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.

Yesterday's ride

Somehow my blogging has ended up a day ahead.

Here is Thursday's ride photos. Sure enough, as promised, the bicycle I now ride palps tires in a blue colorway and bar tape and a saddle in a silver colorway. Here is a review:

The new one fits just a tiny bit better than the old one. It is a very subtle difference, not a reach issue, maybe a slightly more comfortable feeling angle or something. In any case, it is very subtle and not terribly significant. On the down side the old one has the saddle that I am used to and changing that piece of equipment at this point in the season may not be a good decision. Back on the upside, FirstLOOK is a very, very lightweight bicycle but NewLOOK is absolutely scary light. That bicycle weighs nothing, nothing at all.

Here is a NewLOOK at the Martin Olav Sabo bridge where the Midtown Greenway crosses Hiawatha Avenue.I have now tried all of what seem like reasonable alternatives to me and that bridge is the best way across that busy thoroughfare.

I rode over to Flanders. Here is a NewLOOK at Flanders. I wanted to go there to do a comparison of NewLOOK and the used LOOK 585 that I recently saw on sale there for $4,000.First, it is still there. $4,000 seems pretty high for a used bicycle. The Flanders LOOK is a red Large, the same frame size as mine. The wheelsets are the same, Ksyrium ES anniversary, the ones with the single red spoke. Both have silver bar tape, although mine is Fizik, Flanders is Deda. Flanders has a LOOK seatpost, I would like that, mine is Easton. My gruppo is Chorus, the Flanders LOOK sports SRAM Red. Fairly obviously, I prefer Chorus.

So the Flanders LOOK is indeed a way nice bike. I believe that an objective evaluation would determine that NewLOOK is at least as nice, I think most evaluations would conclude that mine is the one that is nicer. I do not believe that a used bicycle is worth three-fourths of retail, no matter how nice it was to begin with. A used LOOK 585 just isn't going to get many offers of $4,000. I know for a fact that I paid quite a bit less than that for mine.

On the way home I got a photo facing down river from the Franklin Avenue bridge. That's the Soo Line railroad bridge near the city limits on the east side and near 24th Street on the west.What happened to fall color?

Probable rain on Friday, possibly turning to snow on Friday night, continued mixed precipitation or snow through the day on Saturday with possibility of snow accumulating, all possibly continuing overnight Saturday and on into Sunday. Cheery.

Every one feels like it might be the one but this ride may in fact have been the last one.

I almost forgot, this evening in Angers, FC Nantes has continued its string of good results on the road with a 1-1 draw against Angers SCO. FC Nantes played without two starters including its leading scorer but still extended their recent run to eight games without a loss including four straight road draws. FC Nantes remains 7th in the table but loses ground as measured against the third place club.

Next up is an away match next Saturday against ASC Romagné in the first match this season for FC Nantes in the Coupe de France. ASC Romagné is an amateur side from the Division Supérieure Régionale (DSR), a league five levels below the level of Ligue 2. According to the FC Nantes website the game will be played in Fougeres Ille-et-Vilaine in the region of Bretagne (Brittany).

Armistice Day

The final of the photos taken on Monday, this is the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the Capitol approach. The inscription is a quotation from the poem, "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak", by Archibald MacLeish. The inscription reads, "We were young. We have died. Remember us."Here is the complete poem:

The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.

The Minnesota memorial follows the pattern established by the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington by listing the names of the dead in the order in which they were taken from us. Minnesota's memorial lists the names of the 1,072 Minnesota residents who were casualties of that war.

Here is a closer look at line one, the casualties from 1962.Robert D. Larson, a Captain in the Air Force, home of record Moorhead, 309th Troop Carrier Squadron, 464th Troop Carrier Wing, 13th Air Force, pilot of a fixed wing aircraft lost over Bien Hoa Province, South Vietnam, on February 2, 1962. Captain Larson was 28 years old. His death occurred while I was still obliviously strolling the halls of my small town high school.

