Some are better than others

We had a short period around noon today when spring returned. It was about 60 and sunny if a bit windy when I headed out for my ride with all indications pointing to temperatures rising in the afternoon to a high of 64. I was dressed for 60 which meant shorts and my lightest weight jacket, the one that rolls up easily to go into my jersey pocket. I anticipated having to remove the jacket as temperatures rose during the ride. I had a destination in mind. I had high hopes.

I rode through that light rail construction zone over on University and got a flat tire. I ride with everything I need to fix a flat tire. But as I considered my plight I knew that if I changed out the flat over there next to the construction that my first destination after getting the tire fixed would be home. I can change the tire on the road and have done it many times. But I have found that the CO2 mini pump that I use doesn't give me as high a pressure in the tire as what I am used to riding. The repaired tire functions just fine but it FEELS a little flat. I was early in the ride, I knew that if I wanted to ride far that even with a repaired tire that I would immediately head home to rendezvous with my floor pump to get that tire back up to my preferred pressure.

As I considered this it occurred to me that in a fortuitous twist TOPWLH was not working today. I knew she was at home so I pulled out my phone and played my get out of jail free card. She came over and picked me up.

I spent the nicest part of the day doing this:I repaired the flat tire in the comfort and convenience of my garage.

I got the tire off and located the hole. I said to myself that the hole looked like the one made last year when a piece of wire made a double hole in a tube. It was not the typical small puncture that I usually get, instead it was an elongated wound, more like a slice than a puncture. I said that to myself but didn't act on my instinct. Instead I repaired the slice and remounted the tire. I tried to pump the tire up but could not.

*sigh*

I took the whole deal off and started again. And quickly located the second puncture hole. This puncture was on the tube seam next to the big slice wound. I prefer to repair my tubes but even I can take a hint. I discarded that tube and got a new one, my last new one, out of the basement.

By the time I got the repair finally completed the nice portion of the day had passed. The sun went away and the wind picked up.

I rode anyway but found that I was not dressed warmly enough. As I neared home to complete the ride I passed a woman getting her exercise by walking. She was wearing her winter coat with a scarf and mittens. Shorts and a light jacket wasn't warm enough on the bicycle.

All rides are good rides, some are better than others.

Recycle

I guess that today complaining about the weather would be out of line.

Weather such as we had this morning almost always keeps me inside. But a couple of days off the bicycle made me anxious to try and when the rain stopped I started checking the radar. It seemed obvious to my trained only by life experience eyes that the worst was over for a bit. More rain didn't seem likely.

By about 2pm the street looked dry enough so I suited up and gave it a try.

I just absolutely will not start in the rain but once out there I can be pretty hard to discourage. I got sprinkled on a bit, rode in a near mist for another bit, through it all it was cold. I rode for an hour but finally gave up. I decided that at least I had some exercise and I got the first photo of the year of a flowering shrub.That's not the usual first shrub but it is the same variety. This one is only a couple of blocks from my house.

I got dressed and went to the bakery. On the way home I noticed first that the day was brightening and then eventually that some clearing was occurring in the western sky.

I got geared back up and went out for another hour. Recycling.

I have heard stories about the massive snow pile at the Rice Street Sears. I have ridden past the Fairgrounds snow mountain several times. Here's a still impressive pile in the Cub parking lot at Har Mar.NewLOOK for scale.

I have documented that the Fairgrounds pile is being manipulated to speed the melt process. As for this Cub pile, on two occasions while shopping there this winter I observed a giant snow melting machine operating on the store side of the pile. I haven't seen anything like that since the sun started to do the melting.

The weather here didn't seem that bad at all even when overcast and I can now report that the sun has come out. All in all, an OK day trending towards nice.

Overdoing

I have failed in an all too commonly human manner of failure. I have done what is quite typical for this time of year. I have ignored common sense. I have convinced myself that I could do more than I could do. I have done too much. I have overdone. I am knackered.

I started out with good intentions. I wanted to ride my bicycle on a beautiful spring day. I came upon this scene as I rode away from my usual starting point (my garage).I have in all previous years missed the actual planting of the corn. Not this time.

I had to ride some cyclo-cross on my road bike to get that shot. I shifted down into my hill climbing gears and struggled across the unpaved field to the vantage point from which I took this photo. I believe that piece of equipment is called a corn drill and what is going on is that corn is being drilled.

I didn't make that up. That is what it is called.

