10 or 12 degrees below average

As reported elsewhere on the internet we are currently receiving about the same amount of sun light per day as we will be receiving in late August.  Even six inches of new snow doesn't stand much of a chance against that much sun.

The average high for the day now exceeds 60 which would be really nice but about noon today it was sunny and nearly 50.  The weather channel said 70 percent chance of rain turning to snow but a check of the radar showed that the first wave of all of that had passed through already (although it WAS snowing in Brainerd) and the second wave looked to be an evening arrival.  Well, 50.  I have gear for that.  I had to roll through a bit of unmelted snow in the shadow of the garage and a trickle of water at the end of the driveway but I was rolling.

And it turns out to be a good thing I did.  I rolled through the Fairgrounds to discover that the rent a fence is already in place for the first big event of the season.  Jeez, I would have hated to miss the first deployment of the fence.

It's the Minnesota Horse Expo.
 
One thing about the season kicking off this late into the calendar is that the sun is a factor.  I don't usually have to find the SPF 40 for the first rides of the year.  Today I went looking for it.  So, there I suddenly was, out there riding around with sun screen on my face.  Pretty much all of the rest of my epidermis was concealed by at least one and often two or three layers of cloth.

Really, really keen and hyper aware observers may note from this photo that the chamber orchestra musician strike seems to have been settled.  At least the last time I was at this location there was a sign in the yard supporting the musicians.

Anyone who knows me at all well knows where I line up in each and every dispute between labor and management (Kevin Garnett famously said when some complained about his $116 million contract, "If the man is willing to pay me that much money, how much money must the man have?").  I don't much follow the chamber orchestra but up with labor.

But the interesting bit for me there today (other than the presence of still quite a bit of snow) was that the photo location is the turn back point on what I refer to (when talking to myself, not a single other person cares about this) as the out and back Library 3 miler.

That makes it pretty darn close to one and a half miles from my house as the crow flies.  Today I paused for the photo with just over 10 miles on the odometer.

So the second ride of the year.  How did it feel?  Almost exactly the same as the first one, to tell the truth.  Of course, a fifteen day lay off between first and second ride is quite likely to dull the fitness benefits, whatever they might be, of the first ride.

Most years I have average goals in each month that on a short hand basis works out to I try to keep my average miles per day for the month up to 20 or as near to that as I can manage.  With today's ride I am now averaging over 1 mile per day for the month.  If I can manage to maintain this pace I can reach, indeed, somewhere over 30 miles this month.

4,000 miles for the year is officially, undoubtedly, off the books.  It's OK, 4,000 was starting to be a bit of burden.  3,000 this year.

And maybe, just maybe, I have finally gotten started.

April 23

The sun is so high in the sky that even with temperatures 20 degrees below average that snow we got last week was nearly all gone.  Yesterday afternoon it started up again.

That looks like about six inches of new snow to me.

April 19 snow

Of course, it hadn't really stopped snowing at the time this photo was taken last night.

It continued to snow all night.

The morning newspaper reports that the average high for this date is 60, another milestone reached.

Something you might see if you rent a bicycle in Vancouver

Just saying. In case anyone might be going there.

The Harry Jerome sculpture in Stanley Park.

And these fellows are probably still standing around down at English Bay.

The Marine Building at 355 Burrard Street.

But the real reason why I am here is because of something I read in one of the Kidd novels. I am engaged in a marathon re-reading of the novels written by John Camp (Sandford) and have come to a new appreciation of the the non-Davenport series. I can wax boring about all of this and probably at some time will but for now I was just really amused by a short passage I read in the Devil's Code.

In the Kidd novels the protagonist (Kidd) is a computer semi-nerd. He interacts with a full on computer nerd who has in the eyes of the nerd succeeded, he has made the big time. The nerd knows that Kidd doubted that the nerd's chosen path would ever succeed, here is his description of what it means to have hit the big time:

"You were one of the naysayers. You were one of the guys who said (I) was going to be eating frozen cheese pizzas for the rest of (my) life. Well, I'll tell you what, pal, it's nothing but order out pepperoni and mushroom from now on."

Emphasis added:

"And a private booth at Taco Bell."

Be very careful what you wish for.

More news about spring

Here is the view out the back window this morning.

The bad news, of course, is that much, much worse is predicted for overnight tonight.

Some are saying a foot.

We had feta fish for dinner tonight and in a departure used cod and salmon as the fish. Both work OK, the salmon is really good and has a strong enough flavor to stand up to the cheese, the cod is just a higher quality white fish.

I've been waiting for 50

The average high temperature for the day has reached 54 and we now have more than 13 hours of daylight.  That high sun has punished the snowpack, what is still hanging around is anemic and on the edge of extinction.  As a result the streets are mostly dry.

We had that one day when it was I think 58 but other than that it has been grim.

Still, Sunday was the traditional starting date for DST and if you can't ride when daylight is being saved for you, well, when the heck are you going to ride?

I have become increasingly impatient and yesterday I wandered out to the garage, rearranged the hanging bicycles to get the one I want to ride out from behind one of the others and into the clear where I could ride it without extra annoyances if I should ever conclude that I could actually ride.  While I was at it I pumped up the tires.

But it was rainy yesterday, no riding, and today was still cold.

But after I waved (we are the waving family) to the TOPWLH as she left for work I stood looking at the street.  Mostly dry.  Tires pumped.  Only about 40 but I have ridden plenty of times in the 40s.  I mean, for crying out loud, the tires were pumped!

It took me about 40 minutes to gather all my gear (I had to retrieve pieces from three of the four floors that we have in our house (suburban split level don't you know?) but soon enough I actually found myself out riding my bicycle.

I had to make a short loop near home to check to be sure that I had the layers right and in fact returned home once (needed an extra layer on my head and you know, mittens are still a good idea at 40).  But I was pretty rapidly outside the radius of winter time walking distance and found myself revisiting old friends.

At least today I had the right bicycle for the small amount of cycle crossing necessary to actually pose the bicycle with the big bronze bovines.  Name that literary device.

I was going to head back over towards the Library but I was in the neighborhood and TOPWLH and I had had a recent conversation about the disappearing piles of snow in our front yard where she mentioned that they still might have a pile at the Fairgrounds.

It is quite a disappointment when compared to the record snow pile, was that last year?  I have a video somewhere.  But they do indeed still have a pretty big pile of snow.


There is some glass work going on at the cattle barn but really I am just proving that the high for today was still a major disappointment for anyone waiting for the average high, or even waiting for 50.

There is some work going on over there in the street in front of the DNR building, the trucks of the workers say plumbing and heating.  I have no idea what the men are doing but I do notice that they had to cut down three or four of those really nice large red pines next to old fire tower. 

So there you go, a ride report including bicycle content and I used to have a job content.

I rode for about an hour and a half.  My walks over the winter were usually about an hour and ended up being three miles.  You can get quite a bit farther by adding a half hour and a bicycle.

I was tired when I got home, a really good familiar feeling tired.  That bicycle, what a wonderful thing.  Once again it occurs to me that that thing will probably save my life, at least for a while longer.

Bicycle report

Traditional DST begins THIS Sunday.  I have been watching the forecast and the size of the diminishing snow pack and thought that Saturday (tomorrow) was a likely date for the season debut.  The temperatures are predicted to reach the average for the date (low 50s).  The nearby streets as observed on my playing outside activities seemed mostly dry.  Yup, most definitely Saturday.

Well, maybe.

At this moment it is snowing.

I do have some new sunglasses.

No other bicycling news to report at this time.