as long as it is, GRider for scale.

I read an article in Presse Ocean about the FC Nantes unusual goal in yesterday's game with Nimes. The article concludes with the statement that you will probably be able to see the goal everywhere on television. Well, I have scoured the internet today. I have seen the goal but I have yet to see anything that is worth a link so that other people can see it. All you get is a long range view that too late focuses on the keeper as the ball bounces over his head. I will keep looking.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Nicollet Island

We had actual rain yesterday, the first significant rain of the month. I got out for a short walk but honestly probably came up a bit short on that one hour outside every day for a year promise. It was raining.

I am still committed to the idea and intend to get out for an hour on days when it is snowing or when it is cold. But rain? Rain is so . . . wet.

And now the temperatures are threatening to return to normal. Just as we get used to the idea of endless August it appears that October will arrive on schedule. Our overnight low was in the low 50s.

But today was NICE. After a cool start the temperature reached 76 on the thermometer in our front yard at 3:30 as I returned from a nice ride.

I was a little uncertain of wind direction as I started. I knew it was south but southwest or southeast still seemed up for grabs so I took that loop through the Fairgrounds that I have been riding a lot of late, testing the wind in the various directions. It was a fabulous day at the Fairgrounds as there are TWO big events going on over there.

At the northeast corner of the grounds there was some sort of dog show. It was a big enough deal that there was a fair food shack open.

I took this picture of the wind turbine blade that has been pictured here before. I think that the fabulous blue sky behind the blade makes that a good picture without there having to be more content. But that isn't even the real reason why I took the picture.

Nope, that picture is to prove that even as late as today, September 26, it is still possible to purchase sausage on a stick at the Fairgrounds. You might have to zoom in on the photo but you should be able to tell that that stand is open and that there on the white portion of the above the window sign, towards the right appears: "Corn dogs". Sausage on a stick.

At the opposite corner of the grounds there is a big horse show. They have lots of horse shows over there. I ride there a lot, I see it all the time. This one, however, must be one of the largest shows that they have. The parking lots over there are all full of cars and trucks with horse trailers. Here is a trailer preparing to perform its intended task, transporting horses.
Eventually I decided the wind was more southwest than southeast and so I rode a more westerly route, down through the campus. I didn't want to ride the Stone Arch Bridge which is often my choice when headed over there. It was too nice a day, the bridge promised to be overrun by pedestrians.

Instead I detoured down Main Street and eventually crossed the bridge to Nicollet Island. I was absolutely positive that I had never ridden there on my bicycle. After having ridden there today I was struck by the thought that I may never have been there at all. It was a nice scenic ride around the island on the brick street. I have pictured the Grain Belt Beer sign before. Here it is from behind, photo taken from the parking lot of De la Salle High School.I have settled on the Intercampus Transitway as the only route that I am comfortable with for crossing the railroad tracks that I cross using the Dead Man's Curve passage when it is available. I came back from my ride today along that route. At the north end the transitway sort of dumps you onto the Fairgrounds. You could turn right on Como but it just feels more natural to ride to the end of transitway and cut through the Fairgrounds parking lots and circle back inside the Fairgrounds towards a favorable spot for a Snelling Avenue crossing.

I was in the process of doing just that when I spotted a really nice old car from a distance of a couple of blocks. I thought to myself that the car was on the Fairgrounds on the wrong weekend, that that street rod event was at the beginning of the summer. But it was a really nice looking old car so I turned where I had last seen it and tried to catch up. I lost the trail but cutting back through the grounds spotted the car again. The driver seemed to be on a sight seeing tour of the grounds and was driving slowly so I was able to close up a bit. Eventually I was able to draw alongside and confirm that it was a really nice old Oldsmobile 98. I at first guessed to myself 1957 and got ahead of the classic car so that I could turn around with favorable sun direction and get a photo of the car as he passed.The driver slowed to, I thought, allow me to get the picture, a driver proud of his car.

"A '57?", I inquired.

"56", he replied, "Don't I know you?"

"Larrie?", I asked.

So last week I rode through our old neighborhood and talked to Maurice who now lives in Larrie and Kathy's old house. Today I ran into Larrie himself. Larrie confirms that it is a 56 Oldsmobile 98, a beauty, Larrie's deceased father's car, and Larrie had his mother out for a ride in it on a beautiful fall day. Larrie's father was superintendent of the Fair is what I believe he said and he and his mother were out checking out the sights. To make the whole thing even more interesting just about a week ago TOPWLH and I ran into Kathy in the grocery store.

You can leave the old neighborhood but apparently the old neighborhood never leaves you.

