Saturday, May 31, 2014

TOPWLH opens, street closes

TOPWLH requested that her bicycle be prepared for Saturday as she wishes to resume riding.  I did only the minimum, pumping the tires but I suspect I should also probably lube the chain.  In any case pumping the tires was sufficient to get her onto the road today.  If the chain ends up requiring something additional there is a whole summer to get to that.  She also appears to need new bar tape.

It has gotten too hot too fast here.  Yesterday and today were sufficiently oppressive to induce consideration of air conditioning.  I actually clicked it on once this afternoon just to hear that reassuring start up but then opened the doors and windows instead.  Too hot too fast leads to turbulent weather and our share today was a 70 percent chance of rain.

It was mostly sunny, hot and muggy and noon but we started out anyway despite the 70 percent warning.  We had to, her Bianchi was ready and it wasn't actually raining.  We had progressed fewer than two miles when I pulled into the driveway of the State Fair for an examination of the sky.  A cloud had rolled across the sky and we were no longer riding in the sun.  I pointed to one cloud mass and then another and pronounced that those were both rain and they were coming our way.

We circled part way into the Fairgrounds still nominally outbound but I could feel the air changing.  We turned back for home.

We didn't go directly home as it wasn't actually raining yet.  We rode on lots of neighborhood streets within a couple of miles of home as TOPWLH got her first look of the year at a lot more of the neighborhood than you can observe while walking.

I was surprised to find that this road has now been completely de-paved.
That's our street up on the other side of the county highway/main street at the end of our block.  There has been a lot of sewer work going on over there but complete removal of the pavement caught me by surprise.  That street is now clearly closed to road bicycles although I am sure mountain bikers, comfort bikers and cycle-cross could all probably still have a go.

I ride road and I count on that street a lot for the various getting back home with the mileage I want loops.  That means that this is a problem.

Something will work itself out.

She was the first to actually feel a raindrop but that's as it should be, she was riding behind me, therefore to my west and slightly south for a weather system approaching from the southwest.  I took her word for it and immediately turned back and pretty much immediately also felt the misty beginnings.

We got in 8 miles, the last half mile or so in conditions which had proceeded beyond misty to unmistakable rain, light rain, but rain.  Even so, 8 miles is probably an OK first ride.

I sat in the house for a while with my costume still on and eventually a brightening of the sky convinced me to try again.  I got an additional 2 miles for a total of 10 before a restarting of the weather event drove me back to my garage just barely ahead of the onset of the heavy stuff.

Sometimes a short ride is the only ride you are going to get, today was one of those days.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Confluence

I recently decided somewhat late in the three year CLE cycle that I actually like having my license riding around my life in my wallet. Until now I had pretty much decided to let the license go but as time grew short I decided that I can afford the costs, I like having the license. I launched into a series of webcasts which concluded today but which have drawn me within easy range of the CLE credits I need to keep my license. One of the first webcasts that I viewed was Legal Career Makeover, the guy talked a lot about how attorneys aged 65 or even 75 had plenty of time to still contribute.  Okay, maybe, but mainly I decided I like having the license, that to me, being a licensed but retired attorney makes ME feel better than I suspect I would feel just being retired and no longer licensed.  So I have been doing webcasts.  One thing that has occurred is that a lot of these webcasts begin at noon. That means my rides have been kicking off more afternoonish than noonish. What this meant today is that I was out there in mad dogs and Englishmen territory. Today was a ride a bit too far on a day a bit too warm.

Very pervasive and very persistent pavement issues on Roselawn have influenced me to alter my path away from home.  I now loop all the way over to Larpenteur and cut back through something called Maple Knoll Drive before locating my preferred crossing of the very daunting Snelling Avenue at Garden. This loop increases the getting away from home distance by almost a mile.

As a result when today I rode to what in most years past has been one of my very common destinations I discovered that if I rode all the way to my desired turn around that I was going to have too many miles.  Riding along, hot day, making decisions, I ended up riding all the way there anyway.  The deciding factor?  There is a public source of water (aka water fountain) at the confluence of the two big rivers.
And I needed that water.  The distance was the same but I had to hydrate at a 3 bottle rate (did I mention it was hot?).  Because I only carry 2 bottles there clearly would have been a problem without that public source of water.  We mostly all have experienced a little dehydration disorientation at some point and I for one prefer not to do that anymore if I can possibly avoid it.

As reported previously that may not be the technical confluence. That is the Mississippi in the foreground, Pike Island center and the backwater separating Pike Island from the mainland leading back towards the top right between the land masses. The usual spot for recognition of the confluence is at the foot of Pike Island, another mile and a half or so downstream. But that backwater is a merger of waters from the Minnesota and the Mississippi, maybe not the recognized confluence but clearly the first mixture of waters. Considering the fact that I had already ridden too far and it was too hot, I am calling that good.

