Another nice day in the swamp

About 6:40 as I begin, not a single trick or treater yet.

Today was a pretty nice day, temperatures reached nearly 50. We have now reached the point in the season where complaining about 40s is totally no longer reasonable, 51 is the average high for today.

Some days I end up just taking my camera for a ride. Today I started out and got to what I perceived to be an interesting photography opportunity after less than 4 miles only to discover that I had neglected to put my camera in my pocket. I was out there NOT taking my camera for a ride.

It's OK, I have a couple of these that I have taken on my travels over the past couple of weeks, Halloween is here.

That one is in Saint Paul, just across the border from Falcon Heights.

This one is in Shoreview, above Snail Lake, nearly all the way to Highway 96.

It looks like a lot of work, I hope they are having fun.

I circled back home and picked up my camera before riding farther to the north. I thought this corridor was kind of interesting.

That's along the Grass Lake Trail. Apparently having paved the trail the park authorities feel some additional upgrade is appropriate. They are engaged in a program of slashing back the undergrowth in the woods, perhaps to create a more urban park environment.

So I was sitting at home at about 5:30 looking out the window as the day dwindled down thinking that a couple of weeks from now that is what 4:30 looks like. We are doomed.

End of month data dump: With my ride today I amassed more miles in October 12 than I rode in October 11. That was a primary goal and I got there but not really by much. At the end of September I was several days behind last year's pace and I still am.

But, last year my last ride before it snowed was on November 18. And then the snow went away and I rode on the 28th, 29th and 30th, although notes in the log indicate that all three days it was too cold.

But, concentrate on the 18th, that seems possible again. Two and a half more weeks?

The doorbell just rang at 6:51. So no shutout at least.

It is just over three months since we got home from France, in fact three months five days. 97 days. I have ridden 1,998 miles in that period of time, a bit over 20 miles per day considering all days. 18 more days of that? Another 360 miles? Extremely unlikely but not impossible. All I know for sure is that the weather forecast for tomorrow is for a day not unlike today, I think I will be riding.

+4 degrees with full sun

But if I tell the truth, by the time I got home my thumbs were cold.

Just a short rant here from a person who for almost all of my adult life has preferred mittens to gloves, the opposable thumb is overall an absolute boon to the human race allowing as it does much improved manipulation of tools. From a purely keeping your hands warm perspective however, it would be much better if the thumb had some other attachment which would allow its inclusion in the big part of the mitten with the other digits. Being stuck out there on its own means that it gets cold when the fingers are toasty warm. End of rant.

Back to the narrative.

Four degrees warmer and with the sun fully out makes for a much more pleasant ride even if thumbs get a bit cold. I was just riding along when I came to this what seemed to me to be classic it still isn't winter yet here sort of photo. This is Grass Lake from the trail bridge over the freeway, looking about as blue as it ever looks, looking very blue indeed.

I was riding to the north for the first time in several days. In keeping with what is wall to wall coverage on the cable news outlets I suppose the north wind is the backside of Sandy finally wrapping around to the Midwest.

Or maybe not.

We get storms out here too and the east coast media never really pays much attention so the initial take for me from here is always a bit of skepticism when the cable news people start hyperventilating about east coast weather. But from what I have seen skepticism is misplaced in this instance. That looks like a real doozy they had out there.

Here today we are feeling zero weather effects of their weather problem.

I posted this tree about a week ago. I was finally there on a day when there was decent light for a photograph.

As you can see, and as I feared, there is pretty much nothing there to photograph anymore.

*sigh*

It was gorgeous, a shimmering shade of orange, quite spectacular.

I got all the way out to Highway 96, the summer time northern limit, a nice accomplishment for too cold at this time of year so while there I dived back into the neighborhood I have been avoiding since late summer chip and seal road maintenance. At long last it is too cold for any of those errant pieces of oiled gravel to have any adhesive qualities. Nothing stuck to my tires.

I rode on over to Sucker Lake and it too was way pretty today in the sunshine. This bench has been featured before but never with that shade of blue behind it.

As I was riding through there I was checking the other side of the road where the big swamp where the beavers lived is located. I was thinking to myself that the water was down at least another foot. I though Bob must have been out there with an extremely aggressive plan.

Actually, of course, that big a change can only be accomplished by men with machines. Here is what the area where the beaver dam WAS looks like today.

The last time I was out there I commented that that bit of land directly opposite was reasserting its status as dry land after an entire season of being under water. That observation today looks like huge understatement. The water level is down at least a foot and a half, perhaps two feet from its summer time high.

Today's results should remove any doubt whatsoever about the victor in the summer long contest: Water Utility Crew 1, Beaver 0.

I rode enough miles today to mean that I can still rescue the month if I can get a ride in tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Enjoyably unpleasant

Most won't be surprised by my revelation that I take a certain amount of pleasure in doing what I know needs to be done even when the doing sometimes is in unpleasant conditions.

Today at the Cattle Barn.

It was too cold.

On the other hand, the morning newspaper reports (not a prediction, a report of what has already happened) 4 inches of snow in Keewatin.

