+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.