Gzmoohoo

2011 season declared over

2012-01-17T16:20:00.003-06:00

Actually there have been several days when I could have ridden. We really don't have any snow cover here (again). It is cold.

The season isn't over as long as my bicycle is still in the garage.Today I brought my bicycle inside.

2011 season over, about 6 weeks to earliest possible ride of 2012.

You're going to reap just what you sow

2011-12-27T20:41:00.003-06:00

Pavarotti hosted "Pavarotti and Friends" charity concerts in his home town of Modena (that's Italy) beginning in 1998. The last one in 2001 included a duet with Lou Reed.

The look on Lou's face when he turns to observe Pavarotti (at about 1:21) while Luciano is singing the lyrics to a song that Lou wrote is a classic moment, not just for Lou, but also for all of rock and roll.

Just a perfect day,
You made me forget myself,
I thought I was somebody else,
Somebody good.

Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on
Hanging on.

Some hockey content

2011-12-19T22:42:00.001-06:00

Cow news

2011-12-06T17:45:00.004-06:00

The local morning newspaper reported a cow in custody in the vehicle impound lot. According to the Pioneer Press story, the cow, bolted to a trailer, was abandoned in the street in the 1400 block of East Como Boulevard. The cow was hauled into the impound lot by a tow truck. A police spokesman said that the trailer has no registered owner.Regular viewers of this space will no doubt recognize that cow. I have published images of that fiberglass beast several times in the past.

My first reaction was that "abandoned in the street" is cop talk for someone complained, a squad went by and checked the trailer, found it to be unlicensed, and chalked the trailer tires. 48 hours later the trailer had not been moved and was towed. My stronger reaction was that this story is a reflection of how far the Pioneer Press has fallen from the time when it was an actual newspaper. Apparently they no longer have a city room and apparently they no longer have editors or staff who have any sort of corporate memory of what has been considered newsworthy in the relatively very recent past.

Last year after the State Fair the cow's owner reported it as missing. The missing cow report was reported as news by, most prominently, the Pioneer Press. As reported at that time, the cow (apparently named "Blackie" by its owner) is an annual entry in the Minnesota State Fair's daily parades. The cow disappeared in early August 2010 while it was hitched to a truck near the owner's home. It was found in November in rural Minnesota and returned.

The afternoon update on the newspaper web site confirms the details. I am required to note that the newspaper update identifies the cow as an "Angus" which is a beef cow even though even the most citified of cow observers will identify the fiberglass cow as very, very clearly a Holstein, a dairy cow.

The police confirm that prior to the towing there were complaints about the cow being parked on the street. The owner was away from home for a few days and when he returned the cow was gone. His attempt to regain possession of his $22,000 cow is complicated by the fact that the trailer is not registered. And further complicated by the fact that even after ownership is established the individual claiming the cow will have to pay towing fees and storage charges which already amount to more than $600.

That's all the cow news I have for today.

This looks like fun

2011-12-05T18:24:00.002-06:00

The Gopher women have a teddy bear toss scheduled for this weekend. It will, of course, be nothing like the Calgary toss but it is still a nice thing.

Viewer discretion advised

2011-12-04T13:42:00.003-06:00

Mature audiences only. Warning, the following photo contains evidence of hard manual labor by a medicare eligible individual. Those uncomfortable with such labor should look away.Really, it was hard work. The snowblower has not been prepared for the season, snow removal was done by hand.

I am not declaring the bicycle season over. The reason for this is that my bicycle is still in the garage. The reason for this is that I am feeling a tad knackered and will not be attempting bicycle relocation in this physical state.

Watch for an end of season announcement certain to be coming very soon.

Why there is no bicycling today

2011-12-03T16:03:00.005-06:00

Aside from the facts that it probably wasn't quite warm enough (ice would form in an outdoor water bottle) and that it has now started to snow, that is.

I was out walking. It was grey (did I mention the snow?). We had only a very small amount of snow overnight on December 1. It was still present on the lawns but anyplace with asphalt that the sun could reach had banished the snow. About 99 percent of the pavement where I walked was completely clear and plenty adequate for bicycling.

I had been clinging gingerly to the idea that I might get in some miles in December but these things stopped me.It is an inner ring suburb, lots of mature trees, including very large evergreens. Every one of those things casts a shadow on its north side (away from the faint globe that is the December sun) and in that shadow there is now an ice patch.

It was tricky maintaining balance while walking through those things. On two wheels the briefest loss of balance means down you go. I haven't fallen off my bicycle this year and a December ride is insufficient motivation to get me to try to ride across large patches of ice.

Did I mention that it is now snowing?

Success, the end

2011-11-30T17:49:00.005-06:00

Count this as another successful completion of national blog every day for a month month.

*pauses for appreciative applause to die down*

A special thanks to all who helped out, notably Jim Mora, Allen Iverson, Goldy, Jimmy Fallon and my little family.

I did get in a bicycle ride today and it felt very much like a ride that may be the last one for this year. As noted earlier, this is the second time in the last three years that I have ridden on November 30 but any further rides will be rides crossing over into historic territory. There is a reason I don't ride in December and that reason could be felt out there again today. It was cold.

It does look like it was an OK day to be a wolf.I ride past that area of the Como zoo with great frequency but during most of the year there are far too many people in the park, discouraging me from checking the nearby wolf woods. The wolves have some serious fence, or perhaps I should say fences, around their abode.

It was pretty grey out there in addition to being cold. I did find something of interest to photograph though. Apparently there has been some sort of giant factory over run down at the Ford plant, there are what seems like two or three hundred of these at the Fairgrounds.I know the Ford plant is scheduled to close down soon but for the life of me I cannot figure out why they suddenly had to produce that many white Rangers.This isn't the original ending to the movie but it is one of the edits that I think improves the final product. NaBloPoMo, this is the end.

160

2011-11-29T10:06:00.005-06:00

All that angst for no good reason, as it finally turns out. The goal was to get in 160 rides at an average of 25 miles per ride, 4,000 miles for the year. Today I took my 160th ride, the average is above 25 miles per ride, bingo. It turns out it was a done deal the whole time, nothing to it, pfft.

*pause*

OK, the fact that I am now riding very near to the end of the 8th month of a 7 month season may have something to do with it. As I was riding today it occurred to me that a definite upside of a bonus 8th month of riding is that next season is only 4 months away instead of the more usually expected 5. Yup, that's the sort of stuff I think about while riding.

The sun was out today and it was a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday. The sun doesn't really provide much warmth at its current angle in the sky but riding in the sunshine just feels warmer than riding under heavy overcast. I started closer to my usual starting time which allowed me to finish before the local school patrol was out and about. So it was good, it was warm enough, it was light enough, I enjoyed it, I had a very nice ride.

Gear adaptations also help, I went with the windstopper booties over my shoes (toes were getting cold yesterday) and the full winter mittens, the heavier weight with the wool mitten liners as opposed to the ones with the fleece glove liners. Wool mittens are way warmer than fleece gloves.

I felt so good that I set off for a late season visit to the northern lakes. My only concession to November was that I took the absolute most direct route. I did this in case it was too cold and I had to beat it for home. Usually I ride a route north which takes me along the way to places I like to ride. The route is a couple of miles longer each way than the absolute most direct as a result.

A direct result of the direct route is that I found myself at a spot near Sucker Lake that I don't get to very often.That's what happens when I ride directly east on Highway 96 instead of back through the neighborhoods behind Snail Lake School. I entered the Sucker Lake portion of the park on the bike path off Highway 96 instead of along the vehicle driveway off Rice Street. Different spot, different perspective.

Does a picnic table count as a bench?

I think the vehicle driveway may have been closed as I did not see a single car in the park on a day when it was sunny enough that I expected to see at least a few cars.

Further down in the park I came across evidence that it is November. The lake is still clear but the water in the slough across the road has a skim of ice.You have to be out there late in the year to find this, Vadnais is closed to cars.Over there on the left, though, you can see that the pedestrian gate is open. I had already ridden some on the bike path up at the north end of Sucker Lake so I was feeling enough like a pedestrian that I went ahead and rode through the gate and down to the lake.

I was hoping to see the big white birds but was disappointed again. I got a couple of photos of an absolute giant raft of ducks, mostly mallards but decided after getting home that they were not particularly distinguished. They didn't make the edit.

I was nearing home when I came upon a drastic example of the brush whacking that has been going on under the power lines around here. There is a spot where all summer I rode past where a willow tree had grown out over the road and dangled the very end of a branch at just helmet top level at the edge of the road. I had fallen into the habit not of avoiding the branch but of seeking it out to give it a little head butt. I didn't even particularly realize that I was doing this until today I discovered that I won't be doing that particular maneuver again any time soon.I was about to put the camera away when I glanced to the right.I got the full standard distance and was home before the curtain fell.

And a shout out to tech support everywhere. When I had a job the actual tech support conferred upon me the honorary title of "power user" indicating that I had more of a clue then the average user about how all of this data processing machinery works. As a retired person spending time in the same building (our house) as a still actively employed non-power user I find that I have been converted to, for the purposes of this building, tech support. Today I showed her how to get her bookmarks back after they had mysteriously completely disappeared leaving her unable to access without difficulty the sites she uses to go about her still active employment. If you don't know how you don't know how but those of us (power users and above) who know how know that you right click the "bar" area at the top of the screen and toggle on or off any of the bars that are active in your browser. Somehow or other her menu bar, which includes the bookmarks, had been toggled off. Such is the life of tech support. She knows how to do this fix herself now. At least I don't have to show her how to turn the monitor on.

True tech support and probably even most power users will recognize what our browser of choice is from the terminology used in the above discussion.

Recreation

2011-11-28T18:05:00.002-06:00

I love my bicycle and I ride because I enjoy it.

But today . . . ewww, maybe the enjoyment thing was not so much.

The weather channels kept saying upper 30s and sunny with light winds so I was pretty optimistic. At noon it still wasn't warm enough so I delayed until much later in the afternoon than I usually like to get started.

Here's the deal with this late in November, if you delay until late enough in the day for it to be warm enough to ride comfortably you are going to run into a problem with daylight. That's the theoretical statement, the practical is if you don't start until 2pm you are going to find yourself out there at 4pm with the sun rapidly disappearing.

I am at core a summer time rider, therefore my bicycle has no reflectors and no lights. Reflectors are required by Minnesota Statute but if I am never going to ride in low light conditions reflectors are only extra weight. Today I endured the inevitable consequence of my reflectorless self when I had to cut the ride short from the standard distance because it seemed no longer prudent to be out there without reflectors, the light was going away.

It was always too cold. I have the gear, I was not uncomfortable or endangered or anything like that. But it was too cold for pleasant recreational riding.

I have made several comments about the really interesting light that we only get in the fall. Today I have discovered that we are moving out of the rich interesting light of fall into the thin, anemic light of winter. I took a picture of the sky.You might think that was at the end of the ride but actually that's very early, probably about 2:25, just a couple of minutes before I paused at the Cattle Barn.Every bicycle ride accomplishes something. Today I got a few more miles and I expected that I was going to have a latest ride of the year in the last several years accomplishment to report. Instead once I actually checked the log I discovered that as recently as two years ago (in 2009) I had a ride on November 30. No rides in December since 2004 though. I do suspect that I have reclaimed the mantle of latest ride of the year by a bicyclist living in my neighborhood, however. I suppose that's something even if today was clearly too cold for recreational bicycling.

Crazy barley

2011-11-27T17:07:00.005-06:00

I concur that the translation offered by the French guide when she first visited Fort Folle Avoine was "barley". My google translate page translates avoine from French to English as oats and translates wild oats from English to French as folle avoine. I think oats is a reasonable conclusion to reach.

However

It is my personal belief that "barley" makes a better story. I think it might be quite reasonable to adopt a corollary to the family rule and decide that there is no need to ruin a good story for the sake of google translation.Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Nice bench, no?

sigh Leftovers

2011-11-26T17:23:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving is a family holiday. In our family this means that each year the big meal is hosted by a different family member. Which is good.

But which means that more often than not we arrive home on Thanksgiving evening to discover that our house does not have those wonderful lingering aromas that only cooking the traditional feast produces.

It is a melancholy moment but a moment that adults have spent their life times teaching themselves to deal with. All adults know how to face this moment.

Well, maybe not all.

Here's what we do.Some people might call it extreme, we call it leftovers.You go ahead and do it your way, we are going to go ahead and continue to do it our way.

In pretty important football news, yesterday in Nantes FC Nantes stuffed AS Monaco 3-0. There is a log jam at the top of the Ligue 2 table but FC Nantes remains in the mix, currently outside the promotion zone but still easily within range. It is plenty OK for a Nantes fan to retain some optimism.

Meanwhile the downside of 0-3 is the continuation of a tale of woe in the Principality. The travails for Monaco this season are perhaps even more severe than the ongoing ignominy of Nantes in Ligue 2. Monaco last year was in Ligue 1 with a long history of success. Monaco has seven Ligue 1 championship banners and has won le Coupe de France five times. The relegation to Ligue 2 had to hurt in view of the fact that, like FC Nantes, Monaco was an absolute fixture in the top league.

In its first year in Ligue 2, Nantes at least contended, giving Nantes fans the illusion that the team was soon to return to the top rank. The team did in fact succeed in winning immediate promotion back to the top rank. The immediate second relegation is another matter and continues to be the itch that the team seems unable to scratch.

For Monaco, this first season outside Ligue 1 looks dire, dire indeed. With this most recent result, AS Monaco is absolute dead last in Ligue 2, 11 points from 15 games. In France only the top two leagues are fully professional. The third league usually has a professional team or two but also has teams that charitably would be referred to as semi-professional. The beautiful people in Monte Carlo fact the very real possibility of relegation of their team from the ranks of professional football and as early as next year could be seeing only amateur football.

Family holiday

2011-11-25T16:37:00.003-06:00

My little family in a little rocking chair.We still have that little rocking chair. STC used it to access the window ledge in the TV room.

I know it is a long holiday weekend but I have always wondered if it is still a holiday on Saturday or if the holiday part of the weekend is over. I mean, it's just Saturday, right?

Turkey bowl

2011-11-24T10:26:00.003-06:00

There was an excellent turn out for the turkey bowl this year.And why wouldn't there be with temperatures heading for the 50s again today?

The street looks like it rained a bit over night. That coulda, woulda, shoulda been snow.

Wasn't.

Bicycling weather returns

2011-11-23T16:49:00.003-06:00

And I saw quite a few people out doing it, including one of my neighbors. I may still get another ride in, I suppose, but today I was content to walk.

It was OOTNDITHO the day before Thanksgiving. The high temperature was above 50, the sun was out the sky was blue. Spectacular.I am just a tiny bit worried that I don't even have the last bicycle ride of the year by a retired guy living on my block. However, as I think I said earlier, I am satisfied with the season I have had even if I don't get another mile.

On the other hand, looking at the long range forecast there emerges just a slight possibility that I may this year, for the first time since 2004, get some December miles.

Here is the flower yard in late fall and after it has been visited by the same bushwacking guys who visited my yard last week.Those guys have done some serious whacking on that oak tree. They are very, very serious about removing any vegetation with the potential to interfere with the electricity.

Most of us think this is the right thing to do given our dependence on electricity. However, given how much we depend on the cable, not only for cable TV, but also for the inter tubes and for lots of people, for phone service (including 911), I find it just a trifle troubling that Comcast isn't out here engaged in a similar vegetation removal for the lower set of lines, the cable.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Some Girls

2011-11-22T17:57:00.005-06:00

These two didn't stay around long and they wouldn't pose. But they did sit in the tree for a few minutes, rare and unusual visitors to our corner of the suburbs.I was doing some surfing this morning, looking at Jimmy Fallon as Justin Bieber, that sort of really important cultural reference maintenance, when I came across the news of a re-issue of Some Girls by the Rolling Stones.

Guest appearance by Ludacris.

Anyway, I was especially amused by the blog bit about the Rolling Stones re-issue stating that Some Girls had one of the most celebrated and controversial covers of all time.

The State of Minnesota paid a veteran's bonus in about 1973 to all who had served in the armed forces during the Vietnam war. The bonus was paid on a sliding scale based on number of months having served during a specified window of eligibility with a special additional $300 for those who could by use of their official military records demonstrate actual service not just in the military but in the Republic of Vietnam. I qualified for the maximum amount of the bonus, $600. This was completely found money, a true bonus. I decided to spend at least part of it on something a bit frivolous.

I already owned many or most of the Rolling Stones albums. A special note here to young people who might accidentally tune in: that's what we back in the pre-modern era used to call compilations of new materials made available for sale by the popular groups of the day, the compilations were on a substance known as "vinyl" which required a "stereo" with a "turntable" to allow listening to the "album".