The lesson of this week

There is a reason why it is so darn hard to accumulate a lot of miles in October. Most of the season when the weather turns unsatisfactory it is only a setback of a day or two. This time of year when the weather turns unsatisfactory it can be a quite a bit longer spell before it again feels rideable. In fact, as we all know, the weather is due very shortly to turn unsatisfactory and not turn back to satisfactory for oh, say, four and a half months.

This week was not a good bicycling week. We had a couple of days of rain including a day which featured two separate episodes of flurries. Yesterday was finally dry but a dreary overcast kept the temperature below 40 with 20-30 mph winds.

Too cold.

Today was balmy, the mercury passed 40 and the clouds and the wind went away. 40 and calm? I can do that, I have the gear. But no more kidding around, I added on pretty much the whole kit.

So I had a nice ride, down into the big city with a detour through the farm campus.

I rode past a couple of the colleges to see what sort of activities they had going on on a late fall day.

TommieNation had football, just riding past I wasn't able to gather enough information to discover who the opponent might have been. I am able to say that the shortage of cars parked in the nearby neighborhood eliminates any possibility that it might have been JohnnieNation.

I got up to where the PumpkinHeads hold their football and I was a little surprised to see a pretty nice crowd in the stadium. But it wasn't football, it was soccer. Which set me to thinking, can you be the PumpkinHeads if you are a sport which does not feature the wearing of a large orange helmet?

Apropos of not much of anything I got this photo. That's the Union Pacific crossing over from just above the Q Yard heading into the Transfer.

It really isn't a main line crossing anymore but that track on the far right is the remnant of what was the main line. At the time I worked there there was a track dedicated to each direction. One of the tracks has been taken out. The reason for that is that is related to railroad mergers. The railroad there now is the BNSF and they use the old Northern Pacific freight main line which is located a block or so farther north as the main line. The old Great Northern main line is now an interyard line only.

I know most of this just from riding by.

Today ends traditional DST, revised DST gives me hope for a couple more weeks.

Football update: On Monday night FC Nantes rode an early goal by Ligue 2 leading scorer Filip Djordjevic (10 goals in 11 games) and an end of game stoppage time goal to a 2-0 victory over fellow contender Dijon FCO to rise to second in the general classification, three points behind league leading AS Monaco. Today FC Nantes played the biggest game they have played in at least three seasons as they traveled to the principality to take on the league leaders. And Djordjevic has done it again, scoring two first half goals (now 12 in 12 games) to lead Nantes to a 2-0 victory and a tie for first in both points and goal differential with Monaco.

Another 40 percenter

It was another OK day, temperatures promising to be several degrees above the now dismal average for this date (according to the morning newspaper now only 55). The sun was nowhere to be seen behind an overcast that the same morning newspaper gave a 40 percent chance of producing precipitation.

One thing that I do know is that a 40 percent chance of precipitation is a 60 percent chance of no precipitation. 60 percent won today, as it will 60 percent of the time.

Numbers, get used to it as the time of the season when statistical round ups have to be done. I am going to have lots of numbers between now and the last day this year when bicycling is possible. We aren't there yet.

On days as gray as today it sometimes seems like there is no reason whatsoever to get the cheap digital camera out of my jersey pocket. Sometimes, however, you get it out once and a theme develops. Today's theme starts off as an extension of part of yesterday's theme. About 10 miles into the ride I was thinking that a major reconfiguration of the costume seemed prudent. I have been meaning to get a photo of this tunnel and that's where I was when the 10 mile mark rolled around.

My for several years favored route out to the northern lakes took me along Victoria. Late this summer I discovered some pavement grinding and some chip and seal along that route. At about the same time I discovered that the previously dirt path through Grass Lake had been paved. At this time of year and at the time of day that I ride I find that there are very few other users out there making it an easy choice to use the path. I pass through TWO tunnels on the at least for this period of this year favored route, that's the first.

I have ridden by this tree out there several times often meaning to get a photo. This light has always been too drab for a decent photo of a brightly colorful leaf palette.

Today the light was as bad as ever but I realized that if I don't get a picture of that tree like now that I am never going to get any picture of it at all.

That whole leaf thing is pretty much over here.

Here's the second tunnel.

I was lining up the photo thinking that I could use just one more visual element to make the picture interesting when that school bus passed along the street above the trail tunnel.

Sometimes the pictures compose themselves, more often the photographer has to do the composition.

I was nearing home when I heard a train whistle. I hear a train whistle occasionally in Roseville but rarely if ever actually see a train. I did a little cyclocross on a road bicycle, having to ride across the lawn at the Roseville Animal Hospital to get up next to the tracks along County Road B to capture a shot of the oncoming train.

For any who may care I think the first time I was ever at that intersection that the business across the street was the Rose Drive In Theater.

I waited long enough to note that the logo on the engine heading that group of cars was for the Minnesota Commercial Railroad.

