Clear, cold . . . November

It was clear and cold today. It really, really felt like November. But the sun was out, there wasn't much in the way of wind and even though it felt cold the temperature was actually a couple of degrees above the average high for this date. I guess this is what November feels like.

The temperature was a couple of degrees above average, I am pretty sure that any more riding I do this year will have to be with temperatures above average. If it is very much colder than today it will be too cold.

But I have the gear and today was OK. I rode out towards the north. I ride to Vadnais a lot and it felt to me today like this might be a last chance to ride there this year. That archery deer hunt resumes again tomorrow and runs Monday through Wednesday which means I won't be riding there for at least the next three days. Those days are predicted to be above average temperatures but after that who knows? The season is almost over, I may not ride there again until spring.

I have a lot of pictures of Vadnais, this is Sucker Lake, looking north from the picnic area. Sucker Lake was pretty today.I have a lot of pictures of Vadnais, I was going to leave it out today. But these ducks were right next to the shore when I rode by.There have been lots of photos of mallards lately. Truthfully this isn't the best one I have seen lately, it is just the best one I have taken. It would have been better if the ducks were feeding on the shoreline in an area which was not in the shade. Stupid ducks. I took what was available.

It is getting cold (and dark) but I remain hopeful of another few rides. I have ridden a lot in November and it is evident to me that October's poor weather and lack of riding cost me considerably in my fitness level. I am starting to feel stronger again just in time for the season to end. I will miss the bicyclist when I am no longer able to ride, I feel strong, I feel good.

Probably most people are not going to find this terribly interesting but I have provided exhaustive coverage of the corn crop. I may be a little weak on soybeans but I have personally seen corn harvesting, my knowledge base is more comprehensive. I was riding past the corn field and saw evidence of another step in the harvest over there. The earlier harvest photos I posted were of corn being chopped. Chopping corn for silage uses up pretty much the whole plant leaving very little residue as in the foreground of this photo.
Next to the still standing corn is some corn that has been combined. Combining corn involves separating the cobs from the plant and also separating the kernels from the cobs. You end up with kernel corn. The process leaves quite a bit more plant residue in the field, as with the standing half stalks next to the standing corn in the photo.

Why they are doing this I don't know. And why there is still some corn standing I do not know. Maybe they are leaving it standing for the wild life. Over the winter pheasant survival is rumored to be improved by leaving some corn standing in the field.

It was a nice day for a bicycle ride.

Jackrabbit Saturday

I was sitting around late this morning watching our beloved football Gophers tussling with the previously unknown Jackrabbits (the game came on TV at 11am). The day had dawned still looking pretty wet and I was pretty much resigned to no ride today either. But the talking heads at the football game put up a weather graphic and proceeded to discuss the game time weather. The temperature was 44 with a WNW wind at 12-14 mph. The lead announcer pronounced this to be cold and windy.

Well!

I knew that the cited temperature was above average for this date and 12-14 mph doesn't seem that windy to me. I started looking out the window.

The overcast was heavy and the trees were moving around a bit but the pavement was mostly dry in the cul de sac. Off I went.

The November question is always "Where you warm enough?" Having already dressed successfully for temperatures lower than today's I had a good idea what to do. At this point you put on every single thing that you have put on before. It was grey, very grey, but I was warm enough.

The wind was described as WNW but it might have even been a couple more points west than that, it was almost a pure west wind. The thing about a west wind is that it doesn't hurt you going north, it doesn't help you going south. Most of my rides are predominantly north or predominantly south. In view of the nominal N is the WNW I headed north. I didn't want to get too far away from home and hearth with that temperature, it seemed as if the Shoreview water tower loop was the called for route.

It was grey, very, very grey but even so on the way out I discerned two nice photo opportunities. The first came near Lake Judy in Shoreview when the sun suddenly burst through the overcast for the first time. The change in lighting immediately created lots of interesting shadows. I stopped almost instantly and reached for my camera only to discover that I had forgotten to put it in my pocket. I was cameraless. It hurt to have been so thoughtless but it didn't hurt that much as the photo opportunity was extremely brief and I probably would have missed it anyway.

A couple of minutes later I was stunned by a view of the Shoreview water tower that appeared over the left side of my handlebars. I immediately pulled to the side of the street and reached for my camera. Only to discover that I STILL cameraless.

OK, we'll wait a minute while all of you slap your foreheads. DOH! I already slapped mine.

I thought about stopping one other time on the way home but didn't. I went directly home. The Shoreview water tower loop is a loop, not a complete ride. Straight home from the water tower got me home at about the 16.5 mile mark of my ride. Fairly obviously, if a person intends to average 25 miles per ride the best route to that average is to always ride at least 25 miles. 16.5 wasn't going to do it. I went in the house, retrieved my camera and set off on a 9.5 mile loop.

It is a bit early but I wasn't that surprised to come upon this Christmas display.OK, Christmas, but I just don't get the turkey. Please note that the sun is OUT. Those are shadows, people.