Here's an artsy shot straight down the side of the gorge from the overlook.
Me neither, I have no idea what any of that stuff is. Except artsy.  Mostly the trees are taller than you might expect just standing there on the overlook.  That foliage right next to you looking much like the shrub in your yard is probably the top of a tree about 50 feet tall.

One of the things about adding loops near the beginning of the ride is that it is fairly easy to knock one of those loops off on the return.  The wind was SSE anyway so I cut off the ride on the return along Como towards the east and my preferred route along Hamline Avenue and cut through the Fairgrounds instead.
See, a little too late in the day and a little too warm.  That's also a previously seldom seen here view of the Cattle Barn made possible by a later in the day sun angle.

We just watched episode 11 of season 6 of The Sopranos, the episode when Mama Soprano takes a vacation with her friend Ro (Tony is too busy with family matters to accompany her) to Paris. We love Paris.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Nice

Very nice actually.

Now that we have a few days of 80 today's just a tiny bit more than 80 didn't seem so hot.  The humidity was diminished today which always helps but it was sunny, mild, pretty easy winds, a very nice day for a bicycle ride.
Thursday early afternoon is a pretty good window for visiting the Falls.  There were only a couple of hundred people in the park instead of the weekend couple of thousand.  My photography today was accomplished standing next to a family of four who were conversing in not English.  They may in fact have some fluency in the local tongue (certainly better than my French I suspect) but they were carrying on in their native language.  It made me feel kind of international, a feeling I like.

With fewer people in the park I had plenty of time to concentrate on settings and composition.

So that one's a bit better, two waterfalls in less than a week.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Missed something

Well, it appears to be pretty much late June or early July out there now.  We skipped right past May again this year and it now develops that we also skipped past the peak of the flowering tree season.

Today I headed out hoping to document two of my favorite flowering shrub locations, the four pink blossom crab apples in a square in a yard at the top of the hill (regular fellow riders and perhaps even the very occasional will recognize this spot), and the red white red threesome with the utility pole in the midst a little bit further along.  I was a little disappointed to find that both of those locations are quite severely past prime.  I suspect that the big rainstorm of the night before last knocked those petals off the blooms.

There are still quite a few trees left that are at peak or perhaps even just nearing peak.
One of the things I dearly love about the flowering trees is the opportunity which usually presents itself to ride under one of those trees while the petals are abandoning ship in profusion, riding through a petal "blizzard".

I fear I may have missed that this year.

But it was very pretty out there today, a tiny bit too warm, a nice day for a bicycle ride.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Another 60 percent chance day

Instead of thunderboomers summer arrived.
That's what, about 27C?  That's full summer costume conditions and I went with it.  Shorts, sleeveless jersey sans base layer and a slew of sunscreen.  The costume choices were a good thing too because about the last two miles or so I felt genuinely overheated, actual perspiration occurred.

I first noticed this really nice old DeSoto and cedar canoe a couple of years ago at the Fair. I am not positive but I think that's a 1946 DeSoto.
For young people who have never heard of a DeSoto that was the third tier in the four and then later five tier selection of automobiles manufactured by Chrysler.  You know, sort of like the Oldsmobile of Chrysler.  Having a little trouble with Oldsmobile too?

Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, Imperial.

Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac.

Ford, Mercury, (this where the Edsel was supposed to go), Lincoln.

Completely useless 1950s car knowledge.

I assume that the car and canoe belong to the owner of Giggles' Campfire Grill.  With a log building and a log pavilion out back with rough hewn picnic tables it is pretty obvious that they are trying to establish some sort of old timey fishing camp ambiance.  We generally make that place one of our first stops at the Fair when we go, the walleye in a boat (or is it on a stick) has been consistently excellent.

I no longer approve of the way that old car and canoe are being treated.  They appear to be a permanent installation.  They are NOT taken away somewhere for storage and brought out for events.  They appear to be there all the time.

As a result the elements are winning and both the car and the canoe are starting to look a bit ragged.  The paint job on the car is deteriorating and a close look at the canoe reveals that the varnish there on the bow is also wearing away.  Both of those things are likely fairly valuable assets, Giggles ought to reconsider how they are being used.

When we moved into this house there was an apple tree in the back yard.  I think we got a few apples off it once.  Then it died in the year following the big drought of I think the summer of  '85.  I personally cut it down, removed the stump and then went over to Bachmann's at their former location on Nicollet where I procured a replacement.  I brought it home in the back seat of my car so I know that this is a Beacon, a Minnesota hardy apple.  To the best of our recollection we have usually never had any apples and when we do get an apple, that's usually about it, an apple.