Long ago while attending college a family connection (my sister knew someone) enabled me to work summers as a switchman on what was then known as the Great Northern Railroad. I spent a lot of mostly nights hanging around the Union Yards. The railroad needed a few extra hands to help with the bulge in business experienced during the warmest months. There was enough business that switchmen with seniority often gave up their regularly scheduled shifts to work what was called the extra board. You could get called from the extra board for any open shift anywhere in the Minneapolis yards. Because of the extra business many extra hands were needed and by holding a spot on the extra board relatively senior switchmen could work extra shifts often including extremely attractive overtime pay for working on short rest and the opportunity to fairly regularly achieve what was know as "second beans". As regular jobs came open for bidding and no senior switchmen bid on them the lowest seniority switchmen were assigned to regular jobs which ordinarily they would not be able to hold against senior workers. That's how I became a semi-regular on an 11pm-7am job at the "Roughs", the Union R Yard.

The Union Yards was divided into the R Yard and the Q Yard. Our R Yard job often had to go up to the Q Yard to put together a track of cars assembled by the Q Yard staff and transport the cars to the Minnesota Transfer Railroad. This move required the front end man (me) to know how to line up the switches for the crossing the main line (significant) move and then on into the Transfer yard. Learning that set of switches was a significant rite of passage on the way to being accepted as a switchman.

Which is a long digression to get around to what was at that time known as the Minnesota Transfer is now the Minnesota Commercial. That train coming down the tracks is the Transfer coming down to a crossing of Snelling Avenue. I felt an affinity.

Not many more of these

I got a few miles in on Thursday but never even hesitated for a moment thinking I might get a photo. With no photo I had nothing to blog.

The weather was quite threatening, and cold, but I have the gear and it was only a 40 percent chance of rain. And my call is that I didn't actually get rained on. However as I rode along a mist appeared, the mist kept getting heavier and eventually the streets were unmistakably wet. It could just as well have rained.

I made it to home with a disappointing mileage total but miles I bet I will be glad to have come December. More on that in December.

Then Friday featured most of the day rain including a couple of episodes of heavy downpour. Yesterday was totally rideable but we had early (1pm) hockey. Just a hockey note here: The team has now played 8 games and has scored 55 goals, opponents have scored 3. Another note: We have hat trick hats, hats which we do not wear, in fact the hats still have tags attached. We only bought them because last year a player scored a hat trick and no hats were thrown. In post game comments she remarked that no hats was "a little disappointing". At the next game we attended the same player had two goals by the end of the second period causing us to hustle over to the souvenir stand in the corner of the arena to buy hats. We bring them to every game. Yesterday we got to throw them onto the ice for the third time this season. It is starting to catch on a little bit, there were about a dozen or so hats on the ice yesterday.

The on ice officials retrieve the trash on the ice and deliver it to the penalty box official who hands it off to rink staff. TO hockey fan WLH retrieves the hats from the mostly students who comprise rink staff. Most of them are wearing the colors of the hats we have chucked onto the ice so they are quite good natured about giving her our hats back.

I digress.

Today was a return to bicycle season. The sun was out and the temperature was threatening to push above the average for the day when I headed out after a possession for each team in the really important football game on TV.

The whole leaf thing is pretty much kaput here. This is a picture that you cannot get during the growing season but with the foliage mostly now bare I was able to stand on the retaining wall and get a nice shot down into the gorge at the Ford dam and the locks over there under the bluff.

The dam overlook is about 10 miles into my ride down into the big city towards the confluence route. The reason why I had stopped at the 10 mile mark was because a rapidly warming day forced a substantial reconfiguration of the costume.

I had to pull one thing out of my pocket to replace the bit I had under my helmet (something considerably lighter) but the rest of the reconfiguration involved entirely removal of bits, followed by the smooshing of the bits into a size and shape allowing the extra gear to be stowed in my jersey pockets.

And that children, is one of the reasons why you wear a bicycle jersey, those pockets turn out to be of considerable utility.

I swung into the Fairgrounds on the return trip. There is a giant tent, a couple of only really large tents and rest room trailers set up in a corner of the grounds, something I haven't seen before.

I was past there on the heavy mist day. Health Partners had some sort of giant meeting out there, the place that day was crawling with working folks. My only conclusion has to be that there is some sort of shortage of hotel ballrooms in the city, a situation that my personal experience back when I was a working folk would completely deny.

I rode past the Cattle Barn: 63 at 2:22, oh, and a beef expo.

The newspaper guy had another bit about the Fairgrounds street car arch today. I went by again thinking that probably the further diminishment of the foliage would make the whole thing more visible. I was correct. This is a view now available from the street, no entering of parking lots required.

I am going to agree with the newspaper guy here for just a bit, I am somewhat at risk of becoming an unofficial blog for the discovery of big metal signs in the woods.

It was a fabulous day out there, I got home in time to see the onside kick and the final four plays from scrimmage of the really important football game. I have absolutely no question that my time was better spent on my bicycle than sweating out the 21-14 final.

FC Nantes home to Dijon FCO on Monday night football, if either of the two can secure the full three points that team will advance quite securely into the top three, the promotion zone. AS Monaco stands first at this point, FC Nantes will visit the principality next Saturday.

West was out of the question

It was 60 or something with predictions indicating 70% chance of rain tomorrow, it seemed like today I was going to have to give it a shot. Plus which, I do have that newly repaired wheelset mounted on one of my favorite bicycles, at the very least a token ride was unavoidable.

I got all the way to the end of the street before turning into what was described on the internet weather sites as a 30mph SW wind. I quickly decided that this ride seemed destined to be a two mile ride.