I next rode to County Cycles. Wireless has recently requested custody of the last bicycle we purchased for her when she was still adolescent bicycle age. She remembers riding it to tennis practice when she was in 9th grade but it has been hanging in the rafters of the garage for the approximately 14 years since. Well, a person who has as many bicycles as I have is not in position to seriously question why she would want to have two. I started the process of handing over the Wireless Trek. At first I thought it possible that it would still work OK even after all this time so I pulled it down, pumped the tires and lubed the chain, and then mounted it and headed down the driveway for a test ride.

It did NOT go.

Last Saturday I took it to County Cycles. Today there were a series of phone calls from the new mechanic who was working on the bike about a variety of things. Finally I decided that this procedure wasn't going to be sufficient so I got on MY bicycle and rode over for a first hand look.

Once inside the shop I encountered Scott, my usual mechanic (who was not the mechanic working on the Wireless Trek). He said he had seen my name on a slip but did not think that I was the likely owner of the bicycle in question as the bicycle in question is more suitable for ownership by someone in junior high. I told Scott that the bicycle belonged to Wireless. I said it had been hanging in the garage rafters for 15 years and that apparently it had some issues. Scott's bicycle mechanic response was, "Ya think?"

Well, now I do but I DID kinda hope that it would go. It didn't go.

But with the help of Scott and the new mechanic I was able to arrange everything that needed to be arranged and returned to my first task, a bicycle ride.

It was nice out.

I found that same white bird again and this time tried to get a picture of it with the sun shining.I eventually ended up at the Fairgrounds where I encountered an absolutely certain sign of the changing of the seasons, the first appearance of the year for the rent-a-fence. They have the Minnesota Horse Expo over there at the Coliseum and livestock area this weekend. They sell tickets, therefore they need a fence.I checked the message boards around the grounds (EG:62 CB:60 AOWG: 69!) and discovered lots of interesting events scheduled for either this weekend or next. Some highlights are the Active Living Bike Expo, Craftstravaganza, Antique Toy, Doll and Advertising Show, and the Spring Extravaganza Car Show and Swap Meet. Next weekend has that Friends School of Minnesota Plant Sale (I think they also use a rent-a-fence).

Here's where the overdoing began. I got home from the ride. As is usually the case that was quite enough exercise for one day, thank you very much. But I had a message on the land line that repairs to the Wireless Trek were complete and it was ready for pick up.

Problem.

TOPWLH has a job and would not be returning from it in time to comfortably fit in a trip to County Cycles. It was starting to cloud up outside and the forecast for tomorrow is for a cold rain. I wanted to get that bicycle home this afternoon if I at all could.

So finally I walked over there.

About three miles.

I have been walking three miles on a regular basis since last November. Usually when I do that I finish the walk and come inside and that is quite enough exercise for one day, thank you very much.

So that's two days worth of exercise fitted into one day.

I arrived at the bicycle shop about 90 percent of the way to completely overdone. I worked out payment with Ron the store owner and then rode the bicycle home.

It was only a bit more than three miles but I had already done too much and now I was doing just a little bit more. I am officially over cooked, done, totally spent, knackered. I now must stop typing and go lie down.

Immediately.

Average felt good today

Well, actually almost average. Today's high temperature may yet reach the average for this date but it was at least a couple of degrees below average when I was out riding. But I am not complaining, I am going to go with "average" and I am going to say that average felt good today, very good.

I rode over into Minneapolis, partly because of wind conditions, partly because I wanted to examine the scene at 15th Avenue SE and 4th Street. There is another one of these newly located to that intersection.Actually according to the account that I read in the Minneapolis based newspaper there may be THREE new ones of those. This one was a bicycle-dump truck collision, the sort of thing that can never, ever go well for a bicycle. The news account I read did not reach any conclusions about fault but did hint that there was a failure to yield right of way by either the bicycle or the dump truck.

My life experience says that dump trucks always have the right of way.

I crossed over onto the west side of the river for the first time this year and rode up the river road on the downtown side for a bit. I stopped in one of the riverside park areas, drank some water and interfered with the image of the Grain Belt sign.Or maybe I interfered with the image of that tree in the latter stages of leaf bud by including the sign as distraction.

Average felt very good today.

Unremarkable

It was an unremarkable day. The overcast lightened a couple of times but never really parted. The temperature AGAIN declined to rise to within 15 degrees of average for this date (which is now 61F). There were sprinkles left over from yesterday's rain event still occurring as late as breakfast time this morning. It was cold and still damp enough to be raw.

