Friday, September 30, 2011

Hockey

Gophers win 6-1 over hapless Union. I correctly predicted who would score the first goal. Perhaps the most exciting moment of the evening was when the public address guy announced that they will have chuck-a-puck tomorrow.

Today was sunny and warm enough, a nice fall day.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Not a bike ride

It was a day when the Auckland rule was in play. The wind was howling. But the sun was out until, suddenly, just at the moment when I intended to gear up for the ride, there were raindrops on the front window.

It didn't rain hard, and it didn't rain for long.

But the wind howled.

I ignored the Auckland rule and took a lay day.

Instead I went out for a walk. Those are going to be common enough soon and I need to start conditioning for that form of exercise. I found these leaves within walking distance of home.Leaf photos are also going to be common enough soon.

Here is a spot I walk through almost every time I take a winter walk. It looks a lot different now from the way it will look when I am walking there over a giant mound of snow in January.Hockey starts tomorrow.

Those who know us know that this is BIG NEWS.

Let me see, 19 players back from a team that reached the NCAA tournament.

Returning second team All America goaltender, a winner of an Olympic bronze medal in her sport. Some say the best goaltender in the world.

On defense at least three who will be members of their national teams for the next Olympics, including an All America senior and a junior who is so good that it hurts to acknowledge that she is not the best on this year's team. Add in to the three national team players to make a group of four a senior who on some nights is the best of the four. And then add a freshman who may end up being in the end the best of them all.

At forward return intact the top two lines. Bring back from injury the two time captain who was the leading scorer two season ago before missing what should have been her senior season with that injury. Seven of the top nine forwards return even without this extra special come back senior. Add some very highly regarded freshmen including experience as world under 18 championship players.

Hockey starts tomorrow. This should be fun.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Every day is a new bike tour

I had a moment earlier this week where I contemplated the difference between what I am doing and what I want to do. It was a day when there wasn't actually any extended rain. What we did have was extremely threatening conditions with the very, very occasional misty, sprinkly kind of deal. I reflected on wise advice that I received earlier this year that reminded me that the reason why I do what I do is for the process, not for the numerical result. I do this to be fit and to feel the way that a fit person feels. On that day I declined a bicycle ride and went ahead and launched my winter fitness campaign by trying a 3 mile walk.

Well. My walking fitness is quite subpar but even so I found it refreshing to be moving around out there at such a reduced speed. Yes, even slower than my reduced bicycling speed.

But today I went ahead and got back on my bicycle even though I was feeling somewhat south of perfectly fine. No complaints though, this is all relative. And sure enough, as I often used to discover when I was a younger person, a little exercise can actually cure minor maladies. I find that to be true only very occasionally at my current level of maturity but today it was true. It felt good. And it reminded me that the fact that I AM fit is the reason exercise today worked to help me recover from being unwell.

I rode through Como Park. There was a big youth soccer tournament going on over there. The SUV traffic seemed way too intense even for a big soccer tournament though. Eventually I discovered the problem. All of the SUVs had to use only one way out of the park (the way I was trying to use to enter the park) because of a road closing.It just seemed so unlikely to me that there would be a bike tour on that particular section of road. I lifted my bicycle over the curb and went ahead and rode down the closed road.

Sure enough, no bike tour. That sign must be left over on that particular piece of street furniture from the big local bicycle classic from a couple of weeks ago when lots of roads were, in fact, closed because of the bike event. I found that the road is closed because it is brand new pavement for a couple of blocks including the new parking lot for the new swimming pool at Como Park. The sign at the other end of the closing just said road closed without any suggestion of bicycles.

In football news FC Nantes has had a remarkable week, one of their best weeks since the first relegation. Of course, it IS ONLY LIGUE 2, but FC Nantes has had a 6 point week. On Tuesday, FC Nantes traveled to Metz, gave up an early goal but came back to win 1-3. A road victory is always a good result but this particular road victory came against a team near the top of the table. Then today home standing FC Nantes held up for a 1 nil victory over Clermont Foot. The two victory week moves FC Nantes up to 9th place in the league table, a huge improvement after a dismal start.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Bicycle booby trap

I rode past this thing yesterday.It spooked me as an unaware cyclist could be impaled on that thing. Yesterday I merely was careful to swing out wide and avoid the spear but today I had a guest rider. She held my bicycle while I got the photo and then threw the branch back into the brush. Bicycling in the big city is dangerous enough without booby traps.