Well, TOPWLH noticed this while out checking out her grass plantings.
With all of the tree work we had to have last year after the storm we had the tree guys do some trimming off the apple tree.  We have long since stopped thinking of it as a fruit tree, it is merely an ornamental and a shade tree.

This year looks like we are going to get apples.
This year's pictures of flowering trees turns out to include a picture of the tree in our back yard.  Isn't this fun?

Saturday, May 24, 2014

First round of the draft

TCWUTH told me some time before the onset of the most recent horrendous winter that there was some new pavement over at the University, a new path.  She told me approximately where it was and today I had a chance to search it out.

As I was riding up and down streets between the new medical research buildings over there behind the stadium I came across this piece of public art that I had never seen before.
It's the Cancer and Cardiovascular Research Building.  I rode around it a few times looking for information about the art but found nothing.  In addition to all the twisty pipe there are giant blocks of granite over there with nice circular holes drilled through them.  I kinda like it.

The new kids like their stuff big.

Eventually I got onto the path and it is indeed excellent.  This puzzled me however.  It looks to me that the only way to get to this spot is on the path and yet there are cars parked there.
This is pretty much along the route of the former railroad tracks underneath 15th between 4th and University, pretty much Dinkytown.  I am not certain but I think that overpass is 15th Avenue SE.

The path leads down to the river to the University pedestrian bridge.  I think I've been across this before but I am not 100 percent certain.  It used to be really hard to access for a bicyclist.  I believe I had to carry the bicycle down a stairway.  But not anymore and as promised, new pavement.

The pedestrian bridge provides some pretty much not seen before vistas.  This is the look downstream to the Washington Avenue bridge and the river flats.
That area on the right side bank there is where the wreckage of the freeway bridge was stored until they were through with the investigation.  Tall buildings on the right  behind the bridge are University West Bank classroom/office towers.  Buildings on the left are East Bank, buildings center are Minneapolis.

The look upstream features the Tenth Avenue bridge, followed by the new 35W bridge and through the Tenth Avenue bridge in screen center you might be able to make out the Stone Arch Bridge.
All in all it makes for a pretty painless entry to Minneapolis, much better than, for example, the Stone Arch or the Franklin, or the Marshall, or the Ford bridges, my usual paths across the river.

I wanted to explore a bit further but just barely across the bridge I came across this on the downhill exit from the bridge.
Loose gravel?

Access interdite.

I'll have to explore there at some later date.

As long as I was in the neighborhood I swung over through Main Street and rode part way out on the Stone Arch.  This is NOT recommended on weekends, particularly one of the first really nice weekends of the year.  Too many people with even the ones who are paying attention not being a good mix with bicyclists, many of whom are also not paying attention.

But I got a video.

I rode down Main Street a ways to this spot.  I have a few hundred photos on my hard drive (and on a flash drive) taken at this place.
I had to wait to take my photo until that gaggle of young women off to the right of my shot finished having several group shots taken in the doorway.  They peered through the window and one of them proclaimed excitedly to one of the others that it was really cute and would be an ideal place for a small wedding.

Irascible old fart rant:  They rent Segways next door.  They are riding them around on the sidewalk there, training people to take the "Magical History Tour".

My issue with this is that they refer to these things as human powered and then ride them any old place they want to.  When in fact they are not anything human powered at all, they are battery powered.  A electric motor vehicle unmistakably, sorta like a Prius.  Segway jerks is how I think of them.  They act all green and ride on THE SIDEWALK and on EVERY bicycle path within range of their battery power.  End of rant.

The first round of the draft for the Indianapolis 500 is declared open.

I take Marco.  Look, some Andretti is going to win this thing some year, maybe this is the one.  I am jumping the gun on this but I know I want Marco and this opens up the dialogue.  I believe TOPWLH is now on the clock but I expect that she will not be actually making a choice until she has a chance to review the Sunday morning newspaper.  Santini goes 3rd, after that Jimi, then TCWUTH, then if anyone else wants in they better let me know because otherwise the second round is likely to kick off pretty rapidly thereafter.

Note:  I don't think the NASCAR guy is going to win but wouldn't that be a kick?  Seeing as he drives for Andretti Autosports.  I also don't think he will win the NASCAR race.  Too many miles in one day, 1,100 if he finishes both races.  The most miles I have ever driven in one day is in the 750 or so range and I was tired.  Of course, I was also not driving over 200mph.