It is hard to get a decent photo on a grey day but the Lake Owasso white pictured a couple of days ago was still in the same area and is obviously a little less shy than the Owasso blue.The last photo of that bird caused TOPWLH to accuse me of faking a wildlife photo with an inanimate object of some kind. I trust that this one looks real enough to convince her that the bird is an actual bird.

I realized as I rode to this spot today that a visit to the pet cemetery is an annual event. Today I realized for the first time that CoCo and BonBon were from the same litter. BonBon outlived CoCo by just the twelve and a half years.The unusual thing about today's ride is that the pet cemetery is a destination that I reach every year, but for some reason I only make it over there at about this time of year. I think the deal is that later in the year the weather is more stable. Any time I head north in June or July I can pretty reliably count on the northern lakes being accessible. Today with 45 overcast and raw I guess I didn't want to get too far from home. Riding around in circles looking for miles without always riding the exact same streets leads me at least once a year to the pet cemetery.

Harmony

As predicted, bicycling resumed. I declined to ride and complained bitterly a couple of days ago about it being too cold. Today was maybe, maybe two degrees warmer. But a couple of days off combined with that snowy interlude made me happy to be on the bicycle.

I was circling back from a trip down into the big city when as passing by the Conservatory I observed this bit of erosion damage in the pool and fountain across the street from the main entrance.That's going to be expensive to repair. It looks dangerous right now and in fact they have erected a fence around that pavilion deal over there. I wonder where rebuilding a limestone wall in a decorative fountain in a park will enter onto the funding priority list for the city. With actual infrastructure often in desperate need of repair this project might not get done right away.

I ended up taking a path through Como Park that led me to spots where I haven't been at all for several years and probably never at all on a bicycle. I came upon this plaque embedded in a rock on the knoll behind the wedding gates on the west side of the lake, near the pavilion.A labyrinth!!

A global harmony labyrinth at that. I love labyrinths and stumbling upon this one immediately made me think of Wireless and I walking the labyrinth inside this large stone building in rural Western Europe.The plaque advises on how to navigate the labyrinth. One of the first bits of instruction is to clear your mind. I figured I could do that so I moved on up to the top of the knoll to get a good look.You have to stay between the lines.

This immediately put me in mind of a station at a bicycle safety day event that I attended while still in elementary school. That long ago event involved riding a bicycle through a figure eight course while staying in a narrow lane formed between two lines on the pavement, somewhat similar to this labyrinth. I decided to see how well I could do at the global harmony labyrinth while trying to keep my bicycle between the two lines.

The labyrinth is designed for walking. The tight turns that a pedestrian can make with ease were completely beyond the capabilities of a two wheeler. Still I rode all of the turns, always outside of the lines but back and forth and around and round, doing the whole task. In the end my bicycle and I arrived here:Nothing that I did today made me feel any more harmonious that this moment from earlier in the ride.That photo is dedicated to the instructor of a photography course I once took. In a critique of an early project he gave advice on how to make most photographs more interesting. The advice has always stayed with me and courses through my head almost every time I start framing a shot.

He said to interfere with the image.

Even interfering with the image does not disturb the tranquility and harmony of giant bronze cattle.

Changing channels

April 20, 7am. Another ugly weather overnight.AND, it WAS still snowing even though the worst of it had stayed to our south.But the snow stopped shortly after that. It was overcast all day but it IS late April and the sun that IS up there behind all of those clouds is just too strong to much abide this latest setback to the bicycling season. The snow was for the most part gone by shortly after noon. Now if the predicted rise in temperature for tomorrow (to almost the daily average!!!!) actually occurs bicycling will resume.

This one was taken from the Rive Gauche quai at river side.

Stay tuned

Nothing has actually started here yet. I probably could have ridden my bicycle. The weather radar always, always looked threatening and I feel a bit beaten down by day after day of riding in 15 to 20 degree below average temperatures. In the immediate post lunch time slot when I usually ride I instead took a nap. After that there was interesting football on TV and after that I took a walk. It seems to me that even though I am a bicyclist that working on maintaining walking fitness too is still a good idea.About half way through the walk a fine mist began. By the time I got home the mist particles were morphing from the liquid into one of the solid forms of water. So stay tuned, something still seems to be coming.