Back to the story, at the moment in time when I received the bonus, I was spending a huge amount of time listening to the 1972 release "Exile on Main Street". I decided that my frivolous purchase would be to complete my collection of Rolling Stones albums. As soon as I cashed the bonus check I went to the neighborhood "record store" (record was another term used pretty much interchangeably with album) and completed the collection. I maintained the complete set for several years thereafter. For people who actually know, I think about through "Steel Wheels" (I should check actually, I think I may have "Voodoo Lounge" and maybe even "Bridges to Babylon" but absolutely certainly not "A Bigger Bang") before finally deciding that if Mick and Keef didn't care about the music anymore there surely was no reason for me to keep buying it.

So along the way I purchased "Some Girls" within days, perhaps hours, of its official release.

Therefore I own one of the aforementioned celebrated and controversial covers.I went on eBay and see that at least one entrepreneur has placed his "near mint" copy up for auction with a starting price of $500.

I doubt $500 but this is the most fun I have had owning a "collectible" since the bottom dropped out of the market for the Jose Canseco rookie card that I also own.

Last of the stories yet untold

2011-11-21T15:39:00.004-06:00

This is the Hôtel de Beauvais at 82 rue François Miron. Rue François Miron was for several hundred years part of a grand entry into Paris leading directly to the palace of the Louvre. Again much of this story is taken from Walks Through Lost Paris by Leonard Pitts.

The hôtel was built betweeen 1655 and 1660 on a commission from Pierre Beauvais and his wife, Catherine. Madame de Beauvais was first chambermaid to Louis XIV's mother, Anne of Austria. The two women had a most intimate connection. As chief chambermaid Beauvais administered the queen mother's colonics. She also deflowered the queen's 16 year old son, the boy who had become king at the age of 4. The queen mother was overjoyed. Her husband, Louis XIII, apparently suffered from sexual dysfunction, it took the couple 22 years to conceive, and Anne had been apprehensive for her son.

At that time it was the fashion at court to imitate the king and so the sexual favors of Catherine de Beauvais became much in demand.

On August 26, 1660, Louis XIV and his wife Marie Theresé made a triumphal entry into Paris passing along Rue François Miron. Louis rode a chestnut mare covered in a brocade of silver and precious stones (it is useful to remember that at that time Louis was quite possibly the richest man in the world), Marie Theresé rode in a carriage covered in gold and silver and pulled by six pearl grey horses.

On their route, the royal procession stopped in front of the Hôtel de Beauvais to salute the Queen Mother standing on a richly decorated balcony, the same balcony in this picture.Among those standing with the Queen Mother on the balcony was Louis's aunt, Henrietta Maria, widow of England's King Charles I, who had been beheaded only months earlier by Oliver Cromwell during the English revolution.

By the end of her life Madame de Beauvais had been reduced to a pauper and lived destitute at the hôtel as a simple renter.

Nice day for a walk

2011-11-20T17:33:00.006-06:00

I watched most of the really important football today. Actually I watched all of it except for the time when it had put me to sleep and I was napping.

For actually important football which interests me, FC Nantes has entered the competition for le Coupe de France with a 1-3 road victory over something called US Bouscataise. This was a game in the 7th round of the tournament, the round in which the Ligue 2 teams enter. I think there is at least one more round before some of the Ligue 1 teams appear.

After watching the local important football on the telly I went ahead and spent an hour outside. The temperature was in the 20s, the sun was bright and the sky was blue, a nice day for a winter walk.

Walking fitness was good.

Long range forecasts indicate that bicycling still has a chance to make a couple more appearances but even an eternal optimist such as myself has to admit that there needs to be a major improvement in pavement conditions from what I observed out there today before I myself will be venturing out on skinny high pressure tires.

One website says 50s for Thanksgiving Day.

Meanwhile in domestic news our major shared weekend activity was the hockey. We love the hockey. Those of you living within easy driving distance who are not attending the games are missing out on a cheap ($1 admission for many games) but highly entertaining form of hockey. Shame on you if you call yourself a hockey fan and haven't seen this team play.

Earlier in the season our new sophomore scoring sensation notched a pure hat trick against a conference foe. A pure hat trick is one of the rarest of scoring feats, three straight goals scored all by the same player. This game was early in the season but even so it was a bit surprising that not a single hat was thrown onto the ice in the traditional fan display of appreciation for three goals in a single game. It was such an odd omission that in her post game YouTube interview even the player herself said she was a little disappointed about the lack of hats.

We have been season ticket holders for a while but we haven't seen lots and lots of hat tricks. We have never actually thrown hats onto the ice but I was taken by the disappointment of the player that no hats were thrown. I agreed with her that it was disappointing.

So in Friday night's game she scored FOUR goals. On the third goal a bunch of hats got thrown onto the ice. Again we were not participants.

We arrived early for Saturday's game and had a chance to chat with several other of the regular attendees. There are two distinct groups of every game attendees, one of which is the parents of the players. The second group is people who love hockey. It is a decently sized group but small enough that we all know who all of the rest of us are. We see each other at every game.

We chatted with the couple the male half of whom was, from my perspective across the ice, the first person to actually throw his hat onto the ice in appreciation of the third goal. The female half said she had decided to bring a hat to the game from now on even though she wasn't wearing one. She had it in a bag and just wanted to have something to throw onto the ice if another hat trick occurred.

TOPW attends hockey games with me and I discussed this and considered that in the future perhaps we should follow that lead. She said she had several caps that she doesn't really wear anymore, as do I, and we should be prepared.

The new scoring sensation got a goal in the first period and when she got another with 1:41 remaining in the second we decided we had to act. We could not afford to be unprepared any longer. We went to the merchandise counter in the corner of the arena, checked over the available stuff and purchased two of the cheapest hats available.Right after that but before play resumed I was standing watching the Zamboni when the hat chucking couple passed by. I reached into my pocket and showed them my hat.

They laughed and thumbed up.

Just 1:48 into the third she struck again, HAT TRICK! Out of the pockets and onto the ice went our very, very recent purchases.

The on ice officials gather up the hats and deliver them to the penalty box where the off ice officials turn the refuse over to arena personnel. TOPWLH had learned from the other couple that you can just approach the people in the tunnel and they will give you your hats back. She did so and they did so.

One of the other regular attendees who sits behind us noted that we hadn't even owned the hats long enough to remove the tags. So there they are, our Amanda Kessel Hat Trick hats.

We are not worthy.

And so it begins

2011-11-19T13:32:00.005-06:00

"Weatherguide Facts" in the morning newspaper reports that today is the average date for the start of permanent snow cover in the Twin Cities."Weatherguide Facts" does not define what it means by "permanent".

Bonus miles

2011-11-18T17:28:00.004-06:00

The snow isn't forecast to arrive until tonight or perhaps even tomorrow. The sun was out, temperatures were back to the November norm for this year above average, the winds were pretty much calmed. I checked the radar and the magenta stuff was all still off to the north and west so I went ahead and rode my bicycle.

The sun lasted until, oh, about the end of the driveway. The forbiddingly grey northwestern quadrant of the sky kept sagging in my direction and the blue of the southwest kept retreating. Even more than the last time, this ride felt like the last one.

I wanted to visit one group of old friends at least once more before they are moved outside of the distance that I can comfortably travel without my car. Here is a LOOK at one of the cows.Here's a pretty good look at what the sky had to offer.41 at the Cattle Barn at 1:09pm. Middle of the day. 41. November.

As I neared home I spotted this at about that distance from my front tire.I was at speed so I had to circle back and do a little searching to confirm the fleeting look I had the first time by. The memory is very fresh and raw in my mind of the flat tire fiasco day from earlier this month. I just wanted to be sure I had seen what I thought I had seen. Then I wanted to shudder and think ever so briefly about how close I had just come to doing it all over again.

I did what any responsible bicyclist would do, I bent over and picked up the nail and disposed of it properly.

4,110 miles for the year as of today, 102.75% of the annual goal. Anyone exceeding the goal by more than 2.5% is entitled to bonus miles.

Probably I should have ridden but I didn't

2011-11-17T16:37:00.003-06:00

I have a glass of water out on the front step hoping that it will freeze in time for me to get a photo to illustrate today's blog. I don't know about official measurements but the thermometers at my house never reached 32F today. I invoked the water would freeze in my water bottle rule, did not ride, and am now hoping for that plastic glass out on the step to bail me out for blogging material.

I can ride when it is cold, here is part of the report originally published on November 17, 2007. That was a Saturday and I still had a job.

"With 8-12 mph winds from the NNE I headed off towards the northeast, towards Lake Vadnais. Once again I discovered that the park is still open but today for the first time ever I was the only person there. Two or three cars drove through during the time I was off the bike at the picnic area but I was the only human being actually out in the cold. I have been to Vadnais many, many times. Today is the first time I was there alone.

I was the only person there and here is what everyone else missed:

There were some big white birds swimming in the middle of the lake so I tried to get a picture of them.I was having a little difficulty making a positive identification. I thought I knew what they were but I just was not sure. I hoped that they would swim a little closer so I could get a better picture and eventually they did. Even then I wasn't sure, if they were what I thought they were they are a species only very rarely seen by me in the wild. I just wasn't positive but I came home and Googled the species that I suspected and there just is not any doubt.

Swans. Swans don't come to town very often.Eventually I gave up hope of anyone else coming along to share the experience and started on home. It was a little warmer with the wind behind but the sun made only occasional brief appearances and it never got very warm. The Rice Street A&W has a sign saying closed for the season and a thermometer across the street saying 39."

That's all I am going to have for today unless and until that water on the front step comes through.

Brrrr

2011-11-16T15:25:00.003-06:00

I got in a nice walk but I was a little bit chilly every step of the way. If it is too cold walking at about 3 mph then the chill at 14-16 would be excessive. Bicycling did not occur.

But I do have a couple of untold stories, here is one.

This is the Hôtel de Sens, built between 1498 and 1519, and one of the last two remaining medieval buildings in Paris.The rest of the story is liberally paraphrased from the most excellent Walks Through Lost Paris by Leonard Pitt. I found the book to be an immensely informative resource for preparation and to also be a quite useful guide book while actually taking the walks.

The Hôtel was built for the Archbishop of Sens for his frequent visits to Paris when Paris was only a diocese subordinate to the archdiocese of Sens. In 1605, after a long exile from Paris, Marguerite de Valois (Queen Margot), the daughter of Henri II, gained permission to live in the hôtel. The hôtel is located on Rue du Figuier which derives its name from a great fig tree that stood before the entrance to the hôtel. Even though she did not live there for long, Margot found that the tree encumbered the comings and goings of her carriages so she had it cut down.

The Queen had a weakness for young lovers and in May of 1606, at which point Margot was age 52, the hôtel was the scene of a most dramatic incident. One morning as Margot entered the gate accompanied by her 20 year old lover, Julian Date, her former lover, the 18 year old Count de Vermond, stepped forward and shot his rival in the head. Vermond fled but was apprehended in Rue Saint-Denis. Two days later, Margot, dressed in mourning clothes, sat in a window of the hôtel and watched Vermond mount a scaffold constructed at the building entrance, presumably where the fig tree used to be, and the very spot where the crime took place. Vermond was given an opportunity to make an "honorable amend" to the Queen but refused. In a rage, Margot cried from her window, "Kill him, kill him!" And the blade fell. In grief, Margot moved from the hôtel to a big new house on the Left Bank.

Just to the right of the turret on the left side of the building and above the two windows a cannon ball is lodged in the stone, a leftover from the insurrection of 1830.

By the way I spent some time today learning how to and then configuring my keyboard so I can type all of those French letter accents with my regular English QWERTY keyboard. Take that you old dog new tricks naysayers.

Last ride?

2011-11-15T18:31:00.007-06:00

Maybe.

Today I went over 300 miles for the month of November. That is an excellent first 15 days of any month but a particularly excellent first 15 days for November. There are several indications, however, that any more rides this month and this year may be hard to come by. Thursday and Friday seem slightly possible but most other of the next several days seem doubtful.

The morning newspaper reports that the average high temperature for the day has now reached 40. The high temperature forecasts for the near future are, for the most part, below average. It doesn't take much below 40 before my absolute hard and fast end of the season rule is invoked: I will not ride if the water will freeze in my water bottles while I am on the bicycle.

And after all it is the middle of November, next week is Thanksgiving, I remember lots and lots of Thanksgivings which included substantial snow sometime during the Thanksgiving four day weekend.

Here is the final act of the brush wacking episode behind our house. Actual heavy equipment showed up to remove the two giant brush piles.Surprisingly, that is a one man crew operating the truck and even more surprisingly, he did a really thorough and complete clean up of the smallish sticks and wood fragments that inevitably accumulate when you have that much brush in your front yard. TOPWLH even went to the front door to give him a shout out and a thumbs up.

I rode today. I headed out into a wind that was too strong to begin with and that kept getting stronger as I rode. There was some additional information about the hit and run on the West River Road in today's newspaper. The very strong wind was again from the west, a west wind indicates a ride towards Minneapolis, I set out to visit the crime scene again to see if I could improve my understanding of what happened over there.

Even though I eventually rode some distance on the River Road I learned nothing new except that heading south into Minneapolis was much, much easier than trying to continue on directly into the strengthening wind.

So south it was. I ducked off the River Road as it approaches Lake Street and ended up traversing south Minneapolis on 46th Avenue. I found 46th Avenue to be quite pleasant for riding with the possible complaint that the pavement is not in the best condition. I found a still nearly fully leafed out orange maple tree along the way.The nice thing about riding 46th Avenue is that eventually you come to the intersection of 46th and 46th. Some, including current and former Minneapolis residents, may know that 46th and 46th is approximately where you stumble into Minnehaha Park.

The Falls seem to running nearly dry.That is a little surprising to me. I have been out to the northern lakes and noticed that lake levels seem up if anything. It has been dry but it isn't that long since the last time I was at the Falls at which time the flow was considerably greater.

My guess is that the dam has been closed back where the creek flows out of that big lake where all the rich people live so that water levels can be maintained at a high enough level to avoid shoreline damage on that big lake.

And you know what? That's plenty OK with me. It isn't the fault of rich people that low water levels can damage the lake. And the lake does need to be protected.

Anyway, that's my guess.

Back on the Saint Paul side for the ride home I was thinking about a recent discussion I had with Wireless et alia about which house along that stretch I nominate as the Lucas Davenport big new house. I spotted one today which fulfills several of the requirements. The house number there is 564.However, I checked the archives and refer all discussion on the matter to a post from 2007 which identifies house number 404 as what I thought was the most likely candidate at a time when I was closer in time to having done the reading of the Sanford novels in which the big new house is a more prominent part of the narrative. I nominate 404.

Here's another shot through the leaves of a street with lots of oaks.That's Priscilla Street in Saint Anthony Park. Priscilla Street is one block from Standish Street. There should be a John Alden around there somewhere.

Sheldon Street

2011-11-14T17:04:00.002-06:00

If it's a bicycle blog, and it is, any day when I can ride my bicycle is a good day. If it is mid-November, and it is, any day with 50 degree temperatures and clear bright blue sky is a good day.

So today was a good day.

I was riding towards the route that I take into a west wind (which it was, and quite strong at that) when I passed through Sheldon Street. I have noted Sheldon Street other years, it is the street on which all of the boulevard trees are oaks. The oak tree stretch is two blocks long, one block west of Hamline and extending one block north and one block south from Arlington. It was way pretty on Sheldon Street today. First up is the look from the north end, facing south into the sun.I love the light through the leaves. That seemed very pretty but when I got to the south end I was torn by indecision. Here is the view looking north with the sun at my back.They are both very pretty.

I rode over into Minneapolis. Here is the intersection of Franklin Avenue and West River Parkway. A 61 year old bicyclist was the victim of a hit and run pick up truck driver at this intersection on Saturday.I was just standing there holding my bicycle, wondering exactly how and exactly where when first one and then another bicyclist each sharing my gender and age grouping stopped and among the three of us we hashed out all the details that any of us knew.

There is a marked bike lane. This spot is quite close to the University which means that there is a fairly high number of bicyclists about, awareness should be good. Something went wrong.

The pick up driver turned himself in later. At some point we will get to hear at least his version of how and why.

I posted a photo last week of the brush pile thinking it was pretty impressive. Little did I know that those brush wacking guys were just getting started. I think they are done now but they had a brush wacking good time behind my house.The foreman of the crew likes to collect what he considers to be oddly shaped pieces of the trees that he chain saws. He showed me a piece that he collected from the trimming behind my house. I was able to inform him that what he was collecting were "school marms".