Then I felt the mist. All still less than a mile from home.

But the mist, which persisted throughout most of the ride, never felt like precipitation falling from the sky. It always felt more like it was raining somewhere else and the extremely powerful wind just wouldn't let the tiniest drops reach the ground, they were being blown around to wherever, mostly to the wherever where I was.

The wind was indeed SW, probably a bit more west than south. I had originally thought I might ride over to Minneapolis, a ride I often take when the wind is from the west. The first time I turned towards the west, now slightly OVER a mile into the ride, I quickly became aware that west was totally and completely out of the question. The wind was TOO strong.

I ride for enjoyment in the first instance but also fairly obviously I am riding for fitness. In about a month or perhaps a tiny bit less (or a tiny bit more) there will be no bicycling. At that point my fitness efforts could revert to that exercycle that I do have (doesn't everyone?) in the basement. Some years I have actually done a fair amount of work on that thing. So which is sillier? Riding in the basement or trying to ride in impossible conditions but at least outdoors.

So I tried to cobble together a few miles of north and south always hoping to avoid west where it was JUST PLAIN TOO DARN HARD.

I used west bound Roselawn from Fairview where the street runs quite significantly downhill to the best advantage that I could, getting as far to the west as possible and then riding north and south down there in Lauderdale before riding back towards the east on Larpenteur. Uphill east on Larpenteur felt like downhill.

As I was filtering over towards that west bound downhill at the start I came across this, a giant has left the neighborhood.

It didn't depart without a protest, observe the very many chain saw cuts visible in the stump and in the trunk. That tree was hard to get down. Something that large . . .

That tree was within a half mile or so of my house but I was completely unaware of its passing until today. That is because that very near to my house neighborhood was subject to a chip and seal project this summer which used a particularly sticky mixture of oil and gravel that still has tiny graveled pieces of rock lurking along the sides of the streets even to this point in the year. I don't ride there unless extreme wind conditions force me to.

That was today.

Further down into Lauderdale I came across this which seemed to me to a possibility for inclusion in a list about Tanzania.

I assumed at first that it was a benefit for a choir in Tanzania. However, an investigatory ride down an alley that I had never been down before to check on something called Skyview Park led me back in front of this place only a block and a half from the church.

I suspect the benefit is for the fire loss incurred at this probably church owned building and that something called the Tanzania Choir is performing. As I blog it is after the starting time for the concert which means I will not be attending which means that that is all of the information I will be able to provide on this subject.

I was riding the Lauderdale loop, down into Lauderdale, over through University Grove to Saint Anthony and back along Como to the Fairgrounds, taking care to never get any further east than where I live (not wanting to face the west wind on a homeward leg). That's about a 10 mile loop and after completing it once I decided that the mist was only mist and that I could try it again. I wasn't really riding for enjoyment anyway, I was out for exercise.

As I rode the loop the second time watching the western sky I observed the front blow through. The wind died down quite a bit and with it went the temperature. Here I am at the Cattle Barn.

It was 62 or so when I started.

Right around the corner of the Coliseum I came, at last, upon a decent photo opportunity for the Beef Expo cow figure.

Probably the figure is so readily available because the Expo appears as I blog to be beginning at just about any minute.

I got the full miles that I usually want on a ride at this point in the year, far more miles than seemed possible that first time I faced the west wind. I feel good, the ride feels good, I love my bicycle.

Today I was back out on the bicycle that recently has been my favorite. The repaired hub performed 100% satisfactorily. Thumbs up, let's try to move forward.

Possibly more public art

I got home at about the time that the mail lady was arriving on her delivery rounds. I met her at the window of the mail truck where she remarked on what a beautiful day it was. And indeed it was, nearly 70 when I finished my ride, don't know, maybe it got all the way there before the evening cool began.

It already gets dark so very soon.

Here is today's public art.

Or maybe it is a public source of water.

Or maybe it is a leak in the water main. In any case, it is an unusual sight to see water bubbling out of the street. when I spotted it I was reminded of yesterday's pump. For this one, I assume men will arrive fairly soon and get to the bottom of whatever it is that is going on out there.

Recently a local newspaper guy created quite a commotion out of having been led to this artifact in the woods near the Fairgrounds. Apparently this arch marked the Fairgrounds entrance where the Como trolley and later the Como bus stopped to allow users of those forms of public transportation to enter the Fair.

We have learned since the discovery that the arch was removed probably in the early 60s. The newspaper guy and persons of a similar vintage who attended the Fair in those years are quite astounded to find this for them extremely nostalgia loaded artifact intact after all this time. I am included in that vintage but never attended the Fair in that period of time, I was busy with the Polk County Fair in Fertile.

Anyway, at first the newspaper guy was coy about the location of the thing. However, in the modern era everyone who has internet access has access to high definition aerial photography capable of providing a level of information that would have been stunning to military strategists of any earlier era. People knew it was from the Fairgrounds, the column had let slip that it was in a wooded area, those who cared just examined the available Google map images and looked carefully at any area fairly near to the Fairgrounds that was wooded.

It took about a day before the comment section on the column filled up with location information.