The Fairgrounds is a ZOO today. There are several big events, the horse show, an antique furniture show, 4-H dog show, children's clothing sale, rubber stamp and scrapbooking convention. But the BIG event is prelude to the big football game scheduled for this evening. The University is playing North Dakota State. This is a big, big deal for NDSU. They have played the U a couple of times in recent years and have declined the role of sacrificial lambs. In 2006 Minnesota won by 10-9 but in 2007 NDSU won 27-21. NDSU is taking this very seriously. The morning newspaper predicted that they would have 14,000 fans at the game and that many of them would be tailgating before the game at the Fairgrounds parking lot. That same parking lot is also used for tailgating by Gopher faithful.

Well, the parking lot was jammed absolutely full with the colors of the two schools flying on banners and also showing up on the bodies of the multitudes. It should be a fun atmosphere for the game tonight.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Orange ball appears in sky

That equinox thing has apparently come and gone. This means there is no longer even a single valid reason for pretending it is summer. Soon enough I will be mostly posting photos such as this one.I like that one as one tree is mostly changed and one tree is still in summer hues. As may be apparent from the photo the sun emerged this afternoon in time to make the day seem palatable even if it was too late to make a warm bicycle ride.

On the subject of yield right of way, I have several general guidelines that if combined probably end up making a personal rule.

1. The nautical rule. Anything under power should yield right of way to unpowered, stink boats yield to sails. For me this applies to pedestrians, I yield to pedestrians. Even though we are both under human power, the mechanical advantage that I have is significant enough for me to invoke this rule.

2. The following vehicle rule. A vehicle striking another vehicle from behind will always be at fault. I use caution and yield when approaching pedestrians and/or slower moving bicycles (not that that happens very often) from behind.

3. The last best chance to avoid a collision rule. This is a corollary of the following vehicle rule. If I see you and can take evasive action I do so.

4. Yield to slower moving traffic. This is mostly pedestrians.

5. 10 mph speed limit on the bicycle path, particularly in the presence of pedestrians. Anything faster than that is dangerous and besides, 10 mph happens to be the law on the path in Minneapolis that I am most likely to be on (the River Road).

6. If I am obeying the law and you are not I expect that you will yield right of way to me. This applies mostly to salmoning bicyclists, but also to jaywalkers and certain idiot cars. I do not insist upon this but I do expect it. True story, today's salmoning bicyclist was also talking on his cell phone. That seems to be becoming somewhat common lately. I usually want to ask the idiot in question how they intend to apply the brakes if doing so should become necessary.

7. Always yield to horses.The WSCA (Western Saddle Club Associations, Inc.) is having their big annual show over at the Fairgrounds this weekend. You can tell is is western saddle club because all of the riders are dressed up like cowboys. Well actually there were a lot more cowGIRLS today. They all had big hats, cowboy boots and spurs.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Wool socks

The appearance of the sun today, essential if a day is to be "partly cloudy", occurred only early and only very briefly. The afternoon was "cloudy", as in "overcast", as in no sun at all. As a result the predicted mid-50s high temperature didn't really happen where I live. It was cold enough to induce full end of season gear.

I went to the drawer where all of that stuff has been waiting and came back with long sleeve base layer, heavy long sleeved jersey, tights, full finger end of season gloves, a Windstopper helmet liner and balaclava. I produced wool socks from the sock drawer. I passed on the light weight windbreaker that has served as a "jacket" and went ahead and put on the real jacket.

It was 50 at the cattle barn but I was fine. I have the gear.

Here is what is going on down at the end of our street, we are getting a new what the crew at VeloCity would undoubtedly refer to as "sidewalk".The local city planners refer to it, of course, as a "bike path". The city is getting a new sidewalk, a bunch of my neighbors are losing big chunks of what they have come to consider to be their front, or occasionally side yards. But it is a sidewalk and it is being installed on the city owned right of way so the neighbors are not actually losing anything that they ever really had.

I watched on cable TV the city council meeting where construction of the new multi-use path was approved. Several of the folks who testified in favor cited the current danger to pedestrians along that stretch of busy street due to the necessity of them walking on the shoulder, too close to the cars.

And its okay with me that it is a sidewalk. I ride on the road anyway when I am riding but during the season when I find bicycling not possible I often walk along that stretch of street. After they plow up the snow piles on the shoulder on each side of the street it is, as my fellow citizens testified, a bit dicey walking out there.