I have taken a look at the log and have discovered that this year's total mileage has surpassed 2008. Here I was thinking that this must be the least miles ever and instead I am already out of last place. Further, even a single additional ride will move me past 2006 and passing 2007 is not out of the question. Of course, I did have a job all of those years.

Measurement error insurance

2011-11-13T17:09:00.004-06:00

It is just a little after 5pm here and it is pitch dark.

*sigh*

When DST ends the darkness just comes slamming down. On these days in mid-November it is more important than ever to try to get outside during the middle of the day even on a day as grey as today with no actual sun visible. At least it was light.

Today I dealt with the issue of possible measurement error. I want to ride 4,000 miles in a year but doing so depends at least somewhat on reliance upon fairly rudimentary bicycle odometers. All of the bicycle odometers that I am familiar with accept input about the circumference of a bicycle wheel, count the number of revolutions of the wheel and produce a display showing results of the conversion of revolutions into miles.

I happen to have a fair amount of confidence in my brand of bicycle odometer. Because of life experience I know to expect that certain distances on the street grid should be quite close to one mile, I know this because I often know that I am riding along a public land survey section line. Particularly in the north south direction the distance from section corner to section corner is most often going to be one mile. I ride that segment of road and notice that my bicycle odometer has advanced one mile. This gives me confidence in the odometer.

Even so, measurement error is certain, the only question is how big is the error? Well, I think based on observation that it may well be one percent or less. Therefore if I intend to be certain of having ridden 4,000 miles it is best to ride at least one percent over 4,000, or 4,040.

4,006 needs to be augmented just ever so slightly. Today I did so.

But the real interesting bit was the ongoing University Avenue light rail project. The Raymond Avenue intersection is now emphatically open to traffic. In fact, I have heard from a reliable source that soon University will be open to four lanes of traffic from Hampden to the city limits.

Well, Hampden happens to be my actual crossing of choice for University and with curiosity thus aroused I, on my return trip, turned east and meandered down to Hampden.I may still be crossing at Raymond as at least there the stop and go lights are back to full functionality. A four way stop in a little more iffy on a street like University and that makes Hampden still questionable. But at least there is a question, the intersection is open.

The sun never really emerged, it stayed cool and when I got home I had work to do. The second crop of leaves had reached a point which made TOPWLH uncomfortable.She had raked the leaves into those piles before I got home. My task was to operate the machinery to vacuum those leaves off the lawn and into disposal bags.

A pretty good time was had by all.

Gene pool

2011-11-12T19:07:00.005-06:00

It was a spectacularly nice day in Minnesota. I spent most of it with TOPWLH and her gene pool for a celebration of her father's 91st birthday. Wireless is, of course, also a member of that gene pool so she was present as well. I leave it to members of the pool to chronicle that event.

91 is pretty extraordinary.

So to the archives for me.

Here's some stuff from our third day in Paris. We were walking around looking at old buildings when we just sort of walked into this. It was one of those days with just too much stuff to try to publish it all. This was a found moment with a powerful impact, an impact that I felt at the time would have been lost if just sprinkled in with all of the old stone buildings. I resolved at that time to publish this separately at some point to give it the attention that just standing in front of it I felt was deserved.

This is the Allée de Justus, the alley of the just ones. It is only one block long and as you can tell by examining the street signs on the side of the building this short street was only recently renamed. For over 600 years the street was known as Rue Grenier sur l'Eau. It was renamed in 2001 to honor those "just ones" who tried to save Jews during the Nazi occupation.At the end of the block is Mémorial de la Shoah, the largest research, information and awareness raising center in Europe on the history of the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War. The side of that building includes the Le Mur des Justes, the wall of the just ones. According to the sign, the names carved on the wall belong to the men and women to whom the title of righteous has been bestowed in recognition of their actions to save Jews in France during the Second World War at the risk of their own lives.On the corner at the end of the block across from the Shoah Memorial is a school. The sign on the front of the school identifies (a person who speaks and reads French might be able to help me a bit here) that more than 500 Jewish children from this arrondissement were deported to Auschwitz.I recognize that this one is pretty somber. The feeling standing there was every bit that.

Later in the month I have a couple of fairly light hearted moments that have not previously seen light on this blog and I will get to them too.

4,006

2011-11-11T17:24:00.003-06:00

Last year I got my last ride on November 11. So if today should end up to be the last ride that I get this year I guess I am going to be OK with that.

I had a chat with the brushwacking guys again today. I was just getting back from my ride and one of the crew expressed quite a bit of interest in my bicycle. I told him I ride 4,000 miles per year and at least for another year I wasn't exaggerating.

The only thing left is the 160 rides, I like to do that. I start the season intending to do 160 rides averaging 25 miles per ride. So far this year I have 154 rides averaging 26 miles per ride. The original goal of 160 still is at least a slight possibility. But even if I don't get there, considering the 15 days in France and the week in October lying down with the sniffles, 154 is a number I can be OK with.

It doesn't look like it is quite over yet.

Riding in the fall . . . really interesting shadows and spectacular light. There are lots of opportunities for good photos.I have featured this scene probably several times previously. It is an irrevocable sign of things to come when they put up wooden barriers to hold the frozen water in so that children can play hockey outdoors.That's the boards newly up at Langford Park.

Here is part of what I published last year on this date. The photo is of the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the State Capitol approach. The inscription is a quotation from the poem, "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak", by Archibald MacLeish. The inscription reads, "We were young. We have died. Remember us."Here is the complete poem:

The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.

Too cold

2011-11-10T16:59:00.003-06:00

TOPWLH made the first report but I joined her at the front window and was soon able to provide the necessary second opinion. There were a few, and only a very few fluffy white things floating on the wind through our front yard this morning. It was one of the solid forms of water but this particular version of that solid was so insubstantial and so few in number that we were unable to spot any of them actually making contact with the ground. Still, as a first, it counts as a first, our first encounter with that stuff.

So it was pretty cold and pretty windy too. Bicycling was deemed unwise. That did not mean that we had no activity however. A crew under contract to the electric company showed up to take a look at the brush in our back yard and the yards of our neighbors. I had a couple of chats with the foreman and I must say that guy knew his tree species. He asked permission to whack a bunch of stuff from our yard. I have read enough power line easements in my life to know that he was just doing public relations by asking permission. There was no use in denying permission because they would just go ahead and assert their rights under the easement and whack it anyway.

I did give permission to pile the stuff in my front yard pending pick up.They have no easement rights out there.

But as I say I had had a couple of pleasant chats with the foreman. Further we had a small pile of sticks in the backyard left over from the leaf raking, stuff too big to go in the leaf pile and too big to be broken up and put in the yard refuse that our trash hauler picks up. It was awaiting a session with my Swede saw but when I saw the pile growing in the front yard I approached the foreman intending to ask him if I could put my stuff in his pile. I didn't even get a chance to make the request as he volunteered that he had seen my pile of sticks and that I could add it to his pile if I wished.

So that worked out pretty well.

It might be worth noticing that we have already had our leaf pick up and we are now working on what looks like it is going to be a pretty substantial second crop of leaves.

I did a few errands including a stop at the mall. Unlike the display from my neighbor's yard I didn't find anything at all amiss with this display at the mall. It is after all the mall.So today was too cold, I guess that means that even the playoffs are now over. Probably if I can just maybe get in another ride or two talking about those rides will be just talking about practice.

It's snowing . . . in Wisconsin

2011-11-09T16:51:00.003-06:00

But not here.

Here it is cold but sunny and pretty. Here the wind is howling. Here the wind is blowing much, much too hard for bicycling.

Too late, I have already finished my ride. But, I must admit, it was hard, particularly at the end. It was hard.

Just to make sure here, there can't possibly be anyone who thought that because I moved a bicycle into the basement that I was through riding for the season, can there?

I didn't think so.

Here is a a corner of my garage, which I didn't realize until I took the picture is clearly the Bianchi corner.And none of those bicycles is the bicycle I rode today. Today I left behind this year's sojourn on steel and returned to crabon fibre, taking my newest bicycle out for another ride. Today's milestone is that I have now ridden NewLOOK more miles this year than I rode it last year in its inaugural season. Pretty puny milestone but I do like to be able to announce something.

I know I won't get many more chances to ride the 8 lakes tour so I set out today to check that off my November list. I also hoped to see the swans on Vadnais.

I arrived at the entrance to the Sucker Lake portion of the Snail Lake Regional Park to discover that cars are no longer being admitted. The pavement looks closed.I checked the paper notice posted on that ironic Welcome sign but the closing is NOT because of the vermin culling. The archery deer hunt's next iteration is scheduled for November 14-16, next week.

As I was contemplating this a comfort bike lady rode up to the gate from the other side, looked chagrined, and turned to ride away. I cyclo-crossed around the gate and followed her back into the park. I passed her and thought to offer a greeting. I opened my mouth to say hello and a giant bug ricocheted off both lips narrowly missing the opening.

I am not sure what today's lesson is but I fear that it might be that being friendly is not always the right thing to do. On the other hand, the giant bug bounced off.

I rode through the Sucker Lake portion of the park and over and down towards Lake Vadnais. The gates at Lake Vadnais were open. As noted once previously, different jurisdictions, different rules.

It was cold and windy but it was extremely pretty. Here is a NewLOOK at Lake Vadnais.The swans were not to be found today, a disappointment, but it was such a pretty day that I believe I am going to pronounce the whole thing to have been a success.

It's snowing in Wisconsin.

Triskaidekaphobia

2011-11-08T17:27:00.004-06:00

Rest in peace, Joe Frazier, one of the greatest of all time.

The local newspaper had as its featured front page story (albeit below the fold, well actually, the headline was above the fold, the large photo was on the fold but the story itself was definitely below the fold, front page) "Ready or Not, It's Time for Winter". The 5 1/2 x 7 (portrait) photo is of a bicyclist in a decidedly fall looking scene but is captioned: "Enjoy it while you can. With snow expected today a bicyclist gets in a last ride on a classic fall Monday . . ."

Well, first off that snow thing stayed to our south at least for today. And the bicyclist in this house (moi) got in a quite nice ride today which I suspect is not going to be my last.

So there.

There was lots of interesting snow information in the article. For example, the average date of the first inch of snow cover in the Twin Cities is November 21 (the average date of the last inch of snow cover is April 2). As perhaps mentioned a few times previously, I know what average means. I don't think we're quite done here just yet.

On the back page of the sports section local TV meteorologists Belinda and Sven have a weather forecast column. Belinda wrote today's piece and reports that once every four years (I assume she means on average once every four years) we have a snowfall of 2 inches or more in the first 15 days of November. She then goes on to point out that we have had such events in each of the past 2 years. She says such an event looks unlikely this year, at least through the 13th.

I know what average means, I expect at least a couple more rides.

It was pretty close to cold out there today, 42 at the Cattle Barn at 2:30. The storm system which threatened snow was moving in from the southwest but the winds ahead of the system were ENE. I rode north into the wind and all I could see ahead of me was mostly clear skies. The troubling part of all this was I just couldn't seem to ride out from under the overcast that covered pretty much the whole route of today's ride. And every time I looked back over my shoulder towards the southwest the grey seemed to be getting thicker. It still seemed like a fall day even if it was a cold fall day. There are still quite a few leaves and a far amount of color evident, here is a still pretty dang nice looking tree in the yard of one of my neighbors.One of my two miles from where I live neighbors.

I know Halloween is past but this just seems premature to me.I do like that the homeowner is covering all of the bases with both a religious themed display of the nativity and a distinctly secular display of Santa Claus and the reindeer.

Today was an extremely important ride for me despite what I think must be Canon 3 of the Triskaidekaphobia Concord of Understanding as formed over a series of discussions between the two primary family cyclists. I view Canon 1 as the no ride can be of 13 miles in length rule, a trip or two around the block to bring the odometer up to 14 is always, ALWAYS a good idea.

Canon 2 is that one should endeavor to always ride so that no cumulative total, monthly, yearly, miles for this bicycle, miles for this bicycle this year, NO cumulative total ends in 13. Those who are familiar with the triskaidekaphobia concord will no doubt know that I several years ago rode all of my bicycles into a state where the odometer ends in an even number and that since then each and every one of my rides is of an even number of miles. Some might say obsessive, I say just being careful. There is a zero percent possibility of any of my cumulative numbers coming up 13.

Canon 3 is that 13 as the first two digits in any cumulative total is benign, a circumstance about which one need not trouble oneself.

I began riding the Crown Jewel this year with 7,722 miles accumulated on its odometer. I recently passed 9,000 miles. I think you can all see where this is headed. And even though 1,3xx miles would be totally benign, why would you want to take a chance? With today's ride I reached 1,400 miles on this bicycle this year. In recognition of having eased the pressure and in anticipation of the snow storm which even Belinda and Sven think is VERY likely for tonight, I moved that bicycle into the basement.

Let's just hunker down here and wait to see what happens next.

Mudjacking

2011-11-07T18:01:00.003-06:00

I completely get the concept but I admit that the term itself is completely new to me. Mudjacking? I found this truck in support of an apparent mudjacking project before I even got off my own street today.It was a tiny bit cooler today. I suppose that is to be expected but still. I checked the morning newspaper and conclude that from here on I am going to need above average temperatures in order to ride. The average high is now only 45F. It was maybe 46 when I headed out today and that is really, really close to my lower limit.

Or at least that's what I say today.

The wind was from the west again today but not as strong so I instead of tacking back and forth across it as I did most of the time yesterday I just charged straight out into it. I was very strong on the way home.

But on the way out I ventured over into Minneapolis again, making my second appearance of the year at Lake Calhoun. That's the north end of the lake with the tunnel that contains the channel to Lake of the Isles visible there on the right.Here's the view from inside the tunnel. It isn't Tunnel Park but I thought it was pretty interesting.I passed this sign on the way to Lake Calhoun and after reflection decided to swing back past it to get a photo. They could really, really use some signs like this in Saint Paul, specifically at Lake Como.I was riding across Minneapolis on the Greenway but got off to reach a specific destination. This is on Bryant Avenue just off the Greenway. This also strikes me as a really, really good idea.I was looking through photos from last year and noticed that I had ridden NewLOOK over to Flanders late in the season. I decided to take the Jewel over there as well.That forecast for rain/snow mix has been moved up to tomorrow. I am not quite ready to be done. I think even if we get some snow tomorrow that it isn't really cold enough for it to stay. I still expect to get at least a couple more rides in before end of season trois.

Season ends deux

2011-11-06T17:47:00.004-06:00

I am more or less positive now that the season is over. It was, apparently, standard time while I was out there riding around today. I checked the bicycle log and with today's ride that makes a total of 42 miles ridden this year during standard time. One ride before daylight savings, one ride after, that has kind of a nice balance I think.

It was November when I started out. It was cold and heavily overcast grey. The wind was quite strong but it was almost directly from the west. Wind on one of the cardinal direction points is good when you are riding on a grid of streets. The wind only punishes you in that one direction. Today I could ride both north and south without great difficulty. Furthermore, from where I live almost anywhere west involves a downhill. So I had downhill into the wind and tailwind for the uphill bits. It worked out pretty much OK. The temperature displays on the Grandstand are both turned off but it was 47 at the Cattle Barn, about the average high for today.

Then at about 10 miles the sun broke through. It got prettier out and warmed enough to verge on comfortable.

I pictured these trees about a month ago with the comment that when they turned orange they would be pretty enough to make your eyes water.The sun was just coming out when I rode past so I stopped for a photo. Pretty clearly I missed part of the process there, my eyes watered not even a little.

I rode on over to Raymond and University. The road is officially closed even when, as today, there is no one there doing any work. It should be fairly obvious from the photo though, that a pedestrian or a two wheeler with intent could pass through there without difficulty. So today I did.I didn't go far but I did ride down into Saint Paul for just a bit. That makes today a tale of three cities as I later got over to Minneapolis as well.

I have read the manual and have been practicing so I knew what to do when I got to the middle of the Stone Arch Bridge.

It's a little too long, isn't it?

I saw the word "snow" in the weather forecast for Wednesday. Last year my last ride was on Veteran's Day, November 11. It is going to take some luck to extend this year even that far.

Hockey, hockey, Goldy

2011-11-05T19:04:00.007-05:00

It was a nice day in November, quite a bit above average in temperature and bright blue and sunny. The wind was blowing a tiny bit too much but that didn't matter today. Bicycling was not on the agenda, we had early hockey, 4:07pm against the Bulldogs of UMD.