Here are a couple more, selected not exactly at random:

Daniel K. Welin, Private First Class in the Army, home of record Bloomington, a member of E Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Wounded on March 24, 1970, the record indicates "burns". He was declared dead on April 4, 1970 at the age of 20. He was the first Minnesotan to die in Vietnam after my arrival there on April 3, 1970.

Anthony J. Mensen, Chief Warrant Officer in the Army, home of record Sauk Centre, a helicopter pilot for the 54th Medical Detachment, 61st Medical Battalion, 67th Medical Group, United States Army Republic of Vietnam Medical Command. CW2 Mensen died in a helicopter crash on October 22, 1971, in Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam. He was 21. He was the last Minnesotan to die in Vietnam before I left country on October 28, 1971.

Visible here is the final line, the final casualties, the year 1973.Keith A. Christopherson, a Lieutenant junior grade in the Navy, home of record South Saint Paul, assigned to the USS Ranger, a Forrestal class aircraft carrier, VAQ-130 (Electronic Attack Squadron-130), Task Force 77, 7th Fleet. The record says he was pilot of a fixed wing aircraft lost over the Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnam, on January 21, 1973. Based on his rank, Lieutenant junior grade, a rank for a very newly commissioned officer, I am guessing that Lieutenant Christopherson was the co-pilot. During the time when we were both alive I was 11 days older than Lieutenant Christopherson, he was 26 years old when he died.

Richard D. Wiehr, an Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class in the Navy, home of record Mankato, also assigned to the USS Ranger, a Forrestal class aircraft carrier, VAQ-130 (Electronic Attack Squadron-130), Task Force 77, 7th Fleet. AT2 Wiehr was crew on a fixed wing aircraft lost over the Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnam, on January 21, 1973, quite probably the same aircraft loss that resulted in the death of Lieutenant Christopherson. Aviation Technician Wiehr was 22 years old.

I didn't find statistics indicating average age at death but I did find a table indicating that of the reported 58,193 American deaths, 35,198 were 21 years old or younger at the time of death, 25,493 were 20 years old or younger, 12 were 17 years old. 40,775 reported a marital status of single. 8 were female.

Average is not the same as median but in a number of casualties as large as 58,193 I believe that it is very likely that the average is very close to the median. The median age of all American casualties in Vietnam was 21. I think it is safe to say that the average age of those individuals was 21. The people we ask to die in our wars are, for the most part, barely more than children.

Posting a crooked number

This cannot last forever. In fact, conditions late this afternoon are starting to make a change, probably to something closer to the average. But in the meantime, it was mid-60s and sunny again today. I decided to ride my bicycle.

It was windy today and as I headed down towards the big city the wind which was advertised as SSE seemed to me to be most punitive when I was heading east, more an ESE than SSE. I thought about it for the couple of miles before I had to make a route decision and eventually headed off to ride the Capitol loop in reverse, something I very, very rarely do. This led me into the east wind early in the ride when I was strongest and minimized the amount of riding I had to do while pointed in a southerly direction. There is a reason why I don't do this more often though and it is the ride on John Ireland Boulevard from the Capitol up Cathedral Hill to the big church. The traffic is heavy, the part of the pavement where bicycles should ride is not well marked and did I mention that it is a hill?

This is a picture that I took today. It is, according to that plaque, "Monument to the Living" by Rodger M. Brodin, subtitled "Why do you forget us?" and "Presented by and for the Veterans of Minnesota, Dedicated May 22, 1982".It claims to be a monument for all veterans but the costume is pure Vietnam, from the boonie hat, to the jungle boots and fatigues, all the way to the M-16 slung grunt style over his right shoulder. It also features the plaintive cry of the many Vietnam vets circa 1982 who felt under appreciated, why do you forget us. In fact, I was present at that dedication and at that time this statue was recognized as a de facto Vietnam veterans monument. It retained that status until the dedication of what is now the recognized Vietnam memorial. The why do you forget us thing might have some validity as this statue is not really on the Capitol mall, it is more stuck back on a patch of grass next to the parking lot for the Veterans' Service Building. But that's OK, I remember thinking at the time that as art this thing is pretty good welding.

