Too hot to ride in the middle of the day

As I prepare this post we have passed the normal close of business for today without any agreement having been reached on the state budget impasse. No agreement means the government will shut down at midnight. It also means that I have several friends looking at unscheduled time off from their regular employment.

So I am going to go ahead and depart from my usual bicycling only blog and go ahead with some politics.

But bicycle first, it is hotter than Hades out there today. I took the precaution of riding early in the day. I waited until 8am to give most of the commuting types time to clear the roads. I ride early in the morning several times per year but this is really the first time I have done so this year. The light . . . the light is amazing. Anybody who doesn't like morning is missing out big time on the best time of the day (that's you TOPWLH). I was home by about 10:30, in plenty of time to watch the important group stage game at the Women's World Cup between France and Canada.

Les Bleus 4, Maple Leafs 0. Allez les Bleus.

By 10:30 the heat was definitely beginning to rise but it was still comfortable enough. I had a great ride. I took a couple of pictures. I was going through the usual post ride editing, deciding which shot most deserved publication. Joe Valentinetti taught me that, that no matter how much YOU like the photo, you have to edit. I was looking, trying to edit and decided instead that I would insert a quiz. Here comes the politics.

One of the following two pictures represents the role of state government as seen by the current Governor. The other picture represents the view of the current legislative majorities.

Discuss:
OK, I'll give my answer first. The first one is the Governor, a view of the state property that focuses on its natural beauty and attempts to preserve that natural beauty for all of us and for all that will come later. Government is not evil and it is not free. Government is all of us working together to make where we live the kind of place that we want to live. Taxes are not punishment, taxes are how we pay for where we live, how we pay to keep the graffiti off the things we own and to keep the billboards out of the state parks.

The second is the legislature. You only do the minimum amount of maintenance necessary, you commercialize the property to the maximum extent possible, their motto seems to be if business thinks it is a good idea, we think it is a good idea.

Good luck all, I hope you get back to work soon.

Here is another view of the big Hmong festival scheduled this weekend for McMurray Fields. It would be a shame to obscure the view of the boulevard flowers but the festival is the reason why you can't park there this weekend.I read through the Major League Rule 8 including the bit on what is a balk. As long as we have a comment from someone who has actually pitched I am wondering about a bit which I cannot find in the Major League rule but which I am certain is a balk. Which part of the rule is implicated and in what way to require that a right handed pitcher may look over his shoulder at the runner on first but if he turns his body even slightly to give himself a better view and then turns back towards home plate he has then balked. I am certain that this is the rule but I do not find it spelled out in Rule 8.

Balk

We nearly decided last week to turn on the heat. Tomorrow we will probably turn on the cool.

My Minneapolis correspondent reported recently that you can ride underneath the baseball stadium on a newly completed trail segment. Wind conditions today led me off in that direction today and I decided to take a look.The stadium (the limestone in the upper right) was in use when I was there, the Twins were playing an afternoon game against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

I know it isn't really the Brooklyn Dodgers but until they get that bankruptcy thing squared away the current ownership probably deserves to be called by a name other than the real name. At least Brooklyn is not obscene.

In today's game Scott Baker pitched extremely well and the locally based side prevailed by 1 nil.

But what I thought was most interesting was this scene across from the University football stadium. That's the debris field from the last snow pile in town.There is a fence between me and the debris so I cannot be positive but I think there is still snow out there.

The wet portion slightly to the viewer right of the photo when viewed in person looks slightly raised from the rest of the area and there is NO reason for it to be wet, the rest of the debris, except for the puddle, is dry. The explanation I reach is that there is still something out there converting from solid to liquid form. The last snow pile is still releasing moisture.

It was 85 today with near 100 expected tomorrow. If you want to get a look at the last sign of winter you had best hurry.

It appears that the big Hmong sports tournament and festival is on for this weekend. I can tell because today the rent a fence was being installed.So I had ridden all the way to downtown Minneapolis and all the way back to Como Park. It was warmer today than it has been and I started to feel a bit overheated and perhaps overworked. I don't usually take a sit down while I am riding but today I took a sit down in the shade near Lake Como.

After sitting there a while I decided that it was peaceful and picturesque and worthy of being memorialized.The Tour de France kicks off on Saturday. Stage 1 is 191.5 kilometers beginning at the Passage du Gois, the seabed road from Ile de Noirmoutier to the French mainland which is only available at low tide. At the 63 km mark the race will pass through Les Sables d'Olonne. Sunday's stage is a team time trial, always an interesting exercise. Stage 3 on Monday the Fourth of July is a mostly flat 198 km beginning in Olonne-sur-Mer. Stages 4 through 7 (through Friday) will be mostly flat stages but also in northwestern France, Brittany. Stage 21 will be on Sunday, July 24, with the traditional finish of the race on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

And lastly, and a late edit addition here, apparently I am one of the very few people on the planet with an even passing familiarity with the balk rule.