I like to get there early enough to watch the warm ups and TOPWLH after at first humoring me has, I believe, come to appreciate them too.

This is one of the very first drills, skating and shooting.That's our all-world Finnish goaltender, Noora Räty, preparing to be routinely amazing.

Here's the second best team in the building most nights, the Gopher pep band. This photo is a little out of sequence as careful observers will notice that Minnesota outshot UMD 13-8 in the first period to lead 2-0.Here's the real star of the show, the defending national champion of the college mascot competition, Goldy Gopher.Goldy skates and even stays on the ice for team introductions. He then joins the team line for the national anthem.Here Goldy joins the between periods youth hockey skirmish. I believe that is the Faribault girls under-12s engaged in a two minute scrimmage.Final score, Minnesota 3, UMD 2.

Transit

2011-11-04T20:49:00.004-05:00

I wanted to get a better look at the mess on University. Yesterday I came at it at the end of the ride. I was getting tired and mostly just wanted to get home. Today I headed straight over there, determined to find what the most bicycle friendly crossing is as of now and also to assess progress.

Well, there really isn't any bicycle friendly crossing. Passage is possible on both Vandalia and Cleveland but even at midday both of those streets were absolutely clogged with cars. Vandalia isn't very bicycle friendly in the best of times. Getting across University there would leave you riding somewhere you don't really want to be while on a bicycle so I was pretty easily discouraged there.

On the other hand, I ride Cleveland when all is normal. I won't be doing so any more this year.

I also wanted to check on the new station going in at Raymond.I wasn't going to get across University so I set about exploring that industrial area between Cleveland and the city limits.

Anyone who fondly remembers the Minneapolis Great Northern Depot will probably be saddened to learn that the Empire Builder now leaves from this unassuming little box.I was looking around the yard and noticed that they have some apparently retired rolling stock on sidings. I thought from a distance this might be one of the Vista Dome cars which were an advertised feature of the Empire Builder. Alas, my color recognition was way off. That's a Super Dome car from the Milwaukee Road.Amtrak still runs something called the Empire Builder. I read the two Wikipedia articles and it seems apparent that the Amtrak Empire Builder mostly uses the old Great Northern route meaning that the towns served by its competitor from the heyday of rail traffic, the Northern Pacific Railway's North Coast Limited no longer have any rail service at all.

We'll be sorry for that someday when the Interstate Highway System deteriorates and we are unable to afford to keep it in good repair. As evidence of this I point back to the start of the post and note that they had to tear out the old streetcar tracks along University Avenue before they could lay the new light rail tracks. I'll bet it happens again on the larger scale before too many more years pass.

Bronze Floyd

2011-11-03T19:24:00.006-05:00

Ah, November. I remember November now. It begins with the frantic final few bicycle rides of the year and ends with the frantic blogging about blogging to honor the promise to blog every day.

Today was still the bicycle part. November cooperated by producing a sunny day and temperatures rising throughout the afternoon into the lower 50s, actually quite a nice day considering that the average for the day has retreated into the upper 40s.

It was nice enough to induce me to abandon the riding around near home that has been too prevalent of late and to actually go somewhere.

Before Michelle there was a Minnesotan who was actually considered to be what they then called "Presidential timber". He has been pictured here before but I doubt he has ever been pictured anywhere on a prettier day, Minnesota's Hero of Labor, Governor Floyd B. Olson. Despite having been on television a lot I don't think our current candidate will ever a) be an actual serious candidate for the position or b) have a bronze likeness erected on the State Capitol mall.Floyd has been getting his name mentioned a lot around here this week due to the fact that the state university football team retained the bronze pig trophy named after him in the annual big game against the football team from the state university of the state immediately to our south.

Climbing the hill up to the Cathedral was easier this time than the last time I tried. The hill is still steep but this time I had a tail wind. The big stone church posed against the cloudless sky.Today's big mileage milestone was dragging the Crown Jewel past 9,000 miles. This happened a few miles after passing the Cathedral. This is an important milestone and one of my major goals for the year. The CJ came out of the basement and back onto the roads with 7,722 miles. I wanted to get past 9,000 this year which puts me within reach of a reasonable distance goal for next year of getting past 10,000. Reaching 10,000 miles would enroll me in the extremely elite group of persons I know who own at least two bicycles on which they have ridden at least 10,000 miles.

I kept riding down Summit. It occurred to me if I had known the route a day in advance that planning could have been done and I could have stopped by the check in on Calvin.

Calvin's owners were a bit worried a couple of weeks ago about how well Calvin was adapting to his daily dose of no people around. But actually, I guess they (and Calvin) are adapting and all is well.

I stopped at the end of Summit to observe how things are progressing down there in the river gorge. Here is a look upstream towards the Marshall Avenue bridge.Standing in the same spot I turned and got a photo of what I have always referred to as the monument. I have been to the spot dozens of times throughout my adult life on foot and on bicycle. I know now as I did not for many years that the monument was erected in 1922 by the Daughters of American Revolution in memory of the Ramsey County Civil War dead.I had a hard time getting home from there and it wasn't necessarily due to the fact that it is mostly uphill from there. The problem was the light rail construction on University. There is a major station going in at Raymond Avenue which is where I usually cross. The requirements of construction have resulted in a complete closure of University over there. Eventually I had to walk my bicycle along a pedestrian detour to cross a plywood ramp laid over a spot where construction workers were applying black tape to newly laid rails. I am just reporting the news here, I was probably more mystified by what was going over there while I was observing it than any reader can be by reading about it. Suffice to say my average speed suffered mightily from a couple of blocks of walking next to the bicycle instead of riding it.

Playoffs

2011-11-02T19:11:00.004-05:00

The season is over but I am still riding. It has occurred to me that apparently I have made the playoffs.

I recently discovered that my personal "Dead End" sign has been replaced by the city. We are now "No outlet". I guess "Dead End" is too déclassé for a fancy inner ring suburb. Since I made the discovery I have been noticing that this nomenclature upgrade seems pretty widespread. Here is a place where they can't seem to decide which option will prevail in this controversy.The leaves got picked up this morning. They caught me off guard as apparently we were the first pick up of the day. The crew arrived at about three minutes after 8. I was not prepared to video so that is a project for another time.

In addition to the seven miles already specifically enumerated I yesterday also did a few more miles before (looking for the crew) and afterwards. I had about 11 miles while in my garage with the rear wheel off. I eventually also had a test ride which ended with me back in the garage and then got almost 9 more miles after repairs were complete for a total of 20, only about 2 of which were ridden with a flat tire. Today was better.

National blog every day for a month month

2011-11-01T18:56:00.003-05:00

I am going to say that personally I can hardly wait for November 27 or so when I am scouring old photo directories for something interesting to post but actually this has been fun in the past and especially at the start it seems like it might be fun again. So let's get started.

I set out riding the near in neighborhoods again, again searching for the leaf pick up crews. I found them today and they are, indeed, in my neighborhood. Unfortunately they haven't come to my street yet. I am hoping to get a video.

Along the way I found a suitable spot to participate in the daily photo blog theme day. This month's theme is "Walls or fences". Mine is a wall.I have had some relatively unexplained or at least poorly understood flat tires this year. Today I heard the tire blow out and felt the instant flat while only about a mile from home. I considered briefly what I should do. I have been thinking recently about bragging about the relatively good tire wear one gets in cooler temperatures so I knew I had a little rubber left on my rear tire. I also knew that even so I was getting near the end of reasonable tire life back there. I am running Michelin ProRace on the Crown Jewel. I had one new ProRace in the basement. My plan has been to ride to the end of the season on the tires I have been using and then swap out just the rear. The rear wears much more rapidly than the front and I figured I get get one more full rotation out of the current front with the new rear. The plan is based on my need to use up my last ProRace and this is the way to do it. The issue with Pro Race is illustrated by the fact that on NewLOOK I am running ProRace3. Not even 2. 3. So with a flat a mile from home I just decided to suck it up and risk tire damage by riding home on the flat tire. That tire was not a valued asset at that point.

But a mile on a flat tire is slow. Very, very slow.

As I was riding I kept hearing a thud on every tire revolution that I was having trouble identifying. Here's what the thud looked like after I pulled it out of the tire.Yup, that will make your tire flat.

What followed turned today's two hour ride into a four hour tire change nightmare. I ended up spending almost all of the part of the day when riding would have been pleasant with the rear wheel off my bicycle.

*sigh*

At first I wanted to do the right thing. I had the tire off, I patched the tube and even fashioned a boot for the tire. I reinstalled and tried for inflation. Reminder to self, check the repair before reinstalling. When I got everything apart again I discovered that that nail had gone all the way through and that there were two holes in the tube.

At this point I abandoned the right thing and did the smart thing. I chucked the tube and the tire and started over with new.

Note to self: Hey dummy, those metal levers are certainly way, way stronger than the plastic ones. But you have to be really, really careful with them. Installation is a little trickier anyway when the tire is brand new. I wan't careful enough and ripped the tube. Which I discovered after every thing was mounted on the bike. Whoosh said the tire.

So that nail cost me a chance to ride while it was sunny, it cost me a new tire, and it cost me TWO TUBES. But eventually I got back out and tried to get at least a few miles in. I was at the Fairgrounds about two and a half miles from home when it started to rain.

Season ends

2011-10-31T18:15:00.002-05:00

Today is the last day of the seven months when bicycling seems a reasonable activity in Minnesota. The end of the season.

Well, I am a bit short of the annual mileage goal but I can report that the post season begins tomorrow and that bicycling still seems probable. Although formally not part of the season it certainly seems to me that the part of November when daylights savings time is still in effect is, at the very least, an adjunct to the season.

Therefore even though I concede the end of the season I have not yet formally conceded on the mileage.

I rode today mostly just riding around Roseville looking for the leaf pick up gang. I found one truck vacuuming leaves up from the street gutters but I never actually found the main pick up crews. Also, they did not come to my house.

As further evidence of how absurd leaf pick up FEELS, here is what my back yard looked like late this morning.The afternoon sun made some of those yellows really striking (but hard to photograph). It was pretty out there again today and although a bit cool, it was a day that was quite definitely bikeable.

The season goes on.

Leaf pick up

2011-10-30T16:41:00.006-05:00

The city is divided into zones. The pick up schedule rotates through the various zones with each year bringing a different quadrant of the city on to the schedule for early leaf pick up. And so, even though the cottonwood still has lots of leaves, the apple tree hasn't dropped a single one and the weed maples are only starting to look like they may give up soon, despite still having plenty of leaves in the trees, today we assembled the well oiled machine and moved at least $30 worth of leaves out to the designated pick up area.We have had much more impressive piles in other years but even so we all pronounce ourselves to be satisfied with this year's production.

National blog every day for a month month begins in two days.

Troubling new developments

2011-10-28T17:33:00.003-05:00

As a person who bicycles a lot (massive understatement) I also spend probably more time than most at internet weather sites. Today the first one I checked had added "wind chill" to its "Current Weather Conditions" page. Equally as disturbing was what I discovered at the second site I checked. If you scroll down past forecast and the local radar you come to my personal favorite regional weather radar. I check that a lot. If you check the legend in the lower left corner you can see that rain is depicted in shades of green, mixed precipitation is shades of magenta and frozen precipitation is shades of blue with all three scales ending in red and then purple when the precipitation is heavy. After several months of considering the proximity and direction of the green blobs before heading out to ride I have begun to discover some disturbing magenta bits. Blue cannot be far behind.

The wind chill was reported as 41 when I started out today. Wind chill means nothing, of course, to a person who is prepared to be outdoors. I mean, come on, the effect of temperature and wind on exposed flesh? Who rides a bicycle at this time of year with exposed flesh?

It was actually a bit warmer today, topping out in the 50s, plenty OK weather for bicycling, particularly with the sun out and the trees still working on this whole fall thing. I rode farther away from home than I have been riding the last several days and ventured all the way out to the full 8 lakes tour. Along the way I found this attractive display by one of the brightly colored maples with a mixture of hardwoods in the background with some evergreens for additional contrast.And a nice blue sky.

At one point we heard some grumbling from Michigan that our lake names are a bit lacking in, oh, I don't know, quaintness. The short answer is that when you have 15,000 lakes you use up all the cute names right away and have to fall back rather quickly on descriptive names. So if there are snails in a lake, it is likely to get named Snail Lake. Those trees are on the corner of Rustic Lane and Snail Lake Road.

Rustic Lane seems pretty quaint.

I almost rode out there yesterday and only the appearance of a massive cloud bank while I was nearing the commitment point for going out there prevented me from doing so. It turns out to be a good thing that I did not, as the parks were restricted yesterday for the annual vermin culling.That particular notice is posted at Vadnais. At Vadnais non-hunting users are still permitted to use the paved areas of the reservoir property. Further up the road at Sucker Lake (I suspect there were suckers in the lake) all non-archers were barred from the park. Note that Sucker Lake is part of the regional park, Vadnais is the property of the Saint Paul city water utility. Slightly different jurisdictions, slightly different rules.

I spotted some non-vermin wildlife near the north end of the lake with some of those attractive mixed hardwoods still showing off in the background.It was a very pretty day and plenty warm enough for properly layered up bicycling, all in all another great day to have an excuse to be outside.

More new pavement

2011-10-27T17:18:00.002-05:00

In a normal year I get to the east side of Lake Owasso quite often. There is a street over there where I like to go fast and there is also a tester of a hill that I like. Earlier this year I discovered a road closed that would have required hiking through the dirt every time I rode that route. Further, the closure was signed in such a way that by the time I became aware of it avoiding the dirt hike would have required a fairly lengthy backtrack and a tester of a hill that I do not like. I adopted a policy of avoidance and have not been back to that route since, until today.

I have been waiting to hear that the construction project was over but have not. It probably was expecting a bit too much to have the completion of the road work reported on MSNBC (you just can't count on Dylan Ratigan in times like this). Today I felt like checking so I steeled myself for potential unpleasantness and dropped down the hill from Rice Street towards the east shore.

Nice new pavement.They have also done some clearing of trees and underbrush around that slough in the right foreground. I have in the past seen a red fox entering that area but with the new openness I suspect Brer Fox has found new haunts. I also suspect that the openness reduces potential habitat for the vermin that is common over there, the white tail.

From the same spot I got this photo of today's still plenty of foliage trees. This is one of those new fangled maples, I believe.It was too cold again today but at least the sun stayed out for almost the whole ride. There isn't any noticeable warming from the sun but at least there was good light.

Still out there riding my bicycle in a gradually declining circle of like minded individuals. I love my bike.

Late fall

2011-10-26T18:39:00.002-05:00

The sequence of color changing and leaf falling seems strangely disrupted this year. The yellows changed on more or less schedule but there still seems to be an awful lot of green out there. I spotted some oak trees in Shoreview that are doing their part.It was cold today, only about 46 when I started out. The sun was out for a while and while it was it was a very pretty day. But today I experienced for the first time this year full sunshine with no noticeable warming effect.

It was chilly.

Ride report

2011-10-25T19:38:00.002-05:00

Cattle barn:50. Wind ENE 25 mph. Can it get worse? It rained the last two miles.

Sidewalk update

2011-10-24T18:07:00.002-05:00

Weekends are OK but during the work week there are, like, workers, like, working on the new sidewalk. This means that there is a, like, work zone out there.

What this means is that cones have been placed across one lane of traffic to keep cars away from the workers. Then the remaining pavement has been divided into two traffic lanes by the placement of another row of cones. The photo illustrates the problem from my perspective.Every bit of pavement has been assigned to the cars.

It is not possible to ride my bicycle away from my house on pavement without riding for at least a short distance on some of that pavement.

*sigh*

It will all work out soon enough, there will be snow.

And that isn't even today's near death while on two wheels experience. I hasten to add that it wasn't my death. In fact, it wasn't even a bicycle.

Today I witnessed a white car driven by a white haired lady doing what cars blithely do, using all of the pavement because it is an absolute right of every car to drive anywhere it wishes on the pavement.

A motorbike, a moped I think they call them now, was approaching an intersection heading east. A car coming to the same intersection heading north just went ahead and turned left to be heading west by cutting the corner of the pavement on the shortest, most direct line. The problem, of course, is that in doing so the car went first into the south heading lane and then, while now heading west, into the east going lane and into the direct path of the moped. I was far enough away to not be personally endangered but I was close enough to smell the fear. The moped had to pile it into the curb where he was lucky enough to not bounce off into the path of the car. Loud cursing ensued.

The car drove away as though nothing had happened, because, for her, nothing HAD happened.

