Places I walk

It isn't Floridia, and it isn't bicycling, but I do get outside for about an hour just about every single day. Exercise is good. However, it is my belief that the opportunity to be outside in natural light on a daily basis is the main cause for the fact that I feel the best that I have felt in December for many years. Walking in the daylight is surprisingly good.

Here is a suburban oddity created by unplanned development. The far end of the path was developed at a different time than the near end of the path. This path is located in a place where ordinarily there would be a street. The houses over there are too close together to allow the standard width right of way and appropriate setbacks from the right of way for the houses. Instead of a street in this place we have a dedicated public path.Here is a place I have pictured before, the user created pathway from the Snelling Avenue apartments to the fast food mecca along the main highway. The path used to go straight ahead.Then there was six more inches of snow and another round of fast food joint parking lot plowing. The users of the path were not deterred and now the path veers off to the left. There is a fire hydrant down there where the path now enters the Famous Dave's lot. The fire hydrant is unlikely to get plowed in leading me to believe that this iteration of the path may well last until spring breakup.

Which if the currently occurring rain continues could come . . . ? Soon?

I suspect not.

Changing day

I read in the newspaper on Sunday that the plant where I used to work is going to have 120 retirements today. The employer has offered an incentive and it is sufficiently attractive that many are accepting the offer. The way the particular branch of the factory where I worked decided to structure the incentive you had no choice of retirement date, you could only retire TODAY.

Armed with this information I went to work yesterday. It was the next to last day when I could possibly find anything at all remotely resembling the place I used to work and it was a last chance to speak to 11 friends just before they became eligible to wear one of these.So congratulations to Memos, Paul, Phil, Dave, Rick, Jerry, John, Larry, Paul, Jean, and Bruce (and John and Lowell).

Welcome to the light side.

Sidewalk progress

Sometimes all you have to do is complain. The sidewalks that I described as unshoveled have been sorta cleared. Still, as you can see, the situation is still not perfect. This is a spot where there is an opening in the center median which lots of cars use for a U turn. At least one U turner didn't quite get it right.OK, the black piece of trash. Here is a view of that little piece of woodland from the other end of the trail, looking towards the apartment buildings. Not quite so picturesque as you may have thought, is it? It looks to me like someone tried to heave something into one of those dumpsters with an alarming lack of accuracy.Upon closer examination it is actually very dark green, about the color of Chad (one person will know what that means). It appears to me to be part of a car or truck interior, molded plastic with attached fabric that I thought might be a side sun curtain.

Actually, fairly obviously, I have no idea.Thus prompted and in the neighborhood again anyway, this time I picked it up and chucked it into the dumpster.

Human behavior

I thought this was interesting. The sidewalks around here, of which there are not many (it is the suburbs, after all) are mostly still snow covered. There is a stretch along County Road B that I count on for my daily that is still snowed under by the combination of the big storm and the plowing on the very closely adjacent street.

Deep, dirty, hard and ugly would describe that snow. Not a footprint to be seen. What walking there is along there occurs on the very busy street. I have abandoned that section of the route and found another way.

Which includes this little bit through the woods. It hasn't been shoveled but there has been a high quantity of foot traffic and the path is firmly established. Even without the benefit of modern snow removal this path is wide enough for easy walking and footing is good.Behind me as I take the photograph is a pocket of apartment buildings, six or eight in all. At the other end of that path is the Snelling Avenue Burger King parking lot. This little bit of wildlife is the width of a fast food restaurant parking lot from one of the busiest thoroughfares in the north suburbs. From the Burger King lot you can also easily access KFC, Mickey D, Arby's, a Caribou Coffee and Famous Dave's (and Erik's Bike Shop and Color Tile).

You can't walk anywhere on the sidewalk but the force of many feet walking has reestablished access to that most important of American needs, fast food.

Human behavior.

Clean up

I haven't been outside much the past couple of days due to the cold. I mall walked for exercise (ewwww!) and did just a little clean up shoveling.

Clean up shoveling will be familiar to everyone who lives in this climate. The first day of the snow emergency is dedicated to opening the snow emergency route, re-establishing contact with civilization. In my case that means getting the driveway open.

Clean up work follows. The winter is far from over and the driveway has to be brought up to regular maintenance standards (as determined by me). This involves moving the edges back where they belong and dealing with the driven on compacted snow in the tire lanes. This is necessary to assure that as more snow arrives I will be able to continue to get the driveway open as needed.

So clean up shoveling. But today I got out for a walk. I live in the suburbs where conditions are much better than in the core cities. Still, it is a mess out there.

