Weather alert and other warnings

Today is the day of extremely important football news. There are men in suits all over the sports channels and several other channels as well, all blabbing away as if they actually know something. There are about four pages of overwrought discussion in each daily newspaper, mock drafts, discussions of what the team needs, analyses of what the other teams have. I ventured out to the grocery store and discovered coming and going that even the radio waves are alive with chatter.

Well, I haven't seen anything like this since, well, since last week when we were in Vancouver and were treated to several pages per day of Stanley Cup hockey coverage.

It was cold today, a rude reawakening. It was only 48F when I went out after lunch. But the sun WAS out and it was a very pretty day, crisp and clear with that bright blue sky. The wind was a bit punitive from the north so I started out to travel mostly east and west. I got somewhere a bit off the grid.

I missed the planting of the corn at the field nearest to where I live but I stumbled upon definite planting activity at another field a bit further afield.

I had started out west and was working back to the east when it became apparent that the wind had shifted and was now pretty punitively from the east. I changed my mind about that whole east west thing and went ahead and tacked off towards the north.

I had just crossed Hamline and was at Garden and Fernwood when I was abruptly and outrageously right hooked by this creep.

It could have been worse, I saw it coming. He pulled alongside and slowed and started to squeeze over towards the curb. My brakes worked well enough and I got myself stopped and avoided being killed. I yelled to express dismay and was rewarded with a single finger salute.

Nice.

I sat there and gathered myself. The creep didn't even know where he was going as he soon came back after making a within my range of vision U-turn. I had my camera out and got a pretty nice picture.

It has been a tough couple of days for two wheelers in this city. The morning newspaper reported three deaths within the last couple of days by riders of two wheeled vehicles. Two were motorcycles, one rear ended at a stop light, the other victimized in a collision with an SUV turning left across in front of a moving vehicle. Pretty clearly in both cases the two wheeler was not at fault.

An 18 year bicyclist was killed shortly after leaving the parking lot of his church. News reports indicate that he turned into the southbound lanes of a major street heading north.

Here's something a little more pleasant.

That's right across the street. Pretty white flowers, bright blue sky.

Everyone be careful out there.