Danny Sullivan is NOT entered this year.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Destination ride deux

Today just felt like the right day for a ride to one of the other common destinations not yet visited yet this season.  A southeast wind means that if I ride about 8 miles due into the southeast wind I can then pretty much ride about 15 miles first west (tailwind) and then north (tailwind).  This ride requires sorta light winds or the first part is too hard.  Today we had 5mph SE and temperatures rising to and mostly through the 70s while I was out there.  It WAS the right day for it.

Como Avenue is the rarest of streets here in the big grid.  From Lake Como heading east Como Avenue veers off the cardinal direction and travels southeasterly.  A bit less than 8 miles into this trek I came upon this.
I know that major renovations are going on behind the curtain and that the price tag is going to run up pretty close to $2 million.  I probably should include a crack or two about this is what open government actually looks like in Minnesota.

I rode around to the front where I found that most of the work out there has been completed (or maybe not started yet).  This is a view from down by the Transportation Building of the beautiful Capitol mall.
Oh, wait.  That's a parking lot.  Because state legislators are such important people that they can't be troubled to actually park in a remote location while other construction over there has temporarily moved them out of the ramp where they usually park.  They are such important people that they ripped up the mall and put down asphalt for one reason only, their personal convenience.

Question:  If they are so important why are their salaries so low in comparison to, oh, say for example, school teachers?

Answer:  Because they are mostly small time bozos who clearly SHOULD be paid a LOT less than school teachers.  And as it is they are still mostly overpaid when considering the value they actually provide.  They are building a new office building for themselves over to the left of this photo which was authorized by a process outside the state constitutionally mandated process for authorizing funds for capital improvements.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

I intend to vote "no" for all of them any chance I get from now on.

This is breaking out all over town now.
That's a spot down by the river where they actually have some flowering trees as boulevard trees.  Today it was tres pretty, really nice.  It is a wonderful day here in what until the end of October or so is pretty dang close to paradise.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Access interdite

For some reason this brought back memories of driving in Rouen now nearly two years ago.  On that occasion we had taken a circumnavigation of the rental car location on foot before we ever attempted to drive away in our I am pretty sure it was an Opel.  From that walk I knew that the circle around the train station was pretty much one way so that part was OK.  But when I missed a turn trying to return it suddenly developed that nearly every street that I hoped would take me back to where I wanted to be was "Access Interdite".

There was no sign out at the Snail Lake swamp but clearly I had reached the end of the bicycle road.  Access interdite.
Fairly obviously I had to turn around but on the way back I thought I spotted Jake and stopped to say hello.  Not Jake.  Big white bird he be really, really shy.  Possibly long lost relative of Jake but not Jake.  I was already stopped though so I got this one of the marge of the varge of Grass Lake (apologies to Sam McGee).  I hadn't noticed but the swamp is about to overflow the path there too.
They need one of those turtle crossing signs out there.  Although actually this youngun was not so much crossing as basking.
Fortunately he does not have far to go.

Last year, or was it two years ago, they had crews out there slashing out all of the non-native brush.  They have proclaimed a prairie restoration project.  It looks to me like this year they had a burn which we all know to be a necessary step in eradicating the non-natives.
Three things.

Really a pretty day.

I bet that burn made the neighbors nervous.

That little patch of ground in the park next to Grass Lake is NOT going to be a prairie.

Kansas restored, now that would be a prairie.

An acre or two?  A park.  But still an OK idea as far as I am concerned.  There is no good reason why a park should be overrun with non-natives.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Fall sideways

Yesterday instead of totally 70 we had cool again and totally about four inches of rain.  It was still foggy and humid this morning but eventually the sun won and a pretty nice day arrived.  The high temperature was predicted to be 80 and it may actually be fairly close when all is said and done.  The morning fog though kept noon temperatures still in the cover your legs category.

Rather than risk overheating I delayed 90 minutes or so before starting my ride expecting the eventual sun victory.  Sun wins, it was just fine.

There WAS some nagging cloud cover which kept my camera in my pocket until the very end.  I came across Raider fastpitch apparently on their way to victory over someone described by the PA announcer as the "Zephs".
Probably you can't see our house.  I can't.  But that large tree just inside the post on the left edge of the photo is our cottonwood.  Backyard entertainment.

The Zephs would most likely be the team representing Mahtomedi High School where the official designation, I believe, is the Zephyrs.  I don't wish to be unnecessarily judgemental (well, yes, actually I do) but I think Zephyrs is a WAY cooler name than Zephs.  I don't get to decide so I guess I won't.

 I was almost home, on our street actually when I came across a stunning new array of front yard utility flags.
That's two houses closer to the corner than the last array I posted.  I had a chance last week to ask the two houses closer to us neighbor Marcia about the array in their yard.  She said that their neighbors on the west side had some sort of issue with electricity over the winter and that the digging that occurred in Joe and Marcia's yard was to uncover some sort of "box" buried in front of their house to fix the electrical problem next door.