Here is a before the stormand an after the storm look at that tree removal project shown last week.They didn't pick up any of those pieces that now appear to be missing. Not picked up, covered up.

We are anticipating some blogging from a completely different climate. I will post a link here when it this becomes available.

For real snow you need real machinery

Last night I took note of the epic snow and the predicted for today frigid temperatures and wind chill and told TOPWLH that we might not get out until it warms up a little on, oh, say Tuesday. I was online this morning after breakfast staying true to what I said last night when I started hearing the sounds of neighbors in the great chilly outdoors with machines. I soon joined them, getting started at about 8am. I have the appropriate machinery for this type of weather event and was done by about 9.

Here is out the front window before I started. Note that the neighbors across the street have snow almost up to the doorknob of their front door.Here is what our back deck looked like (and still does):Here is the star of the show: 6 horsepower, 24 inch cut, two stage, self propelled, electric start, by Craftsman, the tools people:The only hard part is that squeezing the levers to activate the auger and the drive press my mittens firmly against my hands. Without any insulating pocket of air my thumbs get cold very quickly. Today I took a short hand warming break about halfway through the project.

The driveway before I started:One of my motivators was I could see one of our two Sunday newspapers down there in a footprint at the end of the driveway.

And after the first pass.The usual wide stuff at the foot of the driveway had instead been shoved over towards our front lawn so it was not as wide as usual. This meant that the snow was piled in front of the mailbox about six feet out into the street. Even with this distribution the the deepest section was well above the top of the snowblower.Almost done, I had to stop and gas up. In the stocking up frenzy that gripped this metro area on Friday gasoline was the only commodity I acquired. Good idea.We went to the hockey game. Along the way we got a good view of side streets off the snow emergency route in Minneapolis. It wasn't pretty.

What to do today instead of going to a hockey game.

Kudos to my dafter for her excellent report elsewhere on the internet about the huge weather event going out outdoors.

This is what I get for yawning in the face of chaos.

And special thanks to my brafter (I just made that up) who is scanning his slides and provided us with this excellent photo of TOPWLH and I with TCWUTH taken the very first day that she came home and started living with us.No mail delivery today. So much for "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night blah, blah, blah . . ."

Of course, the mere fact of physical impossibility of reaching us in one of those little mail vans probably should be noted before anyone gets very critical.

This seems like a good time to post this again.

It is not a fit night out for man nor beast.

In November of 2007 I spent some time exclaiming at some length over the once in a lifetime opportunity being experienced by an amateur side (U.S.S.A. Vertou) from the suburbs of Nantes playing in le Coupe de France against FC Nantes in the big stadium in Nantes.

The continuing mediocrity of FC Nantes means that this year they are for the third of the past four seasons stuck in Ligue 2. FC Nantes spent the 43 season before that in Ligue 1. Because Ligue 2 teams enter the draw for le Coupe two rounds earlier than Ligue 1 teams it is much, much more likely for a very low level amateur side such as the unpaid players from Vertou to match up against a professional side from Ligue 2 than to play against a Ligue 1 side.

Today in Nantes history repeated itself as a once in a lifetime opportunity occurred again only after a lapse not of a lifetime, but of a mere three years. This time quite a few fewer people think it is a big deal.

FC Nantes 2:0 U.S.S.A. Vertou.

Leaf pick up

This is what happens when you rake your leaves into the street but then winter comes before the leaf pick up crew.You won't be able to see that tomorrow or any time for the rest of the winter as we are expecting the storm of the century, this year's edition, to begin any moment.

*yawn* Still waiting.

Unfinished business

I spotted this while out walking today and it put me in mind of bicycling.As is probably the case with those involved with this tree project, just when I start to think I am on the verge of a big achievement the weather intervenes.

Those rather large logs are probably going to be there in the spring. So are my bicycles.

I understand from a couple of sources that people in northern Europe are complaining about the snow.

Well, excuse me.

Here are the takes on "winter" from two blogs I follow:

Paris Daily Photo

Nantes Daily Photo

At least the ancient jogger in Nantes is wearing my color.

Threat to mechanical advantage overcome

We had about 5 inches, maybe 6, of new snow here beginning yesterday afternoon and ending sometime overnight. It had pretty much stopped and the plow had been past by 9am this morning. Six inches of snow is a lot if you live on a cul de sac as the plow leaves all of that snow from half of the big paved area at the foot of your driveway. Actually, of course, my driveway. The pile was about two and a half feet deep and about four feet wide. This calls for machinery.

