A day without football is like . . .

A day without football is definitely UNLIKE any other day recently. I love the World Cup, 56 games in the last 18 days. Today no football is OK with me, we all can probably stand a short break.

They will be back on Friday, a bit more on that later.

Today was a nice day for a ride down into the city. I rode through the Fairgrounds and discovered that the church dining hall to commercial restaurant conversion involves a pretty much complete rebuild. About all that they are retaining for the new business is the old roof and parts, only parts, of the exterior walls. Everything else must go.I passed these in Saint Anthony Park.Pleased to be of service.

And this struck my fancy as well. Within the Saint Paul city limits seems an odd location for the Minneapolis and Suburban Bus Company.Shouldn't they be located in one of those other places?

Minnehaha Falls is always a good destination. The very plentiful recent rainfall has resulted in a lot of water going over the edge for this late in the year.I ended June with the fewest miles ever recorded in that month since I started keeping track. See above reference to plentiful recent rainfall and also note that I was in France for the first two days of the month. This marks the second month in a row with a new all time low recorded. Note that I was in France for a good portion of May.

Before the World Cup began my selection for probable winner was Argentina. I have seen 56 games and my selection for probable winner is Argentina. Argentina has the best player in the world and plenty to go with him. The more I see of Lionel Messi the more astonished I am by how clearly he IS the best player in the world (right now).

I have seen 56 games, I feel qualified to comment on some of the teams that have gone home.

Italy. Italy 2010 made the same mistake as France 2002. France won the Copa in 1998 and returned four years later with mostly the same team. In 2002 France was too old and exited without scoring a goal in the first round. Italy wasn't quite as pathetic this time as France in 2002 but they too made the mistake of returning four years later with mostly the same team that won in 2006. Too old, not good enough.

France. OK on defense, weak in the midfield, extremely poor at the front. France's best striker was only the SECOND best striker on his club team. France also suffered from being too old. Consider that 17 players on the Algeria team formerly played for France in the under 22s and younger ranks. Those young players should have been pushing the French veterans to make France better. To improve there must be a constant infusion of young talent, most of France's young talent is playing for Algeria.

England. Crippled by the pre-tournament loss of stalwart central defender Rio Ferdinand. Instead of solid at the back England spent the tournament trying to figure out who should play alongside Terry. England was also, fairly obviously, severely weak in goal (what a wanker!). A further problem was the fact that two of England's best four players play the same position. Gerrard played out of position the whole tournament and despite his early goal against the USA he never really got it going.

But the topper of them all to me, the reason why they turned out to be not very good is right there next to Rooney. Emile Heskey? Surely you jest. Emile Heskey? If your first eleven includes Emile Heskey your team's reasonable ambition should be mid-table in the Premier League, surely not the World Cup.

USA. Looked considerably less talented than its inflated world ranking. Competent in midfield, punchless up front and disorganized at the back. Furthermore I believe the buzz we heard about Tim Howard as the best goalkeeper in the world will probably die down in a bit in the wake of his having surrendered not one, but TWO goals at the near post against well known juggernaut Ghana (playing without its best player by the way).

56 games in 18 days and now the fun begins.

Citizens of Tokyo

Unlike last Saturday today was a classically beautiful day out at the northern lakes. Here is the greatly underappreciated Sucker Lake.The underappreciation could, just could be related to the unfortunate name.

Just a couple of pedal turns down the shoreline I came upon a great blue who hung around long enough to be photographed. It didn't hang around long enough to be photographed in ideal lighting conditions.And speaking of birds, I came across this in a part of Roseville where I ride often but on a street where apparently I don't ride very often. These people have lots of lawn clutter and other interesting stuff on and next to their garage. But I liked the rooster the most.I wonder if they are French.

This morning citizens of another of the largest cities on the planet joined the ranks of the neutral observers of the World Cup. I thought Paraguay was the better side and the result was not unjust but going out on penalty kicks with only one single, solitary mistake, it's a harsh result for a Japanese team that I found immensely entertaining.

Turtle crossing

I actually first saw this sign while out with GRider yesterday. Today's very windy conditions led me back out in the same direction. I made a point of going by and framing the whole thing up to tell my side of the story.

Which is, crossing from where and going where?That's just plain the middle of the suburbs there. There isn't anything like what I would consider turtle habitat within a quarter of mile or so in one direction and absolutely NOwhere nearby in any of the other directions. Still, the sign looks pretty official, who knows?

GRider has put some new stuff in the ground. She doesn't think I have looked at any of it yet but I have.We planted the evergreen perennial in the front there two years ago and each of the past two springs she has pronounced the plant to be dead. I am willing to concede that it has not exactly flourished, but it does seem to still be green, at least to me.

Who wouldn't think this was ominous?Perhaps I need a tax accountant. I had a fairly significant change in status between filing taxes in 2009 and 2010 and apparently I didn't study the tax code sufficiently well before filing this year's return.

But never mind, the error I made was in my favor. It's almost like that Community Chest card in Monopoly, "Bank error in your favor, collect $15". But better. The IRS has informed me that based on information provided on my return I am eligible to claim the "Making Work Pay and Government Retiree Credit". They have been kind enough to recompute my tax and have determined that THEY OWE US MONEY.

Life is good.

