Champion d'Automne

In France Ligue 2 has reached the mid-winter break with half of the season, 19 games of the 38 scheduled, having been played. In first place at the break and winner of the purely honorary title, Champion d'Automne (Champion of Autumn) stands FC Nantes.

FC Nantes finished the first half with a slightly disappointing away draw against lanterne rouge CS Sedan but stands comfortably on a record which includes no losses since October 5, a run of 11 games including a 6 win three draw performance in league encounters and two victories in fixtures of the season long la Coupe de France tournament, the French Cup.

FC Nantes next appearance is, in fact, a trip to Dieppe for the round of 64 in la Coupe on January 6. Its next Ligue 2 outing is a home appearance against Nîmes Olympique on January 11.

This guy can really kick.

I like the sound track, anyone know the piece or the band?

EDIT: Never mind, I forgot that I have SoundHound on my phone. You let the phone listen to the music and it tells you what it is. The song is The State of Massachusetts by Dropkick Murphys from the album The Meanest of Times.

2nd verse

Once again, right click on the link and open in a new tab to start the music.

And sing along.

Oh Christmas bush,
Oh Christmas bush,
You're now a tree like all the rest.

Special thanks to my collaborator, TOPWLH.

Song of the season

Right click on the link and open in a new tab.

Then sing along.

Oh Christmas bush
Oh Christmas bush
How lovely are thy branches

Significant digits

I am the kind of guy who loves an opportunity to prove that I am NOT innumerate.

So the question has been posed, just exactly how much is a tiny tish, as in a tiny tish less than 7.1 square miles.

The answer is related to the very important numerative concept of significant digits (for which there IS a Wikipedia article). One of the joys of learning to operate a slide rule is that the process forces you to learn about and to actually confront the concept of significant digits.

Yesterday I wanted to take a nice close up of the slide rules but discovered that the battery on my good camera was discharged. I had to use the cheap, put it in your pocket and go for a bicycle ride digital. The picture was fine, but today I have a much better one.

By the way, stone picked up on the beach at Dieppe for scale. The stone is half something brown and half white chalk, a very distinctive piece, now one of my personal favorites.

So, the rule of thumb for performing calculations is that the result you get at the end can only have value and accuracy to the level of the accuracy of the data input at the start of the calculation. The rule for calculations involving a measurement is that the result can only be "significant" to the same level of accuracy as the lowest level of accuracy of measurements input.

In this case the measurement input was a radius of 1.5 miles. That is two significant digits. Therefore, any result with more than two significant digits contains spurious digits introduced by calculation.

The only reliable result is the one produced by the slide rule, about 7.1 square miles. With a radius measured at 1.5 miles an area of 7.1 square miles is the most correct answer.

However, in examining the slide rule, we can see that pi on the B scale lines up with something just a "tiny tish" less than 7.1 on the A scale.

There is no way to know just exactly how much a tiny tish actually is. Everyone gets to make their own definition. I think that in this case .0314 or about pi divided by 100 is an excellent definition.

Further affiant saith not. That's lawyer talk.

Slide rules

I not only have a slide rule, I have two.

And in a miracle worthy of the season I knew exactly where they were despite not having laid eyes on them for at least 20 years.

So there they are, the white one is a Post, sort of a standard school boy slide rule of that time. It is enamel layered bamboo with a reversible slide. It contains all of the standard scales and is actually suitable for use for nearly all calculations. The yellow one is my "nice" slide rule, a more complex model, a Pickett, enamel layered metal, with many scales for complex scientific and mathematical computations. There is a bunch of stuff on there like log scales and some other stuff that I no longer remember how to use. I bet there is a Wikipedia article that would get me quickly back up to speed though.

Notably I did not need any refresher work to set the two slide rules up to solve a problem which was bandied about here recently.

The slide rules are set to figure the area of a circle with a radius of 1.5 miles. You set 1.5 on the D scale, that also gives you 1.5 squared on the A scale. Then you find pi on the B scale and read the answer on the A scale directly across from pi.

Just a tiny tish under 7.1 square miles.

Brought my bicycle down into the basement

See the problem is when I bring the snowblower back inside for storage after completing snow removal the temperature inside the attached garage is always above freezing and the accumulated snow on the blower, the stuff you cannot sweep off like the stuff inside the auger, melts. The floor gets wet and stays wet pretty much all winter. The snowblower's spot is immediately adjacent to the bicycle parking spot. There will be no $2,000 wheelsets standing in water for three months.

I actually moved the bicycle over to the door into the house before I even began. When I paused to get this photo I had to go inside to get my cheap camera and when I did I moved the bicycle inside. So technically, the bicycle season officially ended DURING the first snowblowing of the season.

It must be apparent from the photo that it is STILL snowing. In fact, the big plow, the one that does the street went by again while I was out there. Digression, we have a big plow and a small plow on our street. The small plow only does the circle. That plow was by about three hours ago. This was the first I have seen of the big plow. The big plow goes fast and blasts up and down the straight bit up to the corner. I am guessing that we are back in contact with civilization should the need arise.