I had a can with a small amount of gas so I just needed to wrestle the machinery out from behind the car to the open door of the garage and get it going. For reasons I was not able to fully discern until I had completed that task I had a heck of a hard time. I discovered when I had the room to examine the entire situation that I had a flat tire on the snow blower. OK, it wasn't completely flat, just on that one side. This seemed for not even a second to be a problem. If there is one snow removal problem for which I am COMPLETELY prepared, it is a flat tire. I am bicyclist, hear me roar. I have a pump. In fact, I have three.

The snow blower is electric start so I string a winter weight blue extension cord from the power source at the back of the garage out to the open door to plug the blower in for starting. After getting the engine going today I retreated to the bowels of the garage and emerged with my old electric pump. I only use one or another of my pricey hand pumps on my bicycles now but when I was first starting out I used to use an electric. I still have it. The snow blower tire only requires 20 pounds of air pressure, I was done in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

I decided that snow blowing and the shovel clean up that follows was not enough for today so I still went out and took a walk early this afternoon. Here is my version of snowy woods. That's in the neighborhood, two blocks over to the south and about even on the east-west axis to where we live.It has been three weeks since the end of bicycling season so I have no new mileage to report but I am able to report that today I exceeded 50 miles walked so far this winter.

**pause**

Yes, of course I keep track. Just exactly who did you think you were dealing with here anyway?

Yesterday in France, FC Istres 2:1 FC Nantes. The string ends at ten. FC Nantes had best get another one going if they intend to contend for promotion.

Theme day

Most days I look at Paris Daily Photo. While there today I discovered that this month's daily photo blogger theme is time.

I don't have a photo but I did find this which I believe to be time related:

Looking at the boys in 1964 is seems fairly obvious that time has NOT been on their side.

Just so people won't think I have absolutely no content to offer on John Densmore's birthday (is that something drummers are more aware of than most others?) I offer this bit of news from page 10C of the Metro PRINT Edition (yes, some of us still read the news off pieces of paper) of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper:

Sunrise: 7:30am
Sunset: 4:33pm

Enjoy it while it lasts, more than NINE hours of day and less than FIFTEEN hours of night.

Soooooo dark.

Now I really am done.

The end

I spent some time cruising YouTube looking for a video of the Doors doing "The End". I found a couple but didn't find one that I like. I do like this video though. In the intro Jim asks if when you died did you have enough to base a movie on. Jim certainly did.

I note that Florida Governor Charlie Crist is seeking a pardon for Jim's indecent exposure conviction for allegedly exposing himself during a concert in Miami in 1969. Jim was convicted but he never did any time. He was appealing his conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971 at age 27.

So, this is the end.Everyone just pretend that the video is of "The End" and let's get on to December.

Warm enough to ride

Today was warm enough to ride. This is a view of our backyard in mid-morning. Visible if perhaps not terribly evident there is standing water. In the liquid form! On a day when water will not freeze in your water bottle I would have to consider riding.Of course, riding was not actually possible. The first problem is evident in this photo of the front yard and street taken about the same time as the above photo. Too much snow in the yard, too much slush in the street.The real problem made itself evident a bit later on when, gadzooks, it began to rain. I do not ride in the rain, especially I do not ride in the rain when the temperature is hovering in the 30s.

Rain has many effects but two are paramount for me at this time and in this place. First, rain melts snow. Who knows, if the temperature can somehow remain above freezing we might lose most of our snow cover and then, bicycling speaking, many things might still be possible.

I know. Pipe dream.

Here is reality. The second relevant effect is that rain forces, ewwwww, mall walking. I can report that the Goldie Gopher plush toy is actually just a bear with gopher front teeth sewn on. Very, very tacky.

Still raining.

Possibly the final look back at fall

The way things have worked out I still have a couple of photographs taken while bicycling that have not been published. Here is a picture of the pyramid church in our neighborhood. I published it last year but I again this year it struck me as unusual how it takes a special combination of the light from the low in the sky sun and the clear azure blue sky of early fall to produce this particular effect.That church never looks quite like that any other time of the year.

Called

Every year that we have lived here there has been a touch football game in the field next to our house on Thanksgiving weekend. We have come to expect it on Thanksgiving Day morning. The event occurs regardless of weather. It has been played in deep snow and achingly cold weather. It has been played in sunshine and balmy breezes. Thus we were a bit disappointed this year that either the game did not occur or it was so brief that we missed it. Not to worry, apparently. The game has just been rescheduled to Saturday and it went off again this morning.I walked over to BestBuy to look around at stuff. While walking I realized that the time has come and after letting myself into the garage upon returning home I did it.

