Perspective

I visited one of my favorite websites earlier today, Paris Daily Photo. I like seeing photos posted by a Paris resident of things I have seen and things I will probably never see. This is referred to as "entertainment".

Today I also discovered that the theme for this month's theme day for daily photo blogs is perspective. I have three examples of different kinds of perspective, two of which I shall illustrate with photos.

Here is Photography 101, the assignment on perspective with all of the visual lines flowing towards a single vanishing point.Near home I came across a really telling perspective on the passing of the seasons. The beginning of corn harvest is a pretty clear indication that summer is over.It has been a good year for corn.It was hot today, a high temperature of over 90. It was interesting to get really sweaty again, something that hasn't been a very regular part of the deal of late.

I was riding the Crown Jewel despite the recent diagnosis of a chain slip caused by excessive wear of the 17 cog. Whether or not wear of that cog is the real culprit seemed like what some would call a testable hypothesis. I set out to do a test.

I rode a route that I ride often. I tried to ride pretty much in the manner that I would usually ride that terrain with only a couple of small tweaks. When riding into the wind on stretches where I would usually be riding in the 39x17 today I rode in the 39x18. On similar stretches with a tailwind I rode in the 39x16. I found both gears to be quite rideable (there is after all only a very small difference between those gears and the gear I usually ride). I also verified that the 17 is the problem as I rode the entire 26 miles today without a single chain skip.

It was a good thing to put back into some perspective that there is a reason why there are 20 gears on my bicycles. I have fallen into the habit of riding mostly in that same cog in the back with the most common shift to be the shift of the front chain ring. I really need to pay a bit more attention to shifting with the right hand, shifting the rear derailer. Today I felt as though the additional rear shifting made for a more efficient use of effort. It felt good.