Posting a crooked number

This cannot last forever. In fact, conditions late this afternoon are starting to make a change, probably to something closer to the average. But in the meantime, it was mid-60s and sunny again today. I decided to ride my bicycle.

It was windy today and as I headed down towards the big city the wind which was advertised as SSE seemed to me to be most punitive when I was heading east, more an ESE than SSE. I thought about it for the couple of miles before I had to make a route decision and eventually headed off to ride the Capitol loop in reverse, something I very, very rarely do. This led me into the east wind early in the ride when I was strongest and minimized the amount of riding I had to do while pointed in a southerly direction. There is a reason why I don't do this more often though and it is the ride on John Ireland Boulevard from the Capitol up Cathedral Hill to the big church. The traffic is heavy, the part of the pavement where bicycles should ride is not well marked and did I mention that it is a hill?

This is a picture that I took today. It is, according to that plaque, "Monument to the Living" by Rodger M. Brodin, subtitled "Why do you forget us?" and "Presented by and for the Veterans of Minnesota, Dedicated May 22, 1982".It claims to be a monument for all veterans but the costume is pure Vietnam, from the boonie hat, to the jungle boots and fatigues, all the way to the M-16 slung grunt style over his right shoulder. It also features the plaintive cry of the many Vietnam vets circa 1982 who felt under appreciated, why do you forget us. In fact, I was present at that dedication and at that time this statue was recognized as a de facto Vietnam veterans monument. It retained that status until the dedication of what is now the recognized Vietnam memorial. The why do you forget us thing might have some validity as this statue is not really on the Capitol mall, it is more stuck back on a patch of grass next to the parking lot for the Veterans' Service Building. But that's OK, I remember thinking at the time that as art this thing is pretty good welding.

A bit earlier in the ride I passed this construction site.I am not positive but since that is the site of the former Como pool I suspect that the construction is for the new Como pool.

Baseball slang refers to an inning in which a team scores something other than 0 or 1 run as "posting a crooked number" on the scoreboard. Today I posted a crooked number.

My usual ride is 26 miles. The reasons for this are a couple but pretty easily understood. I want to average 25 miles per ride for all rides taken during the year. The best way to make that happen is to generally ride more than 25, 26 is more than 25. I also don't want to ride 25 or 27 as I prefer that every ride end in an even number of miles. I do this to avoid even the slightest possibility of arriving home at the end of an odd number of miles ride to discover that one or another of the totals that I keep track of has settled upon that dreadfully unlucky number. Triskaidekaphobia. As a result of all those 26s I am quite familiar with the multiplication tables for 26, at least through the number 15 or so.

I noticed when looking at numbers at the end of last month that if I rode the regular 26 milers but added just 2 miles to one of those rides, which I did, riding 28 miles on November 1, that sometime during the month I would arrive back at my garage to find this:20,000 miles on one bicycle. I have known all along that this was within the realm of possibility but I always expected if I did manage to get there this year that it would be on a grey and ugly day, cold, probably windy, conditions more likely for November. Instead? 64, sunny, very, very pleasant. By the way, portrait setting, macro activated. My feet in bicycle shoes for authenticity.

Let's see a show of hands from those with 20,000 miles ridden TOTAL on any number of bicycles during their lifetime. OK, I see one hand over there.

How about 10,000 miles? Now I see another one pretty close to here. You over there, raising both hands is just showing off. And if you think showing off is what I am now doing, well, this is MY blog, I believe showing off is what I do here.

OK then, how about even 2,000 hours (2,000 times 10 miles per hour equals 20,000) engaged in any single human powered activity during their lifetime. OK, I see another one for that.

Not too many of us though.

That bicycle will now be retired, the next time I am able to ride I will be riding NewLOOK.