Feeling like a B level actor on a prime time TV doctor show I today ended that overwrought scene they often have where the pretend doctors stand around and try to decide which of them is going to "call it". Today I called it.It has snowed twice, it is cold, the season is over. So there in the basement with my bicycle gear laundry drying on the wooden stand in the background stand my two LOOKs. The season is over.

I found this video on the FC Nantes website. It is a Flash video and despite my best efforts, including visiting Blogger help, I could not find a way to embed a Flash video in Blogger. But I recommend giving it a look. It is the goals scored (all seven) by FC Nantes in their recent French Cup victory over ASC Romagné.

Romagné - FC Nantes : Les buts nantais

There is a button in the lower right of the viewer which will expand the video to full screen. I recommend this because the goals can be pretty hard to see if you do not go full screen.

A couple of things make the video, to me, really fun. First is the really charming moment at the beginning where the ASC Romagné team is posing for what for them is a football life highlight, a team photo before taking to their home pitch to play one of the storied teams of French football, a professional side with eight French league championships and three French Cup championships in its list of honors. The Romagné team is an amateur side and all of the players are amateurs, they all have jobs. It is a little like some men's league amateur baseball team like the Dundas Dukes lining up to play the Saint Louis Cardinals in Dundas. This is a big, big moment for ASC Romagné and for its fans. In the end, the FC Nantes professionals and the game officials join Romagné in the photo to make the moment even more memorable as the fans visible in the background applaud.

The other is the view of field as the goals unfold. It bespeaks the charm of the French Cup and similar competitions like the English FA Cup where amateur sides can find themselves drawn at home against one of the big teams. Whereas FC Nantes plays in a nearly 40,000 seat fully modern stadium, Romagné has a covered grandstand on one side of the field and on the opposite side beyond the running track it looks to me like they have rented some of those aluminum two or three step bleachers such as the ones often seen in this country at playgrounds or softball fields. In some places the fans look to be merely standing on a slight hill with no bleachers of any kind available. What you get in the video is a football pitch and a view of late fall in France, complete with the changing leaves on some pretty, orange trees.

Allez Romagné, allez Nantes, vive la France.

Venerable

Usually we just call them "Sorels". I believe these are the "Caribou" model.They are, indeed, high quality, tundra ready winter foot gear. This particular pair also qualify as venerable. They are just the thing for an activity which requires warmth but does not require a huge degree of agility (they are big and they are heavy).

This evening in Nantes, FC Nantes has continued its rise in the league standings with a 2-0 victory over Clermont Foot. FC Nantes has now gone two months and 10 games in a row in all competitions, 9 games in a row in Ligue 2 without a loss, its last defeat occurring on September 20. Included are 4 victories and 5 ties in Ligue 2 and a victory in le Coupe de France. FC Nantes now sits 5th in the table, its highest position since early LAST season. It is not yet time to begin planning for next year, however, as they remain, depending on the outcome of the Monday night game, either two or three points outside the promotion zone.

I'm Dreaming of . . .

The morning newspaper reported that today was the first white Thanksgiving since 2003. I checked my bicycle log and last year I rode both the day before and the day after Thanksgiving. Tomorrow doesn't look likely and yesterday clearly didn't happen. Instead today I shoveled. I am always a little surprised at how hard shoveling is the first few times I do it each season. Fortunately yesterday's accumulation was minor and even though harder than I expected today's shoveling was well within acceptable levels.I am nearly finished there so I was back inside shortly thereafter. My turkey duties this year for the first time had been handed over to TCWUTH. I wasn't completely cut out of kitchen chores as I still peeled potatoes, prepared vegetables and carved the turkey. But Wireless tackled the preparation and roasting of the turkey and performed admirably. Check out her report for details of the big event of the day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, especially those at Rekdal Skule and those covered with diamonds (and rust).

Ding Dong Norwegian Blue

I won't walk in the rain but I am willing to walk in the snow. It verged on sleet at times but remained reliably solid form for the time I was out there. It was really very pretty.

In response to the questions about the fate of yesterday's lead character I am torn between the reply suggested by this:That response would quote the coroner who says, "And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead."

Or I could reply as suggested by this:That response would be as spoken by Mr. Cleese and for which Mr. Chapman also receives a writing credit:" 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!! "

A house has fallen on that ex-bird and the only way it will stand on a perch ever again is if it is NAILED there.

Today's blog post

I am willing to walk but I am not willing to walk in the rain. Yesterday's freezing rain reduced me to that most stereotypical of all retired persons, the mall walker.