Digression, good luck to family members living in the two big cities just to the south of where we live. When we get a bad one for the first one it seems like the big cities NEVER really get adequately dug out. The snow has arrived late but it could still be a nasty one. The days are still getting shorter.

After getting myself inside and actually getting the bicycle into the basement I took my nice camera and got a view of winter wonderland.

The prediction was 3 to 5 inches. A good look at the ruler will support my version of the story that we have about 7 already and, AND, it is still falling.

There was one day in December when I could have ridden. I didn't. Now I won't.

On the bright side my walking fitness has returned, I mostly feel pretty good out there on my daily rounds.

EDIT: A little past 7pm and it is still coming down. That looks like 9 inches now out there on the picnic table.

We haven't seen the plows again so far, but the street has descended back into deplorable driving conditions. Clearly there will be more plowing before morning and that means this is that most unusual of events, the two snowblowings required snow emergency.

Well, the British burned it during the War of 1812.

So this isn't the worst thing that ever happened at the White House.

There was a poll on Yahoo today about Gangnam style. The options were I love it (23 percent), I'm over it (36 percent) and I have no idea what that is (41 percent). So I have no idea what that is is still winning but over it has clearly taken the lead over love it.

Over it.

We must really be over it if it is true that PSY will be appearing at the White House on December 21.

Obviously anything interesting to the ruling class will fall out of favor with the young people. And it looks to me like that has happened. Gangnam style has used up its 15 minutes of fame. But what a run it was.

Here is another one of the high points, PSY appears at the 2012 American Music Awards on November 18, 2012. He performs with special guest MC Hammer and an audience understanding not a single word of the lyrics other than "sexy lady" and perhaps "Gangnam Style". Of particular interest it seems to me is PSY's choice of costume, MC Hammer pants.

It starts slowly and builds but by the end of the performance the whole audience gets into it and they start to dance, Gangnam style.

It is over NOW.

Teddy bear toss game

It was the most exciting game of the season to date. The game remained scoreless for nearly 50 minutes, but the Gophers got the teddy bear goal at last. We had a very nice crowd of over 2,100, far short of yesterday's sell out but a nice crowd nonetheless. With 2,100 in the building it was not the spectacle of 25,000 bears as seen in the Calgary video but the ice was respectably littered and it was all for a good cause, Toys-for-Tots.

Final, Gophers 2, Badgers 0.

One of my readers noted that even though the riding the invisible horse video is clearly lots of fun, it is a little hard to tell if "Gangnam Style" is a great song or not. Her problem is quite common since PSY is Korean singing in his native tongue. Korean is not a language that a HUGE number of people are fluent in.

But just in case anyone happens to think that PSY is just some new Justin Bieber/YouTube sensation propped up by American teenagers, here is a clip of him performing his signature hit at the Summer Stand - The Drenched Show concert at Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul on 11 August 2012. These kids speak the language (and sing along) and they seem to like the song.

And THAT's what it looks like when the audience speaks the language and understands the lyrics.

This one only has about 46 million views. According to PSY, "People don't use YouTube in Korea that much, they have their own streaming sites so this is uploaded almost exclusively for international fans". That means that most of those now more than 855 million views of the original video were not by residents of Korea but of the rest of the world.

My street has no outlet

Theme day, my street.

After taking my camera for a bicycle ride 150 or so times I took it for a walk yesterday.

I noticed when the corn field appeared to have been tilled after the harvest was over. It turns out that they did more than cultivate, they have put in a row crop.

I have never seen this before, I have no idea. Erosion control? They have never done that before, why now? Possibly some sort of nitrogen fix or some such agronomy technique of which I have no knowledge?

Winter wheat?

Today in hockey, a new record crowd at Ridder Arena for Gophers 4, Badgers 1.

Plugger update

I may have a TV that weighs more than 100 pounds but in my defense I am at least aware of this, the most watched YouTube video EVER:

I like it, it makes me want to get up and dance.

As I post this video has been viewed more than a fairly astonishing 855 MILLION times. A couple of dozen of those have been me.

I found a comment on a PSY video that says that "Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism mainly associated with upscale fashion and a lavish lifestyle of a sort associated with trendsetters in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Gangnam is considered the most affluent part of the Seoul metropolitan area. So the song and video is about a guy living the Seoul version of a yuppie lifestyle, the good life. Or what the Parisians would call "Les Bobos". Life at the pool, fancy cars, horses, saunas, sexy ladies, boats, workout classes, hot tubs, that sort of thing, all while riding the invisible horse. You know, Gangnam style. I most like his fantastic take when he first meets the orange haired sexy lady on the subway at about 2:10. THAT's good acting.

Korean neologism, I know there is at least one person reading this who is going to appreciate that.

So for me that's how this version of National Blog Every Day For a Month Month ends.

With me feeling like dancing.