Following up on sports activities from yesterday, here is what was reported today in the local fish wrap in what I believe is still called agate type:

College baseball (nonconference)
Saint Thomas 4, Bethany Lutheran 3
Saint Thomas 6, Bethany Lutheran 0

Also found in the agate type, in Men's College golf, the Gustavus Bobby Krig Invitational was completed yesterday. Saint John's was first, followed by Gustavus, Wisconsin-Eau Claire with Saint Thomas fourth. Bethany Lutheran was either 12th out of 13 or 15th out of 16 depending upon how you look at it. Saint John's, Gustavus and Saint Thomas each entered TWO teams. Saint John's II was 6th overall, Gustavus Black was 8th and Saint Thomas II 9th. For Bethany, it looks to me like the baseball went a bit better than the golf.

I don't know, entering two teams is fine, it gives more people a chance to play some competitive golf, but reporting the scores of both teams to the newspaper just seems like piling it on the likes of poor old Bethany Lutheran. Bethany Lutheran took 1,041 strokes to complete the 54 holes of the event. I believe that in college golf each team is composed of 5 players with the team score being the cumulative of the 4 lowest scoring members of the team. That means Bethany had average 54 hole totals of 260 for the scores that counted towards the team total. That was 48 strokes over par of 212 for the tournament (the first 18 was played on a par 72 course, the final two 18s were played on a par 70 course). That is getting pretty close to even bogey scoring.

Saint John's winning score was 875, a 54 hole average of 219 per counting score, 7 shots over par per player. Saint John's two teams scored 875 and 894, Gustavus scored 879 and 911, Saint Thomas scored 887 and 917. I checked the individual scores on the Gustavus website and Bethany's top individual shot 231, 19 over par, tied for 39th place. The winning team, Saint John's, had 10 individuals entered on its two teams, 9 of them shot scores better than Bethany's top player, the last of the 10 shot the same score as the Bethany player.

Reporting the second team score (what in high school sports would be referred to as the JV) just seems like piling it on to the likes of poor old Bethany Lutheran. By the way, Saint Mary's was last with 1,044.

Too cold again but not snowing

This winter business didn't really bother me that much during the time span when we were all out there in the middle of it. I bought my goggles, I got out for an hour just about every single day. It was winter, what we got was expected and expectable. In fact, December through February, the dark months, were, for me, about the best winter in memory.

But part of the reason behind all of that is that I am not a bicyclist during those months. I don't expect to be able to ride.

However, I am now beginning to come around to the belief that this has been the most evil winter of my entire life. It started WAY too early, the first snow coming at least a month earlier than some other recent winters. And IT WON'T GO AWAY!!!

It was too cold again today: EG 44, CB 44, AOWG 52. It was too cold but at least it is not snowing.

Stay tuned.

I rode down into the big city. I found some baseball at Saint Thomas. Here the Tommies are finishing up infield practice before what I assume will be a double header against Bethany.Hmmm, Bethany? I think there is a Bethany in Mankato. Black uniform tops, red and black caps, a few fans in the bleachers wearing red, that's about all the information I have.

I found a new mural on the side of the Creative Lighting store on Concordia Avenue near Snelling. I endorse the message.But I am not sure I endorse the image used to illustrate the message. Today's quiz is name as many really egregious bicycle faux pas as you can identify.The ride home took me past Lake Como. The last time I rode this route the lake still had ice so I thought it important, given recent weather, to illustrate again that the lakes are now ice free.It was too cold again but at least it is not snowing. Stay tuned.

Profiling

Our morning visitors seriously skewed the age profile of persons inside our house but they correctly identified that today was a day for riding. It was a very pretty day, clear and sunny with fabulous blues.But it wasn't very warm. The wind was much reduced from the last couple of days but it has moved around to be a north wind and this spot at the south end of Lake Vadnais was cold.The water is very high and it will take close inspection of the area behind the shore weeds to find that waterfowl have returned to the lake.

The more exotic fauna was discovered farther south, in Central Park, my first northern half of the northern hemisphere sighting of a white heron this year.That wetland is either part of Lake Owasso separated from the main lake by County Road C or it is part of Bennett Lake separated from the main lake by Victoria Avenue and a parking lot. I think there is culvert over there where the truck is passing which probably makes this an extension of Owasso.

Here's a quiz for today, unfortunately it is pretty much a private quiz:I am pretty sure only TOPWLH will get that one right and even she will be needing lots of clues.

April 16 7am

It appears that today's exercise will be a walk.*sigh*

Slushy accumulation

Did he say . . . ?

Yes, that is in fact what the guy on one of the weather sites I check said about tomorrow's weather, about an inch of slushy accumulation.

I don't like missing a day, I really don't like missing two days in a row. Missing consecutive days very quickly has a negative impact on fitness. Further, if I missed today I was looking at missing at least three in a row and the forecast for after that is not what makes me optimistic about riding again any time soon.