A 9.5 mile loop gave me time to visit the Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds is south but as previously noted, it was a west wind, north and south were not extremely relevant today. In a major upset the sun was becoming dominant in the sky. I decided to get a photo of a major Fairgrounds icon with enough blue to fashion a pair of pants for a Dutchman in the background. This photo was taken from near the cattle barn.I like it, part of the grey overcast is still visible on camera right. Lesser clouds are visible on camera left. Lots and lots of really nice blue sky framing the Space Needle. I like it.

Noon+2:45 EG44 CB42 WG50.

It was a nice ride. I knew before I started and know now that before the year is over I will ride in less favorable conditions. Today was above average temperature. Very soon riding is just not going to be possible. Especially considering the spectacular sun breaking through as I finished the ride I am very glad to have gotten out there. I would have been sorry if I missed this one.

This evening in Dublin at historic Croke Park, the Republic of Ireland and France began a two game home and home series to determine which of the two will qualify for the 2010 World Cup. France got the only goal to win 1-0 and enjoy an enormous advantage going to next Wednesday's game at Stade de France in suburban Paris.

Finally, thanks and chapeau to the Michigan chef who reminded us here of Uncle Gene's pizza. We passed on Davanni's delivery this evening and went with the home concocted.

Delicious.

Leaf pick up

I was pretty sure all morning that I was going to get in a ride today despite heavy overcast and cooler. I had lunch a little early just to be sure that I could get an early start but as I turned to go upstairs to don my bicycle apparel it was apparent that the drizzle predicted to develop "in the afternoon" had developed at noon. It didn't really rain but the pavement is wet and the drizzle is likely to persist and recur. Cold is one thing, cold and wet is two things.

But I already had my photos for the day, here goes.

They arrived earlier than I expected, the first photo is time stamped 7:47am. I wasn't expecting government workers before 8 but this is outdoor work and all outdoor work at this time of year has to obey the rules of daylight. The sun rose at 7:08 and will be setting at 4:46. It will be pretty dark by 4:30. It is best to start work as soon as it is light because no matter when you start it is going to be dark when you finish.It is now apparent to me that there are at least three crews doing leaf pick up as that truck is not either of the two that I spotted yesterday. Both of yesterday's trucks featured front mounted vacuums. This one has a trailer mounted vacuum being separately towed by the receptacle truck.

It's a four man crew, one guy stayed in the truck to move it up as necessary, two guys on rakes, the foreman on vacuum. It is also a two truck job, one raker riding in the vacuum truck, one riding with the foreman in that pick up across the cul de sac.It's a dirty job. Note the cloud of leaf dust forming in this photo. In the next photo note the dust obscuring the light on the back of the foreman's pick up across the street. I was surprised that none of these guys had dust masks or ear protection. One or the other of these is likely to be an OSHA violation.The guy in the truck has been given a signal and moves the whole parade forward to allow the vacuuming to continue. They're almost done.All right, let's move on. We are the house on this street that has mature trees, we are the only ones who pay the municipal fee to have these guys come and get our leaves. The crew is going to have to move at least off our street before they come to their next pile of leaves.The last photo is time stamped 7:51 am. The whole thing is over in less than four minutes. I compare the four minutes and the $25 I paid to the hours of bending over to pick up leaves and happily wave good bye to the crew. All they leave behind is a giant spot of leaf dust.Short story, I was at the grocery store after yesterday's ride. I find that I go to the grocery store a lot more often now, like 3 or 4 times a week, so I seldom have much in my cart. I always qualify for the express check out lane so yesterday I was standing there with my less than 15 items waiting my turn. A guy shows up a second or two after me with only a gallon of milk. I offer to let him go first, he has only the one item. He says, no, no bother. He said, "I got nowhere to go and all day to get there."

Even though I didn't get in a bicycle ride, I am going to put today down as a day well spent.

Waiting for the man

Today moved closer to November, although it was still a day out of early November even as the calendar informs us that mid-November is nigh. The temperatures were above average but today only by a much smaller amount.

The bigger weather news was that the south wind freshened considerably, blowing often at 20 mph. Along with the stronger winds came a dense overcast meaning the sun would not be able to help the temperatures. Cold and very windy, the ride promised to be hard work.

I was saved from having to make too deep an excursion to the south by the municipal leaf pick up. We have a post card from the city informing us that our leaves will be picked up on November 10, 12 or 13. Both TOPWLH and I recall that in the past we have almost always been picked up on the first day of the pick up window. When the 10th passed without any movement of our leaf pile we started to get a little antsy. If we have to revert to bagging that monster pile out front we are both going to have very sore backs.

The 11th also passed without action but we expected that. 11th month, 11th day, 11th hour . . . we are not fooled, it is a holiday (by the way Wireless, it is extremely unpatriotic of your employer to not recognize a moment of this immense significance). Even so, the passage of another day didn't make us any LESS nervous.

So today I consulted the post card for the boundaries of our pick up zone (Southwest) and spent the first part of my ride going up and down the streets looking for the leaf crew. I found them.That vacuum truck and those guys with rakes make extremely short work of even the most monster pile of leaves.