I just walked out onto the field and over to where the baseball field is and where there is an almost every night baseball game. With the bases loaded for the red team the blue pitcher took his stretch position on the mound and then turned and FAKED A THROW TO FIRST. An umpire, two coaches for each team, about 12 players per team and maybe 40 or 50 parents took absolutely no notice while I, a completely uninterested observer loudly protested, "BALK". Anyone agree with me?

Second season

An often heard criticism of Minnesota is that there are only two seasons: winter and road construction. Today was most definitely not winter so it must have been road construction. I had to stop TWICE to clean the debris off my tires and in fact, the second stop came about a block and a half after the first stop.

Dodging the streets with sticky tar led me off the usual routes but not very far at all from the usual places to ride. What happened was that I dodged over towards Rice Street to get the tire menace which only meant that I ended up riding the eight lakes tour in reverse direction. Reverse direction is always interesting because I end up seeing pretty familiar locations from an unfamiliar perspective.

Sucker Lake has a much more North Woods look when approached from the south.Sharp eyed viewers will note that there is a bench in this photo, something you don't see very often in the North Woods.

I also got in some practice for France when I encountered this roundabout at the northern part of the Sucker Lake park. It doesn't look like an official international roundabout sign but it pretty clearly is a stay to the right and go around sign.I see that intersection and that signage fairly often but it just seems more interesting from this angle with the park building in the background.

Today was a really nice day.

Just riding around

I had a morning CLE (Ethics). I have to report credits soon for the three year period ending on June 30. I am about 99 percent sure this is the last time I will go through that cycle but it seems prudent to maintain my license at least until both TOPWLH and I are eligible for single payer health care.

Some days I am not going anywhere, I am not trying to go fast. Some days I am just riding around. I love my bicycle, the places it takes me continue to surprise. Here then are today's images:

Shades of blue. There at least five, including a nice look at the sky.It wasn't always a beautiful day, there are a few too many clouds for that. But for almost all of the time I was out it WAS a beautiful day. No complaints.

Another addition to the bench series, the benches provided by the Farmers Union.I just read an editorial in today's newspaper about the effect worldwide of the largest population shift in history as a huge percentage of the world's population moves from a rural peasant agricultural lifestyle to an urban working for the man lifestyle. The change is significant. The population that has made the change is driving the revolutionary changes in the Muslim world. That is likely to be not the only place where social changes will occur.

And a little witchcraft.I found it a bit disappointing that the Ditch Witch was not actually working on a ditch. They had some sort of underground cable laying operation going on with the witch at one end and men with shovels and sensors who looked to me to be guiding the progress of whatever it was that was going on down trench from where the ditch was working. As with many things in the modern world, I don't know. I am fairly certain that I would recognize a ditch when I see it. I didn't see a ditch anywhere near the Ditch Witch today.

Anyone seen the rodent?

I really wanted a ride yesterday. It never really, really rained here but . . .

I went outside three different times intending to ride. The first two times I even had my bicycle clothes on. The first time I even got my bicycle out of the garage. I never made it past the end of the driveway. It began sprinkling each time I was out there.

I would go inside and look out the window. It didn't SEEM to be raining but, sure enough, the driveway got a little damp. Half an hour later it seemed dry enough but . . .

It was a very frustrating day.

Today was supposed to be partly cloudy but it was completely cloudy until past noon. Eventually I gave it a chance and had better results than yesterday. The sun actually came out during the time I was out there and it was quite nice for a significant portion of the ride. Here is where I was when the sun first appeared.That's the seldom photographed (by me) view of the cows. I had to cyclocross ride out into the mall for that angle, the position of the sun made that advisable in any case.

The sun conditions were more like this most of the day. The sun was trying to poke through but was mostly not quite making it.That's a pretty ambitious flower garden. It is located on the side of the hill (duh) at the bus stop below the student center at the Saint Paul campus. The only thing missing from that scene is Goldy with a hoe.

Yet another month that seemed promising early on for miles is finishing with not enough miles. The annual goal slips farther and farther outside the realm of possibility. At this point I estimate that I will have to ride until at least Thanksgiving to have even a remote shot at 4,000 miles. All good things must end.

Completely different planet

I cannot begin to explain yesterday but today was an extremely pleasant day. We canceled plans to turn on the heat and instead opened the windows.

The Guest Rider had a non sanctioned bicycling event during the week which involved 20 miles (10 out and 10 back) on a rental bicycle on the Cannon River Trail. Her usual ride leader decided that if that's the way she is going to be, and if she is fit enough for that, then today was a good opportunity to take in the 8 (or 9 or sometimes 10) lake tour.

It was apparently also a really nice day for fishing. This is the largest crowd I have ever seen fishing at Vadnais and that includes weekends and the fishing opener. There was hardly a space to park along the shoreline.We got home in good order and she even proclaimed that she felt good on the last little uphill bit next to the corn field.Fairly obviously we have reached the stage of the growing season when you can HEAR the corn grow.

Just to close the book on yesterday's experience, I have been able to determine that the call came from a "multiple streams of wealth" telemarketing scammer. I am not surprised by that at all.