Gangnam Style.

Walking is hard

I look forward to the return of some walking fitness. This week's lesson is, yet again, that when you abandon one primary exercise form and take up another, there are going to be adjustment issues.

If you haven't walked much of late you are likely to find walking to be hard. My aerobic fitness is obviously fine. What is at issue is leg muscles. I am experiencing what feels like the very beginning stages of shin splints, slight discomfort in the shin while walking.

I look forward to the return of some walking fitness.

I already have something planned for tomorrow so for today's penultimate post of National Blog Every Day for A Month Month, I offer a favorite photo from each of the four trips we took this year.

"A-maze-ing Laughter" by Yue Minjun on the shores of English Bay in Vancouver.

Our foray over the edge of the Grand Canyon for a hike a mile down into the abyss, a hike which got us nowhere near the bottom.

La Côte d'Albâtre. According to Wikipedia la Côte d'Albâtre est située sur la Manche. This is the unicorn we spotted at la plage at the town of Saint Pierre en port.

The bicycle garden behind the new store next to the PPS.

There.

And as previously stated I already have something lined up for tomorrow.

Done.

Winding down

As the long tailed monkey said after being run over by a lawnmower, it won't be long now.

I discovered last evening that the hockey this weekend includes the Gopher Women's Hockey 2nd Annual Teddy Bear Toss. This is a fun event which occurs after the team scores its first goal of the game. Fans are encouraged to throw new or gently used teddy bears onto the ice. The bears are collected and donated to charity.

I have posted this video before but it is lots of fun and worth posting again, the Calgary Hitmen 2011 Teddy Bear Toss.

There were over 25,000 bears thrown onto the ice that night in Calgary.

We won't have that many fans or nearly that many bears but we think the teddy bear toss is a good thing and we participate.

Today was another day plenty nice enough for a walk. Yesterday's walk to BestBuy and back through the mall included, coincidentally, a stop at Goldy's Locker Room. The stop yesterday was unrelated to the teddy bear toss which I was not at that moment aware was coming up this weekend. I did notice, however, that they had some stuffed gophers and bears and dogs and sock puppets, you no doubt get the idea.

Today's walk therefore took me along pretty much the same route and back through the mall to Goldy's. We are now plenty good to go on this whole throw a stuffed animal onto the ice thing. We have a bear and a dog.

The month is finally winding down. So is daylight. At this point in the year you really have to savor that sunlight when it is here, it stays for such a short period of time but at last and at least it is only about three weeks to the solstice.

Off yer duff

I last rode my bicycle last Wednesday. In the intervening days my level of inactivity has been pretty intense. Today was finally the day to do something.

I wanted to go to BestBuy anyway and I know from past experience that it is about a mile and a half from my door to the BestBuy front door. That makes a three mile walk, an activity and a distance that has worked for me in the past.

Plus I wanted to get a walking pace look at the nearby pavement. It snowed on Thursday and has been frigid since but the snow on my back deck is starting to do that sublimation thing. There hasn't been any actually melting but the snow is just plain disappearing. I wanted to assess the street to see if maybe, just maybe there might yet be a rideable day before real winter arrives. I found this within about two blocks of my house.

So some people seem to think it is still doable. I am going to agree with that person that the pavement is OK for riding. I am not going to agree that it is still warm enough to ride, today was way too cold.

I walked to BestBuy and got the information I need. They will free deliver any HD flat screen 46 inches or larger. Since 46 is about the lower edge of the range I am considering and since they affirmed that free delivery includes removal of the old set I am now definitely in the market. I am newly interested in this topic because TCWUTH recently pointed out this cartoon to TOPWLH.

Pluggers need men to come to remove their old TV, it weighs more than 100 pounds and furthermore is unwieldy, no good place to grab on.

On the way home I walked through the mall. Note this was not actual mall walking, the mall is between where I live and BestBuy, as long as I was out there were a couple of stores at the mall that I wanted to check for specific items. I don't see what is so horrible about mall walking, it is warm in there and at the mall near where I live there are lots of people and lots of interesting stuff to look at.

I don't see what is so horrible about it but I do admit that I don't actually care for it.

This bit of turf is torn up for the second winter in a row.

Last year they had just put the new path in late in the fall and the new sod hadn't really had a chance to take. They fixed it this summer, though and I am surprised to find that again the first appearance of a plow has piled up way more grass than snow.

I got off my duff today and took a walk. Being outside is good.

How to tie your shoes

I am going to go with what the presenter says: At this point in my life one of the life skills that I believed that I had really nailed was tying my shoes.

But for me as for the presenter, not so. I too had lived that same sad life of incorrect shoe tying.

Go ahead, take a look.

For me it was like that moment when you are about 5 years old and your grandfather shows you the difference between the overhand knot that is the only knot you know and a square knot (I am pretty sure that isn't how it happened for me but I am telling this story and we all know the rule to not spoil a good story just for the sake of the truth). Eureka, this knot is better.