A bit earlier in the ride I passed this construction site.I am not positive but since that is the site of the former Como pool I suspect that the construction is for the new Como pool.

Baseball slang refers to an inning in which a team scores something other than 0 or 1 run as "posting a crooked number" on the scoreboard. Today I posted a crooked number.

My usual ride is 26 miles. The reasons for this are a couple but pretty easily understood. I want to average 25 miles per ride for all rides taken during the year. The best way to make that happen is to generally ride more than 25, 26 is more than 25. I also don't want to ride 25 or 27 as I prefer that every ride end in an even number of miles. I do this to avoid even the slightest possibility of arriving home at the end of an odd number of miles ride to discover that one or another of the totals that I keep track of has settled upon that dreadfully unlucky number. Triskaidekaphobia. As a result of all those 26s I am quite familiar with the multiplication tables for 26, at least through the number 15 or so.

I noticed when looking at numbers at the end of last month that if I rode the regular 26 milers but added just 2 miles to one of those rides, which I did, riding 28 miles on November 1, that sometime during the month I would arrive back at my garage to find this:20,000 miles on one bicycle. I have known all along that this was within the realm of possibility but I always expected if I did manage to get there this year that it would be on a grey and ugly day, cold, probably windy, conditions more likely for November. Instead? 64, sunny, very, very pleasant. By the way, portrait setting, macro activated. My feet in bicycle shoes for authenticity.

Let's see a show of hands from those with 20,000 miles ridden TOTAL on any number of bicycles during their lifetime. OK, I see one hand over there.

How about 10,000 miles? Now I see another one pretty close to here. You over there, raising both hands is just showing off. And if you think showing off is what I am now doing, well, this is MY blog, I believe showing off is what I do here.

OK then, how about even 2,000 hours (2,000 times 10 miles per hour equals 20,000) engaged in any single human powered activity during their lifetime. OK, I see another one for that.

Not too many of us though.

That bicycle will now be retired, the next time I am able to ride I will be riding NewLOOK.

I sense something

Today was a nice day for September which means that it was a very nice day for October. Which means it was probably somewhat off the charts for November 9. Before heading off to work TOPWLH remarked that it looked like a good day to be retired. She was right.

I didn't even get out of the driveway before social interactions began to occur. My bicycling neighbor was just finishing his ride as I prepared to begin mine. He has a new bicycle and he stopped to let me have a look. It is a Ridley with SRAM, Mavic wheels, quite a nice bike.

Here is a picture I got yesterday of the Minnesota Korean War Veterans Memorial.I like the way the figure and the piece it appears to have been cut from line up with the Capitol. As with yesterday's WWII memorial, it was serene, an appropriate spot for some quiet reflection.

But what about today? The wind was from the south, I headed down into the big city. I rode towards the confluence of the two big rivers. When last seen by me this area was in heavy flood. The water is still quite high, particularly for this time of year, but it should be apparent that the rivers are back inside their banks.Just as I was preparing to mount up for a return home a fellow citizen and a bald eagle showed up and proceeded to entertain. The eagle did its part by soaring over the river valley, no doubt looking for some lunch. The fellow citizen did his part by being extravagantly over enthusiastic about the appearance of our national symbol. Ben Franklin, of course, thought it should be the wild turkey, but I digress.

The big bird soared over the confluence overlook where I was still standing and appeared to possibly be in the mood for a photo. I was unprepared and by the time I had resecured my bicycle and extracted the camera from my jersey pocket the photo opportunity had passed.

The eagle did NOT consent to an interview following the event and I'm not sure how useful that would have been anyway, since I do not speak Eagle so I cannot state positively for the eagle but for the fellow citizen and myself I can quite comfortably assert that a good time was had by both.

When I got home it was 66 and sunny, what's not to like?

Standard time miles

As noted recently in the comments, the daily sunset is now before 5pm. Well, as of tomorrow morning, the daily sunrise is after 7am. The fact that all of this disturbs me a lot more than it disturbs some people is not news to those who know me. I loathe the loss of daylight. I glory in January which despite its almost always frigid temperatures and massive snowfall amounts also brings the beginning of the return of light. Meanwhile, six more weeks until the winter solstice, this is going to get worse.