How did they reach me? Well, computers can only do ones and zeros but they can do ones and zeros millions of times per second. It is only software but the software that links my cell phone number to my blog identity serves as a reminder to me and should serve as a reminder to any who read this to watch out, they are out there and they mean to get me and they mean to get you.

I think it is very interesting that "neuf" is the old word for "new". Old word for new. Old word for new.

I guess I forgot to mention that Pont Neuf (the New Bridge) is the oldest bridge in Paris.

Two things . . . three things

The oldest bridge in Paris, Pont Neuf. Pont Neuf translated means "New Bridge". I will be crossing this bridge at least daily, perhaps several times a day, in about a month.Two things:

It was too cold to ride today. We had some men come to the house to do some work (tree trimming) and when I went outside to point out the dead limbs and further discuss the whole tree thing with the head trimmer I felt some drops of moisture. About 20 degrees below average and damp? It was too cold to ride today. So that's one thing.

I sometimes jokingly state that I am more famous than I am. If you google gzmoohoo you get many hits, many more hits than you get if you google my actual name. Gzmoohoo is way, WAY more famous than I am. Two.

OK, three things.

Here's number three. I have never, ever, ever given out my cell phone number to any other than a select circle of family and friends. I have never, ever EVER given that number to any commercial entity. I have never listed the number when asked in sales transactions or membership applications for a cell number, I have never used the number as a cross reference for any on line or other purpose. I have put a large amount of effort into maintaining that phone as a private, personal telephone line.

Of late I have been receiving SPAM phone calls on my cell phone. VA mortgage telemarketers, card service scams, that sort of thing. Today I got a call which I have identified as originating in Provo, Utah. I know no one in Provo. There was a brief pause, someone spoke Spanish in the background and then a different voice but still a Spanish accented voice asked in English, "May I speak to GZ?"

I am astonished.

Crime report

It rained most of the night leaving the morning streets covered in puddles. As I checked the weather radar throughout the morning the outlook remained pretty depressing as the screen showed lots of green, lots of it moving vaguely in my direction. The official forecast said 80 percent chance of showers. To add to all of this unpleasantness today was too cold for bicycling in late June.

And yet at the time when I usually start my ride it wasn't actually raining. The radar at that point had no actual green where I live and the green blobs off to the south were not showing any particular movement in my direction.

The streets were far from dry but from the window it looked "sorta OK" (that's now an official category). I gave it a try, determined to stay near enough to home to allow me to flee for safety in the event that the predicted showers began (a distance which we now know to be about 4.5 miles).

It WAS too cold but it didn't rain.

The ride was pretty purposeful however. It was more of a chore than usual, I stayed pretty fixated on the task, getting the workout that I wanted. It wasn't much fun. I didn't see much of anything that looked like a photo.

I think this looks like the aftermath of a bicycle theft.I checked all of the nearby yards and spots where a kid might be after dropping that bicycle at the curb. No sign of anyone playing (it was cold and threatening to rain). Furthermore, that isn't really a kid's bicycle.I thought to stand it up off the street to at least get it out of traffic. My bicycle is one of those crabon fibre ones and I have become quite used to the extreme light weight and the ease of lifting. I had forgotten how heavy those old POS steel bicycles are. I leaned over off my bicycle and gave a one handed tug at the frame of this one and nearly injured myself.

Belatedly I considered that I should not interfere with the crime scene. I followed the example of the criminal and made my getaway.

By the way, really interesting weather video yesterday. In addition to the swell storm cloud depiction I got to hear the voice of Ron Winkel again. Ah . . . good times.

4.5 miles

TOPWLH expressed surprise when I emerged after lunch prepared for bicycling. My response was that you cannot finish a ride if you do not start one.

I started one. Actually for the first bit over an hour it was plenty OK. The wind was a bit gusty but not overly punitive and it seemed to blow a hole in the overcast. There was enough blue to make pants for an entire regiment of Dutchmen. Every time the sun emerged into one of those clear spots it felt pretty darn nice.

I was pretty close to 4.5 miles from home when I rode past the spot where I spotted Ronald McD the other day. I was riding slowly because there was a sudden plethora of law enforcement vehicles (AKA lots of cop cars) going up and down the same streets I was using. I slowed down to try to see if anything interesting was going to happen.

Partly because of my slow speed I got a good look at the house Ronald had been parked in front of. I wasn't expecting to see gas for sale for 17.8 cents a gallon.I was stopped taking in the whole scene when the guy who lives in the house drove up. He invited me back into the yard to take a look at his stuff. He used to restore old gas pumps as a hobby when he had a job but stopped when he retired. He said that he sold off 30 pumps that he had that had not yet been restored but kept the nicest ones for his collection. Suffice to say that he has lots of nice stuff in the drive through garage and in the other outbuilding back there at the back of the lot. For those interested in old cars, that is a 57 Chevrolet.

