Gino goes for a ride

Today's discussion will include gratuitous grammar.

To begin most will have noticed that in the post title I have referred to myself in the third person. Of course, this in itself is not terribly unusual in the modern world, lots of celebrities, particularly celebrities in the entertainment and sports businesses routinely refer to themselves in the third person. Here's where it gets gratuitous. I doubt that I am inventing any new grammar here. Grammar is already intensely detailed based on the desires of persons who care deeply about that sort of thing. But I am declaring that referring to myself in the manner that I have, by name, is third person nominative.

OK?

Gino went for a ride this morning.

My recent experiences convinced me today to do something that is common early in the season but which I do not ordinarily do at this point in the season. I checked the morning newspaper weather page for average high temperature for the date.

83.

I have spent nearly my entire life in this climate zone. That means that my organism is well adapted to a July with high temperatures quite a bit lower than we have been enduring (and incidentally with quite a bit lower humidity).

See what I did there?

I referred to myself in the third person again, but not third person nominative. I am calling that reference to "my organism" a use of third person subjective.

And that's what I was thinking about as I was riding around in the heat this morning. Perhaps the suffering has softened my brain.

I started a little bit earlier today. I intended to get out the door before 9am but TOPWLH announced my departure time as I passed out of the habitat sector into the garage portion of our principal residence structure: 9:02. During this series of morning starts of late I have noted to myself upon arriving outside that even though it was still comfortable enough that it always felt as though it was going to eventually be hot and miserable. Today was hot, hot, hot on very first impression.

Oh, oh.

But getting out just that tiny bit earlier ended up making a big difference. I finished the ride in time to be able to round the arrival time to the nearest hour and finish at 11 o'clock instead of noon.

Better.

I checked Paris Daily Photo before I left the house and headed out with this in mind.

It's the James J. Hill house, clearly a place that was constructed when they were still taking chimneys seriously. My count is six.

I discovered a couple of things over there today. That really daunting fence they have out front appearing to separate the mansion from the hoi polloi out on the public sidewalk is a total and complete fraud. It only extends to the corner of the yard. There is no fence at all on the Capital side of the mansion and furthermore there is a quite substantial gap in the bushes over there. I leaned my bicycle against a handy bush and stepped through into the yard to get a much better camera angle than I have ever had over there before.

While I was at it I checked the other side of the house. There is a continuing dispute going on over there between the adjacent property owner and the city of Saint Paul over who has to maintain the wall abutting this public walkway between the two big houses.

The walk dates to the construction of the adjacent house when apparently the city made some concession or another in return for which Hill built the walkway. The city maintained the walk and the wall for a long time but nothing is forever and due perhaps in part to the increasing cost of doing the wall maintenance, the city has decided it no longer has any responsibility for maintenance. The current owner of the adjacent house is unwilling to do the maintenance so the wall is falling into disrepair. According to the local newspaper the dispute appears to be headed to court.

I thought briefly about carrying my bicycle down those steps and proceeding down a ways to get a photo of the wall problem but decided not. Did I mention that it was hot?

When I set off I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it all the way to the Hill mansion (did I mention that it was hot?). I spotted a chimney fairly early on in the ride and rode over to get a closer look. It was only about 7 miles into the ride and as luck would have it, as I approached the sun angle and various framing components for the photograph jumped into alignment. I like the photo enough that I herewith include a second chimney photo.

That's in the industrial section of town along Prior Avenue north of University.

Here's today's irony (and who doesn't love irony?). The members of that big stone church visible in the background of the photo decided that it would be a good Christian work for them to grow a vegetable garden on the grounds of the church this year to provide fresh produce for families in need of food assistance.

I say good for them.

The irony here is that the garden plot is smack dab on Summit Avenue.

Well. There are rules.

But as with the Hill mansion walkway, allowances can be made, agreements can be reached. It was agreed that the garden plot could be placed on Summit but that it would have to be fenced.

I have no intention of disparaging the members of the church, their intentions are very clearly good.

But according to the local newspaper that fence cost $10,000.

Which would buy a lot of fresh produce.

On the way home I swung by the monarch way station that I visit occasionally. There were lots of butterflies there today and lots and lots of other flying, buzzing things. None of the butterflies would pose and my identification on the fly isn't good enough to state that they were monarchs but I feel competent enough to say that they were pretty and that the yard looks great.

I am hunkered down next to the air conditioning vent wondering when this will all end. But at least today Gino feels a lot better than yesterday. Perhaps my organism is beginning to adapt successfully to the current heat wave.