Since I originally saw this video in another day of fairly mindless surfing I have been tying my shoes with the stronger version of the knot. It takes a bit of getting used to.

You have tied your shoes that same way for so long that you don't even think about it, you don't even recognize the steps anymore, it is all of a single piece in your mind, all just one thing.

When you relearn tying you have to again recognize the steps, you have to be aware of where the loop is, just exactly where it goes in relationship to the other parts of the knot, which finger pushes it there, which fingers pick it up on the other side, lots of little details that you are not currently thinking about.

But . . .

You do, in fact, get a much better, stronger knot, a knot which does not come loose. You get a square knot version of the knot you have been tying.

Live long and prosper.

Pi to 210 decimal places

Some will recall that a couple of years ago I published this picture of a backyard roller coaster that I discovered while out riding.At the time I didn't know what the toy building set was called, in fact I didn't really know much of anything about what was going on out there.

Well, time passes.

The builder of that backyard roller coaster has been featured twice recently in the local newspaper. As a result of the first of those appearances I discovered a YouTube video made by the young constructor of that very same roller coaster.

Pretty good stuff, I think.

But he has been in the newspaper and as a result of his first appearance I have learned that the construction toy is K'NEX.

I highly recommend that you follow that link and learn about Austin. There are two videos imbedded in the news story, at the end of the first of the two videos Austin recites from memory pi to 210 decimal places. Everyone should appreciate pi recited to 210 decimal places. Pi to 210 decimal places is a rare feat.

The second video embedded in the news story features Austron's newest K'NEX construction. I am just a tiny bit hesitant to embed this video because of information available in his second newspaper appearance that states that because he is the composer of the music he is able to place advertising on the video at YouTube and that the ad placement has earned him $5,000 (don't you love free enterprise?). But it seems to me that any playing of the video even an embedded on my blog video is going to reap the advertising revenue for a kid who richly deserves it so even if you don't follow that link here is his newest spectacularly wonderful construction.

The kid knows pi to 210 decimal places. And has no idea what the digit in the 211th place is.

I know 10 places, 3.14159 26535.

Scratch it, Carl

Last night I was watching the Gopher men's hockey game against Vermont on Fox Sports (Minnesota 5, Vermont 1). Between periods I was surfing up the dial and passed through Fox News. O'Reilly was on with a sort of greatest hits show where he was running what he considered some of the best bits in the history of his show. One of the bits was an interview with Mike Love and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

I don't know exactly when the interview actually took place but one of the questions to Brian noted that Brian was then within a week of turning 70 years old. Bill asked both Brian and Mike if when performing they ever thought about and missed Carl and Dennis, Brian's brothers and Mike's cousins. Dennis died in 1983, Carl died in 1998.

Brian was pretty much on his best behavior anyway but at this question he seemed to sit right up and some of the fog left his eyes. Still, his reply is classic soft focus Brian, "A lot of times, at every concert at least twice." It is left to Mike Love to give clarity: "Nobody sang 'God Only Knows' more beautifully than Carl Wilson."

Balanced and fair I would say.

There is commentary in that video on the what the Wikipedia article on the Beach Boys calls Brian's life long burden and barrier to a more active public life, "mental health and substance abuse issues". The video is from 1967 and already Brian is not part of the performance. I believe that is Bruce Johnston on bass.

Here is an earlier video in which all of the original members of the band perform.

Brian wrote that song when he was 19.

I was trying to decide whether to include that one or the next one, I couldn't decide.

In the Deuce Coupe video Mike introduces Brian as "our leader". In the O'Reilly interview Bill says to Brian, "You're a genius, you know that right?"

In other hockey news, this afternoon in Durham, NH, the top ranked and undefeated Gopher women's hockey team pummeled the University of New Hampshire 10-2. Brandt had 3 goals and 2 assists, Kessel had 2 goals and 3 assists, they remain tied for the national leadership in points with 43. New Hampshire's leading scorer has 11.

In French football today at Auxerre, FC Nantes has scored a road victory by 0-2 over AJ Auxerre. AS Monaco is at Clermont on Monday night and can regain a tie for the Ligue 2 lead with a victory but for now FC Nantes is clear and in first place in Ligue 2 after 15 games of the 38 game season.

I hate it when they get it right

Especially when their getting it right ends the season just as abruptly as they predicted. I took this shot through the glass door as the snow began last evening. I like it because you can see the photographer in reflection and an outbreak of pie in the background.

I took the photo through the door because it seemed too nasty out to open the door to the elements.

This morning I think I was right, it is too nasty out to open the door to the elements.

I actually had to do a small amount of shoveling today (the front steps had a dusting). So I didn't walk today but walk reports will no doubt begin soon as the walking season looks to be clearly underway.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

We hosted this year. TOPWLH makes her signature cranberry bread the day before and then prepares the stuffing but the rest of the cooking, including all of the things that end up being ready at the same time just before you eat, is up to me. Therefore I was pretty busy but I did get one picture.