I know this house is about 4.5 miles from home because I was enjoying being given a guided tour of his stuff when I realized that it had commenced sprinkling. As I have expressed on other occasions, I am highly motivated by rain. I excused myself and hammered for home. It was a full on light rain by the time I got home, the most I have been rained on while riding for several years. But I got home before the truly heavy stuff set in. I ride on mostly tree lined streets and it was still dry under the trees as I approached home. It is a bit of an adventure out there right now, sirens are sounding.

It wasn't too bad, I might even go with it was a good ride. I can say with certainty that I can still sprint full out for 4.5 miles. For that period of time I had the gusty winds behind me. I felt strong, I felt fast.

And gas was cheap. Perhaps I was time traveling.

Official truck

The old cars have left town and I thought that I would probably be moving along from motor vehicles to some other topic. Instead, I passed this motor vehicle parked on the street near Lake Como.I didn't do so well with the old cars, only scoring 50 percent but I am going to go ahead and confidently identify this as a 1993 Chevrolet pick up. It says so right on the door.

This is completely new territory for me but I googled "official truck of the Indianapolis 500 1973 and stumbled into an entire subset of truck hobbyists. There is an official truck every year and there is an active culture of collectors and collectible trucks.

I decided to look up the race, as opposed to the official truck.

That's the Voice of the 500, the great Paul Page, doing the description of the race. Looking at the field I suspect that my pick that year was Mario Andretti. I am positive that GRider would have selected Danny Sullivan. Even at this remote from 1993 moment in time I can almost feel her palpable disappointment as Sullivan crashes and finishes last.

There are some extremely famous names in that field, the winner was Fittipaldi.

Adventure

Riding around on a bicycle in an atmosphere with lots of distracted car drivers and lots of car drivers unfamiliar with their surroundings is always a bit of an adventure. The old car show brings those two commodities to some of my regular riding routes in spades.

The closest call I had all day was, instead, at the zoo where an SUV driver looked right at me and decided that I didn't exist or at least that her need to get her SUV out of the parking lot into traffic overruled my fairly obvious right of way. She only got about four car lengths before coming to a red light right next to the zoo carnival rides so I had the opportunity to ride my bicycle right up next to her open passenger side window. "Right of way?" I inquired. Remember now that she looked right at me and made eye contact before pulling out. She said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you."

There seemed to be absolutely nothing to be gained by continuing the conversation and I did not although I do admit making an exaggerated shrug of incredulity.

So the old car people that I did encounter were all concerned enough about their old cars to be driving with perhaps excessive caution and I had no problems with any of them. I kept thinking I would get a photo of one or another of the old cars but in an upset, the photo I did get was of a car not even involved in the show. This one is just parked in someone's driveway in Roseville.I am fairly confident in identifying that as a 56 Ford.

It is important to occasionally visit neighborhoods where I don't get very often. If you don't go there often enough something of interest may pass by without being noticed. Not this time.I have no idea what Ronald was doing that far from any of his restaurants and nothing about the big truck gave any clues. I am just going to put it down as a random act of popular culture.

As I neared home I spotted another old car, this one in apparent distress, parked by the side of the road with its hood up.The available evidence points towards a ruptured radiator hose.

I am going to admit defeat in trying to identify that one. I think 53 or 54 and the roof line says General Motors to me but something about the overall shape makes me think one of the Chrysler cars, maybe a Dodge. Anyone know?

Summer is here, a couple of hour bicycle ride on any given summer day is a pursuit I am able to recommend highly. Today's ride was another good one.

EDIT: 53 Mercury it is. Once reminded I now recall the three chrome strips are supposed to bring to mind wings.

Something that somewhat resembles a single-payer health care system, but is not

A day off has once again had the effect of making me stronger. The wind was light today and it ended up feeling like a tailwind in all directions. The two hour ride took well under two hours.

The Fairgrounds is already closed for the show that doesn't even start until tomorrow.So everyone be forewarned, there will be lots of old cars on the streets of Roseville, Falcon Heights and the Como and Saint Anthony Park neighborhoods of Saint Paul this weekend. And there will be lots of traffic delays. I recommend that most travel be done by bicycle.

This came in the mail, it seems kind of like a big deal.According to Wikipedia, Medicare in the United States somewhat resembles a single-payer health care system, but is not.

As with the earlier this week tax adventure, I find the arrival of this piece of mail to be surprisingly satisfying.

Midnight in Paris

Based largely on the recommendation of my brother, GRider and I took the opportunity of a rainy day afternoon to go to the movies to see the new Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris.We are prepared to offer an enthusiastic two thumbs up.

Neither of us is a huge fan of Woody. Woody isn't personally in this one even though the lead male character is clearly "Woody". The movie is part loving travelogue of Paris with lots of gorgeously photographed locations of very familiar places. It is also a trip through your liberal arts education with 20th century American novelists and every artist who ever lived in Paris being featured at some point in the film. Watch for Carla Bruni, the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and her understated dismissal of "the pedantic one".

It was lots and lots of fun.