The new sidewalk construction includes the installation of a new curb along the edge of the shoulder separating the street shoulder from the sidewalk. It remains to be discovered by actual use whether or not this makes bicycling on the shoulder more or less safe. Stay tuned.

Only a little above average - but nice, very nice.

2011-10-22T18:55:00.003-05:00

The wild temperature extremes seen so far this month can make feeling that whole average thing pretty elusive. Today was just a tiny bit above average and it was way, way nice.

I started the ride having already moved down one magnitude in gear and even so ended up removing a couple of articles during the ride. Some of the nicest days of the season are some of the last days of the season.

I wanted to ride over to the main campus despite wind direction. We had mostly WNW and I wanted to head SW, meaning a head wind on the return. I tried to mitigate the problem by being a bit circuitous both coming and going. On the way out I toured Lauderdale and cut back through the Saint Paul campus. Most will know that they have cows on the lawn there.Pretty idyllic looking, don't you think? A wonderful day for hanging out on the mall if you happen to be a college student.

This one shows what a pretty day it was in the immediate neighborhood. Anyone who wishes is welcome to invent their own caption.Mine goes something along the lines of I didn't even know that the legalization movement had advanced that far in this state.

I was gradually getting closer to campus. I knew this street wouldn't take me to TCF Stadium but I wanted to see what was down there anyway. I thought it was a nice sort of edge of town look at an intersection that is actually immediately adjacent to the railroad yards just across the tracks from the stadium. It was pretty there.Here is what I was really looking for. This is the view at about 20 minutes to kick-off at the intersection of Oak Street and University.For those who may not know, the University of Minnesota colors are maroon and gold.

What then, you might ask, is the deal with all of those people wearing red. Red is the color of the Gopher opponent for today, the University of Nebraska. We have often heard tales up here on the tundra about how well Nebraskans support their state university football team and how many of them will travel to away games to express that support. This was Nebraska's first opportunity to show their red in Minneapolis as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

I would say that the Nebraska fans lived up to their reputation. By the way, Nebraska 41, Minnesota 14.

I rode through that crowd and it was harrowing. There were very, very many people who were seriously distracted from their driving and walking (and bicycling). Surprisingly though, it wasn't pedestrians who were the greatest danger. Usually it is pedestrians who scare me the most. Pedestrians are usually totally, like TOTALLY oblivious to the possibility of a bicycle being in their immediate vicinity.

Today it was such a huge crowd with so much going on that pedestrians had to, for their own safety, be hyper-aware of everything going on around them. It translated into them being aware of even bicycles.

Often when I ride I get a comment from someone or another along the lines of "Nice bike". This occurs because when I am riding I am almost always riding a really nice bike. Today my bicycle and I were exposed to a crowd of the sort that saw many, many more persons than usual observing my bicycle and I got not a single "nice bike". I did, however, get a "really nice mustache" from a red-clad Nebraska fan. I was waiting for the light to turn (as was he) and we had time for a short but very cordial chat about my facial hair.

He said he would really like to have a mustache like that. I heard his comment before I turned to look at him (I was intent on the traffic situation). When I turned to look I saw that he had full facial hair with nothing very remarkable going on. I informed him that it doesn't happen overnight and advised him to start working on it.

It was a nice day at the Bank for those dressed in red.

I'll be back

2011-10-21T20:56:00.006-05:00

I have ridden to Ridder Arena lots of times before and have even posted at least a couple of photos. However, it is a rare set of circumstances that produces a day on which I can visit Ridder twice in one day, the first on my bicycle.And the second to see a hockey game.

But today was that day. It was warmer today, close to the average, but the same brilliant crisp sunshine hung around. It is still definitely still bicycling season. What is unusual is the overlap between bicycling and hockey.

Big time college athletics requires long seasons. Women's hockey begins about October 1 and won't be done until early March. Today was actually Minnesota's 8th game of the season and their 6th home game.

Minnesota 7, Mankato State 0.

November 2

2011-10-20T16:27:00.003-05:00

Today must be November 2 because yesterday certainly felt like November. I rode my bicycle but did not blog. It was cold, in the 40s, a strong north wind, and with leaden skies. I know what average means and those days earlier in the month in the 80s means that over the long run there are going to be days just as much below average in temperature as those where above. I had sorta hoped that they wouldn't arrive so soon.

And today was cold again, still 40s, still a strong north wind. But the wind has blown the clouds away and today was cold, crisp, and beautiful.

I rode out to Lake Vadnais. It has been a bit since I was last there and fairly obviously I missed the big deciduous show. Luckily enough the angle of the sun through the John H. Allison Forest still produced really interesting views.Here's a shot of the lake at an angle seldom photographed by me, that's the northwestern shore line of the eastern lake.Today's news:

Everyone who owns a bicycle go ahead and raise your hand. OK, just about everyone.

Everyone who has ridden 1,000 miles on that bicycle raise your hand. OK, still quite a few.

Everyone who has ridden 1,000 miles on that bicycle this year raise your hand. Now we are starting to cut down the crowd a bit but still a nice collection.

Everyone who owns two different bicycles on which they have ridden 1,000 miles this year now raise your hand.

I still have a hand up.

1,014 miles this bicycle this year.

Turning the corner

2011-10-16T18:02:00.003-05:00

At my stage of advanced maturity I am subject to a gradual loss of flexibility in all of my body parts. This manifests itself in very visible ways like the whole shoe lace fastening problem and in other notable ways like the creaking joints but it is also present in diminished capacity in my respiratory system. Diminished capacity means I have a smaller margin to absorb a reduction in breathing efficiency. What this all means is that when I get a little case of the sniffles the treatment that I followed as a young man is no longer effective. Of course, treatment as a young man consisted pretty much of a nap and a glass of orange juice following which I was usually good to go.

Now I have to lie down for a week.

This point in the rapidly closing season is no time to lose a week off the bicycle but I lost a week off the bicycle. Today I felt better and decided to give it a go. I believe I have turned the corner and bicycling can resume.But my goodness, what a change in conditions since my last ride!

It was about 84 and a touch muggy, uncomfortable for October when last I rode. Today it was 48 when I started. But it was sunny and clearly crisp, the wind was manageable, it was a pretty day.

Today's sign of fall is this fall maturing grass.It is more stunning looking from the other direction when looking into the sun. The sun filtering through those seed tops is pretty spectacular but unfortunately, also pretty much unphotographable, at least with a cheap pocket digital. But actually, the scene is still pretty nice even from this angle.

I haven't posted anything from the flower yard in my neighborhood that I have posted often in years past. It appeared every time I rode past there all summer that something had changed and indeed, something has changed. The master gardener over there has gone with an all fall flowering side yard.Tuesday France tied Bosnia 1-1 to advance to next year's big international football tournament.

But the most surprising corner that has been turned in French football is the turnabout suddenly underway in Nantes. On Friday FC Nantes defeated FC Istres by 3-1. This makes 6 games in a row without a loss, 3 wins and 3 ties. If the disappointing exit from the Coupe de la Ligue is omitted FC Nantes has a record of 5 wins, 4 ties and only a single loss in league play since their two disappointing 2-0 losses to open the season. Despite those early appearances FC Nantes has rendered themselves relevant in the league table, having now risen to 5th, just 2 points away from the promotion zone.

Hope springs eternal.

I win at MegaMillions

2011-10-07T15:58:00.005-05:00

Calm down, note that I DID NOT SAY THAT I WON. I had a win.Three of the five "white" numbers and the MegaBall, $150.

No, it isn't mega millions, but as the old saying goes, it's a lot better than a sharp stick in the eye.

I decided that it was too windy today for bicycling. I took a walk instead. It is a good thing I got photos yesterday of the yellow leaf trees as the wind is stripping them today. It looks like October out there.

This afternoon at Stade de France les Bleus had their way with Albania, 3-0. I erred earlier in saying the final qualification game was away. France can grab a spot in Euro 2012 with a victory in Saint Denis on Tuesday against Bosnia-Herzegovina. BosHerz did their part in setting up the final match up by winning today at home against Luxembourg 5-0. France needs only a tie to advance.

Parade of orange

2011-10-06T19:11:00.004-05:00

I heard on the radio this afternoon that the predicted low for overnight tonight is within a degree of the average daytime high for tomorrow. With conditions such as this persisting for yet another day I was out riding around on my bicycle.

The morning newspaper seconded my announcement that the leaves are at a peak. The leaves are pretty spectacular and today the sky was too. This is mostly going to be about maples and orange but here is an Ash right next to my house.This one is very close to home, only a couple of blocks away. That tree is close enough to my house that I walk past it several times a week during the winter time walking tours.Not every tree has completed the color transition but some have already dropped their leaves. Peak is an ambiguous term, the morning newspaper, for example, is emphasizing that the leaves are at peak because soon many of the early changers will have dropped their leaves. The one left front is over but the others haven't gotten the message that they should give it up.These are the will make your eyes water trees, still working their way up to peak.I actually went looking for this tree. I remembered that there was a pod of brilliant orange near Marshall and Cleveland last year. This one is at Dayton and Wilder.The cottonwood tree has been throwing down leaves all day long. The configuration of our house and the evergreen wind screen creates a lee spot at the front of the garage. Leaves get exiled into that spot from the main wind patterns and settle down to stay. I have to go out there several times during the fall to clear off the driveway.Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel Special Edition custom build for scale.

Deja vu all over again

2011-10-05T20:13:00.004-05:00

The day was a close copy of all the last few days. TOPWLH was enamored of yesterday's route description, it was places she had never been. So today I rode the same route (except for the bridges) with a GuestRider. Here she is after we emerged into the south end of Minnehaha Park, river gorge in the back ground and some hints of the Ford Bridge may show up in the overexposed far background.We rode to the Falls again but this time instead got a photo from the other side of the pavilion of what is happening in the main park.The peak is coming very rapidly, the oranges and reds, the yellows are all here now, some still only mixed with the greens, but the colors are all here now. If it isn't the peak right now it will be within the next couple of days.

So anyone who loves autumn should get out tomorrow and find a spot with mixed hardwoods and that low in the sky sun angle and soak it all in.

Another gorgeous day in Minnesota.

Conte de trois ponts

2011-10-04T17:54:00.006-05:00

Wind conditions today convinced me to stay close to the river rather than venture into the heart of the big city. We have a ways to go before reaching what the tourism board calls peak color but the trees along the river are a'changin'.

I had to add some extra foofarol at each bridge as it was necessary to get off the River Road, get up on the bridge, try to line up an interesting photo, and then figure out the least painful way to get back onto the River Road.

Here is the Marshall Avenue bridge looking upstream. All photos will be facing upstream as the sun position dictated photos taken in that direction. Here the problem of lining up the photo was that I was trying to line up the Franklin Avenue bridge between the spans of the railroad bridge in a way that would be visually interesting.The sky was a not as blue today as it has been. Those wispy clouds are a harbinger of something, probably something cold.

Also note that I have gone with the Saint Paul centric naming conventions here. People in Minneapolis have another name for the Marshall Avenue bridge. *sniff* They are wrong. Note also that for the Franklin Avenue bridge, that is Minneapolis on both sides of the river, so it is Franklin Avenue on both sides. For that bridge people in Minneapolis are correct.

I rode on down past the big new house (some will know what that means) and repeated the whole up onto the bridge thing at the Ford Parkway bridge. Actually for this one I think even a lot of Minneapolis people call it the Ford Parkway bridge.The Marshall Avenue bridge is visible in the distance.

My final bridge was the Highway 5 bridge at Fort Snelling. This one is tricky as it involves having to dismount, put my cleat covers on, and then carry the bicycle down about 25 steps from the River Road level to the freeway level while wearing bicycle shoes (with rubber cleat covers). Then the photo is a little tricky because it is a freeway, which I guess means that the railing on the bridge has to be about 7 or 8 feet high with closely spaced bars, I assume to discourage jumpers. The other two bridges make no such provisions, I wonder why they did it here.I had to almost completely cross the river to get to the vantage point to take that photo so as long as I had gone that far, I went ahead and completed the trek. Note: far end of bridge? cleat covers, 25 or 30 steps again up to the level of historic Fort Snelling.

I knew there was a bike path along the side of the bluff from Fort Snelling State Park down to Minnehaha Falls city park so I rode around the historic old stone Fort and descended the steep trail down the bluff into the state park. I found the path I was looking for easily enough and started down it towards Minneapolis. There was more traffic on that path than I expected but that was because I expected no one. There were only a few.

The result of riding that path was that I found myself passing this place again.And it was pretty again today. TOPWLH and I were examining the photos and video taken over there a few days ago and were puzzled by that white line through the photo just below the top of the falls. We thought it might be a piece of grass or a trick of the light or something. Today I took a close look, it is a rock layer. If I was a geologist I would explain it. I am not a geologist, I just pretend to be one around my family. I do know from having geologist friends that the rock that the Falls goes over there is sedimentary rock, rock laid down in layers. So one of the layers is quite light colored. Thanks and a tip of the Hatlo hat to Dennis and Heather. Some will recognize the Hatlo hat reference.

I had crossed back on to the Saint Paul side and was riding along the River Road on my way home. There are several stop signs for major streets heading off into the city and as I approached one I could hear brakes squeaking on a vehicle approaching me from behind.

I totally paused at the stop sign and was expecting the noise making vehicle to pull alongside and be revealed as either a rust bucket pick up truck or maybe an about 1992 Ford Escort.

Lamborghini.

I rode along in gape mouthed amazement.

Dude, it's a Lamborghini. Your brakes squeak.

Checking the news from elsewhere on the internet I see that even though bicycling season is not yet over that I am now free to start working on evening up this really silly looking tan on my left hand.This is good news.

Construction update

2011-10-03T17:28:00.005-05:00

The official high yesterday was only? 79. I have heard reports of 80 and I believe it. Today promised more of the same so I planned on a bicycle ride.

The wind was ESE and I thought I might do the Capitol loop. I was still riding in the neighborhood getting warmed up but had started off in the usual direction that I travel for this route (south) when I found the headwind a tiny bit troubling. It occurred to me that the Capitol loop is a triangle and that the direction I was heading would lead me to doing two of the three sides into the wind. I changed my plan.

Instead I headed directly into the wind figuring to do the upwind part while I was fresh and hoping to get tailwinds on the other two legs. This meant that I rode down Como to the Capitol. I stopped at the Capitol overlook to get a view from that elevated position of light rail construction in Saint Paul. I took this picture which is not a picture of light rail construction, but it does include a crane, which therefore does indicate construction. But the reason why I took this photo is because I think I see the place where I used to work. Every day that goes by makes that part of my life more remote from my current existence.I miss my friends but on a day like today I am totally at peace with riding a bicycle instead of sitting in the office.

When you ride a familiar route in the opposite direction from the usual it is a completely different ride. For example, that exhilarating downhill from the Cathedral to the Capitol is a bit of a tester when done in the uphill direction. But I rode up to Omnium on Cathedral Hill to check in with Dan. The proprietor, Dan, has always been an admirer of the yellow bicycle and has on several occasions asked me when we would see it again. I was riding the yellow bicycle today so I stopped off to show it to Dan. The P-ster calls him Fuzz.

The photo yesterday was taken at Summit and Albert. The artist intended to display that the Marathon was over but that clean up was only in the early stages.

This is going to be one of the prettiest spots in Saint Paul some time in the next couple of weeks. It is a spot I have photographed before. The leaves on those maple trees are going to go to a sublime shade of orange and when the autumn sun hits them at just the right angle it is going to be pretty enough to make your eyes water.I have to start riding past there as often as possible to try to catch that moment. Today it is too early, the maples have only just started to change. I think they actually look quite attractive, though, and it only gets better.

I rode through the Fairgrounds on the way home, also something of a change, that is usually a part of the ride out.

EG: no report, apparently they noticed -196F and have shut that one down until repairs can be made.
CB: Lots of people at the cattle barn today, moving stuff out after the big weekend horse show. 73.
AOWG; 86!!!!!!

Cows:When I did have a job I used to say that there were not enough days like today in any one person's life to justify spending very many of them on the fourth floor of a building with windows that do not even open. With apologies to my friends who still have to do that, I spent today on the right side of the inside/outside divide. It was another OOTNDITHODs.

Marathon Sunday

2011-10-02T16:22:00.003-05:00

It was probably a bit too warm for the runners this morning participating in the Twin Cities Marathon. It was even a little bit surprising for bicyclists as I saw several riders dressed for yesterday. Above average temperatures, sunny skies, light breezes, an excellent first Sunday in October.