Impressions? Well, first, the Apple Store is not busy at about 2pm and from just passing by I could see that the new MacBook Air looks way cool. It has even moved the iPads out of the front display area.

Second, I suppose as an activity that mall walking is doable but not very.

Once when I was still a young moohoo and we were living in the country a bat found its way through an open door one evening and into the house. My brother eventually solved the problem by knocking it out of the air with a tennis racket.

So when TOPWLH came charging screeching out of the basement this morning I knew just exactly what to do.

But first, how does a bird get into your basement? We turned off the lights, no sign of any light coming in in any of the obvious places (except those smallish openings that pass for basement windows). No drafts of cold air could be felt anywhere. And yet there certainly was a small bird flying around in the basement.Equipment notes: The pictured Wilson MidSize Graphite Force is certainly up to this particular task. The flexibility and strength of the graphite frame combined with the current application and pattern of nylon strings produces a useful and effective stunning blow (at least for small birds). The probability is that I have several other frames which would also be effective, in fact, I think I might have been better off with one of the Prince Graphite OverSize that I also have in the front closet. The truth of the matter is that the Wilson Force was on top of the pile and had the further advantage of not being encumbered by a head cover. Today, Wilson is our friend.

Technique tips: Shorten up on the grip and punch, much as you would at a head high forehand volley. My first couple attempts were with a standard Eastern forehand grip and a more or less standard stroke. The bird was too quick. I switched grips to something closer to a Continental and shortened up considerably for the final attempt, the coupe de grace. By the way, TOPWLH says I am her hero.

Who says life isn't entertaining?

Pillsbury Mansion?

OK, finally I have run out of Pillsbury Mansions. But I have one more mansion, this is the last one on the block, neighbors to the Gale-Pillsbury Mansion. This is the Eugene Merrill House.From the Architecture Guide:

The oldest mansion on the park, built of rusticated red sandstone and dominated by a polygonal tower, its style falls in the broad territory of Chateauesque. The house was built in 1884 for John S. Bradstreet, who for many years was Minneapolis's decorator for the well-to-do. For reasons unknown, Bradstreet never occupied the house and in 1887 it was acquired by a lawyer and banker named Eugene Merrill.

The neighborhood is, fairly obviously, littered with huge old houses and is well worth a walking, or, as in my case, a bicycling tour. In fact, the district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Washburn-Fair Oaks Mansion District.

The development in the area was spurred by the desire of prominent families to move away from the central business district and to build larger and more elegant homes along what was at that time the edge of town. Development began around the early 1870s and continued through about 1930. The houses within the district represent a number of popular architectural revival styles.

The name of the district derives from the William Washburn House (Fairoaks). According to the Architecture Guide this "was among the grandest of all Twin Cities mansions but stood for only 40 years. The house was built in 1884 amid grounds that included a pond and a stream crossed by a rustic bridge, a green house and a carriage house. Washburn lived on the estate until his death in 1912. The property then went to the Minneapolis Park Board, which found the mansion too costly to maintain; in 1924 it fell to the wrecker." The former site is now a Minneapolis park, Washburn Fair Oaks Park.

William Washburn was trained as a lawyer but after his arrival in Minneapolis in 1857 he was able to get in on the ground floor of the milling business at Saint Anthony Falls. His business ventures in flour milling and in lumber allowed him to amass a large fortune, and by the 1880s, he was among the wealthiest men in Minnesota. Washburn served as the first president from 1883 to 1889 of what was to become Soo Line Railroad. He also founded the Pillsbury-Washburn Milling Company, which later became the Pillsbury Company (not the same entity as the C. A. Pillsbury and Company, which also later became the Pillsbury Company. The Pillsbury-Washburn Company was eventually absorbed by Washburn's brother's firm, General Mills.

The other nearby houses which are still standing include:

-The Caroline Crosby House, at 2105 First Avenue South, built by the daughter of John Crosby, co-founder of the Washburn-Crosby Company (later became General Mills). The house is a brick Georgian Revival structure.

-The Luther Farrington House, at 2100 Stevens Avenue South, is also in the Georgian Revival style.

-The J.S. Kingmen House, at 2022 Second Avenue South, is a Shingle Style house built in 1883.

-The George H. and Leonora Christian House at 2302 Third Avenue South, was the last to be built in the neighborhood. The house uses Renaissance Revival elements such as a balustraded roof.

George Christian was the manager of the Washburn-Crosby milling company in the 1860s and helped to perfect the "new process" of milling hard spring wheat to make a pure white flour. This process made Minneapolis flour highly competitive with flour from other mills.

