End of May

A few miles today.  I crossed all the way over into the bit city to the south, reaching as far as the Town and Country Club.  It was nice to see some new pavement but I went up and down more hills than I had on my previous rides this year.  Hills are hard.

But I got home OK, it was a beautiful day for a ride.  I took a sitdown on the driveway along the back side of the former Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association building, known to some by its more recent affiliation with something called TIES.

It was a very pleasant spot for a sit down, no hills.  And shade.

At home our mini-lilac is in bloom.

When we played hide and seek yesterday, Norah hid behind the pinwheel.  She pointed out to me after I spotted her that her entire head was hidden by the pinwheel.  That made it a pretty good hiding spot.  Except for the fact that the stick didn't do as good a job of hiding the rest of her.

Probably it is worth pointing out that she had to hurry in finding a hiding spot because she had to  linger near the spot where I was counting to help me get to three.  I had counted one, two, eight and she turned back from the hiding to make the correction.

"Three", she said, and waited at the corner of the garage to make sure I got it right.

Feels like summer

The calendar has reached a point.  The temperatures are starting to agree and at last a tiny hint of humidity.  It feels like summer.  Very early summer, but definitely summer.

Today started out heavily overcast but we cleared out northwest to southeast and had a beautiful afternoon.  My bicycle took me north into the heart of our city.

There was an article in the daily newspaper recently about what a good year it has been so far for bike shops.  The article quoted some manager about having to work late after shop closing to assemble 30 or 40 new bikes and then having them all sell the next day.  None of them were sold by my LBS of choice.

Lots of small businesses are not going to survive the pandemic related business slump but this one was already closed before the first person got sick.  I had not been over there since they closed so I was curious about what it looked like.

Kitty corner is a business that is pandemic related closed.

The on site pizza joint is open for delivery and take out.

I did not even have to ask.  There is no poker game there this Saturday night.

Update

It rained again overnight but forecasters said most of today should be OK.  There were a bunch of threatening clouds but I just picked a time and headed out and no rain came while I was out there.

So a triumph.

Possible severe storms appear to be on the schedule for this evening.

I stayed mostly pretty close to home.

See what they have done here?

The first is the dates for the Fair this year, the Fair that has been cancelled.  That sign is on the Grandstand.

Two or three year old restrooms, more than 50 year old retired DNR fire tower, and indeterminate  aged Turkey to Go for scale.

Meanwhile out at the front gate the dates do not match.

Ah, those are the dates for next year, the Great Minnesota Get Back Together.

One tradition survives

Kevin Cogan crashed from a front row position at the start of today's Indianapolis 500 but pole sitter AJ Foyt made a wily veteran move and managed to avoid the crash in route to his record 5th victory in the Great American Race.

Well, that didn't happen as the race and lots of other Memorial Day Weekend traditions took a year off in observance of the new reality.

At our house one thing at least survived.

On the grill, split chicken breast and sausage, this year we had bratwurst and kielbasa, German and Polish.  The kielbasa was a brand we had not tried previously and it was a huge success, really excellent.  The chicken is always good.

The weather was variable, overnight rain, morning clouds, humid and warm but completely tolerable most of the afternoon.

Everyone should stay safe.

DMC

According to a post on a popular social media platform a bicycle tour of scenic highlights of south Minneapolis was completed early today by TCWUTH.  It looks like a really nice ride and thus inspired I myself set out.

It was grey and gloomy and occasionally felt like rain but it did not rain.  On the other hand the sun never came out either.

I ventured a bit farther south than has been my pattern so far this spring, even making an appearance at Dead Man's Curve.

I was parked on the side of the street trying to line up a shot of the double underpass with an "S" curve which did not include any automobiles.

Just then the BNSF provided a picture element.

And the cheap pocket camera managed to keep everything in focus.

For those interested in such things that train is running on what was the Northern Pacific freight main line.

You go under that bridge and two blocks to the top of the hill visible behind and you come to an overpass over what was the Great Northern freight main line.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post.  There is a story which I suppose I will eventually have to tell.  For now, even with the overcast, today ended up being a very nice day for a couple of bicycle rides.

Hooray, hooray

The second of May, close enough.

Here's something you couldn't do last week.

I have not golfed for at least several years but I see that one thing has not changed.  You occasionally have to wait on the tee for the group ahead to clear out before you can play.

They had a nice day for it but truthfully that group is about to tee off with a hellacious cross wind, left to right.  As may be evident from the photo I am heading on a slight uphill, left to right.  I felt pretty strong.

The big event of the day was earlier.  We had not seen her since March 15 but this girl came out to play in her back yard and we got to be present.

Just there she is showing off her new bubble maker.

With an eye to the changing colors of the flowering shrubs she also showed off this beauty in her side yard.

She is kind, funny, smart and strong.  And adorable.

It was a pretty good ride but way too windy.