I rode over and took a look. It is nice to have a bicycle and lots and lots of free time, it makes an otherwise pretty pointless quest like this one at least an opportunity to get some exercise.

I was mostly JRA at this point but I hadn't really been to any body of water, something I like to do, so I rode by Lake Como and got this photo from the top of the hill at the southeast corner of the lake.

When I got home Scott had called. My wheelset has been repaired. Most likely tomorrow I will be riding again on NewLOOK.

It was fabulous, though, to get to ride my "emergency back up bicycle" for a few days. I put 202 miles on it which seems like a lot until you consider that I increased the total mileage ridden on that bicycle by about 1 percent.

Having the wheels off and riding them over to the bike shop and back in the car gave me a chance to look at the tires perhaps a little more carefully than I might have otherwise. The back tire on NewLOOK is starting to display that flat spot in the center of the tire that indicates to me that a different tire is probably prudent.

If it isn't one thing it is another.

Public art

When I first rode past this my initial reaction was that it was an interesting piece of public art.

Something about it made me circle back and take a closer look. The wet spot underneath the spout fairly clearly establishes that it is actually a public source of water.

I rode today in the nicest temperatures we have had for a while. The high cirrus clouds kept the sun from ever enjoying primacy of the sky though and as a result we never really got the blue blue sky which is one of the things that makes a nice fall day so nice. But it was warm and the wind really didn't blow much at all.

I got some pictures yesterday which I didn't blog because of some more entertaining diversions, and keep in mind please, that I blog for entertainment.

But a couple of the pictures still seem worth publishing.

It is late enough in the fall that the geese have gathered in quite large numbers. This group is in Island Lake.

That's my home of record at time of entry into the military service over there on the far shore, one or another of those buildings.

Yesterday I was really JRA, more so than usual even. Yesterday the park where I now access the northern lakes had that archery deer hunt going on. I knew that the paths were still open but I thought it was probably just wiser to leave it all completely alone. Plus it had rained overnight and I doubted that the path through the tree lined stretches would be dry.

Riding on wet leaves also does not seem like a good idea.

JRA got me out to the Victoria Street Orchard out in Shoreview. I have been there a couple of times before but never before when the apple trees right next to the driveway were doing so well.

I have read that the extreme drought conditions we have had was hard on the apple crop but that does not seem to be the case for this particular orchard.

Of course, these trees are quite close in to the office and retail outlet and have an irrigation system installed. That is probably not true for the trees up on the hill.

I don't know, I didn't get off my bicycle to go up on the hill.

On the way home I got at least a tiny shot of the blue sky which I never really found today. I was riding on that street just after passing by County Cycles when this red beauty presented itself posing against that cerulean blue.

So that's two days for the price of one. I have to skip a day now and then in October because as we all know but are pretending to not notice National Blog Every Day for a Month Month looms.

I have a couple of things archived for use but I know from past years that before the month is over I will be out of material and I will on at least one day end up just blogging about blogging.

More about wheel mechanics

Frost formed on the grass shortly after dawn today. I guess that means we are not officially into that next part of the season. Lots of stuff that was living yesterday (like for instance the plant that was a summer long project on the picnic table by TOPWLH) is a dead and goner today.

There are a bunch of trees over on Summit Avenue that seem vaguely in the wrong zone or something as I have noticed over the years that the leaves never actually change color. Instead at the first freeze every single one of the still green leaves drops to the ground. There are at least a couple different species that do this between Fairview and Cleveland on the north side of the street. Today the pavement under those completely bare trees was carpeted in slightly wilted greens.

Very strange looking.

The big weather news though is that after a couple of days of skittering off the stage like a stage frightened thespian the sun today reasserted itself. It was still several degrees below average temperature but the sky was a wonder to behold. Here it attractively surrounds our big old for this part of the world stone church, with a little color thrown into the foreground to prove that I took this picture today.

The real reason I rode over there relates to bicycle maintenance.

I know, again.

While I was talking to Scott about the HubDoctor he revealed that he had actually had to consult with another mechanic about the whole hub problem. In what seems to me to be a really cool illustration of how the whole field of bicycle mechanics operates outside the normal retail box, the mechanic he chose to consult was one of the two other extremely competent mechanics that I know from having patronized County Cycles, Dan.

Most will say, so? Dan doesn't work at County Cycles anymore. He has his own shop. My ride today was to drop in on Dan at Omnium to say hello and thanks.

By the way, here's what the Pro Freehub Rebuild Kit with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings looks like.

Isn't learning things fun?

When I got home my neighbor was out in the yard and he made that vaguely sociable inquiry, how are you? I replied that I was absolutely exhausted and that it felt great.

Nice day for November

Personally, I was hoping for a little more October first.

TOPWLH observed before she had to go to work that today is 10-11-12. That's a nice statistical anomaly which is only going to occur once in almost everyone's life. What does it mean? It means it is a nice statistical anomaly.

I rode out to Lake Vadnais today to discover a slight change since yesterday.

Take a look at yesterday's photo. Well someone drove a car through that plastic barrier across the road and completely shredded it. I rode on down towards the lake.