Electronic estimated tax day

Now here's something I never had to do when I had a job. Back then the employer (aka sweat shop operator) withheld from my wages. I have money withheld from one of my current sources of income but when I went to the local office of the other source of income (the big federal one, the one that nearly everyone is eligible for) the office was a complete zoo. I had gone on-line and successfully completed the necessary application process to receive the income but withholding had to be done in person. Instead the zoo drove me away unwithheld. I limped along for a couple of tax years waiting for filing day to figure out exactly where I stood and each time ended up owing more money than is seemly. Can you say penalty? I can. So today I embarked on this whole estimated tax payment deal. Because I am such a modern kind of guy I have decided to file electronically. According to the feds you have to file by 8pm eastern time on the previous day to assure that the fund transfer will actually occur on the due date (which all of the rest of you know is tomorrow). So I have just completed all of that and it was surprisingly satisfying.

CPAs and others with more extensive knowledge of these matters are now free to weigh in with tut-tutting about the inadequacy of my tax planning strategy. Well, I tell you, I have stories to tell. Let's just say . . . oh, never mind.

Yesterday when I had a Guest Rider we had to swing past Lake Como to be sure that she met her lake quota. I had intended to go to this lake.It is Loeb Lake located in Saint Paul's Marydale Park. Marydale Park falls into the category of really, really cleverly named parks being at the corner of Maryland Avenue and Dale Street. We didn't ride there yesterday because I decided that GRider is not ready yet for the several block long descent from the area in which we were riding down to the lake. Well, she could have handled that OK. It would have been a long hard climb back up, a task better suited to someone in mid-season form.

I have ridden past Loeb Lake a few times in the past but I am pretty positive that this is the lake's first appearance in a photograph.

In 1976 I was security for the bicentennial fireworks display held at that lake. That meant that I was inside the ropes where the fireworks were being fired off. My impressions? Very interesting one time, the lighting, the sulfur, the flares being used to set off the rockets, the thud of the rockets igniting in their tubes to shoot into the air, the whole explosion thing, very interesting one time experience. I have no desire to be that close again. The whole explosion thing.

Some remarks have been made in the past about the lack of poetry in Ramsey County Lake names. It might have been someone from Michigan who commented that our lakes were pretty making it unfortunate that the names are so unattractive. I believe the comment was specifically addressed to Snail, and to Sucker.

Well, buckle up, this is way better than that.

According to my street name book, Loeb Lake's official name is taken from the Loeb real estate company which platted the area in 1907. In earlier times the lake was known as Dead Horse Lake. In the words of my street name book, this is a descriptive name that defies precise explanation.

Further bicyclist sayeth not.

I rode on down to the Capitol to see if I could catch a glimpse of the dueling budget shortfall/government shutdown controversy. I was a bit surprised to find that the parking lot in front of the Capitol was mostly pretty empty. It is worth noting that repairs to the dome are continuing. I wonder how they intend to pay for THAT.It seems to me that those people should be at work. I guess they feel as though it is only, after all, the middle of June and this whole shutdown thing won't even occur until July 1. I mean, where's the urgency?

I could go further I suppose but I won't. Rimshot please. That would be like beating a dead horse.

Still no lake ride

The GRider is nearly ready for the trip out to the lakes but not quite yet. The corn field, on the other hand, is only about 3/8ths of a mile from out front door.We may have to call for a neutral evaluator. It looks to me that corn is nearly knee high already.

The women's world cup in soccer begins soon. In anticipation I checked in on a couple of the football sites that I visit regularly. Well, imagine my surprise. FC Nantes has hired yet another new coach. This is a shocker because while they had only one coach last season, the team employed three different coaches the season before that and two the season before that. Good luck to the new staff.

The wreckage of the last four season continues to grow. In addition to the new coach, no fewer than 12 players from last season have been listed as transfers out, each with the cryptic notation, contract ended. The plan apparently is new coach, all new players. Most observers of any professional sport will agree that this is a plan which almost never works. It almost always leads not to successful on the field results but instead to another new coach and more new players. Good luck to the new players.

Solidarity

Surprisingly enough, I didn't have to hunt around for very long at all to find these things.They were right where I left them, in the cabinet by the door with lots of other bicycle flotsam.

Rosso Corsa by Castelli for bicycle content.

Roseville was pretty today

Even if it was 15C again.

But I layered up and headed out. Here is a look at Roseville from my driveway.I rode out to Vadnais. The big blues and big whites haven't really returned to the lake this year as the water level remains too high. Both of those bird species feed in shallow water and there just isn't as much shallow water at Vadnais this year as in years past. As a result I haven't seen many of the great blues. I have seen the whites at smaller lakes like Island and Owasso. None of this affects the ducks as they are divers and the lake is still very good habitat for them.There are a lot of fishermen out there at that lake almost every day of fishing season. The ducks have become fairly adapted to the human presence and stayed quite near to shore to pose for this photo.

Lake Vadnais is in Vadnais Heights and it was pretty out there today as well.Just before I took that picture the guy on the right caught (and released) a muskrat on his fishing line. The muskrat started flopping around trying to shake the line and the fishing guy declared that he had no interest in a close encounter with an upset muskrat. He cut his line. That's why he isn't actually fishing at the time of the photo, he is preparing to re-rig. I stayed for a time but no one caught any big ones so eventually I rode on home.