This evening in Nantes, FC Nantes improved to four wins in four starts at home with a 2-1 victory over Nimes. Nantes set an all time Ligue 2 record for fastest goal at the start of a game when defender Remi Maréval scored after just 10 seconds of play. Those familiar with football will know that the opening kickoff must travel forward. The usual procedure at the upper levels of the sport is for one player to roll the ball forward for one circumference of the ball after which another player plays the ball back to his teammates to maintain possession. It is one of the set plays used fairly often at that point to have that player send a long kick towards goal while the forwards move in to try to use field position to gain an advantage. Today the ball was played back to Maréval and he launched one towards goal from 60 meters away. The ball somehow eluded the keeper and went into the net.

Nantes again assumes first place in the table based on goal differential over Caen. Just as last week Nantes must await the result of Caen's game to determine if they are truly in first place. Caen, as they did last week, play on Monday night.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Testable hypothesis

I had a guest rider today, the Professor. I assume that riding today was an experiment on her part as she apparently wished to find out whether vigorous exercise prior to teaching her Thursday night class would improve the quality of her instruction.

For my part I felt that she probably had a slight lake deficiency so with very light winds, nearly calm, we headed out for the 8 lakes.

GRider at Lake Vadnais.Lake Vadnais was crowded today. The balmy September weather produced a bumper crop of anglers. I think it might be the largest crowd we have seen there, larger even than the always heavily attended season opener. It was a nice day for fishing, I suppose, but it was a nicer day for cycling.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

3,000 miles this bike, this year

As the end of the riding season approaches the recitation of accomplishment of annual goals will become more common. Most of the previous postings I have made related to a total of number of miles ridden concern miles ridden on that bicycle in the time that I have owned it. Today is a significant posting of a mileage accomplishment that is related only to miles ridden this year.

After today's ride I have ridden 3,014 miles on the LOOK this year.

With over a month to go until the end of the season.

It was pretty dreary again this morning but in view of the recent updated ruling on the Dreariness Convention and also in view of the fact that the local weather channels predicted afternoon clearing, I set out shortly after noon to attempt a bicycle ride. By about mile 5 the sun peaked through. After about mile 7 the sun was assuming a dominant position in the sky. After that the sun was shining strongly most of the rest of the time I was riding. Today ended up being a spectacularly nice day, a spectacularly nice ride. I saw a time and temperature clock on Rice Street that reported 80 degrees. I am not sure how that stacks up against officially recorded high temperatures but I think it will suffice to say that today was warm and sunny and beautiful.

I reported back in July on the low water in Snail Lake. It was noticeable again today as, if anything, even lower than it was in July. But the interesting thing today is that I think I know where all of the white birds have gone.Also visible in that picture are a couple of docks which one would normally expect to have been deployed into the lake by the lake shore property owners. Instead the docks are still backed up on the dry land far from the water.

The solution that is being implemented to remedy the low water conditions includes the construction of a new building down along Snail Lake Boulevard near to Sucker Lake. Sucker Lake will be the source of water to keep Snail Lake up to its more recent average water level. If I recall correctly, Sucker Lake is infested with zebra mussels and Snail Lake is not so some filtration system had to be built before water could be allowed to flow from Sucker to Snail. Here is the new construction, the building where that filtration will occur.Fairly obviously the building isn't complete, therefore no filtration is occurring, therefore Snail Lake is still well below recent water levels.

To complete the story here is the point on the shore of Sucker Lake where the water appropriation occurs. I think that is some sort of pressure release apparatus.Also apparent from this photo is what a spectacularly nice day it was at the moment when I was at Sucker Lake. The eight lakes again fulfilled their part of the bicycling bargain by being gloriously scenic. It was a nice ride on a nice day.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A new ruling on the Dreariness Convention

Today was not another of the days from the end of August that we have been experiencing lately. Today the temperature returned to more or less normal and the look was distinctly November. Today was dreary. It was so dreary that I may have even said to TOPWLH that I was going to pass on a bicycle ride, "Too dreary".

When I stopped going to work lots of people who were making polite conversation and also lots of people who were genuinely interested asked me what was I going to do now. I mostly replied that I didn't have specific plans, I do not. But I usually added that I definitely did intend to reverse the part of my life that found me marooned for too many days of the year on the fourth floor of a building with windows that do not open. I told people that I intended to be outdoors for at least one hour every day for at least a year.

A little after noon I was trying to decide how to act on this promise I have made to myself. Perhaps a nice long walk would be just the thing, I thought. It rather quickly occurred to me that my best option for spending some time outdoors while getting some useful exercise was my bicycle. There is no bad weather, there is only inadequate gear. I have adequate gear.

Bingo, off I went.

But it WAS dreary. The only distinct color on such a dreary day is gray. Gray doesn't photograph well. I got a couple of pictures anyway. I won't be ranting about the condition of Fernwood anymore.Brand new, really smooth, really nice pavement all the way from Larpenteur to Roselawn. This view is from Garden, looking north to Roselawn.

And the library, I rode past the library construction project. Construction photos don't require a lot of contrast.What I originally understood to be an addition to the existing library is now fairly clearly a complete rebuild almost from bare structural steel. As is the case at Dead Man's Curve, there are lots of interesting looking construction toys here, too.