So, despite that fact the weather today was clearly worse than yesterday, I rode today. Someone stop me if you have heard this before, I have the gear.

Raw is another word the weather guy used and that is what it was out there today. It was cold again and the wind absolutely howled. I have the gear but the truth is that I was more comfortable walking on the coldest day of the year than I was riding today. But there is something exhilarating about being out there on a day when it is hard and today was HARD. It was exhilarating.

There was another reason I went and it is related to two items of yesterday's bicycle news, one already reported on and one not previously mentioned. Sorry about the sloppy focus but the flash doesn't work on all settings for my pocket camera. I use the flash infrequently enough that I haven't bothered to get it straight yet which settings it does work on so sometimes I end up with photos taken without flash. Focus is hit and mostly miss on no flash basement photos.I purchased the NewLook a year and a half ago on eBay. It came with all Chorus components except for a Centaur crank. At the time I looked into upgrading the crank to Chorus to make an all Chorus bicycle (my other two nicest bicycles are all Chorus bicycles). Campagnolo has introduced 11 speed componentry in all of its upper level gruppos. My bicycles are not new enough to have the newest stuff and anyway, the reviews on 11 speed have been mixed. At least one opinion that I respect considers the 11 speed inferior to 10 in several important respects, most significantly ergonomics. So I have Campagnolo 10 speed. The NewLOOK had a Centaur crank and I wanted a Chorus crank. Last year was soon enough after the introduction of 11 speed to mean that when I shopped on eBay I discovered that new 10 speed was no longer available and used 10 speed, at least used 10 speed Chorus, just did not seem to exist. Along the way I also learned that for a crankset that 11 speed is interchangable with 10 speed. The problem for me is that 11 speed says "11 speed" on it. An 11 speed Chorus crank would have worked just fine with my 10 speed drive train but it would have offended my sensibilities. And it would have cost $600.

So late this past winter (does he mean yesterday I hear someone saying) I again started to search eBay for a 10 speed Chorus crank. Enough time has passed that such items are now available and for a considerable mark down from the previous winter's new equipment prices. I was a bit surprised during the search for used to discover a NOS (new old stock) 10 speed Chorus crank for sale. I obtained that and installed it yesterday. That is what is pictured above with the Centaur crank on the floor and the Chorus crank now on the bicycle.

Yes, I do have a torque wrench. In fact, I have two of them. I assembled my own bicycle from parts don't you know. You need a torque wrench to make sure some of those parts are correctly installed. Actually I have two torque wrenches, one for very low torque, and the one pictured, for when you really have to lean on that thing to get the connector installed tight enough.

As I was working on the installation I had to lift and otherwise move NewLOOK around several times. I hadn't really forgotten but even so, every time I have been away from that bicycle for even a little bit of time upon the return to it I am always, always, stricken by how light that thing is. It weighs absolutely nothing.

The bad road bicycle lives during its off season hanging from the garage rafters on hooks. During the time of year that I ride it I leave it on the hooks, lifting it down each day for riding and lifting it back up for storage. It's OK, it is a really nice bicycle and bicycles are not THAT heavy. But the recent up and down lifting of that bicycle gave me a meaningful comparison of the weights of the two bicycles. The conclusion I reached was too strong to ignore.

I knew from yesterday's out the window observation that nearby streets were probably swept but I set out today on the bad road bicycle to make a few checks to see if riding the featherweight bicycle was going to be possible.

Nearby city streets are swept. The nearby state highway is swept. County maintained streets are not yet swept. I rode about half the ordinary ride on the bad road bicycle making these observations and decided that I had enough information and enough clear streets to make the switch.

So here is one going in (Bianchi with empty water bottle) and one going out (LOOK with full water bottle). The change has been made.Ominously, the first time I shifted from the big ring to the small ring I dropped the chain. But an experienced bicyclist has no difficulty remounting a chain and all of the front shifts after that were Campagnolo quality faultless. The new installation is a success.

Anyone want to buy a Centaur carbon 10 speed crank? 53x39, 172.5?

The change was not quite as simple as just wheeling one bicycle out and one bicycle in. I also have to change shoes.The top shoe is a mountain style shoe mounted with the cleats for the Speedplay Frogs that I ride on the two Bianchis that I own. The Sidi shoe on the other hand is a road style shoe mounted with the cleats for Speedplay X series pedals, my pedal of choice for all the rest of my bicycles.

A change of shoes, a change of bicycles, now all I need is a change of weather.