Not to worry, though. There were at least three other cameras active including cameras wielded by two people who have to blog every day this month.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

And that probably does that

The nicer of the two last nice days ended up being today. It was sunny and warm. I started my ride out wearing just a light jacket and even took that off for most of the ride. Tomorrow will still be nice but the cable TV weatherscan channel this morning predicted a Friday high temperature of 24F. For those who care that is about -5C. Cold enough to freeze the water in your water bottle, my hard and fast definition of conditions in which I will not ride.

So today's ride is likely the last. If I am done for the year I will have ridden 101.5 percent of the annual mileage goal, a total for which I award myself an A+.

Yesterday I made a final northern ride and it seemed fitting to me that today's wind direction set up for a final southern ride. I suspect that this is the latest in the year I have ever been to Minnehaha Park on a bicycle. They had something there today that was missing the last couple of times I was there, water in the creek.

True, there is not a lot of water, but there is some and just beyond Hiawatha and Minnehaha there the flow drops over the edge and produces an actual waterfall, a nice sort of amenity for a large regional park.

While standing there (taking off my jacket) I served as a cultural guide for a young family. I hope they were from out of state because when the children asked which one was Hiawatha and which one was Minnehaha the adult of the group had no answer. They spoke English with what seemed to me to be the local accent, maybe they are from Wisconsin or Iowa or something. I knew the answer, of course, who in these cities doesn't?

I do know they were enjoying the park and seemed quite taken with the sculpture.

I rode back on the Saint Paul side. For a change I strayed off the River Road and gradually filtered my way east along the likes of Mount Curve and Berkeley. Berkeley was kind of a revelation, below Cleveland the street is still bricks.

Having gotten far enough east I went by for one final time around our favorite roundabout.

And that probably does that.

Obviating the risk of measurement error

Today I was even more inclined than yesterday to just go ahead and rest on my laurels. It was going to be sunny and 10 or so degrees above the average for the day but compared to yesterday's 20 or so above average, it was going to be coolish. And today I actually have earned the laurels to rest upon.

A look at the longer range forecast convinced me to ride. I need to eliminate the possibility that due to a measurement error my mileage total is actually somewhat short of 4,000 miles. After all the 4,004 total that I was claiming after yesterday's ride is exceeding the annual goal by a mere one-tenth of one percent. Most would agree that .001 is within the reasonable range of measurement error.

Today was nice but it looks very very much like tomorrow is going to be the final day of the season. Tomorrow should be rideable as we ramp up to a possible all time high on Thursday. Of course, I have other plans for Thursday (right click on the link and open in a new tab) and will not be riding. Friday calls for a return to average or slightly below average high temperatures (38 as of today) which is going to be too cold to ride. One of the weather guys went so far as to say that there is a possibility of a snow storm for Monday. As I contemplated resting on my laurels it looked like today and tomorrow may be the last two days of the bicycling season. Because I would prefer to have a final mileage total at least one percent over the annual goal it seemed prudent (was it George Bush Senior who said it wouldn't be prudent all the time?) to get some miles in today.

So I did.

I rode out through the swamp at Grass Lake again. The extremely low sun angle even at shortly past midday made for an interesting intermix of light and shadow down there in the heart of the swamp.

While pausing at the turnaround point I discovered a for now not hugely serious but a nevertheless troubling cut just off the center contact zone of my front tire. It strikes me as ironic that I recently swapped out the rear tire due to fears that it had reached the end of its useful life and now it is the front tire that is the danger zone.

But I have only one ride left for this year, the cut is small and a little off to the side, it wants to bulge but really isn't yet. I am going to chance it tomorrow and go for that one last ride.

Here is my favorite local dune grass planting located nowhere near a sand dune.

It is, however, located near Lake Owasso in what is clearly glacial terrain, there is a fairly strong probability that the shoreline there features soil with a significant proportion of sand and gravel. Maybe that's why it is doing so well.

I have despaired of ever getting a photograph of that stuff from the angle where it looks the absolute most stunning. That angle is directly towards the now low lying sun with the sun's rays back lighting the grass heads. It looks OK from this angle though and maybe everyone will have to imagine the rest.

Or come on over some time in late fall and I will show you where it is.

One to go.

4,004

After making the announcement yesterday I must admit that I briefly considered today just taking a day to relax and rest on my laurels. The whole problem with that is fairly obviously that I hadn't actually earned any laurels, I just announced early. We can all imagine how red faced I would have ended up being if I passed on this day and somehow ended up doing that 96 times up to the corner and back described in yesterday's post to reach the annual mileage goal. It was a brief, brief flirtation with the idea of laurels resting before I quickly decided that the best course of action was to go out and actually ride the miles.

Good choice.

It was about 15 degrees above the average for this day (which is now only 39) when I set out and two or three degrees warmer when I returned. 56 in November isn't going to come around real often, it seemed best to get some outdoor exercise.