I am going to go ahead and guess that the last attempt (which sorta messed up Joe and Marcia's yard) didn't fix the problem and the crews have moved further up the street to the next "box".

It's always something, isn't it?

Ask and you shall receive.  I had to go and get it out of the trash but fortunately I have my trash set for only empty on my command so sending stuff to the trash doesn't actually remove anything (and yes, I know that even emptying the trash doesn't actually remove anything).  Digging around in the trash?  Interesting.  Mostly a lot of install files for Adobe and Firefox updates plus some other stuff that really just is trash.

Pesky user error issues.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Totally 70

And about time, the average high temperature for this date is, in fact, 70.  So today officially qualifies as nice.  Checking my weather gadget over there on the side bar it appears that it may even actually be 73.

I woke up a little bit achy today.  A little bit achy feels pretty darn good as building fitness is the point of all of this.  A little bit achy means I got a good work out yesterday.

But today was totally 70 so I headed out to do it again.  It was another one of those days when there was absolutely no reason to pedal hard when headed south or west (mostly west) but my south route permits me when traveling south or west to spend a lot of time going downhill.

I had to ride through dead man's curve to get down into the big city.  The area under the bridges has been swept but potholes have been filled only on the northbound side of the street.  This sorta works as northbound is the more problematic from a bicycle standpoint, the cars coming from behind cannot see a bicycle as well as they can on the southbound.  But the uncertain vision because of the shadows under the bridge still means that it's a gamble riding through there just hoping you won't dive into one of those winter created craters.

After running that gauntlet (the bridge over the railroad tracks is still totally covered in winter debris, lots of gravel, lots of broken glass, most unpleasant) I came across some good news in the city.  They had a big pavement project over there late last year and I had not actually ridden down this portion of street since that was completed.  It turns out there is good news.

This is Raymond Avenue, the most direct route for passage across the big main streets, the railroads and the freeway.
Before the pavement project there was parking on both sides and one of those share the road signs.  I think everyone knows my opinion of how well the road gets shared even when one of those signs is present.  There were always cars parked along here which meant riding up that hill meant having to ride as far from the parked cars as possible (one door width) to avoid being doored by one of the parked cars while also being squeezed over against the parked cars by traffic usually somewhat exceeding the 30mph speed limit.  Not a friendly riding location.  I mostly rode through the industrial area off to the left of this photo to find another way through.

But looky here, no parking on this side of the street and a BIKE LANE.  Also a bike lane in the opposite direction.  Not even mentioning the new pavement.

Excellent.

Just over the top of the hill there used to be a NiceRide kiosk.  It wasn't there today but I know the NiceRides are out so I assumed the kiosk has been relocated.  I went looking for it in the most natural relocation area, near the new Raymond Avenue station on the new light rail line.  How's this for fortuitous timing?
The line isn't officially open yet but they are running trains to train the crews.  That's actually Carleton Street with the Midtown Post Office branch behind the train.

Only three NiceRides available this afternoon.

It WAS 70.

I got all the way to Minnehaha Falls.  Instead of a photo I took a video.

Video.

So many things to think about.

User error.

Hint, you can rotate the camera to get a nice tall image of the tall falls when you are taking a photograph.  See, for example, the first photo in this post.

You can't really do that when you are taking a video.  What you get is the water moving from camera right to camera left.

*sigh*


I detoured through the Fairgrounds on the way home.  The Minnesota Cheese Festival was going on over there at the International Bazaar.  I know there is lots of pretty good Minnesota cheese although seeing the crowd got me to wondering if there is any good smooshy cheese from Minnesota.  Something to work on trying to find out.

Totally 70.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Double duty

Actually I rode yesterday too but it was dark and ugly, no photos were taken.  Without photos great inspiration would have been required to write but see above, it was dark and ugly.  The rare occurrence of I rode my bicycle but did not blog about it on this, my bicycle blog, happened again.  That pretty much means that the next time I blog has to be twice as good.

Today sunny and pleasant.  I got kind of a late start but the coast was clear, it seemed like a good day to break out of the recent pattern of riding loops relatively near home and to go ahead and try for a destination again.

I have opined in the past that with the new trail configuration out there that Vadnais is an unwise destination on a weekend.  Well, today there were like three classic fusterclucks with totally clueless pedestrians on the ride through Sucker Lake and down past Vadnais.  It's okay, it is a multi-use trail.  Everyone should just try to share.