More progress

I decided not to ride today even though it is not raining. There are very, very few days during potential riding season when if it is not actually raining I do not ride. The temperature outside right now is 43 and I just decided that after 72 one time, a couple of upper 60s and consistent 50s that a retreat to 43 was asking too much. I have the gear but I decided it is too cold.

There was progress, however. I got this picture out my front window.My street being swept is a definite good thing but does not necessarily spell the end of the line for the early season bicycle. I need to keep riding the low pressure and wide tire bicycle until I have ridden it over all of the places I usually ride and have found all of those places to be winter road debris clear. Riding the high pressure skinny tire bicycle into one of those deep piles of sand and broken glass would be most unpleasant. I intend to be sure that ALL of the streets are clear before I bring out the good bicycle.

But this IS progress.

38 percent chance

My usual early morning routine includes checking the early weather report to gauge the possibility of bicycling. I have a site that I always use that has nearly live radar which I use a lot and I also check the weather sites of a couple of local TV stations. The TV station said 38 percent chance of rain today and the radar confirmed that rain looked likely. With the temperature also quite a bit depressed from the high of the last couple of days I was pretty much resigned to missing a day.

As I was having lunch and trying to read the parts of the newspaper which I had not read earlier the dang sun started shining through the patio door and the too bright light began making reading at the table just a trifle uncomfortable on the unshaded eyes.

Well, we all know that 38 percent chance of rain means 62 percent chance of bicycling and with the sun out I rechecked the radar and decided to give it a try. I am glad I did.

I spotted my first northern half of the northern hemisphere (I know where the 45th parallel is and this spot is definitely north of it) great blue heron of the season on a little hummock of swamp grass at Lake Owasso. Here it is.Those birds are pretty shy and I suspect this one will be moving from Lake Owasso with its nearly fully built up shore line over to Lake Vadnais as soon as the lake water levels go down enough so that the similar hummocks which are common at Vadnais reappear above the water line there. The great blue spends most of its time sitting in shallow water waiting for food to come by.

Wait! You don't see the bird?

OK.

Regular viewers will know that I do not do video. I posted a couple yesterday but those were the second and third videos taken by me that I have ever posted. A quick scan down to yesterday's post will also show that as of yesterday I needed a little training on the video function of my pocket digital camera.

The obvious solution was "read the manual, dummy". I did. I believe I am now fully checked out on taking videos with that camera.

I pointed my camera at that bird and depressed the shutter button. I realized that something was amiss when the shutter sound that I expect was not heard, instead only a beep. As an aside I know that the shutter sound is not an actual shutter. I know that there is a sensor and that depressing the button activates the sensor to capture digital information. The shutter sound is provided by the camera manufacturer to assist doddering old fools in not being confused about what is going on with the modern apparatus in their hands. I digress.

The sound I heard I recognized as the sound provided by the camera manufacturer to indicate that a video is starting.

I have read the manual. I know how to do this.

But . . .

User error again. This time it is less in the nature of operation error and more in the nature of set up error. I forgot to check the camera settings before beginning operation. The little dial on the top of the camera was still on the video setting. When I realized I wasn't getting the snap shot I expected I reacted by jerking the camera down to have a look at the settings on the top of the camera to confirm what I already knew.

Behold the great blue:

By the time I reset and refocused the camera the great blue had moved on. They are shy birds.

I stumbled on this example of storm damage while riding through a neighborhood that I visit with some frequency but which I had not been to since last fall.That business was functioning every time I rode past last year but I don't think the current conditions are part of its business plan. There about six of those green houses in all. A couple of them have quonset style rounded roofs off to the left and those are still intact. All of the green houses with the peaked style roofs are collapsed, almost certainly as a result of the giant December snow storm. This place is a Roseville Heritage site as designated by the local historical society. It is a remnant of the long ago time when Roseville was at the edge of the city and there were lots of green houses out here (growing roses?). I fear that this one may not be able to survive this latest setback.

Look at me, I'm in Minneapolis

Today was another day wearing shorts. I rode to Minneapolis. As is usually the case when I head that direction I passed through the Fairgrounds on the way.

Apparently letting nature take its course is not the plan of attack for the giant snow pile. Today they had heavy machinery up on the pile working at spreading it around to let the now powerful sun have better access.The result is that there is much increased snow melt run off going down the street into the drain.

Video is apparently the way to go now so I tried again. I sorta have the hang of getting the video started but as you shall see, there is a bit of user error at the end.

Don't worry I'll get the hang of it.