As often seems to be the case when I have to convince myself to ride, today I was strong. Riding when I feel strong is when I enjoy the ride the most. Today I was really strong.

For example, on the uphill from County Road B2 past the golf course to the top of the overpass of Highway 36, a spot where I am often in the small ring in front and moved down a couple of gears in the back to something like a 39x19, working hard, climbing. Today I charged over that thing in a power sprint in the 53x17. For mathematicians in the crowd that's a 3 instead of a 2. And this was after I had already ridden nearly 20 miles, I felt strong.

I was extremely glad to be out there, clearly it was a wonderful day for a ride and I enjoyed it immensely.

This leads to a new ruling on the Dreariness Convention: It is: "Mere dreariness is very clearly not a sufficient reason in and of itself to forego a bicycle ride on an otherwise rideable day."

The only person who rides with me on my home turf with any regularity will know that there are several places on my regular routes where I like to sprint. These are generally false flats, places where after a downhill the road has actually turned uphill but because of the momentum off the downhill it is possible to maintain a rate of speed which seems way out of proportion to what I (and she) can clearly recognize as an actual uphill. Most notable are the railroad underpass on Rice Street from 694 headed south, Hamline from Roselawn headed towards Larpenteur, and Cleveland from Larpenteur headed to Roselawn. These are all uphills and I dead sprint them all. Another that I sprint when I feel strong is Roselawn from Fairview to Cleveland.

As I neared home today I was spinning out after a, for me, monster sprint on Hamline. I crossed Snelling and headed down the service road to Roselawn. The light was green for the Roselawn traffic so I had to stop before crossing Roselawn and starting west on the way home. I wanted a couple more miles than I was going to get if I went straight home so I was spinning along making my route decisions. I decided to follow Roselawn all the way to Cleveland and then ride the loop through the neighborhoods that would take me home.

Just at this moment a kid on a road bike blew past me, riding in the drops, deep into a sprint. I had just lost another race.

Of course, it isn't much of a race if only one person knows it is a race. I lose lots of races, I don't mind, mostly I lose to people who are racing me when I am not racing them but who, even if I knew it was a race, would still probably dust me off. Many of them are young, I am, after all, old.

The funny thing is every year I win a couple. Today I won one.

We were on the downhill run from Snelling towards Fairview. About half of the way along that half-mile stretch the road turns back slightly uphill, a false flat. I only had a couple of miles to go before I was home, I always intended to hammer. I felt good today, I felt really strong.

So the kid had dead sprinted the downhill and had me by about a block when I clicked up to the big ring and started to ride purposefully for home. I intended to ride hard all the way to Cleveland. As I neared Fairview I looked up and noticed that the uphill had caused the kid to slow considerably. I was closing in.

Well, I didn't think I would catch him but the road gets a little bit more uphill after Fairview as it passes Prior and he wasn't going very fast any more. I love the false flats, I was in the big ring, going what is for me, pretty fast.

I thought about breaking it off, it is such a cheap victory, winning a race when the other racer doesn't realize it is a race. But, on the other hand, the kid had just done it to me. We were just riding his race, I kept the hammer down.

He heard me coming, maybe I should oil my chain. He turned his head and looked me full in the face. The chagrin on his face was exquisite as he realized (a) that I am unmistakeably old and (b) that I was about to blow his doors off.

I felt strong, I felt fast.

Monday, September 21, 2009

20 miles before lunch, 12 miles after lunch

Yesterday I took what is for me the extremely rare step of passing on a bicycle ride on an extremely rideable day. It might be the second time I have done that this year and I also think maybe only the second time I can distinctly remember ever. I am not sure why I passed, probably something related to extremely important football of the American variety. TOPWLH and I instead settled for a walk around the neighborhood as evening approached. We took a different walking route than what I have previously referred to as my four corners route. We ventured completely outside the four cornered box, walking past Brimhall up to Snelling. I think she thought she had me when she demanded to know, near the end of the walk, what was the exact mileage of the trek. I ride a bicycle. I ride a bicycle a lot. Really a lot. Two and a quarter miles, give or take a hundredth of a mile or two.

Having squandered a day yesterday I was a little more motivated than usual to ride today. The overnight forecast predicted thunderstorms and sure enough, when I checked the weather radar shortly after rising there appeared to be two lines of storms forming up in southwestern Minnesota and beginning their marches towards where I live. I calculated that if I got out by a little after 10 I might well have enough time to get in the two hour bicycle ride that I prefer before the rains arrived. I hoped that it would be warm enough by 10 to make for a comfortable ride.

The sun was out and the temperature was about 67 at 10 so I started out. The wind was pretty brisk from the SE. The combination of that wind direction and my intention to stay relatively close to home to avoid the possibility of early arriving rain catching me 10 miles from home (which has happened a couple of times) led me into some places where I do not ride often.