And still couldn't get there. That part up at the top of the park that looks way more like a road than a trail looks that way because it is a road. It leads down to this parking area and vehicle turnaround.

The road part of the construction project looks complete but the path part is only just beginning. It is still bare dirt from this point on down to the lake.

*sigh*

No swans for me this fall, I guess.

Bicycle maintenance update. The manufacturer of my wheelset will not sell a replacement part to the local bike shop. Apparently they are of the opinion that their wheels are so complex that a mere bicycle mechanic will not be able to successfully complete the replacement. My bicycle mechanic is a bit more than slightly insulted by this attitude.

So my options for original manufacturer replacement are a new rear wheel, only about $610, or a new hub and spokes which they will sell, I can reuse the rim, about $450. I hear all of you out there who cannot believe that an entire bicycle costs that much, certainly a part of a bicycle cannot cost that much.

Trust me, it can. I will just retrace here a bit, I bought this bicycle used on eBay and paid less than the combined new cost of the wheels and the component set. That means I essentially got the frame and all of the other parts (seat, seat post, handlebars, handlebar stem, brakes, bar tape, tires and tubes) for nothing, nada. For comparison purposes here is a link to a quite similar bicycle currently for sale on eBay.

I paid a lot less.

I digress. The third repair option is a non-original manufacturer item from someone called "The Hub Doctor". Apparently the Hub Doctor specializes in just exactly this sort of thing.

$43.50 plus labor.

So we are going to try the Hub Doctor.

Here's a little reward for everyone who hung on through that: then completely unknown "composer" Frank Zappa appearing on the Steve Allen Show in 1963.

It was many years before he became the Dancing Fool.

Sunny and pretty but cold

I have spent much of the last week re-learning why it is so difficult to ride a lot of miles in October.

There were days when I suppose I could have ridden in that wind. There were days when I suppose, and in fact, this one I know, I could have ridden in that cold (I have the gear). But on four of the past six days a combination of extremely high winds and temperatures usually only in the 40s have combined to keep me indoors. It is difficult to ride a lot of miles if you spend most of the week indoors.

Today the wind diminished considerably from what it has been. Please note that it didn't disappear entirely. It was diminished enough to only invoke the Auckland Rule, especially when the sun was out and it was pretty. It WAS cold but a chance to catch up on the bright colors before the leaves ALL drop off the trees provided just the right amount of additional motivation and I donned the gear to head out.

A gear note, I am still not at the full use of the gear that I already have, it clearly isn't too cold yet. I added the balaclava today but only because my chin gets cold and I wanted to pull the fabric of the balaclava up to approximately my jaw line to make my face more comfortable. I had on my heavier jacket but here is a list of items which I still have in reserve: mittens (WOOL mittens), heavyweight long sleeved jersey, heavyweight long sleeved base layer, and windstopper shoe covers. I am in late season cold coping form, I CAN do this.

But, there's always a but. Shortly after I got out there the sun went away and with it went pretty. After that it was only cold.

I rode out to the north heading for the Grass Lake diversion. Here is the sign at the foot of the pedestrian/bicycle bridge over 694:

No problem there, I still have another day completely in the clear and with the skinny tires on FirstLOOK I am going to be staying on the paved trail anyway.

I actually felt pretty good, several rest days will do that. I headed over to the beaver dam. Bob has been at it again, the two channels have been deepened again.

The water level is by far the lowest that it has been this entire calendar year. That area just above the open water in the center of the picture is threatening to reassert its status as dry land. It has been under water every other time I have been out there this year.

I rode up to Vadnais hoping to find construction complete and to get a chance to ride down to the lake. This is the time of year when I have in the past seen swans in the lake. The construction is complete but they seem pretty serious about keeping me out of there.

I got a call from Chief Mechanic Scott from County Cycles yesterday. He informed me that they have some bicycle parts and that I was welcome to come on in and start having them attached to NewLOOK. He said they had some bearings and some other parts with "springs and flappy things". I suspected and now know that he meant new rear hub pawls.

There is a reason why Scott is the Chief Mechanic. He is extremely good at what he does.

For example, there had previously been a problem with describing to the shop owner and two different mechanics just exactly what the noise was. They all eventually discovered what it was by taking a short ride on NewLOOK. This time I didn't bring the whole bicycle, only the two wheels but Scott was able to produce the noise standing inside the shop by rotating the axle.

I am impressed.

He said "Thursday" and then took the wheels into the back room. I was exchanging some idle chit chat with the shop owner when Scott reappeared with a part in his hand. I don't really intend to get too heavily into the minutia of bicycle mechanics but he had a new and more comprehensive diagnosis of the problem.

In less than a minute.

He showed me the inside of the wheel hub (I got a for me first time in person look at the pawls). I like learning new things, I learned several. We had a complete discussion of short term fixes, long term fixes, what might be possible, what the ultimate outcome might be, some of those things were not good, some of them have the potential to be pretty pricey.

The upshot of it all is that Thursday is completely off the table. Scott is working on it, though. He said he would be in touch.

And finally: RIP Mongo.

Mongo only pawn in game of life.

20,026

Indeed, it HAS been blustery, so windy in fact that the corollary to the Auckland Rule had to be invoked. The corollary to which I refer is the one that says if you aren't going to be able to keep your bicycle upright in a cross wind it is OK to not ride in the wind.