Additionally, fishing season has opened and that whole subset of users was out, although not really in force, only three or four fishing groups.  That was a little bit interesting though as one member of one of the groups announced his intention to break the law right in front of me.  Fishing is prohibited on the far shoreline, he knew this, he informed his buddy that this was true.  Then he said that he intended to come back some night to fish for walleye from the far shore.  I mean, I could just as well be an off duty DNR conservation officer (sometimes referred to as game warden)  instead of a retired DNR bureaucrat.  He could have gotten himself on that dumbest criminals show.
I had a couple of nice wildlife moments.  The hooded merganser family is back this year.  That wildlife though, he be very shy, he no pose for photo.  Even without a photo it is fun to see them again, a very distinctive looking duck.

Then as I was leaving the area on the part of the road that runs very close to the western (and rarely pictured here) half of the lake I rode within 5 or so feet of one of those big white birds.  They are usually just as shy as the mergansers and always, ALWAYS fly away whenever you come near them.  This one sat right there, head up, looking wild and gorgeous as I passed.  It was fun.

It must be one of those big white birds that wintered in Floridia where it became inured to the presence of humans.

I also came across this on the path.  Working with sidewalk chalk someone produced a reasonably accurate map of the USA.
Scale is off in some places, most notably with Hawaii being about the size of Alaska (and Alaska being WAY smaller than Texas) but this is pretty good work.  Florida seems a bit oversized as well.

Finally, we have been a tiny bit worried about the big new tree.  It was a hard winter.  We both kept comparing how BNT was doing compared to other white pines in the immediate vicinity.  The health of BNT's needles seemed roughly comparable to all of the others but none of the others is in our front yard.  We have been a tiny bit worried.
Checking how many no longer green needles we have you can probably see why we have been a tiny bit worried.  But, look closely, we have new growth.  BNT lives.  We made it through the first winter now if we can make it through the first summer we should be good.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Webcast

It turns out that I can acquire CLE credit without leaving the comfort of home.  Modern technology streams the webcast directly to my home computer.

Ah, the wonders of bandwidth.

So today, for example, I viewed an interesting update on dog bite law in Minnesota.

The new interpretation of law arises from a case in northern Minnesota.  On a rural roadway lived grandpa, his neighbor lady, and on the other side of neighbor lady, grandson.  Grandson was over at grandpa's house at about lunch time.  The neighbor lady's brother was at neighbor lady's house fixing his sister's roof.  Neighbor lady's brother had his dog along with him.  Lunchtime, grandson suggested that he go home, pick up a frozen pizza that he knew was there and bring it back to grandpa's house where the pizza could be prepared for lunch.  Grandpa warned grandson to be careful as he knew the dog visiting next door to be aggressive and possibly dangerous.  Grandson headed home along a well worn path across the neighbor lady's property, a path which was NOT a public way, but which was commonly used by all in the neighborhood.  Grandson heard a commotion and turned to find the dog charging towards him.  He bolted away, trying to escape from the dog, ran into the road and was hit by a passing mini-van, incurring quite serious injury.

So . . . who was at fault?  I know, the correct answer is that more than one of the parties was at fault but the whole apportioning of fault thing ends up being quite complex.

Doesn't that sound interesting?

The last two days have been another of those dreaded two days in a row off.  It rained cats and dogs (another dog reference) the first day.  Yesterday produced a morning newspaper photo of some downtown rally where the speaker was wearing a down parka including a full down hood that he had up.  Chilly for May.

So after the dog bite thing I bolted out to get in some miles.  I am pleased to report that two days off this time was quite a bit more manageable than last time.  I was mostly OK during the ride and as I sit here now I actually feel pretty refreshed.  The point, I suspect is that I am on the verge of passing through 400 miles for the year and that is apparently enough mileage that some fitness IS starting to be acquired.

Woohoo, I'm having some fun now.

The day was partly to mostly cloudy and chilly enough to require a return to long pants as a part of the gear.  It never really threatened rain as the sky featured more than enough blue to make pants for a Dutchman.  The partly pink flowering shrubs are pretty much in full bloom all around.  I saw a bunch of them on the ride but stopped to photograph this one with a big spruce for scale and the sky for artistic effect.
There are also starting to appear more vibrant colors.  These are what? Fuschia?
These are violet and yellow.
Lots of people are starting to mow their lawns.  Despite the chill in the air progress is being made towards temperate weather.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Hooray Hooray

Because I forgot to do that earlier in the month.

The mother who lives here is spending most of the day with her child and with her mother.  That seems pretty nice.

This left me with ample time for riding my bicycle.  Ample time but opportunity as considered from the vantage point of this morning seemed quite unlikely.  It rained overnight, not all night but with considerable intensity on at least one instance of a half hour or so.  The morning radar weather showed one of those green and red blobs surging towards us from Iowa and stated the probability of precipitation during the afternoon hours to be 50 percent.  50 percent.  That's usually pretty daunting.  But as I watched the red started to veer towards the east and the green broke into two parts and at about 1pm it seemed likely that the two parts would miss where I live, one going west and one going with the red to the east.