As I got south and east of Lake Como the sun disappeared behind the burgeoning cloud cover. I turned back down Front Street towards home, a route which lead me past the entrance to Calvary Cemetery. There are some interesting places in the cemetery and I photographed two.

This is a spot that I think regardless of personal faith position most people would agree is a pretty holy spot. The cemetery is on top of a hill which clearly was, at the time the cemetery was founded, well out into the country. From the top of the hill you can see the Saint Paul Cathedral and the State Capitol. This spot was chosen with care. Buried under the four large stone slabs are the first and second bishops of the diocese of Saint Paul and the first and second archbishops of the archdiocese of Saint Paul.The triangular stones similar to the ones in the foreground and behind the bishops all mark gravesites for persons whose names begin with the word Reverend. The other groups of identically shaped stones in the background all mark the gravesites for persons whose names begin with the word Sister.

All buried with a clear sight line to the Cathedral.

It was an important early burial site for Roman Catholics in Minnesota. Many of the faithful went to great lengths to demonstrate their faith and perhaps not very coincidentally their wealth. This is the marker for beer baron Theodore Hamm.I wanted to get in the two hour ride but I kept feeling mist hitting me. Eventually the mist became a little thicker and I broke off what I was doing and sprinted for home. I was disappointed in not getting the full two hours, I only got in 20 miles but here is what the driveway looked like as I opened the garage door to get inside.I made it home but it appears that I just barely made it.

I went in and had lunch. Eventually I sat down at the computer to create some important new content for the internet. Almost as an afterthought I checked the weather radar. I was surprised to find that the first wave of rain appeared to have broken all apart without actually doing much in Roseville.

I decided to try to verify this information by other means (I decided to look out the window). The sun had reappeared. Another check of the radar gave me confidence that more bicycling was possible so I headed out to re-cycle.

The wind had switched around from the SE to the SW and this time I ended up on south and west of Lake Como, on the Fairgrounds. There was another gate open that I am not used to seeing open, this time the gate to what is called Heritage Square. They have old timey stuff there and I was able to gather some information related to the steel wagon wheels recently posted elsewhere on the internet. This is more what from my life perspective I take to be normal looking wagon wheels.Heavy mostly wooden construction but clearly with metal "tires", the wear point, the contact point with the road. Wood seems like it would be lighter, iron seems like it would be more durable.

I had already ridden before lunch. It was fun to be out again, I felt really strong. I had no guest rider for scale but here is what the corn looks like today.That's pretty mature looking corn, I don't think it will be there much longer. This year I hope to be around during the day when harvesting occurs. I would like to get a photograph of that previously undocumented here but obviously very important stage of the story.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Minnehaha Dry Falls

I had a Guest Rider today. We rode off in the direction of Minneapolis.

The University footballers were home again this Saturday. There was a bit of hubbub after last week's game from some citizens of Saint Anthony Park who complained that they could hear the game public address announcer even though they were in their back yards over a mile from the stadium. This strikes me as just another example of no matter what you do somebody is going to be unhappy.

But we rode down towards the stadium today while the game was in progress to try to gauge the effect. It was start of the second quarter when we left the house so we were approaching the stadium at about half time. We were very disappointed as we hoped to hear SOMETHING but we got to only about a block from the stadium before we could hear anything. The something that we finally did hear was the marching band's halftime performance which is something that ordinarily you would expect to be able to hear from a considerable distance. It was all very disappointing. This is probably another example of no matter what you do somebody is going to be unhappy.

We crossed the river at Franklin Avenue and followed the River Road out towards Minnehaha Park. The bike path is still in disarray north of Lake Street. Further there is curb construction at the River Road entrance to the Midtown Greenway multiple use trail which meant that everyone entering or leaving the path at that point had to dismount and carry their bicycles. Progress on the path HAS been made south of Lake Street as there was new pavement along there all the way out to the Park. There are still barriers up proclaiming the "Sidewalk" to be closed. Some people were riding on it anyway. This is probably another example of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah etc. etc. OK, I'm tired of that, I promise not to do it again.

If you ride to a specific destination enough times you will get to view the destination in all of its various countenances. Today Minnehaha Falls was dry.I am guessing they closed off the dam again. The end of the construction season rapidly approaches and the project down in the creek gorge is likely at a stage where the absence of water in the creek improves the quality of the work they are able to do. We were standing there when a lady with a camera was going around asking people where the Falls were and then asking where they were when they were there. This is probably another example of no matter what you do somebody is going to be unhappy. I know, I promised, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

On the way home we passed under the bridge at Dead Man's Curve and paused on the north side to get this photo of progress.That looks like the superstructure of the new bridge resting on pilings next to the old bridge. Two cranes and lots of other construction fun toys are present as well, I may have to ride over there and get a more detailed construction timetable as it is starting to look like some of this might be pretty interesting and possibly even fun to watch.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Light northeast wind

Today a light northeast wind and warm morning temperatures led me back to a very familiar ride, the 8 lakes tour. I checked my bike log. I don't always note destinations in the notes section (it is a spreadsheet and I try to keep notes brief) but I am pretty sure that it has been over three weeks since I rode to Lake Vadnais.