Nice day, nice ride.

Today's milestone is 1,000 miles this bicycle, this year. It isn't a good year so far. I am facing the very real possibility of not reaching my mileage goal this year. As of today I have ridden about one-third of the mileage I want (33.1 percent to be precise). About one-third of the seven month bicycling season has elapsed so one-third of the mileage would put me pretty close to on schedule if I was going to ride the full season.

Here's an announcement: I am going to miss a couple of weeks of bicycling this summer. The miles not ridden during those two weeks may be the difference between making and not making my mileage goal. To make the goal I am going to need better weather than we have had the last couple of years in September and October and I am going to need winter to not arrive on November 1. We shall see.

Why am I missing two weeks of bicycling? On July 23 I will be in Paris for the final stage of this year's Tour de France. I will complete a personal double of two of the biggest sporting events in France, last year the French Open, this year la Grande Boucle, le Tour de France. My brother and I will be witnessing the conclusion of the final stage on les Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Glenn offers internet access in his apartment rentals, therefore, as was the case for last year's sojourn, updates will be provided daily.

April

Well, that was bracing.

Today I wore not only a jacket again but I had to go back in the drawer and pull out my tights. It was too cold to ride in bare legs. Some may know that my rule at the start of the year is no bare legs until the temperature reaches 20 Celsius, that's 68F. Once the tights are off I DO fairly regularly ride bare legged in temperatures cooler than that. Just three days after the blast furnace mid-day temperatures moved me back into dress more usually seen in April. It was 57F when I started, about 14C. It is a bit better than that now but not a heck of a lot. The average high temperature gets to be 57F on about April 15.

But all in all, it was OK. I have the gear, the overnight rain stopped early enough for the streets to be dry and no additional rain fell. It was too grey most of the time to encourage me to stop and get a photo.

I do have this.I was going back in time to April for today's weather conditions, I thought it might be fun to take a peak back in time at a big stone church.

Bonne anniversaire

The theater of seasons turned yet again. We had been warned that today would be cool. But the sun was out all morning and it seemed nice enough.

I noticed as I rode out that there were a lot of clouds gathering. I only got as far as the Library before being forced to turn back. When the cloud cover became complete it was too cold. Two days after the blast furnace I had to go back and get a jacket.

In fact, I thought about putting on pants but did not. Later on while into the wind, the direction where you experience the greatest cooling effect, I met a person who had put on pants, and also a jacket and also a full face covering of some sort.

At about that point I started to worry that the clouds were going to produce rain. I bolted for home not taking even a moment for a single picture.

But before that happened and acting on the theory that an update on the progress of one of the construction projects might be in order and because it was the only 15 or so seconds of sunlight I did take one picture.That's one weird looking water tower right now.

Unbelievable

I am just a tiny bit obsessed so it is always good when nature forcibly gives me a day off the bicycle. I don't take many voluntary rest days. Rest days are good. Being forced into a rest day is good.

I am going to go with unbelievable to describe yesterday even though unbelievable is just not nearly enough, it was way more than that.

It was hot, obviously. But it was also some of the strongest winds of the year. I was out doing some errands in mid-afternoon (by automobile not bicycle). Standing in the intense heat with that blast furnace wind smashing into me was an experience not to be believed. Hence unbelievable.

We had warning. I could see it coming, I could see that the day was going to be hot. I thought I might ride early. It was 80 and already sticky by the time I finished breakfast. I thought I might ride late. The highest temperature occurred after 6pm. I went out onto the field and watched from a distance a baseball game while at the same time some low intensity soccer practice went on right in front of me. Just standing was OK. I felt no interest in anything more than that.

Occasionally in this climate nature delivers a day that is beyond uncomfortable, delivering instead a day which could actually kill you. We get such days with fair regularity in the winter time. We don't get them very often in June.

But today is OOTNDITHOD. I had a guest rider. We stayed within GRider distance from home but still managed to find a couple of things she likes.We rode just a tiny bit more than she had asked for before we began but the final little detour got her over to Lake Como.I sincerely hope that this time I am correct when I say we now resume regular programming.

Highland

Wireless called with some news this morning. In the course of the conversation she assumed that it would be too hot today for bicycling. I demurred, insisting that it was a fine day and bicycling was definitely on the agenda.

She was right.

It was too hot. This winter I spent the most time outdoors since, well, maybe since forever, maybe the most time outdoors ever in the wintertime. Certainly I spent more time outdoors than any time since I had a job which required that I spend at least some time outdoors. That was a long time ago. So maybe my perspective is a bit sharper this year. Today was like a completely different planet. No complaints though, there have been too, too many ugly cold days already this year to complain about a little thing like heat. But it was probably too hot in the middle of the day for bicycling.