By the time I got over to the marathon course they were taking things down. This is on Summit Avenue at the corner of either Albert or Pascal, I'll have to check the next time I am over there to be sure.In important football news FC Nantes scored a late goal and has tied Havre AC 1-1 in le Havre. All road points are good points and Havre in particular has been a thorn in the collective sides of the various editions of FC Nantes all through this Ligue 2 ignominy so this is double rewarding.

No game next week as all domestic leagues take an "international break". France will be continuing qualification matches for Euro 2012 with a Friday home game against Albania and a Tuesday visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina. France is currently first in Group D. Only the first place finisher in each group earns automatic qualification. Tuesday's game is big as Bosnia-Herzegovina trails France by a single point and has been very good at home.

Fall Falls

2011-10-01T17:02:00.003-05:00

We had frost again over night but by riding time the day had warmed quite nicely and bicycling broke out. A southerly wind enticed us down into the big city and we ended up crossing the Mississippi into the even bigger city. The niceness of the day had not gone unnoticed by other citizens of the metropolitan area, it could just as well have been July considering the size of the multitude at Minnehaha Falls. Still, we were able to corner just a tiny piece of the stone wall with enough tree to provide a little shelter for the camera lens for an otherwise directly into the sun photograph.As with many things in life, it is all about location.

In what many will consider to be an upset, I actually MEANT to take this video.

My video skills are clearly up the upswing.

Hockey

2011-09-30T17:03:00.001-05:00

Gophers win 6-1 over hapless Union. I correctly predicted who would score the first goal. Perhaps the most exciting moment of the evening was when the public address guy announced that they will have chuck-a-puck tomorrow.

Today was sunny and warm enough, a nice fall day.

Not a bike ride

2011-09-29T20:06:00.003-05:00

It was a day when the Auckland rule was in play. The wind was howling. But the sun was out until, suddenly, just at the moment when I intended to gear up for the ride, there were raindrops on the front window.

It didn't rain hard, and it didn't rain for long.

But the wind howled.

I ignored the Auckland rule and took a lay day.

Instead I went out for a walk. Those are going to be common enough soon and I need to start conditioning for that form of exercise. I found these leaves within walking distance of home.Leaf photos are also going to be common enough soon.

Here is a spot I walk through almost every time I take a winter walk. It looks a lot different now from the way it will look when I am walking there over a giant mound of snow in January.Hockey starts tomorrow.

Those who know us know that this is BIG NEWS.

Let me see, 19 players back from a team that reached the NCAA tournament.

Returning second team All America goaltender, a winner of an Olympic bronze medal in her sport. Some say the best goaltender in the world.

On defense at least three who will be members of their national teams for the next Olympics, including an All America senior and a junior who is so good that it hurts to acknowledge that she is not the best on this year's team. Add in to the three national team players to make a group of four a senior who on some nights is the best of the four. And then add a freshman who may end up being in the end the best of them all.

At forward return intact the top two lines. Bring back from injury the two time captain who was the leading scorer two season ago before missing what should have been her senior season with that injury. Seven of the top nine forwards return even without this extra special come back senior. Add some very highly regarded freshmen including experience as world under 18 championship players.

Hockey starts tomorrow. This should be fun.

Every day is a new bike tour

2011-09-25T19:03:00.005-05:00

I had a moment earlier this week where I contemplated the difference between what I am doing and what I want to do. It was a day when there wasn't actually any extended rain. What we did have was extremely threatening conditions with the very, very occasional misty, sprinkly kind of deal. I reflected on wise advice that I received earlier this year that reminded me that the reason why I do what I do is for the process, not for the numerical result. I do this to be fit and to feel the way that a fit person feels. On that day I declined a bicycle ride and went ahead and launched my winter fitness campaign by trying a 3 mile walk.

Well. My walking fitness is quite subpar but even so I found it refreshing to be moving around out there at such a reduced speed. Yes, even slower than my reduced bicycling speed.

But today I went ahead and got back on my bicycle even though I was feeling somewhat south of perfectly fine. No complaints though, this is all relative. And sure enough, as I often used to discover when I was a younger person, a little exercise can actually cure minor maladies. I find that to be true only very occasionally at my current level of maturity but today it was true. It felt good. And it reminded me that the fact that I AM fit is the reason exercise today worked to help me recover from being unwell.

I rode through Como Park. There was a big youth soccer tournament going on over there. The SUV traffic seemed way too intense even for a big soccer tournament though. Eventually I discovered the problem. All of the SUVs had to use only one way out of the park (the way I was trying to use to enter the park) because of a road closing.It just seemed so unlikely to me that there would be a bike tour on that particular section of road. I lifted my bicycle over the curb and went ahead and rode down the closed road.

Sure enough, no bike tour. That sign must be left over on that particular piece of street furniture from the big local bicycle classic from a couple of weeks ago when lots of roads were, in fact, closed because of the bike event. I found that the road is closed because it is brand new pavement for a couple of blocks including the new parking lot for the new swimming pool at Como Park. The sign at the other end of the closing just said road closed without any suggestion of bicycles.

In football news FC Nantes has had a remarkable week, one of their best weeks since the first relegation. Of course, it IS ONLY LIGUE 2, but FC Nantes has had a 6 point week. On Tuesday, FC Nantes traveled to Metz, gave up an early goal but came back to win 1-3. A road victory is always a good result but this particular road victory came against a team near the top of the table. Then today home standing FC Nantes held up for a 1 nil victory over Clermont Foot. The two victory week moves FC Nantes up to 9th place in the league table, a huge improvement after a dismal start.

Bicycle booby trap

2011-09-24T16:56:00.004-05:00

I rode past this thing yesterday.It spooked me as an unaware cyclist could be impaled on that thing. Yesterday I merely was careful to swing out wide and avoid the spear but today I had a guest rider. She held my bicycle while I got the photo and then threw the branch back into the brush. Bicycling in the big city is dangerous enough without booby traps.

The Fairgrounds is a ZOO today. There are several big events, the horse show, an antique furniture show, 4-H dog show, children's clothing sale, rubber stamp and scrapbooking convention. But the BIG event is prelude to the big football game scheduled for this evening. The University is playing North Dakota State. This is a big, big deal for NDSU. They have played the U a couple of times in recent years and have declined the role of sacrificial lambs. In 2006 Minnesota won by 10-9 but in 2007 NDSU won 27-21. NDSU is taking this very seriously. The morning newspaper predicted that they would have 14,000 fans at the game and that many of them would be tailgating before the game at the Fairgrounds parking lot. That same parking lot is also used for tailgating by Gopher faithful.

Well, the parking lot was jammed absolutely full with the colors of the two schools flying on banners and also showing up on the bodies of the multitudes. It should be a fun atmosphere for the game tonight.

Orange ball appears in sky

2011-09-23T17:17:00.003-05:00

That equinox thing has apparently come and gone. This means there is no longer even a single valid reason for pretending it is summer. Soon enough I will be mostly posting photos such as this one.I like that one as one tree is mostly changed and one tree is still in summer hues. As may be apparent from the photo the sun emerged this afternoon in time to make the day seem palatable even if it was too late to make a warm bicycle ride.

On the subject of yield right of way, I have several general guidelines that if combined probably end up making a personal rule.

1. The nautical rule. Anything under power should yield right of way to unpowered, stink boats yield to sails. For me this applies to pedestrians, I yield to pedestrians. Even though we are both under human power, the mechanical advantage that I have is significant enough for me to invoke this rule.

2. The following vehicle rule. A vehicle striking another vehicle from behind will always be at fault. I use caution and yield when approaching pedestrians and/or slower moving bicycles (not that that happens very often) from behind.

3. The last best chance to avoid a collision rule. This is a corollary of the following vehicle rule. If I see you and can take evasive action I do so.

4. Yield to slower moving traffic. This is mostly pedestrians.

5. 10 mph speed limit on the bicycle path, particularly in the presence of pedestrians. Anything faster than that is dangerous and besides, 10 mph happens to be the law on the path in Minneapolis that I am most likely to be on (the River Road).

6. If I am obeying the law and you are not I expect that you will yield right of way to me. This applies mostly to salmoning bicyclists, but also to jaywalkers and certain idiot cars. I do not insist upon this but I do expect it. True story, today's salmoning bicyclist was also talking on his cell phone. That seems to be becoming somewhat common lately. I usually want to ask the idiot in question how they intend to apply the brakes if doing so should become necessary.

7. Always yield to horses.The WSCA (Western Saddle Club Associations, Inc.) is having their big annual show over at the Fairgrounds this weekend. You can tell is is western saddle club because all of the riders are dressed up like cowboys. Well actually there were a lot more cowGIRLS today. They all had big hats, cowboy boots and spurs.

Wool socks

2011-09-22T19:22:00.003-05:00

The appearance of the sun today, essential if a day is to be "partly cloudy", occurred only early and only very briefly. The afternoon was "cloudy", as in "overcast", as in no sun at all. As a result the predicted mid-50s high temperature didn't really happen where I live. It was cold enough to induce full end of season gear.

I went to the drawer where all of that stuff has been waiting and came back with long sleeve base layer, heavy long sleeved jersey, tights, full finger end of season gloves, a Windstopper helmet liner and balaclava. I produced wool socks from the sock drawer. I passed on the light weight windbreaker that has served as a "jacket" and went ahead and put on the real jacket.

It was 50 at the cattle barn but I was fine. I have the gear.

Here is what is going on down at the end of our street, we are getting a new what the crew at VeloCity would undoubtedly refer to as "sidewalk".The local city planners refer to it, of course, as a "bike path". The city is getting a new sidewalk, a bunch of my neighbors are losing big chunks of what they have come to consider to be their front, or occasionally side yards. But it is a sidewalk and it is being installed on the city owned right of way so the neighbors are not actually losing anything that they ever really had.

I watched on cable TV the city council meeting where construction of the new multi-use path was approved. Several of the folks who testified in favor cited the current danger to pedestrians along that stretch of busy street due to the necessity of them walking on the shoulder, too close to the cars.

And its okay with me that it is a sidewalk. I ride on the road anyway when I am riding but during the season when I find bicycling not possible I often walk along that stretch of street. After they plow up the snow piles on the shoulder on each side of the street it is, as my fellow citizens testified, a bit dicey walking out there.

And further, while in most places it is illegal to bicycle on the sidewalk (not to mention much more dangerous than in the street), here in Roseville, due to the almost complete lack of sidewalks, there is a local ordinance specifically allowing bicycling on any city owned pavement which is not a street. Mostly the city calls such things, particularly if they are asphalt, bike paths. But if the pavement in question is concrete and has those regularly spaced expansion lines, then the city goes ahead and calls that "sidewalk". And the local ordinance states that it is okay to ride on it.

As I say, I ride on the road, all of this doesn't affect me very much. Except that in this case the new sidewalk will actually be useful to me during the season when I rely on walking as my primary fitness tool.

PS-The season I am referring to is usually called "winter" and today I bicycled in full early winter gear.

Gleaners

2011-09-20T19:40:00.004-05:00

You can really tell that the harvest is over when the gleaners show up to, well, to glean the last morsels of digestible calories from the dirt and debris that not long ago was a corn field.It is an interesting measure of how wealthy we all are and how abundant food has become that this task is left to the geese. Only a few generations ago those ears of corn would have been scooped up by human gleaners.

I had a flat tire today. Some good always comes from flat tires and today's bit of useful information is that the rip in the tube was very similar to what I was getting when I had flats on NewLOOK. I did not change the NewLOOK wheelset over to the Crown Jewel so it isn't exactly the same thing but interestingly enough I am running the same brand and model of wheel on those two bicycles. Today's flat I am fairly certain was a pinch as I flatted quite abruptly only seconds after not noticing a gaping chasm of a pothole in the street I was riding. A leak flat usually takes at least a few seconds to go down, today's flat was poof, flat. The similarity of the damage to the tube leaves me to ponder if this outbreak of flats on these two bicycles might just be a tire inflation issue.

Flats are mostly a waste of time and a nagging inconvenience. Even so there is something quite self-affirming and ultimately pretty positive about the whole flat tire experience. There I was too far from home to comfortably walk home, particularly in bicycle shoes. My vehicle was unexpectedly disabled and I was able to just reach into my pockets and produce the items necessary to cobble together a repair good enough for me to ride on an underinflated tire the few miles back to my floor pump. I was near the farm campus and while making the repair I had a pleasant enough chat with a foreign student pedestrian who was fascinated to find me sitting there with my tools working on my problem. His English wasn't good but he smiled when I explained that even though the repair was going to take some time that the actual repair was not "rocket science". Which it is not.

So today I had three bicycle rides, the first being the several miles until I actually had the flat. There was an interlude while repairs were effected followed by a shortish ride back to my garage for proper tire inflation. After all that I went out and finished the ride. With a late start the whole thing ended up taking pretty much all afternoon.

Really nice day

2011-09-19T20:06:00.002-05:00

After a day of cold rain on Sunday today turned back towards the kind of weather we have been having through the first part of September. It was cool early but the sun was out and eventually the high for the day reached above 70. We rode out to the eight lakes.The are some trees starting to show some yellow along the shoreline out there. There wasn't much fishing going on today, but there was some. That view is down the road from a car perspective, facing north in the one way direction for cars. It would be up the road from a bicycle perspective, it is uphill (mildly) in that direction and that is the direction we almost always approach from.

Really nice day.

Does this look familiar?

2011-09-17T19:09:00.002-05:00

She said she wants this photo to post on some social network.Everyone should notice that she has her jacket sleeves pushed up because even though the reported temperature is punitive, she is not intimidated. It isn't cold until she admits that it is cold. In fact, almost from the first pedal stroke she was commenting that she was too warm.

The full report is:

EG:-196 CB:58 AOWG:64

Today's mean should be about three degrees higher than yesterday's.

Today is a Saturday in the fall and I ride around in a city which has numerous small colleges and one humongous university. College Saturday in the fall means football. We rode through the second iteration of Gopher nation, we heard the crowd at Hamline, we passed within sight of the game at Saint Thomas. Interestingly enough there was also fall baseball (practice, not games) at Saint Thomas. We rode on towards Macalester where I was hoping to find the pumpkin heads doing some football and perhaps some more fall baseball.

The pumpkin heads, if they were playing, were playing elsewhere. The college has had some success recently in baseball as last spring's edition shared the conference regular season championship (with Hamline and Saint Thomas). Sure enough, how you get better for spring baseball is by practicing in the fall.I had dressed for yesterday. Yesterday I was too cold and lo and behold when we started out I was still too cold. Unlike yesterday, however, the sun came out pretty early in the ride. The ride out into the wind was still cold but by the time we reached today's turnaround point I realized that if I didn't remove some layers I was going to overheat on the ride home.

The sun went away later on this afternoon but there was a spell there when temperatures were at or near normal for this day. It should still be warm and nice in mid-September and today we had a spell when it was warm and nice and nowhere near -196F.

3,022

2011-09-16T18:11:00.003-05:00

I ride a lot. The annual mileage total today clicked past another one of those big numbers. If the weather holds . . .

Today was supposed to be warmer and in a simple numerical comparison I guess it was. The problem for today was an overcast that lasted until about 3pm. When combined with a pretty brisk south wind today felt colder than the last couple of days when at least there was a bright sun.Minus 196F is cold indeed. That works out to about -127C. Today's summary looks like this:

EG:-196 CB:55 AOWG:59

Someone calculate a mean for me and I will enter that in my bicycle log as today's temperature.

Annual grasses are all in seed stage. I ride past several places where homeowners have put in large patches of various long stem grasses for decorative effect. Here is one I have not previously seen, however:3,000 miles is a lot of miles. Even so, I am still quite a bit behind schedule and unlikely to reach my annual goal. But 3,000 miles . . . I only need about 40 more rides averaging 25 miles each. 40 more rides? That doesn't seem very likely. But . . . At least I can actually see it from here whether or not I will actually get there.

The Crown Jewel has moved into second place on the mileage chart for bicycle with most miles ridden this year. This is a great, great bicycle. Getting it down from the rafters was a really good idea.

Another shoe drops

2011-09-15T18:54:00.003-05:00

Here's the view out my front door at shortly past 7am (well after sunrise, as is probably pretty obvious from the photo).I rode my bicycle this afternoon and it was still cold. In fact, it was colder than yesterday as I can report 50F at the Cattle Barn at 1:15pm. 50F is one of those really nice round numbers as it corresponds exactly to 10C.