I rode to the Stone Arch Bridge, definitely in Minneapolis. I am aware of all of the talk about flooding but even so this was a bit of a surprise. I have never seen anything even approaching this level of flow over Saint Anthony Falls.And just to prove that the video skills are improving:

I like the mist rising off the water at the base of the falls.

Some readers may be interested in this information from the Fairgrounds.The next display on the message board indicated that there will also be a Military Relic Show over there this weekend. I had no idea that I was going to be there and I certainly didn't know I was going to be in a show.

Eight lake tour

Today's wind was strong from the northwest so I set out for the first time this season on the eight lake tour. When you ride north into a strong wind the turning point where you put the wind behind you is a welcome waypoint. The northern route turns back at Highway 96. Here is a view of the creek flowing out of some lake in North Oaks and down into Sucker Lake. The view is from just south of the Highway 96 bridge.Perhaps you can see that the lake down there is open water.

The lakes, like all bodies of water, are high now, high even for this time of year. I was reminded of that by this spot, which as I have detailed at least a couple of times before, was a softball field when I first started riding out there.The back stop and infield were right over there between the two pine trees on the opposite shore. For any foresters who might be tuned in I am fairly sure those are actual capital P pine trees, not the fairly common usage of pine as a generic term for any evergreen. I did not actually go over there and examine the trees but there were a couple on my side of the field that looked very similar and I am confident in identifying those near me as red pine based on the characteristic reddish bark.

I spent most of the ride thinking that today's post would be about ice out. It was 72 and windy yesterday and although I am NOT a lake hydrologist I am confident that warm and windy are conditions conducive to advancing lake ice out. And in fact, every lake I rode by was iceless until I arrived at the jewel of the northern lakes, Lake Vadnais. This photo is about half way down the lake traveling north to south. The north half of the lake was open with the NW wind starting to pile the remaining ice up on the south half.I know that at least one of my regular readers (TOPWLH) will visit Lake Vadnais at least several times this year and that she will be interested in this view taken from the edge of the parking area nearer to the south side.Interestingly enough, the west lobe of the twin lake was ice free. The east side is larger and more sheltered from yesterday's mostly east wind. It still has some ice but my guess is that it will be gone tomorrow. In fact, it may be gone by now. While standing there it sounded like someone was swirling crushed ice in a giant punch bowl. The ice was already mostly chips and the sound that it made was charming and interesting.

There has been quite a hubbub of late about the closing of the "iconic" Porky's Drive-In on University Avenue in Saint Paul. It is therefore somewhat surprising that there hasn't been even a single peep that i am aware of about this. The A&W Drive-In on Rice Street is closed.I know a lot of people are enamored of Porky's, mostly I think because of the cool sign. As a young person I never went to Porky's. Porky's was not within a couple of hundred miles of where I lived. But I went to an A&W a bunch of times. The news articles about the closing of Porky's went on and on about the cheeseburgers and onion rings. Well, fine, I suppose, but for me the drive-in experience is about root beer floats and A&W is THE quintessential root beer float. The closing of one of the last A&W's is, again, for me, a much bigger deal.

Just as an aside here, A&W is THE drink it out of the mug draft root beer. My preference in bottled root beer has always been Dad's.

Today's final image, a wooly bear caterpillar.This particular wooly bear will never be an Isis butterfly as very shortly after this photo opportunity the caterpillar met its demise at the hands of a City of Shoreview truck. That's what happens when you play in traffic.

Everyone be careful out there.

Windy . . .

. . . and WARM.

EG: 73 CB: 71 AOWG: 75

The mercury passed the threshold at which I go bare legged for the first time. As is usually the case, I just adjusted the shorts to the still visible tan line on my legs from last season and headed out. I kept a base layer and arm warmers and at the start I was glad of it. The portions of the ride into the quite strong wind were still coolish. The wind had a bit of a bite.

But I spent most of the ride with the arm warmers pushed down. TOPWLH got a photo after I returned home.That is exceptionally pasty skin visible in places which have been sleeve covered for the past five months.

Streak broken

After each day of late being nicer than the day before today was not. It was grey and cool and the predicted 30 percent chance of rain ended up being sprinkles on two occasions during the ride. Sprinkles in cold weather are a bit unpleasant but sprinkles can be ridden through.