As I rode away I discovered that there are at least two trucks and crews and at one point I was able to see them both at the same time. One seemed to be taking the north south streets and the other was on the east west. I rode through an intersection where I could see one of the crews crossing headed east in front of me while down the street to my right (west) I could see another crew crossing headed south.

It wasn't extremely productive but it allows us to know that leaf pickup looks on schedule and we can probably expect a visit from one or the other of the trucks tomorrow.

It was a south wind, after all.

Noon+1:20 EG53 CB51 WG55

I suspect that the west grandstand sensor must be in full sun as the temperature discrepancy was considerably less in today's overcast conditions.

Another day with new material

It's November and I have to blog every single day. Sometime during the month I am going to have to reuse previously used material but not today. It wasn't quite as warm today as it has been but the temperature was still 12 degrees above normal, plenty nice enough for yet another November ride. I rode today for the fourth day in a row, the second four or more days in a row THIS MONTH, the first time I have ridden this many days in this short a time since September.

It was a south wind so I headed over to the river again. It was pretty much the same as many other rides over there. Except that today is Veteran's Day so there were a few more riders out there that I haven't seen for a while.

In particular there was one quite strong young man on a nice Cervelo who let me wheelsuck behind him for a bit and who then waited at the turnaround point for a pleasant bit of conversation before he continued on along on his intended route.

Turnaround was at the overlook above the confluence of the Misssissippi and the Minnesota.According to the plaque there, T. S. Eliot asked "At what point in the river's course does the Mississippi become what the Mississippi means?". The plaque answers that this is the spot.

Here's another view down into the gorge showing the sun glistening off the waters of the river, another really nice October day in November.It was not warm enough and it was windy, this makes for hard work riding. But I felt pretty good and it was a good ride.

Noon+:45 EG55 CB51 WG59
Noon+2:30 EG55 CB53 WG60

Is anybody else as fascinated with this data collection as I clearly am? It's OK, I didn't think so.

How long can this last?

Every morning I ask TOPWLH what my schedule is. Today she informed me that I was pretty wide open. Again.

Fortunately for me, the 15 degrees above average temperatures are still hanging around. I decided to emulate Herb Schultz and take a bicycle ride.

The weather channel that I watch declared that there was virtually no wind. The guy that made that statement clearly made it without trying to ride a bicycle into that "no wind". It wasn't a strong wind, but once again riding into the wind felt a fair bit colder than the day looked from inside the house looking out the window. The wind was from the south and I set out to use the newly refurbished crossing at Dead Man's Curve and possibly ride all the way to the end of the standard summer south ride. It was slightly chilly on the way out but only a tiny bit. It was a way nice day, yet again.

I rode around the Fairgrounds a bit too much while taking my now customary loop there on the way out to the south. I ended up having to break off the river road ride before I reached the end. I stopped at the overlook above Hidden Falls. It was far enough, I felt good, I was enjoying the day, I decided to go artsy with today's photograph.

Behold: "Bare oak, blue skies".Pretty nice blue sky, eh?

I took a close look at those trees, and in fact, have looked at them closely a few other times when they had leaves on them. Those are definitely oak trees, and thanks to a persistent poster I am able to identify them as white oaks. The red oaks don't drop their leaves yet, don't ya know.

I was feeling pretty proud of this, at least proud of the view of it that I could get on that tiny LCD screen on the back of my pocket camera (think "small", think "vision isn't quite as good as it used to be"). That's when I noticed this woodpecker flitting about. I decided to make a second effort at photography and go for a wildlife shot.Pretty nice blue sky, eh?

It might not be visible in the photo but there is a hole in that dead tree just above the woodpecker and there is another woodpecker in there. That's where they live.

It was a ride to the south, an out and back.

Noon+1:15 EG59 CB55 WG64
Noon+3:00 EG59 CB57 WG71

I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that the only reliable indicator over there is the one on the cattle barn. It might be registering a degree cool but those two on the grandstand are definitely totally whack (is that how you spell whack when used in the context of totally whack?)

Another nice October day

It was about 56 when I started today. I have been a little surprised every day here in this heat wave when I start out. Even with the balmy temperatures and the sun shining it just never seems quite as warm on the bicycle as it looks out the window. This is not a complaint, it was really nice today.

I rode out to Lake Vadnais. I have ridden there many, many times over the past several years. Earlier this year I for the first time ever encountered a boat on the waters of the lake. Nothing is ever unique I guess, today I saw it again, a boat on Lake Vadnais.It was another beautiful light day. These ducks came in close to shore to let me have a good look at the green head of the male.There was a guy in town who was quite a bit older than me and who biked quite a few more miles than me. His obituary is in the Strib today and includes this information:

"At age 78, Schultz rode more than 5,000 miles, and he was on track to do the same this year when he died unexpectedly earlier this month."

Good on you Herb Schultz, RIP.

This evening in France FC Nantes suffered a home defeat to Guingamp. FC Nantes falls to fourth in the table, outside the promotion zone for the first time in many weeks.