I don't know why I haven't thought of doing this before but today was my first occasion of multi-tasking while riding. The outside ATM at the financial institution that we use is well within the distance range of my usual rides so I went slightly off route today and did some banking.While I was getting my gloves off and otherwise preparing myself to do business a couple of other people arrived and used the ATM. I responded to their conversational gambits and as a result I had a nice conversation with one woman about what a nice day it was. I suppose I should point out that she WAS wearing a late fall weight jacket but with that bit of gear (and with the gear I was wearing) we were both experiencing a pretty nice day. The sun was out, it was a pretty day and neither one of us was feeling the cold. Her gear and my gear served to establish yet again that there is no bad weather, there is only inadequate gear.

And, then, well OK. I did a bit of Wikipedia reading and it seems that some of those Zombies that yesterday I proclaimed to be the same five guys only look like they might be aged versions of the original Zombies. The two main guys, the keyboard/vocalist and lead vocalist ARE actual original Zombies. The others are replacement undead. My apologies to any offended by my error.

And it really makes them not any different at all from Pete and Roger who still tour as the The Who but are really just Pete and Roger playing the music of The Who with Ringo's kid and, oh, like about 17 other musicians filling in the parts previously filled in by John and Keith. Or not any different from Keith and Mick who really have played in at least three completely different bands all of which are called the Rolling Stones. Brian Jones/Mick Taylor/Ron Wood issues aside, can it really be the Rolling Stones if Bill Wyman isn't there any more?

And so, the Zombies tribute band plays OK and I still like the tunes (especially the old versions).

On a side note I saw Charlie Watts drumming on an Eric Clapton/Jimmy Page/Jeff Beck YouTube video that I looked at recently.

Guitar players and others who pay close attention may note that even though it is clearly mostly Eric that Clapton, Page and Beck each, at least ever so briefly, play a guitar solo. It is the 1983 Royal Albert Hall ARMS Charity Concert and is the first time that the three iconic former Yardbirds lead guitarists performed together.

First time cold

2011-09-14T17:53:00.009-05:00

It has been coolish a few times since winter left (including at least a couple of the days in Paris) but today was the first time cold. It was 51F at 1:22pm at the Cattle Barn. It felt cold.

Gear changes included full finger gloves although just the very light cotton gloves that I usually use as a liner in the winter time. I also went with the long sleeve jersey instead of short sleeves and arm warmers. There just wasn't any way I was ever going to remove my jacket much less push down the arm warmers so long sleeves it was. But again it was just the light weight long sleeve jersey. I also went with leg warmers instead of full tights. The difference is that the leg warmers give you one less layer over the naughty bits. It wasn't so cold today that full on extreme measures were called for. It was just cold.

And 51 isn't REALLY cold after all, is it? It certainly will get much colder later and I will ride on lots of colder days. Today was only the first dose and not the time to break out maximum protection, just time to look in that drawer dedicated to winter gear and find a few of the things I am going to need.

One of the nice bits about the first cold, about the first of every abrupt and distinct change of weather for the worse is that it sharply reduces the number of people who still think it is bicycling season. I rode for a bit over two hours and saw ONE OTHER bicyclist and that person I spotted with less than a quarter of mile left in my ride. It feels like a private ride when no one else is riding.

And where was everyone? It was an extremely pretty day out there.Isn't the sky blue?

Note that unlike TOPWLH I shan't refer to this as a beautiful day. Beautiful is reserved for days as pretty as today when the temperatures are in the range of balmy. But pretty it was as I am sure she will agree.

Frost warning for tonight and probably not any warmer tomorrow. Average September temperatures (upper 60s, maybe 70) will return by the weekend.

I was up too late the other night and caught the Zombies on Jimmy Fallon.

I also recommend She's Not There from 1965. Unbelievably enough, same guys.

Not enough? For total Zombie immersion you might want to also try Tell Her No from 1964. And still the same five guys.

Less heat, less wind

2011-09-13T18:20:00.004-05:00

Way less heat, temperatures only rose into the 60s.

Way less wind, a light mostly westerly wind.

Result? Way less fatigue.

I was mostly just riding around but I was JRA with intent. I wanted to get a picture of my bicycle with the big metal cows.There were a couple of students sitting on a bench just off frame while I was setting up the shot. They looked at me quizzically but didn't call security or anything. I suspect they saw way more bizarre things at the party they went to after the football game last Saturday.

Or maybe not.

The Fairgrounds is clearing quite rapidly. The Midway is completely torn down with only one of the smaller rides still present on site (but packed up on its trailer for travel). The Pronto Pup stands are all identical trailers, they come and go all together on the same day each time. Today they are all gone. The big yellow slide has been washed down but the slide inhibitors haven't been installed yet. The Sky Ride looks to be completely mothballed. The giant Harley Davidson tent is still present as well as a couple of the other big tents over on that part of the grounds.

The information signs on the Grandstand haven't been turned back on yet. They continue to display the generic welcome to the Fair sign. Those ticket booths are usually one of the last things to go.I am able to report that it was 61 today at the cattle barn.

Southwest into the wind

2011-09-12T20:00:00.003-05:00

One lesson that I learn usually every July is that riding every day when it is hot leads to accumulating fatigue. One lesson I have learned in this most unseasonable September is that the same fatigue accumulates even if the every day rides occur in what otherwise appears to be fall. It was very, very breezy this afternoon on a day when the high temperature approached 90. I arrived home feeling pretty fatigued.

I hadn't been all the way down into the city for quite some time. The construction project over there flattened my tire on one of my first attempts of the season to go there and I have been a bit overcautious ever since. But the strong southwest wind made for a fine day to go over to the Falls. I had not been there since May.That's quite a bit of water to be going over the Falls for this late in the season.

There appears to have been an erosion event over there on the west bank of the creek. The retaining wall has a gap, the slope looks disturbed and then there is all the debris down in the gorge.It was a pretty day at the Falls. The GRider has arrived home from her errands and informs me that she ate outdoors at the Falls today meaning that we were both there today although only one of us arrived there under human power.

That would be me.

The forecast high for tomorrow is about 20 degrees lower than today's high. The day after that it might get cold.

Really important football

2011-09-11T16:55:00.004-05:00

I had a chance today to stop and appreciate that here in the middle of a huge city there is a place like this that I can ride to: the road down into the woods at Lake Vadnais.Blue sky, and another very warm September day with only some lightish winds.I got home in time to begin the ritual of REALLY IMPORTANT FOOTBALL. That means I got in a nice nap and missed most of the first half.

In yesterday's football:

Minnesota 21:28 New Mexico State
Northwestern 26:36 Westminster
Concordia (WI) 0:48 Bethel

Not a good day for home teams.

New Brighton

2011-09-10T20:02:00.004-05:00

As I was leaving the bicycle shop the other day I met yet another person who thinks he knows me because he sees me riding in his neighborhood all of the time. This guy was from Lauderdale and I do ride quite often in Lauderdale. I explained to him where I DO live and how I let wind direction determine the direction of my rides and how this often results in me riding in his neighborhood. He was satisfied with my story and then told me his. He rides very often but almost always on the same route. The route takes him around Lakes Johanna and Josephine. On the day we spoke he was riding in the opposite direction from his usual route. We had a nice discussion of how reversing direction on a regular route makes for a completely different ride.

So I thought about Johanna and Josephine for a couple of days and today set out to ride around those two lakes myself.

I had the Guest Rider today so first we detoured down to the parking lot at the end of the University tramway. The University football team had its first home game of the season today and we wanted to get a look at the tailgate party in the big parking lot over there, the first local manifestation for this academic year of Gopher Nation.

We then headed north back along often ridden routes looking for the seldom taken deviation across Snelling that would lead to Lake Johanna. We crossed at the street intersection in front of Northwestern College. They had a football game about to start there too. We paused to observe for a bit. Northwestern College is Golden Eagle Nation and illustrated by what they have out in front of the football field.We rode away from the field just before they had the pre-game prayer which we could still hear over the public address system. Northwestern is a religious school (I am going to refrain from calling it a bible college this year) so they can go ahead and say a prayer before the football if they so desire. We rode down through the rest of the campus. As with nearly every college campus in the fall, it was pretty and serene, idyllic even.

We rode on, passing through the western city limits to spend some time riding in Arden Hills and then eventually even into New Brighton. The route back led us past Mounds View High School, down the hill to Lake Valentine and then up through the campus at Bethel (also not a bible college). There was no football today at Bethel but the campus was every bit as pretty and serene as Northwestern's.

It was warm and really, really nice. It was warm enough to be summer but the lower angle of the sun gives the season away, it isn't summer any more. But it was in every respect a beautiful fall day, a day of the sort that no matter how many of them you experience you never really have enough of them in any one lifetime.

OOTNDITHOD.

FC Nantes did not play a league game last week. The league took a break to allow for the playing of the round of 32 in le Couple de la Ligue and also to allow for international qualifying matches for next year's Euro 2012 tournament. FC Nantes travelled to Sedan and bowed out of the League Cup by 2 nil. The team returned to league play this week and played a 1-1 draw at home to Le Mans. The team stands 15th the the league table with 5 points from 6 league games.

Big numbers

2011-09-09T20:58:00.001-05:00

While we were riding today I pulled over and stopped to show GRider my bicycle odometer which indicated 8,000 miles for this bicycle. While we were stopped she showed me the odometer on her Bianchi which showed 4,500 miles. A double milestone.

GRider wanted to see the Fair deconstruction. We took the opportunity to wrap up a couple of Fair related loose ends. We attended the Fair only on the last day so there were a few things we really didn't see this year. This one is still available though and will be until just prior to next year's Fair. It is this year's DNR found junk sculpture.There is a deer and a heron in there. And a truck door and a bunch of other stuff.

Here is the one remaining church dining hall that I hadn't pictured. This one is pretty hard to miss as it is on the main street inside the main gate, a prime location.On the other hand, Saint Bernard's was on the main street even closer to the main gate and went out of business. Hamline looks pretty prosperous at least for now.

What's not to like about September temperatures in the 80s?

Repairs

2011-09-08T19:17:00.004-05:00

Today my riding schedule and Scott's working schedule finally matched up. He was available for consultation when I stopped by the bike shop. Here is a look at the yellow bicycle on the repair stand while the rear wheel and the cogs are off in another part of the shop getting as Scott said, that little hiccup removed.The repair took only a few minutes, I was in and out of the shop in less than 20 minutes. I rode the bike home, all gears are now available and in good working order.

The bicycle repair took only a few minutes and I am willing to bet this repair took only a few minutes as well.The key element here is wood screws instead of duct tape and twine. That mail box post came apart when it was hit by what the plow threw at it in the plowing after the last November's first heavy wet snow. Ten months and about 20 minutes of labor later appearances have been, at least temporarily, restored.

Of course, there is more snow coming again soon.

Endings are beginning

2011-09-07T20:19:00.003-05:00

I haven't really done extensive research. I am just going to rely on memory and impressions.

Last year the corn was allowed to turn completely brown before harvest. The harvest came very late in the season.They are doing something completely different over there this year. This year's harvest was of still quite green corn stalks. And it is almost over.

It was a nice day to ride around in Roseville. I made it to the north city limits, visiting Shoreview for a time. I made it to the south city limits, visiting both Saint Paul and Falcon Heights. In Falcon Heights I found that bicycles are again being admitted to the Fairgrounds. The ticket booth is still there but tickets are no longer for sale. The gates are open.

This is an interesting time to be on the Fairgrounds. There is lots of activity, lots of things to look at. Attendance this year was the third highest ever, we were part of it. When the crowd is assembled there is also plenty to look at. For me though, I find the tearing down part to be almost as interesting as the actual Fair. I am entertained by the flotsam and jetsam and the just plain debris left behind by the big event.

I was looking for this as I was not actually exactly sure where it was located. This is one of the two remaining church dining halls on the grounds, the Salem Lutheran Church.

Epiphany closed while trumpeting its achievement of 46 years of service. Salem has them outdone by a good margin.

There is a new blogger interface provided by the ever helpful people at google. This one not only auto corrects your spelling even when you meant to spell it that way, it also auto corrects your line spacing. I always thought I was smart enough to do that for myself.

I am disappointed and will be switching back to the old interface for as long as it is still available.

New twine.

75, sunny, light wind. OOTNDITHOD.

Nice ride

2011-09-06T17:52:00.001-05:00

The Fair is finally over which means I could at least ride in that direction again. The grounds are still closed and vehicle traffic is still a little erratic but the huge crowds of pedestrians have departed. It was strangely quiet.

It was nice to get an opportunity to ride at least a short distance down into the big city after 12 days of not doing so.The sun was out and it was a beautiful day in September. It is only the 6th but by the 6th of September it is most definitely not July any more.

Labor Day

2011-09-05T21:01:00.005-05:00

It was still cool today. It IS Labor Day, we have been given fair warning, this summer thing is pretty much over. GRider wanted to make it to Vadnais again before her season ends (pretty soon). With the Fair to our south, the northern route seemed obvious. It was a nice day for riding and we found a pretty nice day at Vadnais.At this point the day still had a bunch of hours left. We had already spent time checking off an item that needed doing before summer ends. I had not been to the Fair yet this year so it seemed obvious what we should do next. In addition, I had excellent advance scouting done by Wireless that informed me that Heather was at the Fair. We decided that we needed to go to the Fair and to stop to say, "Hello" to Heather.I wanted to ask her about how things worked out for her during the state government shutdown but pretty much all she would say was something about being a geologist and working on sand and gravel surveys.

Hi, Heather.

We discovered that if you attend the Fair on the last day that some of the places that can be really, really crowded early in the event are quite accessible. Here is a 3rd prize winner in a perennial favorite, crop art.When we were in France in July there was a carnival set up in the Tuileries. They had one of these things right next to the Rue de Rivoli side. It looked to us like the this particular attraction was new to the French, they seemed extremely taken with it.Of, course, Americans still seem pretty taken with it too.

Princess Kay of the Milky Way and all of her Dairy Princesses, all carved in 90 pound chunks of real Minnesota butter.Last year I lamented the passing of the Saint Bernard's church dining hall. This year it is the Epiphany dining hall which is closing.According to the morning newspaper at one time there were nearly 20 church run dining halls at the Fair, next year there will be only two. In the old days you would see people walking around with a free sack that they had obtained somewhere, often from WCCO. These people would be accumulating coupons, free samples and other items which would fill the sacks. Now you mostly see people walking around with items of food in their hands. The Fair used to be a place to be exposed to new products, it now seems to be a place to be exposed to new foods.

We tried the Australian battered potatoes (thumbs down) and the walleye cakes (ok, no recommendation, decide for yourself) to go with the Danielson and daughters onion rings (thumbs up) and the pork chop on a stick (this year from Ragin Cajun in the Beer Garden, ok, nothing special).

We had fun.

Layers

2011-09-04T16:42:00.004-05:00

More evidence of fall, I guess. I could tell looking out the window that it was windy and I could tell by looking at the thermometer that it was cool. I failed to grasp how cool it was until I went out and started a ride into the north wind.

I was back in the house after less than 2 miles and had this stuff on when I headed back out.That's my new Craft sleeveless base layer, one of my newest items of gear. My Castelli arm warmers are relatively venerable but that Pearl jacket may well be the oldest item of gear that I own.

The sun came out after a while and it is actually pretty nice out right now but I finished the ride with three layers and felt just fine, thank you, not overheated in the slightest.

Fall is my favorite season of the year.

Another day of alternative gearing

2011-09-02T16:35:00.002-05:00

The weather was quite a bit cooler today, dare I say it had a distinct feeling of September and we all know what that means.

I experienced not a single chain skip today. Of course, I limited my time in the suspect 17 to big ring time and, while in the small ring, to just passing through on my way to the 16 and/or 18.

I have over 100 miles on this bicycle this year and can confirm previous impressions, to wit, really, really nice bicycle.

Sterling silver head badge.

Perspective

2011-09-01T16:44:00.002-05:00

I visited one of my favorite websites earlier today, Paris Daily Photo. I like seeing photos posted by a Paris resident of things I have seen and things I will probably never see. This is referred to as "entertainment".

Today I also discovered that the theme for this month's theme day for daily photo blogs is perspective. I have three examples of different kinds of perspective, two of which I shall illustrate with photos.

Here is Photography 101, the assignment on perspective with all of the visual lines flowing towards a single vanishing point.Near home I came across a really telling perspective on the passing of the seasons. The beginning of corn harvest is a pretty clear indication that summer is over.It has been a good year for corn.It was hot today, a high temperature of over 90. It was interesting to get really sweaty again, something that hasn't been a very regular part of the deal of late.

I was riding the Crown Jewel despite the recent diagnosis of a chain slip caused by excessive wear of the 17 cog. Whether or not wear of that cog is the real culprit seemed like what some would call a testable hypothesis. I set out to do a test.