I hadn't been on the Greenway for a while, a southwesterly wind coaxed me off in that direction. I rode out to the public water spot at Lake of the Isles.

I didn't actually check, I wasn't going to be riding far enough to need more water than the two bottles I started out with but while I was lining up the photo a hipster on a fixed gear tried to get a drink there. It has been turned off, no surprise.

I had never ridden the path around the lake. I have been over on the far side several times but never have previously used the path as the route to get there. I stopped along the way to note that this is still a big city.

As a result of the lake circumnavigation I ended up with a few miles more than I had planned. I was going to try to make it home exactly on 4,000. The lake was pretty though, the path was pretty good pavement, the detour was worthwhile and enjoyable. Except for the encounter with one member of the M family. There are two paths around that lake within about 5 yards or so of each other, one is clearly marked bicycles no pedestrians, the other is marked pedestrians, no bicycles. He was on the bike path, on his phone, with a dog on a leash, he was completely oblivious to his surroundings while he and his dog effectively sealed off the entire path, and then he barked (the citizen not the dog) at me for reminding him in what he apparently considered an unpleasant tone of voice that there was a bicycle coming on the bicycle path.

No big deal, just the usual stuff.

I have one more detail to clean up that whole Como-Como-Como-Horton-Midway Parkway kerfuffle from this weekend. I do not believe that there is anyone in the world who enjoys "I told you so" as much as me. Here is the corner of Como and Pascal.

I should just leave it alone but I can't, anyone see a restaurant? And actually, to be fair, no one ever thought there was a restaurant there. We just had confused the street in front of the Fairgrounds with Como. With so many Comos that seems easy enough.

I noticed in the newspaper on Sunday that the women's Division III volleyball championship was decided over the weekend in Holland, Michigan. The newspaper reported that the University of Saint Thomas defeated Calvin College in the finals. I assumed from this information that the championship was hosted by the Holland located Division III college and with only a tiny bit of searching I discovered that the match was played at DeVos Fieldhouse. I know of the rather intense rivalry between Calvin and Hope, I am wondering, with the match being played in Holland, if the hosts rooted for the relatively local team that they are familiar with or if seeing anyone, even an unfamiliar team dressed in purple, defeat their biggest rivals might have been sweet medicine for the Holland based fans.

Only index remains

We had a little geography problem after the hockey game last night. We were headed for a neighborhood restaurant which was initially described as being at Como and Pascal. I ride through that intersection on my bicycle easily over 100 times every year and was not convinced that there was a restaurant there that I had never noticed. Pressed for details the person who had selected the restaurant noted that it was at Pascal and the street leading away from the main entrance to the Fairgrounds.

Armed with this information we all agreed that the street must actually be Horton, which we knew to be a sort of alternative Como in the area of the Fairgrounds and Como Park. We were wrong.

It turns out that the street leading outwards from the Fair entrance (the continuation of Dan Patch Avenue you might say) is Midway Parkway.

Oh, of course we all agreed after finally all finding ourselves at the intended destination, of course, it is Midway Parkway.

What we then couldn't decide upon is just exactly where is Horton? Other than being an elephant in a Dr. Seuss book we ended up being a little uncertain.

Well, I live in the neighborhood, I own a human powered vehicle and I have lots and lots of spare time. And today was a very nice day for human powering of my vehicle. I set out to find some answers.

Right away, here is where the problem begins.

I am standing at the corner of Hamline and Como across the street from Como Park. However, close examination will reveal that what arrives from the west at that intersection as Como departs to the east as Horton.

Why would they do that?

Probably some land use issue arising in the early history of the city and that wonderful park out there because if you cut through the woods across the street now on the south side of HORTON (there is a path, no problem) you come within a very short time to the corner of Beulah Lane.

It looks to me like Como between Beulah Lane and Hamline was abandoned at some point in the past to eliminate one of those five corners intersections.

It was a really pretty day out there today, don't you think?

I followed Como along towards the east to make as complete an investigation of this thing as possible and came to this pretty interesting spot, the intersection of Como and Como.

And actually it is the intersection of Como, Como and Como. I am on Como Avenue about to enter Como Place, Como Avenue continues towards the southeast on camera right but additionally an examination of the building facade across the street will reveal that the street leading away camera left down towards the lake is Como Boulevard. Yes, indeed, what you are looking at is the intersection of three different streets all named Como.

Not good planning.

But what of Horton?

I checked back and after beginning at Hamline Avenue Horton seems to peter out here when it merges with West Como Boulevard at the shoreline of Lake Como a bit more than a block east of Lexington.

I hope that clears that up for everyone else, I know that at least I have a much more clear picture of the whole Como-Horton-Midway Parkway confusion.

I am confused no more.

Token lake photo for the person who believes that every bicycle ride MUST include at least one lake (you know who you are), Lake Como from the southeast corner, pavilion visible across the lake.

Pretty day, don't you think?

