Orange biker

I broke a basic rule today. It is perhaps THE most basic rule. I always start the ride into the wind, preferring to do the hardest work while I am fresh and preferring to ride the homeward leg in a direction where I feel really strong.

Today the wind was WSW when I left my house but two forecasters predicted a 5pm wind direction of NNW. I took a chance that they were right and that the wind shift would occur while I was out there.

I started out feeling really strong but after less than four miles I was suddenly confronted with a quite strong head wind. For the rest of the ride both north and west were directions which were a bit difficult. Lucky for me after about nine more miles I turned and thereafter rode mostly south.

We have had frost here but not a killing frost. As a result the decorative plantings in the yards of very many people are still flourishing. I didn't get an orange tree today but I did get these really swell orange flowers.Those flowers are next to the homeowner's garage. As I was lining up the shot the garage door began to rise and soon the old couple backed their car out. We ended up having a quite pleasant exchange. They were mostly happy to have such clear evidence of someone else enjoying the visual benefits of their growing season long labor.

I enjoyed that so much that I stopped at another yard in Shoreview.This one also has a second flower bed there across the driveway. I noticed as I started to ride away that the second one has a couple of rose bushes.

Very pretty.

I also inadvertently learned something today. I know this isn't hard but I hadn't done it before. Sometimes my camera settings get jostled while the camera rides in my jersey pocket. Today I didn't notice what the camera was set on until it failed to execute a shutter click when I pressed the shutter release button. I turned the camera up to get a look at what the problem might be. It should be obvious what setting I had.

I hope you all enjoy viewing that as much as I enjoyed taking it.

The timing of my rides recently is such that as I near home I often pass through an intersection being patrolled by the Brimhall School Patrol. Recently they have taken to calling out to me. A couple of weeks ago when I was wearing my Paris souvenir jersey they called out to "Uncle Sam" but I replied to them as I went past "France". One of the kids called out that explained why the jersey said "Paris" on it. Today I was wearing my Euskaltel jersey.

"Hey, what's up orange biker?"