And further, while in most places it is illegal to bicycle on the sidewalk (not to mention much more dangerous than in the street), here in Roseville, due to the almost complete lack of sidewalks, there is a local ordinance specifically allowing bicycling on any city owned pavement which is not a street. Mostly the city calls such things, particularly if they are asphalt, bike paths. But if the pavement in question is concrete and has those regularly spaced expansion lines, then the city goes ahead and calls that "sidewalk". And the local ordinance states that it is okay to ride on it.

As I say, I ride on the road, all of this doesn't affect me very much. Except that in this case the new sidewalk will actually be useful to me during the season when I rely on walking as my primary fitness tool.

PS-The season I am referring to is usually called "winter" and today I bicycled in full early winter gear.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Gleaners

You can really tell that the harvest is over when the gleaners show up to, well, to glean the last morsels of digestible calories from the dirt and debris that not long ago was a corn field.It is an interesting measure of how wealthy we all are and how abundant food has become that this task is left to the geese. Only a few generations ago those ears of corn would have been scooped up by human gleaners.

I had a flat tire today. Some good always comes from flat tires and today's bit of useful information is that the rip in the tube was very similar to what I was getting when I had flats on NewLOOK. I did not change the NewLOOK wheelset over to the Crown Jewel so it isn't exactly the same thing but interestingly enough I am running the same brand and model of wheel on those two bicycles. Today's flat I am fairly certain was a pinch as I flatted quite abruptly only seconds after not noticing a gaping chasm of a pothole in the street I was riding. A leak flat usually takes at least a few seconds to go down, today's flat was poof, flat. The similarity of the damage to the tube leaves me to ponder if this outbreak of flats on these two bicycles might just be a tire inflation issue.

Flats are mostly a waste of time and a nagging inconvenience. Even so there is something quite self-affirming and ultimately pretty positive about the whole flat tire experience. There I was too far from home to comfortably walk home, particularly in bicycle shoes. My vehicle was unexpectedly disabled and I was able to just reach into my pockets and produce the items necessary to cobble together a repair good enough for me to ride on an underinflated tire the few miles back to my floor pump. I was near the farm campus and while making the repair I had a pleasant enough chat with a foreign student pedestrian who was fascinated to find me sitting there with my tools working on my problem. His English wasn't good but he smiled when I explained that even though the repair was going to take some time that the actual repair was not "rocket science". Which it is not.

So today I had three bicycle rides, the first being the several miles until I actually had the flat. There was an interlude while repairs were effected followed by a shortish ride back to my garage for proper tire inflation. After all that I went out and finished the ride. With a late start the whole thing ended up taking pretty much all afternoon.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Really nice day

After a day of cold rain on Sunday today turned back towards the kind of weather we have been having through the first part of September. It was cool early but the sun was out and eventually the high for the day reached above 70. We rode out to the eight lakes.The are some trees starting to show some yellow along the shoreline out there. There wasn't much fishing going on today, but there was some. That view is down the road from a car perspective, facing north in the one way direction for cars. It would be up the road from a bicycle perspective, it is uphill (mildly) in that direction and that is the direction we almost always approach from.

Really nice day.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Does this look familiar?

She said she wants this photo to post on some social network.Everyone should notice that she has her jacket sleeves pushed up because even though the reported temperature is punitive, she is not intimidated. It isn't cold until she admits that it is cold. In fact, almost from the first pedal stroke she was commenting that she was too warm.

The full report is:

EG:-196 CB:58 AOWG:64

Today's mean should be about three degrees higher than yesterday's.

Today is a Saturday in the fall and I ride around in a city which has numerous small colleges and one humongous university. College Saturday in the fall means football. We rode through the second iteration of Gopher nation, we heard the crowd at Hamline, we passed within sight of the game at Saint Thomas. Interestingly enough there was also fall baseball (practice, not games) at Saint Thomas. We rode on towards Macalester where I was hoping to find the pumpkin heads doing some football and perhaps some more fall baseball.

The pumpkin heads, if they were playing, were playing elsewhere. The college has had some success recently in baseball as last spring's edition shared the conference regular season championship (with Hamline and Saint Thomas). Sure enough, how you get better for spring baseball is by practicing in the fall.I had dressed for yesterday. Yesterday I was too cold and lo and behold when we started out I was still too cold. Unlike yesterday, however, the sun came out pretty early in the ride. The ride out into the wind was still cold but by the time we reached today's turnaround point I realized that if I didn't remove some layers I was going to overheat on the ride home.