I always felt like I was dodging raindrops but it worked out and there was even a short stretch late in the ride where it felt pretty nice.

The temperature reached, or nearly reached 20C which means I went out without leg covering for only the second time this year.  Yes indeed, I wore shorts.

Too bad TMWLH wasn't around to get a photo.  Those pasty white Minnesota winter cured things sticking out of the bottom of my bicycle gear, also known as legs, scared even me.  But I am bicyclist (hear me roar) and I could still find the line where my shorts go, the teensiest, tiniest remnant of last summer's tan.

Here's an observation:  At this time of the season a rest day is certainly welcome but two days in a row off is a very bad thing.  Yesterday I was totally wasted by my ride.  Today?  Amazingly enough I feel pretty good.  Fitness is so fleeting that that second day off takes too much out of the nearly empty tank.  I'm still building fitness here, I need the work.

Here's another thing:  Today my reconnaissance of the weather channel before I set out alerted me to fairly light winds from the north and west.  I set out to ride in that direction and within a short time discovered something that I don't recall happening before.  The winds were fairly light but very definitely from the south and east.  The weather channel was reporting wind direction only the 180 degrees off from what I discovered.  I got a bit of a ways to the north before I realized what the true wind direction was (I felt WAY too strong) but after riding all the way around a block over there (to gauge the wind from all four directions) I turned around and rode mostly over towards the big city south of where I live.

I won't be riding down into the big city much until there is significant improvement to the pavement situation at dead man's curve.  But to discover that pothole minefield I had to ride down into the Saint Anthony Park neighborhood.  I came across this.  There's lots and lots of information there.
OK, to start with they have bagged up leaves.  They have a bunch of oak trees in that yard, the variety of oaks (is it white oaks?) that don't drop their leaves until late winter.  So those people have had a busy spring clean up.  Then some of that stuff seems to be wood chips intended for use in the spring landscaping.  Then there is the no parking Monday because of street sweeping (I won't be riding over there tomorrow).  Then there is the no parking except by permit 8 to 8 Monday through Friday.  Too close to the farm campus, students are NOT welcome to park in the neighborhood.  And lastly there is the intriguing (to me) information that that is a night plow route on that side of the street.  What does that mean?

And plenty of wet patches in the curb and in the yard waste further out in the street to confirm that I may have been lucky to dodge serious precipitation.

There's ALWAYS a lot of information here.
Did you all know that the street past the cows is a one way?

Look at that sky, I KNOW I was pretty lucky to get in a ride today.

Happy Mothers' Day.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Tulip time

The yard in the neighborhood that for years has featured a display of wild flowers has been converted to cultivation.  The guy over there last fall rototilled the whole area and then the last time I was over there last fall he was laying out 6 or so inch deep furrows for planting.  Here's what we got today.
Heavy rain on Thursday, yesterday was only in the 40s, too cold.  With today's ride I have now ridden more miles in May than I was able to compile in April.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Overcooked

I was sort of looking forward to a rest day.  It IS early in the season and I am feeling a little achy.  The overnight forecast said 50 percent chance.  But this morning was pretty nice and by noon the chance had diminished to 10 percent.

Early on in the ride I found my first pinkish flowers.
Those are still pretty white but there is a tinge of color.  The white flowers are the first, once the pink ones show up the flowering shrub season is pretty much full on.

So I was eleven miles from home when in a period of only a few minutes the 10 percent chance went abruptly to geez this is definitely going to rain.  I had to smoke it, definitely smoke it at a rate which I am definitely not conditioned for.  I had to ride hard.

Overcooked, but home, dry, licking my wounds.

It never actually did rain but even so I am pretty sure TOMORROW is a rest day.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Bridge falls down in California

On the subject of omens of spring here is what I did today after my ride.  I took the snow blower outside and ran it until it was out of gas.  This is a rite of spring but should only be done when you are absolutely positive that you aren't going to have snow blow 8 or 10 inches of springtime out of the end of your driveway.
It was 60-ish today but the sun disappeared and the wind freshened.  The sky remained hazy throughout my ride and I could still feel a chill, particularly into the wind.

It was hard, it was really hard.

It wasn't as hard as yesterday.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Another sign (x2)

I mostly rode south today, hoping to get farther into the big city than I have previously been this year.  I succeeded in that goal but must report that the pavement at Dead Man's Curve is in remarkably awful condition, riding that direction is going to take careful planning and better than average timing (to avoid traffic).