Did I note any changes? Well, it is still a very pretty ride. The lakes are scenic and the glacial terrain which produced the lakes is always a nice challenging ride. Here is one change though, a big willow tree has either fallen into the lake or has been cut down and fallen into the lake. In either case a new big bare spot on the shoreline has been created. Soon it will be someone's favorite fishing spot.Quite a bit of the tree is still in the lake so if anyone over in Saint Paul notices that the water tastes like willow, I know the reason why.

It isn't really fall out there yet but it pretty clearly isn't summer anymore either. The leaves on the trees are starting to trend ever so slightly to the yellow side of the spectrum. Here is a view of the north shore of the lake from just north of the mid-lake parking area.Vadnais was pretty today.

This evening in Corsica FC Nantes continued its recent run of successes by securing another away point with a 1-1 draw against SC Bastia. Bastia is a town on the island of Corsica. Even though Corsica is much closer to the Italian than to the French mainland, Corsica is part of France. Corsica was the birthplace of Napoleon and it was once briefly an independent republic but has been part of France since 1768.

For today's football match there was no video stream that I could find so I followed the game on the Live Update at the FC Nantes website. My French reading vocabulary, particularly as relates to football, continues to expand albeit slowly. My interpretation of the live update is that Nantes dominated the game and had many better scoring opportunities and some will be disappointed that they did not come away with a victory. However, the conventional wisdom in European football is that any away point is a good point. Nantes rises to first in the table pending the outcome of Caen's game on Monday night.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Honeywell?

The warm and pleasant weather returned today. With wind out of the SW I rode over to Minneapolis. I was mostly just riding around, trying to figure out routes that work for places I might want to go. I was pretty deep into Minneapolis, at 28th Street and 5th Avenue South when I rode past this nice old smokestack.Honeywell, as most of us in Minnesota know, moved its corporate headquarters away after a merger or take over or something quite a few years ago. So this place isn't Honeywell any more. In fact, if you look carefully at the picture, concentrating on that stone at the top of the tower behind the stack, you can discover that this place also isn't the Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company any more either. I rode around to the front of the building and the whole shebang is now Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. I am going to put that down as soft industry replacing hard industry.

When I turned the other way to start heading back for home I spotted this faded old sign painted on the back of a building on Lake Street between 4th and 5th.I rode up close to try to read the second line but it was too faded for me to make a positive identification. It appears to be Boyd's Fire (something) Warehouse. Maybe Fire Safe Warehouse? I don't know, maybe a Boyd would know.

It was a nice day for a ride, I felt strong, I was glad to be out there. There were no particular ride milestones today but Wireless has bicycle news. It is her news so I will leave it to her to spread the word.

Good information about Picasa, I am going to investigate further.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Paved streets still in evidence in northern portion of Roseville

One of the reasons I have been giving for quitting my job is that I wanted to be able to keep riding a lot of miles longer into the fall by being able to ride during the best part of the day rather than being relegated to riding always after work.

Today was a big never mind on that explanation. It was cool this morning, imagine that in the last half of September. The Guest Rider was hoping to get in a ride today but it was still low 60s when her window of opportunity closed at about 10:30. She went to work but finally at 12:30 with the temperature at about 64 and completely overcast sky I again made peace with fall by dressing appropriately for fall (base layer, sleeved jersey, arm warmers, jacket, helmet liner) and went out for a ride. As I got my bicycle out of the garage I started to think I had overdressed. I even paused in the driveway and considered removing my jacket. Then I started to ride into the east wind. As I began making my own 15 to 20 mph windchill I quickly decided that I was glad to be dressed as I was.

The weather channels said the wind was from the east or perhaps a bit ESE. I thought it was worth a try to try to ride out to the north to see if there still exist paved streets over in that direction. I rode for two hours and I am quite prepared to state that pavement is still in evidence over there and also that the wind was slightly ENE, maybe something like EENE. North was good.

But I had started the ride during the absolute worst part of the day, it was dreary when I started out. At about the 8 mile mark the sun made its first stab through the overcast. By about 10 miles the sun was starting to make regular appearances. At the 15 mile mark I had to stop and remove TWO layers, jacket and arm warmers.

The woman who lived in the house that I was stopped in front of came out of the house to drag her trash can back in from the curb. She looked at me curiously as I folded and rolled my jacket to be stashed into my jersey pocket. I offered the comment that it was warming up very rapidly. She responded that she had just returned from her walk on which she was generally too cold and now it was suddenly too warm. For the second day in a row I ended up in a cordial little chat with a neighbor. We were both surprised at how suddenly and without much warning summer had returned.