The sun went away later on this afternoon but there was a spell there when temperatures were at or near normal for this day. It should still be warm and nice in mid-September and today we had a spell when it was warm and nice and nowhere near -196F.

Friday, September 16, 2011

3,022

I ride a lot. The annual mileage total today clicked past another one of those big numbers. If the weather holds . . .

Today was supposed to be warmer and in a simple numerical comparison I guess it was. The problem for today was an overcast that lasted until about 3pm. When combined with a pretty brisk south wind today felt colder than the last couple of days when at least there was a bright sun.Minus 196F is cold indeed. That works out to about -127C. Today's summary looks like this:

EG:-196 CB:55 AOWG:59

Someone calculate a mean for me and I will enter that in my bicycle log as today's temperature.

Annual grasses are all in seed stage. I ride past several places where homeowners have put in large patches of various long stem grasses for decorative effect. Here is one I have not previously seen, however:3,000 miles is a lot of miles. Even so, I am still quite a bit behind schedule and unlikely to reach my annual goal. But 3,000 miles . . . I only need about 40 more rides averaging 25 miles each. 40 more rides? That doesn't seem very likely. But . . . At least I can actually see it from here whether or not I will actually get there.

The Crown Jewel has moved into second place on the mileage chart for bicycle with most miles ridden this year. This is a great, great bicycle. Getting it down from the rafters was a really good idea.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Another shoe drops

Here's the view out my front door at shortly past 7am (well after sunrise, as is probably pretty obvious from the photo).I rode my bicycle this afternoon and it was still cold. In fact, it was colder than yesterday as I can report 50F at the Cattle Barn at 1:15pm. 50F is one of those really nice round numbers as it corresponds exactly to 10C.

I don't know why I haven't thought of doing this before but today was my first occasion of multi-tasking while riding. The outside ATM at the financial institution that we use is well within the distance range of my usual rides so I went slightly off route today and did some banking.While I was getting my gloves off and otherwise preparing myself to do business a couple of other people arrived and used the ATM. I responded to their conversational gambits and as a result I had a nice conversation with one woman about what a nice day it was. I suppose I should point out that she WAS wearing a late fall weight jacket but with that bit of gear (and with the gear I was wearing) we were both experiencing a pretty nice day. The sun was out, it was a pretty day and neither one of us was feeling the cold. Her gear and my gear served to establish yet again that there is no bad weather, there is only inadequate gear.

And, then, well OK. I did a bit of Wikipedia reading and it seems that some of those Zombies that yesterday I proclaimed to be the same five guys only look like they might be aged versions of the original Zombies. The two main guys, the keyboard/vocalist and lead vocalist ARE actual original Zombies. The others are replacement undead. My apologies to any offended by my error.

And it really makes them not any different at all from Pete and Roger who still tour as the The Who but are really just Pete and Roger playing the music of The Who with Ringo's kid and, oh, like about 17 other musicians filling in the parts previously filled in by John and Keith. Or not any different from Keith and Mick who really have played in at least three completely different bands all of which are called the Rolling Stones. Brian Jones/Mick Taylor/Ron Wood issues aside, can it really be the Rolling Stones if Bill Wyman isn't there any more?

And so, the Zombies tribute band plays OK and I still like the tunes (especially the old versions).

On a side note I saw Charlie Watts drumming on an Eric Clapton/Jimmy Page/Jeff Beck YouTube video that I looked at recently.

Guitar players and others who pay close attention may note that even though it is clearly mostly Eric that Clapton, Page and Beck each, at least ever so briefly, play a guitar solo. It is the 1983 Royal Albert Hall ARMS Charity Concert and is the first time that the three iconic former Yardbirds lead guitarists performed together.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

First time cold

It has been coolish a few times since winter left (including at least a couple of the days in Paris) but today was the first time cold. It was 51F at 1:22pm at the Cattle Barn. It felt cold.

Gear changes included full finger gloves although just the very light cotton gloves that I usually use as a liner in the winter time. I also went with the long sleeve jersey instead of short sleeves and arm warmers. There just wasn't any way I was ever going to remove my jacket much less push down the arm warmers so long sleeves it was. But again it was just the light weight long sleeve jersey. I also went with leg warmers instead of full tights. The difference is that the leg warmers give you one less layer over the naughty bits. It wasn't so cold today that full on extreme measures were called for. It was just cold.

