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.