Actually, the sunrise has been after 7am almost every day since September 23. However, all of that was with the magic of daylight savings time. That extra hour in the evening is now gone and joining it on the sidelines is anything vaguely resembling daylight in the morning. It is dark, my friends, it is dark.

But today was warm, really warm. I actually had some trouble getting out of the house as it took me a while to reconstruct what the appropriate riding costume is for 60 degrees. That worked itself out in due time and obviously 60 in November presents extremely rideable conditions. I rode, marking the first time this year I have ridden during Central Standard Time. I checked the bike log (again, one of the reasons for keeping a log) and discovered that my very first ride this year was on March 14 which is noted in the log as the first day of DST.

I rode the Capitol Loop and got a picture appropriate to the coming Veterans Day holiday. Here is the State of Minnesota World War II Veterans Memorial, a plaza in front of the Veterans Memorial Service Building (itself a memorial to all Minnesota Veterans of all wars) and also occupying a place of prominence in the Capitol approach area.It is very nice and today was quite serene. Thursday there will be a band, politicians and speeches. Today was probably nicer.

I have mentioned that I thought that the harvesting technique used this year in the local corn field would not lend itself to what has been the practice over the past several spring planting seasons of minimum tillage. As I approached home today I found out that I was right. The use of a plow is maximum tillage and today the plow was in the field.I have not fallen off my bicycle yet this year but I did lean it against a STOP sign while I was taking this picture. The wind blew it over. While it is true that I myself did not go down, allowing this indignity to my bicycle hurts my pride nearly as much as actually falling off would. That is no way to treat a nice bicycle. I am chastened.

You're just a kid

I had an excellent reason for skipping bicycling on a day in November spectacularly suited for that mostly non-November activity. As excellently reported elsewhere on the internet (and also the place where I stole this picture) I instead had that rarest of opportunities, the opportunity to attend a 90th birthday party.For all (including me) who are complaining about the effects of aging, be aware that every time I start up with any of that in his presence Bud just looks at me and reminds me that I am "just a kid". Well, compared to him most anyone is just that, a kid. Congratulations well earned I should say.

A good time was had by all.

I have some stuff of my own from my most recent bicycle trip to Minneapolis. Good stuff too, I think. I took the pictures then but saved them knowing that posting every day in National Blog Every Day of the Month Month would lead to days when I was short of material.

The city of Minneapolis has added an extremely welcome bike lane on the Franklin Avenue bridge.They have also taken a further step in advancing bicycle safety at a heavily bicycle used intersection at the west, or campus, end of the bridge. They have marked a bicycle box on the street at one of the most dangerous spots in the intersection. The bicycle box is an innovation taking hold in Portland, Oregon, but clearly there is going to have to be a little more raising of general awareness before it works here. The idea is for the cars to stay out of the box.We will advance by taking tiny little steps.

Badgers 5, Gophers nil

Hockey wasn't very entertaining for us today.

TOPWLH had driven to the event separately and had to leave immediately after the game to attend a social and/or cultural event. That means she went to a concert with some friends. There are a limited number of artists whose live performances I will attend and the one on tonight's bill was not one of them.

So while GRider ran off barely before the echoes of the final horn had died in the building, I followed the usual protocol of hanging around for a few minutes, waiting for the teams to leave the ice and for the announcement of the three stars of the game.

In a 5-0 game all of the stars of the game play for the team that had 5. So that wasn't very entertaining either.

But all was not lost, even after all that.

At the conclusion of all of the actual game activities, the Gopher Sports promotion department conducted chuck-a-puck. Today's prize was a $50 gift card for Punch Pizza. We don't care much about the prizes but we always participate just for the joy of chucking a foam rubber puck out onto the ice in concert with a couple hundred other people doing the same thing. Chuck-a-puck is a happening.

As is our standard procedure, my usual chucking partner had selected pucks for both of us. But as she was not in the building for the event, I had to chuck both hers and my foam rubber pucks.

Hers went wide.

Mine was better.