I paused as I was heading out today to capture an image which included a couple of my favorite plants.
The foreground is our dwarf lilac. It has reached maturity, at about 4 and a half feet that's as big as it will get. It has also blossomed spectacularly and is providing the wonderful lilac odor.
Just around the corner of the house is the big new tree, not really new anymore but definitely starting to justify its name by becoming big.
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
The last time I was over there I looked for the bench sponsored by family friends but did not find it. I continue to think that all of the benches were not yet out. Today I noticed a profusion of red benches and I have seen some blue. I took another look at the yellow area and there it was.
This one is also on Underwood Street but in the yellow area just outside one of the entrances to the Food Building.
This will be handy. In many past years we have met these folks for a little sit down at the Ball Park Cafe. Just to the left of the bench at the end of the Food Building is the Ball Park Cafe.
My Fairgrounds scouting for the year is officially over and officially a complete success.
I still get out some and today I rode my bicycle over to the Fairgrounds. They had a big car show over there a couple of weeks ago and it turns out that they put benches out for the overflow crowd.
So today I came across this:
I am unsure exactly what this means for location during the actual Fair but for now it is the second bench south of Murphy Avenue on the east side of Underwood Street. That puts it across Underwood from the Home Depot and across Murphy from the Hangar.
It appears that all of the green metal benches and all or nearly all of the yellow metal benches are out. At this time there are none of the wooden benches.
As long as I am here I have in the past made disparaging remarks about fire departments being called to rescue domestic cats from trees by noting that you don't actually ever find many cat skeltons in trees.
But I did fairly recently notice this in the neighborhood.
Just goes to show you cannot always be sure. It is always something.
If I revive this blog it will be as a mostly photo blog. GOINFS and age related arthritis has stiffened my left pinkie finger. This makes keyboarding an unpleasant chore.
So here are a couple of photos from today's ride.
Still a relatively short ride, quite near to home.
Information on Fairgrounds closing dates.
The air today was officially unhealthy for sensitive groups. That's me, I kept it short.
There is a story in there somewhere and perhaps someday I will tell it but today I broke the longest streak of days with no snow on the ground and no bicycle ride in nearly twenty years. There are a bunch of streets in the neighborhood with new pavement and though I had walked on most of them I had not ridden a bicycle on them.
I often have bragged about having ridden on every piece of pavement within 15 or so miles of where I live so the new pavement presented an issue which required some action.
It went okay.
I wanted to get inside the Fairgrounds before Fair preparations lead to access being cut off. I was surprised to find the benches are already out.
That is on Lee Avenue, the south side. Lee Avenue is the street where they display the antique tractors during the Fair, the street between Giggles on the east (Cooper Street) and Sweet Martha's and the Home Depot on the east (Underwood Street). That's the Sky Glider overhead and the building which during the Fair features the new tradition of women discarding their underwear on the roof. The bench is under a tree so it will feature shade but it will also feature fairly constant exhaust from antique internal combustion engines.
We still expect that there will be a Fair this year but the news about Delta keeps getting worse and it won't be the Fair until they actually open the gates and let people in. I read in the paper today that Minnesota had 700 new cases on the last day of July compared to 80 on the last day of June. CDC guidelines call for indoor masking again but no one is doing it in the indoor spaces where I have ventured.
It was a nice day to be on my bike and I had not forgotten how.
The weather forecast is for 80 yet again tomorrow but today was a pretty normal October day. The sun came out and the wind died down and the mercury rose to somewhere pretty near to average for this date.
I read in the newspaper that "peak" for fall colors here has been quite consistent over the past few years, generally occurring between October 14 and 19. That means that the peak is near and if I don't want to miss out on it I need to start featuring photos of colorful trees.
That's Chelsea Street looking north from Hoyt Avenue.
On my last ride my mid-ride sitdown featured a search for shade. With normal temperatures having returned, today I was looking for a spot in the sun.
Personally I think birches should suck it up and thrive. If I have to breathe this air then they should get used to it too.
Regarding the news from Michigan is it possibly true that nearly every one of the individuals arrested could be described as a "West Michigan man"?
The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a maintenance project on the stretch of river between the Upper and Lower Saint Anthony Lock and Dams, an area only several blocks in length known as the Intermediate Pool. This is the area of the river near downtown Minneapolis crossed by the Stone Arch Bridge. For reference, the Upper Pool is above the dams, the lower pool is below the dams stretching from the lower dam to the Lock and Dam Number 1, informally known as the Ford Lock and Dam.
The project involves opening the Lower Dam to lower or draw down the water level to allow for inspection of various parts of the generally submerged infrastructure. This is done, I now understand, periodically but obviously not often as this is the first I have heard of such a thing. Apparently this was last done in 2008.
The project will last about 10 days with today and tomorrow being the days when the water level will be at its lowest. It was a nice day for a ride, sunny and warm with a bit too much southwest wind, but downtown Minneapolis is southwest from where I live making a ride over there today downhill into the wind with a gradual uphill with a strong tailwind return. I set off.
Well, there were too many people there. But it WAS outdoors and with a strong wind. I don't ride with a face mask but I now do carry one in the pocket of my bicycle jersey so when I got there I put on my mask and coexisted for a bit with my fellow citizens. As is often the case for me for such interactions I found the experience to be tolerable if only just barely so.
And I took some pictures.
This is from the bridge looking upstream with downtown Minneapolis is the background, the upper lock dominating screen center.
You can still make out the ordinary high water mark on the concrete, the river looks to be down about six or eight feet. This is a significant amount when what the Corps is guaranteeing on this stretch of the Mississippi is a nine foot deep channel. The river bed near the lock has come into view, evidence of what was at the time of settlement a series of rapids which extended from below the then natural falls all the way down the gorge to Saint Paul.
This one is near the west bank, what was originally Saint Anthony before the two cities merged. That is a run out channel from one of the mills. Visible is a modern navigation warning sign. The warning is necessary as all of this area is now generally underwater if only just barely so, meaning that this is an area of extremely shallow water.
All in all it was a pretty good show.
But after that I has to get home and it was going to be mostly uphill. I stopped for a mini-Clif bar at what is likely to be my only visit this year at a spot where we have been going 18-20 times a year for the past 15 years. That is a NewLOOK at Ridder Arena, home of the seven time national champion Gopher Women's Hockey team.
Riding with a strong wind is hard. I think today's effort was more strenuous than the now several days ago 20 percent extension of usual distance. By the time I got home I was pooped.
But perhaps the news from the Petkoff time and temperature display had something to do with that.
That was about 3:45 and qualifies yet again as probably the last 80 degree temperature for several months. I turn left there and I can be home in 0.63 miles (5 blocks). I can make it from there even when I am pooped.
My yearly mileage total at the end of the ride is 1,006, which is good. I passed 1,000 while struggling on the uphill on Como past the Fairgrounds which is a hill which in my prime I charged. But accentuating the positive there are still 3 or 4 or 5 or who knows for sure more weeks to ride this year.
It was an exceptionally nice Tuesday in early October.