So what did I find out to the north? The streets are paved over there but does anybody know what the heck the deal is with Fernwood between Larpenteur and Roselawn. About a month ago there was some excavation on Fernwood just north of Garden (between Larpenteur and Roselawn). One result of the excavation project was nearly a block of brand new nearly curb to curb bituminous. Now, still same construction season, someone has been out there with one of those pavement grinders and ground about an inch off the pavement for the entire distance from the Rainbow entrance just north of Larpenteur all the way to Roselawn. Including the just laid brand new pavement. Very curious.

I rode an abbreviated northern loop, just out past Lake Owasso and then around and back. I needed a longer ride to get my full two hours in so I ended up riding south a bit and around Lake Como. This is about the furthest south for today, after days and days of deep penetrations into Saint Paul, today I got no farther than the south shore of Lake Como.Here's a look at the odometer on the LOOK just before I wheeled the bicycle back into the garage.I went into the house and got the ignition keys for my by now secondary mode of transportation and got a picture of the odometer in that.Bicycle miles is catching up. Bicycle miles may still move back into the lead. Wouldn't that be fun?

The only thing I regret is that I should be able to photoshop or something those two images and get them to display as a single photo. Does anybody know how to do that?

I think it is also worth noting that even though the thermometer inside my car is reporting 70 that that is the temperature inside the garage. Other sources available to me inside the house continued to indicate a temperature below 70.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Manager's meeting

The beautiful weather continues. I didn't actually get out in the morning today although it was certainly plenty nice enough at 10am to ride. I instead hung around here at home and made sure that the person who lives here who still actually has a job (TPWLHWSAHaJ) got off to that important 11am meeting with the Dean. Geez, I miss that.

I was sitting around feeling pretty morose, missing that dynamic give and take of the life of a bureaucrat. Just when the pining reached a peak I looked out the window and saw what for all the world appeared to be a manager's meeting breaking up.Everybody neat and pretty? OK then, on with the show.

I tried another route to the south, attempting one of the few crossings of those railroad tracks that I haven't tried recently, this time on Lexington. It turns out that even at a time with much reduced traffic pressure that the two lane bridge on Lexington over those tracks is a place where I on my 18 pound bicycle just do not want to challenge multi-ton vehicles for a piece of pavement. The only way across there was to ride on the sidewalk. Geez, I hate riding on the sidewalk. For crying out loud, there were people trying to WALK on the sidewalk.

On the upside, crossing at Lexington fed me, when finally off the sidewalk, back into our old neighborhood. Here is the Emily tree, planted by MySU and I in front of the house where we lived when our darling dafter was born.Nice tree, eh? You oughta see the kid!

Two of the neighbors were out in the yard and as I started to ride away one very appropriately asked me what was my interest in that tree that caused me to stop and take a photograph. I stopped and explained and ended up meeting the new neighbors of the people who live in the house we used to live in, Maurice and Andy. Maurice lives in Larrie and Kathy's house and Andy lives in the house at the end of the block on Hamline. I stayed and chatted awhile and caught up with the gossip about those people who still live there that Maurice knows and that we know because we once lived there. Very nice fellow, Maurice, he said he has a nice old Motobecane road bicycle with downtube shifters hanging from the rafters of his garage.

He used to ride but hasn't for several years. This is my blog, I get to post about things that boost my ego. It always boosts my ego when someone about my age or perhaps even a bit younger looks at me and says, as Maurice did today, "I used to have a body like yours". I replied to Maurice and it is the truth that it is hard work but it is work that I enjoy.

Once into Saint Paul I headed into the wind, riding mostly towards the south and the east. South and east from out near the northwest city limits leads every single time towards downtown and the State Capitol building.

I recently posted Floyd B. Olson. I knew the Capitol grounds to have a symmetrical placement of statues but I did not know who was honored on the east end of the grounds in the similar location as the west end of the grounds Olson statue. There are a couple of reasons for this, one being the usual angle of the sun when I rode to the Capitol in the past but the other being that the hill up past the Capitol building is much longer and more severe on the east end of the building. I felt strong, I didn't fear the hill, the sun was enough overhead that a picture seemed possible, I went over there to see who it is.

Columbus.LOOK at Columbus. I think the street used to be named Columbus Circle. I believe it has been changed to Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. I occasionally have to correspond with the institution located on that street and it is always, ALWAYS a challenge to get that whole thing written on the envelope.

After that I was JRA (bicycle geeks know that one). As I got closer to home I ended up riding on the Fairgrounds. I ride there quite a bit but usually swing in there on the way out to a ride. It is a little out of the ordinary to be riding there at the end of a ride. There was a gate open that I almost never see open so I rode in to take a look. Here is what they used to call Turn 3 at the Fairgrounds half-mile race track back when they still had automobile races there.Now they call it useless pavement.