My plan was to ride down into the big city. The plan was premised on my presumption that I would be able to find many more shady streets to ride on than I would, for example, at the Fairgrounds. I also wanted to avoid the River Road and the spots where I got stuff sticking to my tires last week. I intended to cross the light rail construction project at Cleveland and work my way over to Saint Clair from which I could proceed south on Davern. Saint Paul has great street names, don't you think? Davern is named for William Davern. Davern arrived in Saint Paul in 1849 and owned the 160 acre farm between Snelling and Fairview, and between Montreal and Saint Paul Avenues. Davern Street runs right through the middle, halfway between Snelling and Fairview. Davern's house still stands at 1173 Davern Street. Davern was a farmer and a dairyman and at one time owned Pike Island. I know that Davern is a continuous street all the way from the river to Saint Clair, it seemed like it might be a good ride.

Shortly after crossing Saint Clair on Wheeler I started to wade my way over to Davern and then headed south. I very soon ran into all of this.Construction was everywhere. I avoided one small bit of it by taking an alley from Davern over to Macalester Street between, I think, Stanford and Wellesley, although it might have been between Berkeley and Stanford.

*pause*

Yes, someone naming streets had an affection for academia.

Macalester was also soon enough impassable and I had to take another alley for three or four of the short blocks between about Jefferson and Palace before making my way back over to Macalester, out to Randolph and back over to Davern.

Mostly what I discovered then is that Davern is not that shady. Did I mention that it was hot? I knew I was riding into the wind but even so riding seemed too hard. Did I mention that it was hot? It turns out that there is a good reason why that part of town is called Highland. Every turn seemed to lead to another uphill.

I rode down to Edgecumbe and circumnavigated the Highland glof course. I had reached kind of a high point at Edgecumbe and Snelling and I wanted to be careful about giving up my elevation. One truth about riding down hill is that you are going to have to ride back up again. Sure enough, I continued a long personal bicycling pattern and ended up at a water tower. Here is my picture postcard photograph of the Highland Water Tower.The Highland Water Tower is located at the highest point of elevation in the City of Saint Paul. Somehow or other, without really intending to do so, I had climbed the tallest hill in town.

*sigh*

I have another picture that is inferior in several ways to the picture postcard photo but which I am going to use anyway because it illustrates a story. Here is the historically significant brick water tower and the modern steel tanks which are actually in use for water distribution in that neighborhood.Behind the steel tanks is the glof course. There has been a major renovation since the last time I played glof so I do not know what hole might be back there but there used to be a par 3. The water tower was located slightly behind the green and probably 20 yards to the left, far enough away to be outside the stakes, out of bounds. I was playing glof with the Big Kid and probably Burt and either Nagel or Rod. The Big Kid teed off on the hole by hitting an epic pull. Those familiar with glof will know that a shot going far left for a right handed glofer is usually a hook, not a good thing. The Big Kid was a slicer and this shot was not a hook. He just dead pulled it way, way left. He also way overhit the green. The ball hit the water tower, remember behind the green and at least 20 yards left, clanging off the lower portion of the tower about 10 feet off the ground.

An epic bad shot.

The ball rebounded off the tower and came bounding back towards the green, eventually rolling directly for the hole. It narrowly, narrowly missed going in for the hole in one, stopping on the green, about 25 feet away from the hole.

That much good fortune should be rewarded but in this case was not. The Big Kid, as I recall the moment, three putted from there to take bogey.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

It was too hot today, maybe I am delirious.

EDIT: To be fair to the Big Kid, he is now a regular glofer and at least as of the last time I played glof, which was with him, he is a very much different player than he was when he was an occasional player. He plays like a guy who plays regularly.

Here is the MapMyRide of today's route. Note the elevation.

Day of rest

I rode past plenty of construction but in truth I cannot claim that I actually saw anyone working.

Sunday seemed like a good time to try to ride downtown. I have ridden there a few times in the past but I figured today might be less stressful without the usual heavy automobile traffic.

Car traffic was light although there were lots of pedestrians for some sort of child information fair at Rice Park. As all bicyclists know, pedestrians are at least as dangerous as cars although in fairness a bicyclist is quite a bit less likely to die if run over by a jogger.

So I was riding around amidst the skyscrapers, such as they are in Saint Paul. Here is a LOOK at a pretty quintessential downtown location, Mears Park.And downtown's hub, the City Hall and County Courthouse.I planned on returning from downtown by riding up Summit Avenue. I thought a Sunday afternoon ride on Summit would probably be quite stress free. I have been living in the suburbs too long, I guess. It had completely slipped my mind what the big event is on the first Sunday of June.It was a grand old day. With that many people on Grand Avenue even Summit was fairly loony, especially on the stretch from Dale up to Lexington.

What a day! If it was always like this in Minnesota we would have to put a fence up to keep people out.

Water tower construction

What do approximately 50 percent of the population of the northern suburbs do on the first weekend of summer. Well, OK, maybe only about 20 percent.