Christian was nearly 80 years old when he began building the house. Before the project was finished Christian, his wife, and his son died, leaving Carolyn (also spelled Caroline) McKnight Christian, the younger Christian's widow, seven servants,and four foster children as the only occupants for the next forty years, until the 1950s. The building now houses the Hennepin History Museum.

I am now officially done with big old houses in Minneapolis, although browsing in the Architecture Guide has revealed to me the address of the house which John Pillsbury Snyder and Nelle Snyder had built in 1913 after returning from the Titanic disaster. I admit that I would like to have a look.

Passage du Gois

The 2011 Tour de France will cross the Passage du Gois.
Here is what happened the last time the race came here in 1999.

Stage 3 begins in Olonne-sur-Mer.

Pillsbury Mansion

Somewhere someone is saying, "How long can he keep this up?"

OK, so this one is usually known as the Gale Mansion, but it is the next house on the block, next to Alfred's house, two doors down from Charles.And, it is most certainly a Pillsbury Mansion. Edward Chanary Gale was the son of Minneapolis pioneer real estate broker Samuel Gale. His wife, Sara Bell Pillsbury (known as Sadie), was the younger daughter of Governor John S. Pillsbury. That makes her Alfred's sister, cousin to Charles S. (on the corner) and niece of Charles A. (across the street). The Gales lived here until they died, both in 1943. The house is now owned by the American Association of University Women.

From the Architecture Guide to the Twin Cities:

"Beaux-Arts mansions can easily seem overbearing but that's not the case here. This elegant, subtly asymmetrical Renaissance Revival house keeps everything at a human scale. The wrought iron balconies, the intimate colonnade and veranda along 22nd Street East, and the ornament all convey a sense of quiet graciousness, as do the rooms within."

Before I leave this topic here is another interesting Pillsbury family tidbit I acquired during my working life, concerning John Pillsbury Snyder.

John Pillsbury Snyder is a representative of one of the oldest families of Minneapolis. His grandfather, Simon Peter Snyder, established his home in what was then Saint Anthony, in 1885. Soon after his arrival in Minneapolis, Mr. Snyder had purchased eighty acres of land near Nicollet Avenue and Tenth street, which he platted as Snyder's first addition to Minneapolis. Snyder and his wife occupied the first frame house built on the west side of the river and their son Fred was born in 1859 in that house. That house is now referred to as the Stevens house. It is now located in Minnehaha Park.

Fred B. Snyder was married September 23, 1885, to Susan M. Pillsbury, older daughter of Governor John S. Pillsbury. She died in 1891, leaving a son, John Pillsbury Snyder.

John Pillsbury Snyder was married in 1912 to Miss Nelle Stevenson when he was 24 years old, she was 23. They honeymooned in Europe. For the return voyage they boarded HMS Titanic at Southampton. Traveling as first class passengers, they occupied cabin B-45.

Some newspapers reported that after the iceberg had been struck a crewman had called out, "Put in the brides and grooms first!" So Mr. and Mrs. Snyder edged forward. Mrs. Snyder was quite frightened at how far below the decks the water was. Later she said that no one thought it was safe to leave the ship. She described how first class gentlemen, including John Jacob Astor, kept telling them, "Don't get into the lifeboats. This ship can't possibly sink." They heard this over and over again, despite the fact that the crew kept ordering people to abandon ship.

The Snyders boarded the lifeboat which because so few seemed interested in leaving the ship, departed from the Titanic less than half full at about 1:15 a.m. They were both rescued in Lifeboat 7.

John P. Snyder died on July 22, 1959. An avid golfer, he suffered a massive heart attack while playing a round on Woodhill Golf Course in Orono.

Nelle Snyder died in Wayzata on December 9, 1983, at the age of 94.

This afternoon in France, FC Nantes has successfully advanced to the next round of le Coupe de France.

ASC Romagné 1:7 FC Nantes. Nantes led 5 nil at the half.

Our street signs are nicer than your street signs

Ours have a rose.As usual all photos taken within a two or three minute bicycle ride from my house, or, measured differently, within a half hour walk or so.

*sigh*

I'm going to miss my bike.

Today I tried yet another route through the rectangle to the four sides and came upon this bit of storm damage.My storm scene recreation is that the hollow trunk (foreground) of a double trunk tree (background) was not strong enough to carry the weight of the extremely heavy snow. When the weaker half went down it took the whole business down with it.

This early winter storm is now officially far more damaging than any summer storm in the neighborhood for at least the past dozen years or so.