Besides which, it was cold.

Today was only cold and windy. Windy, not blustery. If I am serious about riding into November it was obvious that today was the day when I had to venture back out there.

I headed out on FirstLOOK and got less than a half mile before screeching hub noise reasserted itself, possible the worst screeching yet. I circled quickly towards home. I dropped off the screecher and pulled my emergency back up bicycle out of the basement and resumed the ride. I got a picture of the emergency back up bicycle with the tires in the orange colorway underneath a tree with mostly orangish, well, definitely at least reddish orange leaves.

Today's ride moved the total mileage on that bicycle's odometer off that wonderfully round number where it has been since November 10, 2010.

What was I thinking not riding this bicycle for that long? This is a great bicycle. For one thing, as I discovered almost immediately, unlike NewLOOK, this one not only doesn't have a shrieking hub, it has not a single rattle or buzz of any kind. This bicycle is like stealth quiet.

Nice.

I rode over to the Marathon course. Obviously the runners today got started several hours ahead of me. When I arrived at about the 23.5 mile mark on Summit Avenue there were not any elite runners to be seen. Instead I found the last runner still ahead of the official race lanterne rouge car and the school bus sag wagon.

They were moving along pretty slowly at this point, perhaps obviously. I suspect as long as she maintained forward motion with an at least shuffling gait that they were going to let her finish. Behind the sag wagon other official race vehicles were requesting the stragglers still coming to move up onto the sidewalk as the street was being reopened to traffic.

I wanted to get this perspective in now before it is too late. This is Sheldon Street near Como Park. Not every tree in the metro area is as big a wimp as the ash trees.

Those are oak and as has been covered here before, the leaves turn very late and remain firmly attached to the trees until spring.

I was nearly home when I passed three mature ladies standing in the corner of a neighborhood yard. They were dressed a bit less casually than you expect to find people dressed while doing yard work on a Sunday afternoon. I noticed that one of the ladies had a large hammer in her hand.

As I passed I discerned that they were pounding a sign into the front yard. This isn't the actual yard or the actual sign but this is in my neighborhood and the sign is for the same candidate as the sign the three ladies were planting.

I recognized one of the ladies and I thought it appropriate to call out, "Hi, Alice."

There was a short slightly stunned pause and as I got a couple of houses distant I heard a "Hi" coming from the trio. I don't think Alice necessarily expected anyone out here to recognize her. Alice doesn't actually represent me right now, Mindy does. But the miracle of redistricting has moved this part of Roseville into a district with the nearby neighborhoods of Saint Paul. That's where Alice lives and where I suspect she would expect to be recognized.

Now that she has cordially returned my greeting I formally endorse Alice Hausman for State Representative.

It was 47 at the Cattle Barn.

OOTNDITHOD

One should be careful in using that post title as it really isn't an acronym that should be thrown around willy nilly. But, come on, nearly 80, bright blue sky, very light winds, October 3? Come on, one of the nicest days in the history of days.

But it wasn't a really nice ride. I had almost 40 miles on the odometer since leaving the bike shop hoping the repair had taken when a downhill just outside the Fairgrounds produced some hub noise. It was much less, how to put this, full throated?, than previously, but it was there. As has been the case on every ride the first appearance of the noise caused me to brake in panic. Slowing down stops the noise but does nothing to diagnose the problem.

I rode on but changed my plans to circle back towards home at the first opportunity. I got hub noise again within 2 miles. This time I let it play out and it stopped on its own.

And never returned.

Boy, what to think. The unrealistic optimist in all of us hopes for self cure but the hard realist knows that mechanical issues self heal never.

So I was on my way home riding through the Fairgrounds. Here is something not ever seen by Fair goers. The Playland Arcade takes the facade off the building and stores it all inside except for the period of time during and immediately around the Fair. Today they had it taken down with the doors open preparing to move it all inside.

I got home to discover that my ash tree is shamelessly continuing to surrender. Here is what the sky looks like (note that you can see lots of it) through an increasingly bare tree.

Once home I set about preparing for the mechanical trauma ahead. I am a dunderheaded lummox but I intend to try to ride that bicycle again and to do so until I have very clear evidence that the noise is back and WILL NOT go away. I want very persistent whining. At that point I will try another front wheel to identify once and for all if this thing is the current front or the current back. My first task was preparation of the back up wheel, it is the wheel currently on the Crown Jewel.

So if I do that, I could be faced with a day when I want to ride when to actually do so would involve switching bicycles in mid-ride including switching front wheels.

Too much hassle.

I pumped the tires on FirstLOOK, swapped out the pedals from the Crown Jewel to that it only has 20,000 miles on it why wouldn't I ride it some more bicycle, replaced the battery in the bicycle computer and pronounce that bicycle ready to ride.

It was and still is, despite the mechanicals, one of the nicest days in the history of days.

A day without howling

Here's a new declaration: Any day without howling noises coming from the rear hub is a wonderful day. Props to County Cycles mechanic Cayley for getting this thing under control, I rode today in perfect serene quiet for the first time in the last five rides on NewLOOK.