On the way out of the Fairgrounds I experienced for the first time this year what will soon be commonplace. I rode over some fallen leaves and one of them rode the wheel around and lodged between the brake and the frame. There it stayed making an irritating noise until I stopped and dislodged it. Summer is over, welcome to fall. Maybe pretty soon the weather will even start to feel like fall. For now, today was another spectacularly nice late summer day.

Originally posted by Marz in yesterday's comments but worth a reprise here in the main blog:

Bad Manors Squirrel Diner Live

Of course, my feelings are well known. Squirrels are vermin. The only thing missing from that site is a control that lets remote viewers zap the squirrels. Now THAT would be fun.

Monday, September 14, 2009

You are here

Whoa, another one, a really, really nice day. I rode in the morning establishing once again that Monday morning is THE best morning. Here it is, the middle of September and I rode today, in fact, rode IN THE MORNING today and still was out there is my summer costume. Sleeveless jersey, no base layer, no change in dress at all from the middle of July. It was 72 when I started, not much warmer than that when I finished, but it was a spectacularly nice day for a ride.

There was virtually NO wind at the start. I very strongly considered just going ahead and riding to the north, it has been so long since I have seen my regular haunts in that direction. A light breeze appeared before I reached the point where I would have to commit to north or south and it was from the southwest. I committed to a ride to the south. I headed out, yet again, past the Fairgrounds. This ended up being a very good decision as on the way back the wind had freshened enough that I was glad to be riding with the wind at my back and not on my front.

Today I rode down to the U campus to see what it looks like over there with school in session. I wanted plenty of west in my ride so I nipped across the Franklin Avenue bridge and found the midtown bicycle path.

I wanted to see where that thing goes so I rode a little farther than I wanted to seeking the end. You don't actually come to an end, you come to a change in striping on the pavement. When you are on the Minneapolis path there are three lanes, one pedestrian and one each direction for bicycles. When you leave the Minneapolis path there is only a single stripe separating right from left.

I recognized that something had happened and stopped at an information kiosk to try to figure out what was going on.

I was HERE.Who doesn't love a sign that informs you that "You Are Here"?

I turned around there. I rode out to the street trying to gather some more in person visual evidence of where I was and found myself next to the Minnekhada Country Club at France Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard, way, way farther west than I am used to being. I started back.

A little bit after that I rode the wrong way down a one way street to try to get this photo. It is a lake never previously featured on THIS bicycle blog, Lake Calhoun.I got home in time to watch the live stream from France of Monday Night Football. Tonight's game was Strasbourg at Nantes. Nantes did not play last week as all leagues world wide were suspended for national team play, World Cup Qualifying. France tied Romania 1-1 in Paris and tied Serbia 1-1 in Belgrade.

During the time off Nantes suffered what may or may not be a significant blow when Croatian forward Ivan Klasnic left the team (translation: was sold) to Bolton of the English Premier League. Klasnic was leading Ligue 2 in scoring at the time of his departure.

But tonight FC Nantes improved their home record to three wins in three starts with a 2-1 victory over Strasbourg. I had a little trouble locating the stream and didn't go live until the 6th minute of the game. Strasbourg already led 1-0 at that point, having scored (according to the FC Nantes website) on their first penetration into the FC Nantes end of the field. No matter, FC Nantes was much, much the better side thereafter. Le Canaris scored twice before the half to lead 2-1 and that was enough. Final score: Nantes 2:1 Strasbourg. FC Nantes rises to second place in the league table, one point adrift of Ligue 2 leader SM Caen.

After the football I watched, first on the same Eurosport stream where I was watching the football, but eventually on good old American over the air TV, the US Tennis Open. I am happy to report that several days ago I predicted the result.

As I said at that time, four words: Juan Martin del Potro!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Gopher fans pay forward

The run of beautiful late summer days continues which means that today again featured southerly breezes. It was another spectacular opportunity for a ride in September.

I rode over to and through the Fairgrounds again, monitoring the clean up. Here is an impression which I gleaned on yesterday's ride and forgot to share, the heaviest grease on the sidewalk is at the entrances to the Food Building.

Here is another sight which I actually observed yesterday but yesterday I did not have favorable lighting conditions for a photograph. Today the lighting was better so here is "Really Efficient Use of Trailers".I have pictured the new UofM football stadium here a few times. Today is the day, the first game to be played in the new venue. As I rode through the Fairgrounds I was a little surprised to find lots and lots of people about. Obviously not State Fair type crowds, but WAY more than usual. Eventually I discovered the source of all of the people.

Here in this greenest of green places we have something called the Intercampus Transitway. This is a bus only route which connects the main campus of the University with the Saint Paul (aka "Farm") campus. The new stadium sits at the main campus end of the transitway. Unfortunately, the new stadium is built on what was formerly the main University parking lots at that end of campus meaning that parking is at a premium near the stadium. However, major parking lots (the Fairgrounds) sit at the farm campus end of the transitway. The plan is that for home football games there will be parking at the Fair and plentiful available buses. Today is the first test of the system and plenty of fans showed up early to take advantage of the shuttle buses and also of the wonderful weather that provided an opportunity for tailgating.By the way, it is my view that "tailgating" is a euphemism for "another excuse for public drunkenness".