No football this Friday, FC Nantes plays in le Coupe de France tomorrow. FC Nantes will be seeking its first victory in a trophy cup competition game in the past two seasons. Last year's precipitous collapse to near relegation to the 3rd division also included resounding defeats in contests played in both the League Cup and the French Cup. This year's early autumn league cup was also a defeat for Nantes. FC Nantes has drawn unluckily, having to go on the road for this contest but has drawn luckily in that they face a team from five levels below them in the hierarchy of French football. FC Nantes has not had much success of late on a professional football level. Fortunately for them the game tomorrow is not against other professional footballers, it is against amateurs, a side of eleven who all have day jobs.

Allez Nantes.

Pillsbury Mansion

I have read the Pillsbury family history in the original documents. My former life included lots and lots of looking at land records and I have seen the probate records left by most of the Pillsbury family, at least the really rich members of the Pillsbury family, after their deaths. John S. Pillsbury was a Governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1882. He was married to Mahala, they had three children, son Alfred and daughters Susan and Sara.

John S. was originally from New Hampshire. After moving to Minnesota he was active in several businesses, notably land and lumber (and because he had acquired lots of timber lands at a fortuitous time, eventually mining), but is most famous for the company he helped found with his brother's son, Charles, the C. A. Pillsbury Company, the flour people. John's own son, Alfred, did not go into business, but instead became an art collector. When he died, the works were donated to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The collection included over nine hundred Asian objects, and it still forms the nucleus of the Institute of Art's ancient Chinese, Islamic pottery and Chinese Qing period (1644-1911) porcelain collections. He was a stamp collector and, bicycle content here, also owned the first high-wheeled bicycle in Minneapolis. Smelly car content here, he also owned one of the first three cars in Minneapolis.

This is Alfred's house, next door to the previously pictured large house owned by his cousin Charles, and across the street from the one owned by his uncle Charles.After Alfred's death the house left the family. It was at one time converted into a series of offices and later a boarding house. It is now in private hands and has been renovated.

My architecture guide says, "Tudor Revival in style and executed in rock faced local limestone, it has a dense, craggy presence that still impresses today."

I tried a walk again today and am required to report some tightness in my calves. Apparently you don't use the calves much in bicycling. After that I went by a local financial institution and acquired some of these.The big one there is what I expect to be using the next time I either encounter a busker in the Paris Metro or the next time I am doing this regardless of whether it is in Paris or somewhere nearer by:Photo by traveling companion who scans (TCWS). That spot is in the archways leading to Place des Vosges, located in the Marais straddling the line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.

Just blogging about blogging

JBAB, which come to think about it, is pretty much what I do here anyway.

My life experience tells me that if I repeat any sort of physical act for three days in a row that the second day is the hardest. The first day is measurement, the second day is hard, the third day it starts to feel a little bit familiar and I can start to gauge how well I am doing.

Today it went a little better. Part of the joy of bicycling is the free time, I just ride along thinking about nothing and everything or nothing or whatever I feel like. Day 1 that freedom of thought was completely missing as I obsessed over where to go and how far I had to go before turning to make sure to get a desired distance, all sorts of details. Day 2 I was still thinking mostly about how hard this was and whether I would be able to do it. Day 3 was easy, the zen aspect of being out there magically returned. I floated along enjoying myself thoroughly.

It was still pretty grey today and a few degrees colder. That mid week thaw that some of us are still desperately holding out hope for seems less and less likely. Photography also seemed pretty unlikely but I had slipped the camera into an inside pocket.

Walking a predetermined distance is easy if you live in a grid pattern city. You pick out the edges of a rectangle of such dimension that walking the edges would give you your desired distance. Then you only have to leave your house, go to the four edges and then head on home and the distance is complete. The good part is that even for the relatively small distance that I can walk this leaves lots and lots of different routes for three miles.

Today's route took me past this impressive snowman.Just as nearly everyone of us has, I have snowmanned a few times and getting one of that size together requires a commitment.

I found a couple more examples of storm damage. This one is apparently such a juicy morsel that I only had to pause to give it a close look and a young couple in a pick up truck with branches and chain saws in the back stopped. The young man wanted to know if I was the homeowner and if I wanted advice on dealing with the problem and saving the tree.I suppose its better than not having any job at all.

I briefly considered giving them the go ahead but I am pretty sure they were going to want a deposit or something and that was for me a bridge too far.***

Here is another one on the same street.Both of these spots are within .5 bicycle miles from my house, a bit further than that on foot.