And 51 isn't REALLY cold after all, is it? It certainly will get much colder later and I will ride on lots of colder days. Today was only the first dose and not the time to break out maximum protection, just time to look in that drawer dedicated to winter gear and find a few of the things I am going to need.

One of the nice bits about the first cold, about the first of every abrupt and distinct change of weather for the worse is that it sharply reduces the number of people who still think it is bicycling season. I rode for a bit over two hours and saw ONE OTHER bicyclist and that person I spotted with less than a quarter of mile left in my ride. It feels like a private ride when no one else is riding.

And where was everyone? It was an extremely pretty day out there.Isn't the sky blue?

Note that unlike TOPWLH I shan't refer to this as a beautiful day. Beautiful is reserved for days as pretty as today when the temperatures are in the range of balmy. But pretty it was as I am sure she will agree.

Frost warning for tonight and probably not any warmer tomorrow. Average September temperatures (upper 60s, maybe 70) will return by the weekend.

I was up too late the other night and caught the Zombies on Jimmy Fallon.

I also recommend She's Not There from 1965. Unbelievably enough, same guys.

Not enough? For total Zombie immersion you might want to also try Tell Her No from 1964. And still the same five guys.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Less heat, less wind

Way less heat, temperatures only rose into the 60s.

Way less wind, a light mostly westerly wind.

Result? Way less fatigue.

I was mostly just riding around but I was JRA with intent. I wanted to get a picture of my bicycle with the big metal cows.There were a couple of students sitting on a bench just off frame while I was setting up the shot. They looked at me quizzically but didn't call security or anything. I suspect they saw way more bizarre things at the party they went to after the football game last Saturday.

Or maybe not.

The Fairgrounds is clearing quite rapidly. The Midway is completely torn down with only one of the smaller rides still present on site (but packed up on its trailer for travel). The Pronto Pup stands are all identical trailers, they come and go all together on the same day each time. Today they are all gone. The big yellow slide has been washed down but the slide inhibitors haven't been installed yet. The Sky Ride looks to be completely mothballed. The giant Harley Davidson tent is still present as well as a couple of the other big tents over on that part of the grounds.

The information signs on the Grandstand haven't been turned back on yet. They continue to display the generic welcome to the Fair sign. Those ticket booths are usually one of the last things to go.I am able to report that it was 61 today at the cattle barn.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Southwest into the wind

One lesson that I learn usually every July is that riding every day when it is hot leads to accumulating fatigue. One lesson I have learned in this most unseasonable September is that the same fatigue accumulates even if the every day rides occur in what otherwise appears to be fall. It was very, very breezy this afternoon on a day when the high temperature approached 90. I arrived home feeling pretty fatigued.

I hadn't been all the way down into the city for quite some time. The construction project over there flattened my tire on one of my first attempts of the season to go there and I have been a bit overcautious ever since. But the strong southwest wind made for a fine day to go over to the Falls. I had not been there since May.That's quite a bit of water to be going over the Falls for this late in the season.

There appears to have been an erosion event over there on the west bank of the creek. The retaining wall has a gap, the slope looks disturbed and then there is all the debris down in the gorge.It was a pretty day at the Falls. The GRider has arrived home from her errands and informs me that she ate outdoors at the Falls today meaning that we were both there today although only one of us arrived there under human power.

That would be me.

The forecast high for tomorrow is about 20 degrees lower than today's high. The day after that it might get cold.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Really important football

I had a chance today to stop and appreciate that here in the middle of a huge city there is a place like this that I can ride to: the road down into the woods at Lake Vadnais.Blue sky, and another very warm September day with only some lightish winds.I got home in time to begin the ritual of REALLY IMPORTANT FOOTBALL. That means I got in a nice nap and missed most of the first half.

In yesterday's football:

Minnesota 21:28 New Mexico State
Northwestern 26:36 Westminster
Concordia (WI) 0:48 Bethel

Not a good day for home teams.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

New Brighton

As I was leaving the bicycle shop the other day I met yet another person who thinks he knows me because he sees me riding in his neighborhood all of the time. This guy was from Lauderdale and I do ride quite often in Lauderdale. I explained to him where I DO live and how I let wind direction determine the direction of my rides and how this often results in me riding in his neighborhood. He was satisfied with my story and then told me his. He rides very often but almost always on the same route. The route takes him around Lakes Johanna and Josephine. On the day we spoke he was riding in the opposite direction from his usual route. We had a nice discussion of how reversing direction on a regular route makes for a completely different ride.