I rode through this gathering and ended up being surprised by the reaction. I generally expect young, on their way to being drunken, male fans of this most main stream of American sports to react to a spandex clad bicyclist with explicitly homophobic hate speech. Is that too harsh?

Instead this group acknowledged my presence with, "GO GOPHERS!", thereby paying forward. TOPWLH and I are season ticket holders of another of the University sponsored intercollegiate athletic teams so I had no problem responding with a thumbs up and a "GO GOPHERS!" of my own.

So I rode on, taking the aforementioned Intercampus Transitway over the the stadium. I took a couple of pictures there but another instance of operator error (DOH!) rendered them not suitable for publication.

I discovered a couple of things over there. Riding through the campus and Dinkytown on a football Saturday is pretty dang dangerous, something I will think carefully about before trying again. Those familiar with the geography over there will understand how dodging the main campus and the football stadium while getting out of there meant that I ended up on the River Road. A positive outcome of the ride is that as I progressed out from the campus on River Road I ended up re-discovering something that I knew was there, a bicycle friendly work around for the distinctly automobile-centric intersection of River Road, Franklin and 27th Avenue SE.

So I was riding on River Road towards Saint Paul but I had reached the point in the ride where I wanted to start for home. I ended up having to attack the Saint Anthony Avenue climb up from River Road. This seemed a trifle unfair as this is one of the very few times when I have had to ride up that hill on a ride on which I have not previously ridden down it. I came back through South Saint Anthony and eventually approached the construction zone at Dead Man's Curve from the south side.

If you want to cue the music from the Blink 182 video from a couple of days ago, go ahead, I'll wait here.

Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm; hmmn hmmm hmmm hmmm; get ready; goodbye . . .

OK?

Here we go again, a view of the construction from the viewpoint not previously photographed.Clearly they mean to do major reconstruction.

As I neared home I was nearly cut off by a couple of blondes attempting a U-turn in a sporty little car. The driver hailed me asking for directions. I did not know the name of the street she was looking for but the other blonde had a map which the two of them were consulting without the slightest bit of success. I looked at their map and determined that they were looking for the Gopher football tailgating. I offered to show them a picture of it and them directed them back towards the Fairgrounds with instructions which I felt confident would enable them to link up with the other tailgaters.

They were profuse in their "thank you's" and I returned the payment made earlier by the other tailgaters. As the blondes departed I gave them a thumbs up and a "GO GOPHERS!"

Score and game highlights available at 11.

Friday, September 11, 2009

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.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

This post brought to you by Jan and Dean

However, in deference to any young persons tuning in, the following is the music video cover by Blink 182 of the Jan and Dean classic, Dean Man's Curve.

Go ahead and click play and let it run in the background as you read on.

Yet another day of fresh breezes from the south and east led me over past the Fairgrounds and down into Saint Paul. The Fairgrounds are now completely open although not completely back to normal. There are still huge mounds of animal feces to be removed (with crews working at that task) but I personally found the most interesting artifact to be that there are very, very clear grease stains in all of the heavily traveled pedestrian areas. No particular effort is being made to remove those stains and there shouldn't be. Winter will take care of all of that grease without any problem.

Here is a sausage on a stick booth and several other indicators that there is still a ways to go on clean up.Here's the Jan and Dean tie-in. Raymond Avenue is closed for replacement of the railroad bridge. This is a dangerous spot for both cars and bicyclists that I have always referred to as "Dead Man's Curve" even though I am personally unaware of any fatal accidents there.The guy on security was glad to have someone to talk to and gave me the details. The old bridge will be removed. There will be substantial regrading and then a new bridge will be installed. We can anticipate that the double curve under the bridge will be reduced and that visibility for users from both directions will be increased. The process is expected to take about six weeks. In the meantime, as Raymond Avenue provides one of the very few crossings of that particular set of railroad tracks I now need to find another route to Saint Paul.

I rode the Capitol Loop again. The finish for that route brings me past Mungeater's house. People who have known me a long time will have no problem with that reference, by the way. On the boulevard in front of his neighbor's house are two Mountain Ash trees. I wonder if this whole Emerald Ash Borer alert also applies to Mountain Ash which I believe are not true ash trees.Just after publishing yesterday's post I clicked on the cable TV and happened to pass by CNN. Wolf Blitzer was just finishing up some coverage of the wacky Mexico airplane hijacking. It seems that my observation about yesterday's date was NOT ill advised. This hijacker guy was pretty wacky and was also pretty clearly an end of the world cultist. I am pleased to find that, as I suspected was the case, that there were end of the world cultists holding vigils, or in this case hijacking an airplane, to commemorate the numerical significance of the day. I feel officially vindicated.