Here is a place where the snow is still winning.I am pretty sure that the most likely explanation is that those people are not home. Snowbirds? Already in Florida?

JBAB.

***WWII reference

Pillsbury Mansion

I tried that three mile walk again today. Walking uses different muscles than bicycling and I am far from walking fit. It turned out to be a tiny bit hard. I am reminded that for exercise if it isn't at least a little bit hard it probably isn't much worth doing.

I hauled my camera along again today but on a grey day with not a single peek at the sun nothing leaped out screaming to be photographed.

So here is the first of some pictures I took on the way back from visiting the Kenwood Cyclery on Election Day.

If you have a map handy and are familiar with Minneapolis and can follow a straight line from 21st and Penn past this spot on 22nd and 1st Avenue South you can quickly deduce how I ended up in a sketchy neighborhood.

In the meantime, this is the Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion.Charles S. and John S. II were the twin sons of Charles A. Pillsbury, founder and namesake of the Pillsbury Company. The story is that Charles and John tossed a coin to decide who would inherit the family home, "The Highland House." Charles lost the bet, and built his own home across 22nd Street from the family home, which no longer exists. Charles built his new home in 1913 and 1914 at a cost of $300,000. It is occasionally referred to as the the house that flour built.

My architecture guide says, "The Tudor Revival-style house features a polygonal conservatory, bas-relief carvings, and a pair of stone lions who guard the entrance gate. Its sumptuous interiors were the work of antiques dealer Charles Duveen, known as "Charles of London", his talents apparently being so extraordinary that no one could mistake him for any other Charles in the English capitol. Duveen filled the house with old world treasures - leaded glass, firplace mantles, oak paneling, anf furniture - all extracted from historic English castles, churches and guildhalls."

On foot

I have not formally declared the season to be over (that means I haven't brought my bicycle down into the basement yet). Today's temperatures were above average for the day, the sun such as its puny November self is, was out. It looked like a good day to be outside.

The greatest glory of the bicycle is the amount of territory you can cover compared to the amount of territory you could cover in the same time while walking. A close corollary is the amount of stuff you can see compared to the amount of stuff you might see while covering the same amount of territory while speeding along in your car. The problem with a walk is you don't get very far, but what the heck, I took my camera along with me when I set out for the first extended pedestrian activity since the last day in France.

Surprise, surprise.

I walked about three miles which means I never got more than about a four minute bicycle ride from home. And yet . . .

This is along Roselawn near MidOaks, about .75 miles from home. It looks like that oak tree was partly hollow and the top part broke off, nearly bringing down some wires.Whew, that was close. That wire is the cable TV and internet leading into that neighborhood, it is not the line that eventually delivers those services to my house.

This is on Ryan near Prior, about .5 bicycle miles from my house, a little closer when I can walk across the field (which today I could not).Another tree down. Apparently rumors of a big, wet snow storm have some basis in truth.

I have seen these guys a few times but have never gotten a picture. They run away when I am on my bicycle and the time I was in my car when I saw them I was a mile past them before I could even get slowed down.Apparently they are at least slightly habituated to humans on foot. They were cautious but not overly alarmed about my presence. There is a bird feeder around the corner of that house which had about six turkeys clustered around it.

So I have some photos that I took earlier while riding that I can use if I need to for this National Blog Every Day of the Month Month and I thought I would have to use one of them today. I was surprised to find interesting stuff while on foot.

If the guy who took this photo and is currently scanning all of his slides isn't going to use this, I am.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, pre-nuptials.

Snow scores first ever victory

The plow came a little after dark and after it left I went out and tackled the giant pile of heavy, heavy, half water slush shoved into the end of the driveway. I got contact with civilization reestablished but started to feel discomfort in my left elbow (in my left hand on the bottom shoveling technique, the lifting arm), both hands, and oh my aching back. I took a little break to husband enough strength to finish.At nearly noon here right now the little break is currently about 18 hours in length.

For the first time ever, the snow has won. I started the clean up but did not finish. It doesn't look like much though, at least from inside the house. I expect man to win round two.

Still coming

The first two were taken out the back door at around 8am.
Then I tried to go to a CLE but decided that travel was not advised.

The last one is out the garage door after I pulled back in about 8:20.Morning paper prognosis looks spot on for 3 to 8 inches. Local radar looks to me like we are currently right in the middle of it.

EDIT: Almost 5pm and the city plows have not been here yet. We have gotten started on our share of the job.Based on accumulation on the picnic table on the deck I think we have at least 7 inches here. And it is still snowing, albeit very lightly at this point.