More construction

Perhaps it will be a theme month. I ran into some more construction today.

It wasn't the new house being built on a lot backing up to the Como Golf Course that caught my eye. It was the well drilling rig in the front yard.Having a well in the front yard is probably not THAT unusual. But having any well at all in your yard is VERY unusual in the middle of the city. I had to take a look.

It turns out not be any ordinary water well. The sign on the door of the truck mounted drill rig identifies the company doing the drilling as specializing in geothermal energy. These folks are tapping into the deep underground water table for either heating or cooling purposes. That's expensive to install but everyone says that it will pay for itself in energy savings. Eventually.

I knew quite a bit about drilling and drill rigs in my previous life where I occasionally functioned as coordinator of registration for exploratory boring. I know that geothermal requires pretty extensive permitting, I know where to look up the state regulations, I know a few technical details of what is required in the actual drilling and I know that the drill rig itself has to be licensed by the Department of Health. I crept up a little closer to see what I could see.
Licensed by the Department of Health.

I wonder who does exploratory boring registration now. The last one I remember is Matt but these details are gradually slipping away into the sands of time.

So I was thinking some about my former life as I continued to ride into the strong (again) southeast wind. I came upon the Gateway State Trail Community Garden. State Trails are a service of my former employer and the sign identifies that entity as a co-sponsor, along with the City of Saint Paul. It is a nice looking garden on the trail right of way.But again, it wasn't really the garden that originally caught my eye. What caught my eye was this sign.They need one of those at that parking lot on the south end of Sucker Lake.

As long as I was that close I rode down past the place where I used to work. I was pleased to note that government still seems to functioning smoothly. Of course, we all now expect that the same will not be true next month at this time. The government shut down is scheduled to begin July 1. We are all pretty much resigned to the fact that the shut down WILL occur and that it may be lengthy.

Summer is definitely here, it was warm and sunny again today. Another sure sign of summer is that it is now officially the season when I ride through things that stick to my tires.There wasn't even any visible oil on the street. I just rode through some pot hole patching that apparently was using a particularly sticky mixture.

We all know that I ride for enjoyment. Today I had to stop TWICE to clean off my tires. I DO NOT ENJOY cleaning off my tires.