Those following along will probably have figured out that the whole posts named after fingers progression that has been going on here of late is a countdown. And with today's curling into the fist of the that pesky middle finger there remains only one. And that is where I stand.

I have never done this before as I hate to announce anything before it actually happens for fear of jinxing the outcome. But . . .

Today's ride reduces the number of miles that I have to ride to achieve my annual mileage goal to a number easily manageable in just ONE ride.

3,976.

How? Dogged perseverance and good fortune in November weather are the main things. And more miles in November than in July. Even if it begins to snow before I complete this blog entry I will make it to 4,000. I live in an area of the city with the standard 8 blocks to a mile configuration. I can ride my bicycle down to the corner and back, 2 blocks, a quarter mile. 4 iterations of that pattern, a mile. 96 times? 24 miles. That I can do if absolutely necessary sometime on warmish sunny days between now and January 1 even if I have to do it between high banks of, bad word here, snow. Anyone who thinks I wouldn't actually do that misunderstands the hard work and obsessive behavior that has gotten me this close. I will not be giving up NOW.

But I probably won't have to. The weather forecast calls for at least a couple more, perhaps several more unseasonably pleasant for November days in the next week.

Pretty day out there today, don't you think?

Do the Gopher

No bicycling today despite very favorable weather. It's tough to miss out on a rideable day at this point in the season but my/our priorities are well established. Today was another hockey Saturday. It was time for us to do the Gopher.

Tonight's victory (9-1 yawn) set an all time NCAA record for most consecutive victories in women's hockey. It is now 22 in a row for the Gophers extending through 14 this season and the final 8 last year in the championship run. Here is how the defending national champions are introduced on the video screen scoreboard at the arena just before player introductions.

This one is actually from last year but two of the players were among the three stars of tonight's game and the other was always one of our favorites.

I especially like the bit where they call out a teammate for being from Newfoundland.

Ring

I don't like delaying the start of the ride, especially at this time of year. It gets dark so darn early, I don't like being out there when the light starts to fail and the low angle of the sun starts to hamper vision for those people driving their cars towards the setting sun. There are enough hazards out there under good lighting conditions.

But it was cold today, colder than what I wanted to ride in. I didn't want to start until I had at least one source that said 40. That's about 10 degrees colder than yesterday. I think three separate items of gear that didn't go along on yesterday's ride made the cut for today. Riding when it is this cold is really, really hard.

And then, cattle barn: 39 at 1:43.

Pretty cold.

Before I got that far though I took this photo of my current front yard situation.

The city crew arrived at 7:55am. Today is literally the last day of leaf pick-up, the third and final day for this section of town which is the last section being picked up. Being this late meant at least for this year that the crew was using slightly different tools than they have used every other time I have seen them in action.

Always before there were a couple of guys with metal leaf rakes keeping the leaves moving towards the maw of the giant vacuum. This late in the year and with the rain we recently had meant that only one of the three guys had a rake. Lots of leaves because of when they were raked could be damp in the pile and with morning temperatures in the 20s the leaves could be frozen.

Two guys were using what I think of as barn cleaning forks. Long handled, five tine pitch forks, definitely not garden forks but also not the kind of fork you use for moving hay, more the kind of fork you use for moving manure when you are cleaning the barn.

As I say, a little different, interesting.

I would probably ride past these guys all of the time except that most approaches involve an uphill, a couple of which are not on my personal favorites list:

I found myself exploring parts of Como Park where I haven't been before. It looks to me like they are planning a big expansion of the amount of paved pathway they have, particularly in the southwest corner of the park, near where this is.

All things considered though, it ends up having been another nice day to have been out on my bicycle. The season continues.

And the ring finger curls inwards to the palm.

Pinkie

Well, that was nice. Today was a very nice day for late October which of course makes it an extraordinarily nice day for the Ides of November. Temperatures several degrees above average and mild winds made a perfect day for bicycling, or at least as perfect a day as is ever likely to occur this deep into the disappearance of the sun.

I hate to harp on that but the sun is now making only a token appearance each day, arcing across the southern sky from east to west but never making it more than about 30 degrees above the horizon. I am beginning to suspect that we are dumbed.

Just another way to look at it.

I ride lots (tip of the hat to Eddy Merckx who is famously credited with giving advice to do just that), both north and south from where I live (and occasionally east but not so much west). My favorite routes are the routes to the north, out to the lakes. Today's weather provided a late season opportunity for one of my favorites.

The lakes are a rewarding destination for me because of the setting. Once off the busy streets and into the park interior the city disappears. It was a really pretty day today out in the woods.

That's the entry road into the park at Sucker Lake. I intended to ride down and check on the beaver dam but found a new entirely unexpected obstacle. That whole path construction thing down at Vadnais is being extended up through the park at Sucker Lake.

Well, I says to myself, if the construction project is tearing up the old road at Sucker Lake, possibly they are no longer as busy down at Vadnais.