I rode a route that I ride often. I tried to ride pretty much in the manner that I would usually ride that terrain with only a couple of small tweaks. When riding into the wind on stretches where I would usually be riding in the 39x17 today I rode in the 39x18. On similar stretches with a tailwind I rode in the 39x16. I found both gears to be quite rideable (there is after all only a very small difference between those gears and the gear I usually ride). I also verified that the 17 is the problem as I rode the entire 26 miles today without a single chain skip.

It was a good thing to put back into some perspective that there is a reason why there are 20 gears on my bicycles. I have fallen into the habit of riding mostly in that same cog in the back with the most common shift to be the shift of the front chain ring. I really need to pay a bit more attention to shifting with the right hand, shifting the rear derailer. Today I felt as though the additional rear shifting made for a more efficient use of effort. It felt good.

Triple crown

2011-08-31T19:46:00.004-05:00

In August I had the most miles ridden for any month this year to date. The annual goal looks out of reach but just very vaguely on the edge of if it doesn't snow until Thanksgiving maybe.

But it is still August and that means the Fair. Here is the triple crown of even though this piece of curb is only about two blocks from the main gate you cannot, absolutely cannot park here.I rode even a tiny bit closer and got a photo from a block away of that aforementioned main gate. That is the closest I have been so far this Fair season.The bicycling lesson so far for August is that you cannot expect to hang a bicycle, even a really nice bicycle, in the basement rafters for nearly seven years and then expect to just put it back on the street without the intervention of cash.

So, today Scott finished with installation of all new cables and housing (which along the way requires unwrapping the bar tape which means all new bar tape in the bargain). The shifting is way, like WAY better, but I still have an occasional chain skip under pedal pressure in the 39x17. The 39x17 is one of my two or three main riding gears so a skip there is just not acceptable. I have installed new chains lots of times and new cogs several times. It is axiomatic in the bicycle culture that when you install a new chain you may well have to install new cogs because you may get a chain skip if you do not. I have traipsed around the edges of this bicycle truth without ever getting burned before. Well, welcome to the mainstream for Gino. As I told Scott, I don't think I need a whole new cassette because some of those cogs just don't have very much wear on them. But I do need a new 17 cog. Scott says it should be here by Friday.

All things considered, the cost of putting this bicycle back on the road is still less than the cost of putting the Wireless junior high bicycle back on the road earlier this year. But then again, that Wireless bicycle was hanging from the rafters for a lot longer than the Crown Jewel.

I had a nice ride today considering that I had to use the 39x18 in many of the situations where I normally for the past 10 years or so have used the 39x17.

Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel Special Edition custom build

2011-08-28T17:20:00.003-05:00

From one of the elite custom steel frame builders a custom build for Mavic. This bicycle was constructed for use on the Mavic neutral race support team serving professional bicycling in the United States in the year 2002. There were five bicycles built by IF for Mavic, one for each of the sizes 52, 54, 56, 58 and 60 cm top tube. These bicycles rode on the back of the Mavic yellow race support car at all of the events of that year's US races. Mavic sold the bicycles in various venues after the end of the season. I got the 56 on eBay. The last person to ride this bicycle before I became the owner was almost certainly a professional race rider.

This is an absolute one of a kind bicycle, a jewel of a Crown Jewel. It is light as a feather and a joy to ride and behold.I acquired the bicycle at the end of 2002 and rode it in 2003 and 2004. It has been hanging in my basement for the past seven years but today it came out to play. Here is what an absolutely clean drive train looks like after hanging in the basement for seven years.Record crank, Record front derailer, Chorus rear derailer and shifters, Mavic brakes, Mavic wheels. One really, really sweet ride.

But as I recently discovered when putting the Wireless junior high bicycle back on the road, you cannot really hang a bicycle up for several years and expect no issues. The issues with the Jewel are related to that absolutely pristine drive train.

When I stopped riding that bicycle I installed a new chain. Seven years later with no lubrication the chain has at least one stiff link which produces an only occasional but still quite disconcerting chain skip. I am working on it but I fear I may end up having to replace the chain. If I do it would be a lesson and not a cheap lesson but a lesson. For example, I won't be putting a new chain on newLOOK as it drops out of the daily rotation. That bicycle WILL be back and the new chain can wait until just before that return.

I rode over to a former co-worker's establishment and got a picture of my yellow bicycle with his yellow truck and yellow trailer.I went ahead and put the necessary new tires on newLOOK (that bicycle will be back). It occurs to me that this leaves at least one important maintenance item that NEEDS to be done and which I will probably deal with tomorrow.

It is time to get out the silver polishing cloth and shine up the sterling silver head badge on that really sweet steel bicycle out in my garage.

Pyrrhic milestone

2011-08-27T18:52:00.003-05:00

We headed north hoping to do the eight lakes tour. A forbidding sky turned us back before we arrived at Vadnais but we still had a nice ride. GRider got the miles she wanted as did I. For me, the annual mileage goal still seems pretty unlikely but . . .

I ride a lot and milestones are going to come. So today is 2,016 miles this bicycle this year.That's going to do it for that bicycle for this season. For my next ride I will be rolling on one of my other bicycles. A final note for newLOOK for this year is that I have accumulated 2,200 miles on this set of tires. That in itself calls for change of at least the tires.

Wireless was here preparing for her residence change and took the picture. Visible in the picture is my old bicycle, my new car and TsameOPWLH.

FC Nantes lost today.

I love my thumb levers

2011-08-26T17:47:00.002-05:00

No one has to research very hard or scratch very deep to discover that I ride Campagnolo. I am not necessarily of the opinion that Campy is superior to the other two component brands because it shifts better or is prettier or is more economical in the long run. To me Campagnolo is the one I like the most. One of the things I like the most is my thumb levers.It is always a little jolt of welcome back to make that first thumb lever shift after having been riding one or another of my Ultegra bicycles.

Here is a look at what my neighbor is looking at as a result of the July street and in his case yard flooding.I have good news on the drinking water front. Steps are being taken to combat the algae bloom on Lake Vadnais, the last reservoir of our water utility. When I rode out there today there was great huffing and puffing with releases of air and lots of exotic carrying ons.I have seen a boat on Lake Vadnais only once or twice in all of my rides out there. Today there were three boats.There were also hoses of some sort or perhaps only marking lines but there was yellow stuff stretching out into the lake dividing the lake into four segments. It was a very unusual day at Lake Vadnais.

Today's top speed, on the hill from Victoria down to Snail Lake, 34mph.

One last one

2011-08-24T20:25:00.002-05:00

Here's a photo I took with my phone.In this incarnation she is Guest User of the Chair of Power (GUotCoP). After taking the photo I had to e-mail the photo to myself (something I can do from my phone), open and view in the e-mail program, save to hard drive etc., almost but not quite more work than it was worth.

Beating the rain

2011-08-23T18:53:00.004-05:00

We were checking the radar right after lunch. It was evident that it was going to rain but it looked as though there would be probably two hours before the storm system arrived here. We beat it out the door and the GRider and I hightailed it to the Port Sheldon Party Store.We made it back before it rained.

In fact, we made it back about six hours before it rained. Finally this evening at nearly 8pm we are seeing some significant raindrops. This is not to say that there wasn't a weather show visible over the lake during the intervening hours. It is only to say that it hasn't actually rained until now.

It is raining now.

Monday again

2011-08-22T20:14:00.003-05:00

And still here.And still really enjoying ourselves.

In Ligue 2 action on Monday night FC Nantes, playing its fourth game of the season, was the last team in the league to score a goal. After losing two games by 2-0 and playing a nil-nil draw FC Nantes erupted for 4 to defeat Guingamp by 4-0. The result squares the FC Nantes goal differential at 0 and vaults the side from dead last in the table all the way up to 13th.

Week ends

2011-08-21T18:44:00.005-05:00

Or begins, depending I am pretty sure, on your individual perspective. I have a pocket calendar which displays a week at a time, 7 days. The first day on the new page is Monday, the week ends on Sunday.

We just don't do this as well where I live, the whole trees arching over the roadway to make a tunnel trick.I think it is because we don't have that particular species of tree where I live. I believe the secret is beech.

Here is the Guest Rider at the new public access point on the Pigeon River.The road ends there.

Tonight's sunset.And this, something that I thought I was through with.

Afternoon rain

2011-08-20T19:57:00.002-05:00

It rained pretty hard for a relatively short period this afternoon. It wasn't enough to make the day a disaster or anything like that but it did deter bicycling.As is probably apparent from the series of photos the days are low key and tend towards lazy. It feels like vacation.

Coast Guard

2011-08-19T20:06:00.003-05:00

That's a Coast Guard patrol passing through the frame returning towards the Coast Guard station in Grand Haven.Here's a Coast Guard joke I learned long, long ago, most likely during the time when I was PFC Miller. It is a joke told by the Navy.

Q. Why is there a requirement that everyone in the Coast Guard be at least 6 feet tall?

A. If the boat sinks they will be able to wade to shore.

Another spectacular day in Western Michigan.

Parallels

2011-08-18T19:33:00.004-05:00

Another one of those parallel universe things, this one photographed at the PSPS:Or as the Guest Rider would say, PPSS.

Here's one of the neighbors:I think it means lake oaks.

This one looks quite a bit like Tuesday.

Tuesday

2011-08-16T19:53:00.003-05:00

Holland plage

2011-08-15T17:02:00.003-05:00

Autumn leaves?

2011-08-14T16:08:00.002-05:00

It was a spectacular day, I was JRA.Not to panic just yet despite appearances. I have noticed that tree each of the past several years. It has been the first to turn each of those years. I speculated that the tree was in distress. This year it looks even more like distress to me. That tree is, like, not healthy.

Motivational bicycling

2011-08-13T16:48:00.003-05:00

Or perhaps more correctly motivated bicycling.

It rained pretty hard overnight and was still raining when I got up this morning. I almost went directly to the bicycling log to enter "no ride - rain". I didn't but only because breakfast seemed more important than updating the log when there would be plenty of time to do that later. There was only going to be one opportunity to start the day, actually START the day with breakfast.

But by 11am it was sunny and getting dry, the temperature was rising to what would be a nice day in September. I checked the various weather sources and decided that we could ride after all.

The most troubling of the weather sources said that despite a clear radar picture that showers could still form during the afternoon even while making such showers a low probability.

We headed out toward the eight lakes. I knew GRider hadn't been out there for a while (she demands LAKES on most rides) and I knew she probably wouldn't have another chance to go there for nearly two weeks after today. I knew where the storms would form if they did form so I kept my head up scanning the sky as we proceeded to the north.

At the turn back point, the point at which we would become too far from home to make it back without getting really uncomfortably wet if it did rain, the sun was out. We rode on.

We made it to the lake but even as we stopped I cautioned that we should not stay long as neither of us liked the looks of what was happening in the sky. As you can see from the photo, the patch of blue is very small, the sun is obscured by the clouds (the picture is grey) and we are too far from home.As we started to ride for home the GRider announced that she had felt a rain drop. I checked a couple of puddles in the road and saw a few drops hit those bodies of water and then eventually felt a single drop myself. GRider pronounces that she felt 6 or 8 drops.

Regular readers will know that I am highly, highly motivated by rain. At Lake Vadnais we are at least eight and a half miles from home on the absolute most direct route. The other issue with most direct route is that it is far, far from flat. But with raindrops around us it seemed important to get at least several of those miles behind us before the deluge arrived.

We rode pretty hard, particularly for persons of our age group. We were rewarded when the clouds broke and the sun reappeared even if the reward came only after we were within a mile of home.

We rode hard but there is an aftermath of hard physical exertion that always makes it all worth while. As long as what you have done is only hard and not actually outside of your capabilities at least I always find that once having completed the task that an exhilaration quickly appears.

It was a good ride and later on it did actually rain cats and dogs for about 15 minutes. We were inside the house to watch the rain out the windows.

I love my bicycle.

Parallel universe

2011-08-12T17:11:00.003-05:00

It wasn't a pretty day today. During the time I was riding the sun made three brief appearances, at 7 miles, again at 9.5 miles and finally at 19 miles. Late afternoon is rallying pretty well though with the sun now out. Overall grade: B, I guess. It is warm enough and not humid. A pretty nice day.

But the sort of day that leads to just riding around thinking about not much of anything at all. You have to be careful on days like this because you just never know when you are going to catch a glimpse of what your life would be in a parallel universe.I think Gene was trimming an ash tree in the front yard but possibly he was involved in preemptive ash removal. There is a lot of that going on around here lately.

I dunno, losing our ash trees, if it is to be, will be pretty traumatic. But personally I am going to go ahead and ride it out with these trees, they have been good to us here, providing lots of valuable and enjoyable shade. If the bugs get them, well, so be it. But the chain saws don't come until the bugs are here.

New pavement

2011-08-11T17:27:00.002-05:00

The closing of the Fairgrounds and some road repair unpleasantness near Como and Hamline Avenues have encouraged me to start my rides in a manner completely unlike the route I have used with great regularity over the past several years. I cannot ride through the Fair and I do not want to ride through the tar on the road over by Como Park. I hate those pebbles stuck to my tires which are the inevitable aftermath of riding near road repair.

Instead we headed straight south through the farm campus. This cuts a couple of miles off the familiar distances. With a strong south wind I intended to ride to Minneapolis. I was a bit surprised by how close some of that stuff is when the direct route is taken.

We ended up circumnavigating Lake Calhoun.I have been to Lake Calhoun before but it was a revelation to find that a circumnavigation of Lake Calhoun is about the same distance as the eight lakes tour. We could do that all of the time if we wanted to.

Here is the GRider at our pause, at the Upton Avenue beach on the south side of Lake Calhoun.The entire east side, south side and most of the west side of Calhoun is pavement never previously ridden upon.

It was a beautiful day, a nice day for a ride, a nice day to be outside.

Algae alert

2011-08-10T16:57:00.002-05:00

I rode the full eight lakes tour today for the first time in over a month. I don't recall this wind storm but then again I wasn't here.The felling of that tree has left a quite large gap in the shoreline cover at Sucker Lake.

Over at Vadnais it was very pretty today.Those of us who drink Saint Paul city water should be forewarned by that patch of green out there on the lake surface in the background. That sort of algae bloom in the city reservoir often leads to a month of fairly foul tasting water.

Best available tower

2011-08-09T16:32:00.002-05:00

Eiffel it is not.

The weather guy this morning said we would be getting our first shot of autumnal air. "Haha!" says I. As if autumn comes in the first part of August.

Cool, barely 70 when I headed out, overcast, northwest winds at 20-30 mph. The air had that unmistakable feeling of fall.

I rode down a patch of pavement that I had not previously ridden on. It is downhill from a place I have been a lot but it was downhill into the wind and I was confident that the wind was strong enough that uphill would not be a chore. At the end of what turned out to be a dead end I found today's best available tower.The uphill was as expected a piece of cake with a 20-30 mph helper.

Pretty grey looking, eh? As grey as it looks it never felt even the tiniest bit like rain. It just felt like fall.

40 percent chance

2011-08-08T16:47:00.002-05:00

Here is what a 40 percent chance of precipitation means to me:

There is about a 100 percent chance that I am going to try to ride. Unless of course the 40 percent has achieved 100 percent chance by producing actual rain at the time when I usually want to start a ride.

There is about a 60 percent chance that I am going to ride loops which keep me from ever getting more than about a half hour's ride from home. What this meant today was a loop to the east (Lauderdale to the Minneapolis city limits), a loop to the south (over to Como and around Langford Park), a loop to the west (Wheelock Parkway over to the point where it descends the hill to Rice), and a loop to the north (Roseville library). In the end it didn't rain at all.

It is nice out right now but it was mostly cloudy (see above 40 percent chance reference) while I was riding. The sun came out briefly and I circled back a half block for this picture. The sun went away again as I lined up the shot.

There are some more of those cardinal flowers in there but what really attracted my attention was those purple things.My sleep pattern continues its progression back to normal. In the meantime the bicycling seems way, way harder than it should be. An out of time sync body is no ally in a plan of vigorous daily exercise.

Routine begins to be routine

2011-08-07T16:44:00.002-05:00

I promised that I would have some additional commentary and some additional pictures after I got home. Well, if I can just somehow figure out a way to carve five or so minutes out of my suddenly full days I will be able to copy all those photos from the travel computer over to the desktop and be able to act upon that threat.

For now I seem to have full days.

GRider at Lake Emily where we stopped today.A couple of days ago it was find GRider in the corn, today's task is find Lake Emily in the trees.

The wind was a bit fresh and today ended up being pretty hard. The wind wasn't strong enough to make the ride hard for routine August fitness. Routine August fitness is still several rides away.