But mostly I was interested in evidence of street sweeping in the areas where I might be inclined to ride.  I rode on several of the important streets and found zero, repeat zero, evidence of anything at all having been swept up.  I was on my way home when finally I found a sign.
That's sort of generically Como neighborhood but south of Como Avenue.  Street sweeping will be occurring there tomorrow.  I ride through that on all rides to the south, if a ride tomorrow is possible I expect to be heading north or perhaps east-west.

So that's a sign (x2) of progress.

On the way home I saw another sign of progress.  This is a different sign so this one also probably qualifies as an x2 sort of deal.  I have pictured this bush at least a couple of other times in years past.
White flowers.

Plus for good measure there are some bulbs coming up there along the sidewalk in the front yard.

It is starting to seem vaguely possible.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Light at the end

Maybe.

This tunnel is located far from any sandy areas.  It is in fact between Grass Lake and something that gets called the Snail Lake Marsh.  I have never seen if full of sand but I have seen it with a couple of feet of water in it.  Low spot between two swamps, a natural for occasional standing water.
So it's way less dramatic than the sand dunes but it is what struck me today as a possible sign that spring is finally making some headway.

That wire going across the top of the photo is the cable TV, I can tell by that dip directly above the tunnel.  That dip is characteristic of all of the cable cables around here.

This is good because it means that if you want to get 104 channels and high speed internet out there in the swamp that you probably can.

Spring bicycling is really hard.  Which is what, in the end, makes is worthwhile.  Later on when the weather is nicer this form of exercise will not be such a travail.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Something happening here

The ride went sorta OK except that . . .

I live with a freeway less than a mile to my north and another one about three miles to my west.  There are some but not many streets leading away to the south.  What this means that almost every single ride starts with a navigation towards the east to get away from the freeways and across the might as well be a freeway hugely busy arterial street over there to get out of the neighborhood and allow me to go wherever it might be that I want to go.

What this also means is that almost every single ride ends with a navigation back towards the west.  Which isn't a big deal unless you come up against a day like today with VERY strong winds almost directly out of the west.

The ride went sorta OK except for that bit of rudeness at the end.

TOPWLH remarked that it seemed like a really nice day until she went outside.  What she meant is that it was a pretty day from inside where there is heat but it was windy and cold once you got outside the house.

It was really hard.  It was really hard.

I did get "nice biked" by a young fellow standing out at the curb of what I assume was his house where he was doing repairs to his mailbox post.  Repairs to your mailbox post is something a lot of us have to do after every winter.  As I came riding towards him he looked up and remarked that "it's finally dry".  I agreed and as I rode by I noticed the direction of his gaze turned from me towards the downtube of my bicycle.  Where it says LOOK.  I was about to get away when he called after me, "Nice bike".  It IS a nice bike but it is always a little bit of fun when someone else notices.

I didn't get a picture until I was within about a tenth of a mile of the end of the ride.
Last fall when we got the big new tree I thought we were pretty dang cool for having three different color flags in our front yard. Neighbors across the street and a few doors down have totally blown our puny display out of the water.

The blue is the water, the same as ours.  They also have red for electricity.  Our electricity comes in on the back side of the house and above ground, no red flags for us.  The yellow is gas, again the same as ours.  We had more yellow than they do but that's a pretty hollow victory considering that they also have orange which is the cable.  Our cable comes in on the back side of the house and above ground.  Then they have a single white flag sitting out there in the middle of the electricity.

There's something happening over there but what it is ain't exactly clear*, at least to me.

*lyrics from a Buffalo Springfield song of I think 1967 but I am not sure as paranoia strikes deep.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Fence news

Geez, it really rained hard.

Our neighbors' back yard became a lake and our yard, being just slightly uphill, became a swamp.  No water came through the window and power stayed on so the sump didn't back up.  But it rained so hard that water came pouring down the vent for the furnace or the water heater or something.  Some stupid outlet to the outside started dripping after about the first inch of the more than three inches of rain.  It's always something.  It dripped hard enough to require middle of the night checking to make sure the bucket catching the drips wasn't overflowing.

It's always something.

So today it was finally not raining.  That part is OK but it was densely overcast and windy and cold, about 50.  It was dry.  With this spring threatening to turn into last spring which was the worst spring in the history of spring I was determined to get in at least a few miles.

Mission accomplished.
Gloomy, gloomy day gradually turning pretty chilly.  Even the cows look densely overcasted.

But what I found interesting was this.  This whole rent a fence thing is apparently going way better than even I had imagined.  I was surprised to find that there was an economic opportunity for renting temporary fences but today I was surprised to find that there is more than one entity involved in providing temporary fencing.
That's the new construction over at the Fair.  It looks so far like a bunch of different passenger loading and unloading areas.  Stay tuned.