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.