So I thought about Johanna and Josephine for a couple of days and today set out to ride around those two lakes myself.

I had the Guest Rider today so first we detoured down to the parking lot at the end of the University tramway. The University football team had its first home game of the season today and we wanted to get a look at the tailgate party in the big parking lot over there, the first local manifestation for this academic year of Gopher Nation.

We then headed north back along often ridden routes looking for the seldom taken deviation across Snelling that would lead to Lake Johanna. We crossed at the street intersection in front of Northwestern College. They had a football game about to start there too. We paused to observe for a bit. Northwestern College is Golden Eagle Nation and illustrated by what they have out in front of the football field.We rode away from the field just before they had the pre-game prayer which we could still hear over the public address system. Northwestern is a religious school (I am going to refrain from calling it a bible college this year) so they can go ahead and say a prayer before the football if they so desire. We rode down through the rest of the campus. As with nearly every college campus in the fall, it was pretty and serene, idyllic even.

We rode on, passing through the western city limits to spend some time riding in Arden Hills and then eventually even into New Brighton. The route back led us past Mounds View High School, down the hill to Lake Valentine and then up through the campus at Bethel (also not a bible college). There was no football today at Bethel but the campus was every bit as pretty and serene as Northwestern's.

It was warm and really, really nice. It was warm enough to be summer but the lower angle of the sun gives the season away, it isn't summer any more. But it was in every respect a beautiful fall day, a day of the sort that no matter how many of them you experience you never really have enough of them in any one lifetime.

OOTNDITHOD.

FC Nantes did not play a league game last week. The league took a break to allow for the playing of the round of 32 in le Couple de la Ligue and also to allow for international qualifying matches for next year's Euro 2012 tournament. FC Nantes travelled to Sedan and bowed out of the League Cup by 2 nil. The team returned to league play this week and played a 1-1 draw at home to Le Mans. The team stands 15th the the league table with 5 points from 6 league games.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Big numbers

While we were riding today I pulled over and stopped to show GRider my bicycle odometer which indicated 8,000 miles for this bicycle. While we were stopped she showed me the odometer on her Bianchi which showed 4,500 miles. A double milestone.

GRider wanted to see the Fair deconstruction. We took the opportunity to wrap up a couple of Fair related loose ends. We attended the Fair only on the last day so there were a few things we really didn't see this year. This one is still available though and will be until just prior to next year's Fair. It is this year's DNR found junk sculpture.There is a deer and a heron in there. And a truck door and a bunch of other stuff.

Here is the one remaining church dining hall that I hadn't pictured. This one is pretty hard to miss as it is on the main street inside the main gate, a prime location.On the other hand, Saint Bernard's was on the main street even closer to the main gate and went out of business. Hamline looks pretty prosperous at least for now.

What's not to like about September temperatures in the 80s?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Repairs

Today my riding schedule and Scott's working schedule finally matched up. He was available for consultation when I stopped by the bike shop. Here is a look at the yellow bicycle on the repair stand while the rear wheel and the cogs are off in another part of the shop getting as Scott said, that little hiccup removed.The repair took only a few minutes, I was in and out of the shop in less than 20 minutes. I rode the bike home, all gears are now available and in good working order.

The bicycle repair took only a few minutes and I am willing to bet this repair took only a few minutes as well.The key element here is wood screws instead of duct tape and twine. That mail box post came apart when it was hit by what the plow threw at it in the plowing after the last November's first heavy wet snow. Ten months and about 20 minutes of labor later appearances have been, at least temporarily, restored.

Of course, there is more snow coming again soon.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Endings are beginning

I haven't really done extensive research. I am just going to rely on memory and impressions.

Last year the corn was allowed to turn completely brown before harvest. The harvest came very late in the season.They are doing something completely different over there this year. This year's harvest was of still quite green corn stalks. And it is almost over.
It was a nice day to ride around in Roseville. I made it to the north city limits, visiting Shoreview for a time. I made it to the south city limits, visiting both Saint Paul and Falcon Heights. In Falcon Heights I found that bicycles are again being admitted to the Fairgrounds. The ticket booth is still there but tickets are no longer for sale. The gates are open.
This is an interesting time to be on the Fairgrounds. There is lots of activity, lots of things to look at. Attendance this year was the third highest ever, we were part of it. When the crowd is assembled there is also plenty to look at. For me though, I find the tearing down part to be almost as interesting as the actual Fair. I am entertained by the flotsam and jetsam and the just plain debris left behind by the big event.
I was looking for this as I was not actually exactly sure where it was located. This is one of the two remaining church dining halls on the grounds, the Salem Lutheran Church.
Epiphany closed while trumpeting its achievement of 46 years of service. Salem has them outdone by a good margin.