I rode over there to discover lots and lots of construction guys. However what they were now working on is an upgrade of the road. The bicycle path is in next to the road and when I coasted down it not a single one of those guys even cast a glance at me. What the heck, I went for it. I think I may have missed the swans this year at Vadnais but at least I was there on an extremely late fall day and there were geese.

It was very pretty day out there today.

The path is all the way through Vadnais, it is new pavement, who doesn't like new pavement?

But it is clearly a path when the pavement used to be an abandoned street, it is narrower by probably six feet.

It was way nice today but I was there alone.

Down at the bottom I was surveying what used to be the parking lot. It looks from what I could see like there will be some sort of picnic pavilion there, a big change, but maybe a good one. The road from that end will still go that far. To accommodate both a road and a trail they have taken down several of the big old cottonwoods that used to line the shore between the parking lot and the sheriff's station at the bottom end.

At about this point a fellow in a giant pickup drove over to where I was and informed me that the park was closed and that I wasn't allowed to be there. His authority was unofficial but unmistakable (a really, really big pickup) so I left without a fuss.

On the grading thing introduced yesterday, actually under either system I am going to get an A. I am actually angling for insight into gradations of A, low A, regular A, A+, that sort of thing.

And on the thumb (sur le pouce) today the pinkie folded under as well.

Today was an unexpected pleasure, a wonderful day to be outdoors in non-punitive weather at a time of the year when that is unusual. I keep saying this and every time I do it is more true, there aren't going to be many more of these.

Thumb

Pschew! It is hard to imagine anything more disappointing than doing some light bicycle maintenance and then not being able to actually ride the bicycle in question. After the over the weekend tire swapping November relented today and allowed me to get out there and actually wear a little rubber off the newly remounted tire. Actually, it was one of the nicest days for bicycling that we have had here lately. I have the gear but today I didn't even have to don every single piece of it.

The leaf removal crew didn't arrive this morning. I saw them out and about in this general area of the city while I was riding but the pile of leaves is still out front. We have always taken the approach of anything that you can rake up goes in the pile. What that means is that there are lots of sticks, particularly sticks from the cottonwood tree in the leaf pile. Sometimes there will be a small residue of a few sticks left after the removal crew leaves but for the most part the powerful large diameter vacuum they are using accepts the sticks.

I was thinking of that when I turned the corner and came across this.

That seems to me to be too ambitious even for the large diameter vacuum. Plus, they really should have a few more leaves in the pile for disguise to get the leaf guys started.

Maybe not.

I usually ride past this spot on that street that you can see at the top of the hill.

They cleared all the brush up there (there was a lot) and from up there it looked to me very similar to the view when the men were installing wee wall. The retaining wall being installed to allow this new construction is made of the same interlocking panels that we watched get pounded into the beach during that high water episode on Lake Michigan several years ago and the installation technique is the same, pounding.

I have been thinking about assigning a letter grade to my still not quite over effort to reach my bicycle annual mileage goal. I don't think this is an endeavor calling for grading on a curve so I will have to accept something based on a percentage. The question for today is should I adopt a grading system where 60 percent is passing or should I be more rigorous and demand 70 percent to pass. This is significant because on a 60 pass scale 90 percent would get me an A. On the 70 pass scale I would need a 92 for that coveted marker. Please note that passing HAS been achieved on either scale (long ago, in fact), what we are quibbling about here is what should be required for an A.

On the one hand, this isn't the big leagues here, I am riding at a rate that can probably be charitably described as remedial. 60 percent pass seems about right for remedial. On the other hand, come on, 60 percent as passing? Too soft, it seems to me.

Today the thumb went down.

Season doesn't look quite over yet

Although it was too cold today, the prospects for above average temperatures (current average high 42) for the next few days indicate that there is even at this late date there is still going to be some bicycling. Perhaps a Thanksgiving Day ride may be in order. Who knows?

Too cold for bicycling but the sun poked out and it was a pretty nice day for some yard work. I didn't personally do any but it looked like a nice day for it.

Men were called.

Money was spent.

Leaf pick up is scheduled for tomorrow.

Leaf removal

We had hoped to get the leaf removal business in order over the weekend. Pick up is scheduled for Wednesday. Rude weather kept us from getting very much of anything done although TOPWLH did make some progress on the front yard.

Today's forecast indicated too cold for bicycling so some progress had to be made today.

I stepped out shortly after dawn to corral the daily newspapers. Oops.

Clearly the too cold for bicycling part of the forecast was spot on.

The leaves are frozen to each other and to the ground. The two of us engaged in off and on hard, hard work beginning around noon. It was off and on because it was too hard. Neither of us could sustain an effort for an extended period of time. Lots of breaks were required between short bursts of too hard.

Still by dusk we had made considerable progress.

We have one more day to get the piles of leaves moved around to the front of the house. We MIGHT be able to do it but we are pretty sure that the men we have contacted to come by and complete the task WILL be able to get the yard in condition suitable for what is clearly impending dome, winter.