I found more flowers. Does anyone know what these are?They are in the tall flowering grasses yard in my neighborhood that I will end up picturing several times through the season. These are the first. There are actually quite a lot of them and indeed something else too as evidenced by this photo of what I could see deeper in the yard from my curbside vantage point.I think this is fairly big news but I expect no one else to care even slightly. The corn field was given a full plowing last fall. You cannot plant after a full plowing until you do a secondary cultivation. That secondary cultivation has now been done. The results are not a very dramatic photo but you can see a little corn plant debris at the edge of the field. Planting may be coming pretty soon.I still rise most days at about the same time that I have for years, the time when I have to be up to go to work. Due to the fact that I do not have to go to work I sometimes stay up too late but I still end up awakening at about the regular time. This is no hardship because I have plenty of other opportunities during the rest of the 24 hours to erase any sleep deficit. There are few things as good as a good nap.

But I have seen a lot of late night TV that I didn't used to see at all or saw only very rarely. Here's my opinion of the various shows:

Letterman still seems the best to me although some nights he seems to be just going through the motions. Leno was consistently funny when he was a guest on Letterman but has rarely been funny since. Conan seems like he is trying too hard. George Lopez is better as a comic actor than he is as a comic. Jimmy Kimmel is sometimes very funny but I still mostly feel as though his high water mark was as second banana on "Ben Stein's Money". Ferguson is quite funny at first watching but of late it seems to me that his humor is in the exact same vein every time. He needs to expand his oeuvre. I have not actually seen Carson Daly yet. I like Jimmy Fallon, he is occasionally quite amusing and his show has started to grow on me. That is how I happened to be watching last week when this happened.

Paul Simon and Stomp.

Here's a day after edit. I didn't like the ad that ran before the video but I figured out that the ad only runs if you embed the video. If I just provide a link to the website you can watch the clip there without any annoying ads. So that's what I have done. I still recommend watching.

It was a fun watch and I think the fun comes through in the video. Stomp is routinely phenomenal, Paul Simon is always fabulous and Jimmy shouldn't quite his day job (or in his case, night job), but he does just fine.

I have two items of bicycle related content. Today I saw the Tall Bike Guy for the first time this year. Interestingly enough I have previously seen another tall bike but it wasn't TBG. TBG was riding up the hill on Como near Snelling when I was riding down. As is his custom he greeted me, although he did so this time by raising his hand. My recollection is that last year he had a bell on the handlebars for greeting purposes.

And tomorrow is Paris Roubaix, the Hell of the North, the Queen of the Classics. Two time winner Fabian Cancellara will bid for a third and second consecutive. He may be a bit more vulnerable than he has been the last couple of years as indicated by his earlier this spring failure to repeat as defending champion of the Tour of Flanders. There will be live text updates on cyclingnews.com and VeloNews.com with live TV coverage available for a fee at cycling.tv. Last year I was able to watch one of the European tv feeds for free although I believe the commentary I listened to was in Polish. Here is a link to possible live pirate coverage sources.

Home opener

The local top league baseball franchise began its home schedule today with an afternoon game against the Philadelphia Athletics. With this in mind I headed out to see if I could find some outdoor baseball. My first stop was the home of the local small college athletic powerhouse.I expected that at this latitude you would want to be playing games on any day when the field is dry and the sun is shining.

I decided that maybe the Tommies were playing but were not playing a home game. There are a couple of other colleges that I was near enough to to make checking in on them fairly convenient.

Macalester:Saint Thomas has a fancier field, artificial turf infield, national championship banners on the outfield walls, Macalester has its own wind turbine.

Here's something I never expected to see again, an apparently free outdoor public phone.That's not a iPhone, but it pretty clearly is a MacPhone.

I checked one more field (Hamline) but they weren't playing either.

I was under the impression that there is a preferred orientation for baseball fields. I thought it was, when viewed from the perspective of home plate, facing east. The idea is that the setting sun should not shine into the eyes of the batter. It is allowed to shine into the eyes of the outfielders. The reasoning behind this is that batting is considerably more dangerous than playing outfield.

Well, whoever decided that has never seen outfield played at the level that I coached.

Anyway, the Saint Thomas field faces northwest, the Macalester field faces northeast, the field at Hamline faces southeast.

Conclusion?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

I rode home from there passing Lake Como on the way.Conditions have improved. Ice out has not been achieved but there is less snow on the ice and also there is a fairly large patch of open water over there near the point on the east side.

Again today it was the nicest day so far. I rode with a short sleeve base layer, short sleeve jersey and arm warmers. The process of de-layering has begun. The fourth day in a row was still harder than the first day but it was again easier than the day that preceded it.

I know I have posted this before, but what the heck, I love my bicycle.