This may be a bit bicycle tech heavy but here is what happened: In addition to replacing the hub, the mechanic discovered that there was a slight "burr" on the pawls.

Burr on the pawls.

Normal wear on the pawls (I love saying "pawls") can create a wear spot, a slight burr. In the initial hub replacement she told me that she had discovered this burr and had taken a file to it and that it should not be a problem.

In conversations later in the day after the howling reoccurred she further opined that the "burr" could displace the pawl slightly and that slightly displaced the pawl could rub against the hub, producing the howl. The very last adjustment she made was to diligently apply the file, taking care to remove any trace of the burr.

Eureka.

A nice long ride on a sunny and 70 day, a day which has unfortunately become unseasonably warm, but a day making the time spent outdoors well worth the effort.

I rode down into the big city where I discovered preparations are under way for the big marathon running race this weekend. I decided to ride down along Summit Avenue, the prettiest street in the city, to check on preparations and to enjoy the avenue. I ended up at the top of Ramsey Hill where I got this panorama of the river valley.

Here is a measure of my personal physical decline which I lament but which I also find it senseless to deny: I used to ride over here at least once each year on the occasion of the Saint Paul Bike Classic, and once in a while on other occasions as well, for the sole purpose of climbing that hill. At the SPBC they always had a volunteer on foot at the top of the hill passing out "I topped Ramsey Hill" buttons. I have several.

Today I satisfied myself with thinking about how hard it is to climb that hill.

But . . .

See that guy walking down the hill on the left side sidewalk? Just before I snapped the photo he finished a climb of the hill AT A JOG. He paused not a moment to catch his breath, he didn't seem particularly winded, he just turned and started walking back down.

I've got more.

Just before that as I was leaning my bicycle against the there for the marathon but not yet in the street road blocks to free up my hands to take the photo a young person topped the hill on a bicycle.

He was loaded, carrying a messenger bag. The bag may not have had much in it, maybe it was empty but still he had a bag slung over his back.

He was riding a single speed.

I wish I had asked him, I briefly considered it, I wonder what gear he was running there. In any case he only had one.

And he climbed that hill in it, paused briefly without stopping at the stop sign and continued on his way.

Young, fit and quite obviously strong.

I rather acutely felt my age.

On the other hand, I rode. I rode long, I rode, for me, hard. It was a great day, I had a great ride, I am satisfied.

One more topic and then I will probably watch some important TV. I hope that my earlier statements about ash trees made my position clear but I may have been vague and recent commenters have been quite explicit. I want at this point to remove any doubt in case there is any. Ash trees give up WAY too easily and WAY too early.

This is a view of Albert Street only a couple of miles from home. Most of the boulevard trees are ash with some other species visible along the way in front yards. That tree immediately in front of me to the left is a good example of an ash that has already given up.

In defense of the ash trees they still provide a pretty picture against a blue sky.

Crabon fibre yet again

It turns out to be a really good thing that I got a couple of pictures of ash trees in the last couple of days. Overnight last night and through this morning turned out to be the give up moment for ash trees, at least for the ash trees in my yard. Here is a look at the deck and yard under the back yard ash before noon today.

I got a call this morning from County Cycles informing me that the part needed to repair NewLOOK had arrived. I was able to get over there before lunch to drop off the rear wheel and was pleased to discover that the replacement of the rear hub could be done immediately and wouldn't take much time. I hung around and waited for the repair by new mechanic Cayley and still was home before 12:30. I was able to have lunch, remount the wheel, pump the tires, and head out to start the new month on my current favorite bicycle.

Midday was a tiny bit weird, overcast and windy, while the morning and the late afternoon were sunny with temperatures approaching 70, a pretty darn nice day.

But I was riding during the weird part and it took a leap of faith to go ahead and ride 12 miles away from home with dark clouds overhead. But I did.

I discovered that it is now THIS season:

Shortly before taking the photo I was treated to the return of the intermittent whining noise that I just paid over $100 to have deleted from my personal bicycle experience. Shortly after the photo it arrived again.

The bike shop was on the route home, I made my second appearance of the day.

First owner Ron, then Ron again, then mechanic Cayley, then Ron again, eventually Cayley a couple more times took rides on my noisemaker. The first trip by Ron wasn't able to reproduce the noise but based on my description Cayley made some additional adjustments (turned out the FRONT hub was loose and that the bearings are worn enough to suggest replacement this winter will be a good idea). I started for home and the noise was back and quite a bit less intermittent. I got less than a block.

I circled back, decided we had talked the issue to death and circled towards home.

Screeching began again immediately.

Back I went.

Ron again. He said to Cayley that the noise would scare the heck out of you.

Kaylee for the first time, more adjustments, Cayley again on a test ride with a different front wheel, more adjustments, Cayley again.

I rode it home, a final 7 miles without a problem.

For now it's like when you see your personal physician. I have been invited to figure it out on my own. I should try a different front wheel (which I happen to have although the tires are a different color), if the problem continues try a different rear wheel and report back, help us eliminate potential causes.

I am pretty optimistic though, it seems good right now and Cayley and I have established a procedure that will eventually get me out the other end of this process with a bicycle that doesn't scream at me.