There is a new blogger interface provided by the ever helpful people at google. This one not only auto corrects your spelling even when you meant to spell it that way, it also auto corrects your line spacing. I always thought I was smart enough to do that for myself.

I am disappointed and will be switching back to the old interface for as long as it is still available.

New twine.
75, sunny, light wind. OOTNDITHOD.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Nice ride

The Fair is finally over which means I could at least ride in that direction again. The grounds are still closed and vehicle traffic is still a little erratic but the huge crowds of pedestrians have departed. It was strangely quiet.

It was nice to get an opportunity to ride at least a short distance down into the big city after 12 days of not doing so.The sun was out and it was a beautiful day in September. It is only the 6th but by the 6th of September it is most definitely not July any more.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Labor Day

It was still cool today. It IS Labor Day, we have been given fair warning, this summer thing is pretty much over. GRider wanted to make it to Vadnais again before her season ends (pretty soon). With the Fair to our south, the northern route seemed obvious. It was a nice day for riding and we found a pretty nice day at Vadnais.At this point the day still had a bunch of hours left. We had already spent time checking off an item that needed doing before summer ends. I had not been to the Fair yet this year so it seemed obvious what we should do next. In addition, I had excellent advance scouting done by Wireless that informed me that Heather was at the Fair. We decided that we needed to go to the Fair and to stop to say, "Hello" to Heather.I wanted to ask her about how things worked out for her during the state government shutdown but pretty much all she would say was something about being a geologist and working on sand and gravel surveys.

Hi, Heather.

We discovered that if you attend the Fair on the last day that some of the places that can be really, really crowded early in the event are quite accessible. Here is a 3rd prize winner in a perennial favorite, crop art.When we were in France in July there was a carnival set up in the Tuileries. They had one of these things right next to the Rue de Rivoli side. It looked to us like the this particular attraction was new to the French, they seemed extremely taken with it.Of, course, Americans still seem pretty taken with it too.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way and all of her Dairy Princesses, all carved in 90 pound chunks of real Minnesota butter.Last year I lamented the passing of the Saint Bernard's church dining hall. This year it is the Epiphany dining hall which is closing.According to the morning newspaper at one time there were nearly 20 church run dining halls at the Fair, next year there will be only two. In the old days you would see people walking around with a free sack that they had obtained somewhere, often from WCCO. These people would be accumulating coupons, free samples and other items which would fill the sacks. Now you mostly see people walking around with items of food in their hands. The Fair used to be a place to be exposed to new products, it now seems to be a place to be exposed to new foods.

We tried the Australian battered potatoes (thumbs down) and the walleye cakes (ok, no recommendation, decide for yourself) to go with the Danielson and daughters onion rings (thumbs up) and the pork chop on a stick (this year from Ragin Cajun in the Beer Garden, ok, nothing special).

We had fun.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Layers

More evidence of fall, I guess. I could tell looking out the window that it was windy and I could tell by looking at the thermometer that it was cool. I failed to grasp how cool it was until I went out and started a ride into the north wind.

I was back in the house after less than 2 miles and had this stuff on when I headed back out.That's my new Craft sleeveless base layer, one of my newest items of gear. My Castelli arm warmers are relatively venerable but that Pearl jacket may well be the oldest item of gear that I own.

The sun came out after a while and it is actually pretty nice out right now but I finished the ride with three layers and felt just fine, thank you, not overheated in the slightest.

Fall is my favorite season of the year.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Another day of alternative gearing

The weather was quite a bit cooler today, dare I say it had a distinct feeling of September and we all know what that means.

I experienced not a single chain skip today. Of course, I limited my time in the suspect 17 to big ring time and, while in the small ring, to just passing through on my way to the 16 and/or 18.

I have over 100 miles on this bicycle this year and can confirm previous impressions, to wit, really, really nice bicycle.

Sterling silver head badge.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

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.