The correct answer is that they either hold or attend a garage sale. Those suckers were EVERYWHERE today. With garage sales come cars with drivers watching for the sale and therefore oblivious to other traffic, cars veering suddenly without any warning to other traffic to the side of the street, cars disgorging people who without the slightest regard for any other possible user of the street bolt immediately across the street intent on that lamp on the table near the open garage door that they can see from the vantage point of the car.

Yup, it was dangerous out there today.

But it was such a nice day!!!!! I just rode slowly and carefully.

Today's construction photo is of the Shoreview water tower. Something serious must be going on if you have to put up a curtain completely covering a water tower.The trucks over there to the left identify the company doing the work as a company involved in "permanent exteriors". I think they mean some kind of paint.

TOPWLH is not yet available for rides to the northern lakes so I made the trek by myself today. In deference to her inability to come along it was my intention to not photograph her favorite lake, Vadnais. This is Sucker Lake, just north of Vadnais along Highway 96.The real star of the show today was the color blue. The sky was unbelievable. The lake was too. I have another picture of Sucker Lake that includes that bench I photographed a couple of weeks ago. Today's picture also includes a duck and we all know how difficult it can be to get a lake, a blue sky, a bench and wildlife to agree to appear in the same scene long enough to be photographed. I may publish it but actually I kinda like this one with people fishing.

Here's the parking lot down at the south end of the lake. What we have here is an entirely new event, the double header.I guess I could check police reports or something to find out for sure but most likely I am just never going to know if that was both front windows on a single vehicle or two different vehicle break-ins and if it was two whether or not they occurred at the same time.

I had to break my promise not to photograph Vadnais. Big white birds showed up on the lake today. Swans.I have to do more work on one of my weakest points as a landscape photographer, my apparent inability to line up the horizon in my photographs with something corresponding even slightly with the actual line of the surface of the earth. I was concentrating on the birds.

I close with more construction. This is Dale Street right after coming off Lake Owasso Boulevard.That street is an important part of the northern lakes tour. I used to ride there a lot and probably will again after the fairly extensive looking pipe laying and pavement reconstruction project is completed. Today I had to shift to the small ring in front and way up into one of the larger cogs in the back to find a gear for riding my road bicycle through all of that loose sand and gravel. It was less than a block but it was some of the hardest riding of the season.

Closed circuit to late to the party: Dan Wheldon won the race. Dario was in contention until very late until, I believe, issues with the timing of pit stops moved him too far off the lead to contend in the final laps.

Road construction

I went to a CLE this morning. I had not pre-registered so I had to register and pay at the front desk of the CLE center. The young lady who assisted me first looked me up in their data base and we went through the familiar litany of verifying the information that they have on me. She did fine with my name and street address but when she got to my e-mail address she paused just a milli-second as she said, "We have you as gzmoohoo@yahoo.com" and looked up with a hint of disbelief to gauge my reaction. Life has changed a lot for me since I stopped working at the plant. Life isn't so serious any more. Yes indeed, I am gzmoohoo. I just smiled. To her credit she too smiled.

It was sprinkling when I left the house, bicycling seemed unlikely. But when I took a mid-morning break at the CLE center and skywayed over to Gavidae Commons and the Wells Fargo Center I observed that the sun had broken though and it looked dang nice out. Aside here, the bank people are taking that Wells Fargo thing way, WAY too seriously. They have a stage coach in the lobby of the bank.

I came home at lunch time only to find that iffy riding conditions had returned. But it wasn't actually raining so I headed out intending to get in whatever miles I could. The truth is I was mostly JRA, just riding around, WSROMT, wearing some rubber off my tires. It stayed overcast for the first 10 or 12 miles. When the sun made its first appearance I was at the corner of Hamline and Garden. I used to ride on Garden a lot and will again after that repaving project is completed. See, road construction, it IS a theme month.If you look closely you can see that they have ground down the pavement in preparation for whatever the next step is. I ride there a lot, I can vouch for the fact that the pavement was in poor condition. Although obviously at this point in the project they do not need me vouching for anything.

So I was JRA, WSROMT but with a cheap digital camera in my jersey pocket. Sure enough the sun coming out encouraged me. I take photographs of things I find interesting and I found this interesting.

I commented a couple of posts ago that we hope to have corn knee high to Paul Bunyan by the Fourth of July. Within easy Paul Bunyan hiking distance (Paul takes really long strides don't you know) I discovered that someone has put out an Adirondack chair for Paul to sit in.Puny human size house for sale.

As I neared home I rode past our new high school girls' varsity softball field. No games have been played there yet. The grass is just now coming in and there are several issues concerning the infield that have to be addressed before games can be played. Like the installation of home plate.

Previous sentence fragment is work product over which the artist retains total artistic control.

Here is the very, very newest addition to the field, a warning sign.Well, OK then. But it leaves me wondering just exactly what sort of "police action" will be produced by unauthorized PLAY. The gamut ranges from merciless thrashing with truncheons and clubs to a really severe talking to with just driving by with the lights flashing to scare the miscreants away thrown in for good measure. And by "play" do they mean softball games or would that also include frolicking with butterflies?

That's all I have today. It is summer time.