Citizens of London

Possibly motivated by yesterday's lake photo the Guest Rider today requested another outing. We increased her distance by two miles and added in some rolling terrain. She didn't complain on the uphills and reported achieving 25mph on one of the downs. Roseville is glacial terrain, lots of ups and downs with a lake at the bottom of most of the hills.

So yes, today she did get to see some lakes. Not yet the full ten lake tour but we did pass five named lakes and at least three other places which in places on the planet which lack the abundance of lakes found in Minnesota would most likely be called lakes. We will settle for five, the five named ones (Josephine, Judy, Island, Emily and Owasso for those keeping score).

We have ridden the Tour de Roses a couple of times in the past. It wasn't on our agenda today but we did discover ourselves on part of the route. This sign is at the intersection of Victoria and West Owasso Boulevard. Should I point out that Owasso Boulevard refers to nearby Lake Owasso?We were pretty strong again today. Today the two hour bicycle ride took just a tick over two hours and five minutes.

Rain and heat, you can almost hear the corn growing. Not yet the 4th of July and the local crop has exceeded knee high by at least one body joint.The Citizens of London have joined Rome and Paris on the sidelines of the football tournament and they are NOT going to be happy about it. After an early tournament dominated by goalkeeper howlers (including by the English keeper) the more recent part of the tournament is gradually being overwhelmed by really, really poor officiating. After being severely harmed by this bad officiating the USA was able to survive until finally it was inadequate play that led to them being eliminated but both losers today are going to scream about clearly, clearly wrong officiating decisions which substantially affected the outcome of the games.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon takes their traditional lay day and le Tour de France lurks less than a week away.

The sirens went off last night

It rained really hard but the wind didn't seem strong enough to warrant the severe weather warning. Still, the most dangerous part of the first wave tracked just to the north of here so just after Uruguay 2, South Korea 1, I headed out thinking I might find a down tree or something photo worthy. I didn't really find any such thing although someone else did. Mostly I found a pretty nice late morning.

It wasn't a classically beautiful day at Lake Vadnais. There was still a bit of a hazy remnant of the storm but with the Guest Rider having recently become active again I thought it might be best to remind her of what awaits as soon as she is fit enough.Today I was strong, the two hour bicycle ride took just one minute more than two hours to complete.

Here's the last of this time through, the morning of our departure.

This isn't visible from the terminal, it also isn't visible from the road. It is only visible from the plane on the taxi out to take off, one of the last remaining SSTs on the planet, the Concorde.Here's one taken out the window while we were in flight. That's the shoreline of England down there.We passed over extreme western England, out near Land's End.

Later on the sky was quite clear when we passed over Greenland and I got a good look at that but didn't get a picture. Greenland is very, very interesting looking.

Abbreviated by sprinkles

I had a Guest Rider today. Scheduling was a bit of a problem because I wanted to ride after Brazil v. Portugal and before Spain v. Chile. GRider, of course, also has items on her agenda. The event was further complicated by the fact that the weather wasn't the greatest. But we got in enough miles for the still rounding into form GRider. I went a bit farther and it was sprinkling as I arrived at home.Cows for scale. It hasn't really rained here yet, I may recycle.

There's lots of activity at the Fairgrounds. There is some maintenance going on on the Sky Ride. The cars are never, and I mean never, on the cables except during the State Fair. The maintenance, whatever it might be, has required that the cars be attached and that the whole apparatus go through testing.Here's something from the last day. This is the Tomb of Marshall Foch, a World War I hero. The tomb is located in an alcove of Eglise du Dome. The central rotunda under the dome is the location of the tomb of Napoleon, previously pictured.Marshall Foch will spend eternity being borne upon the shoulders of his soldiers.

Citizens of Rome

I hardly have enough time to ride my bicycle. These sporting events are keeping me so busy that today I had to ride after the football. This means I ended up out there riding around with people who have jobs. It is quite a bit more low key when it is just me.

Here is the flowering bush in our front yard.This is my take on the two big sporting events.

Football: In the last World Cup Italy defeated France in the final. Today the citizens of Rome joined the citizens of Paris as neutral observers for the rest of the competition. Italy loses to Slovakia and, like France, finished last in their group and is eliminated. Italy's results are probably even more disappointing to Romans than France's results are to Parisians. More was expected of Italy than was expected of France.

Tennis: So yesterday they played a fifth set to a draw. Today they came back out for a sixth set and Isner defeated Mahut 11-9. This means that my personal score line for the match reads as follows: 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 59-59, 11-9.

I thought that my camera had stopped functioning on day 12 in Paris before I got any photos of Montmarte. In going through my photos I discovered that I do have one taken before we went inside the Dali Museum. Furthermore, I kinda like it, it does a nice job of showing the elevation change of Montmarte, the hill we had just walked up.Of course, the truth is that we didn't walk up that particular street. That's the direct route up (or down) the hill. We walked around the edge, a long diagonal across and then back across the hill to get to the top.

Just enough time between games

It turns out that I can only concentrate on one soccer game at a time. Funny, I have few problems watching two American football games on competing channels. Of course, American football is mostly standing around waiting for the next short burst of activity. Today I had to watch just one of the two simultaneously occurring games. It had seemed for a time that I would see parts of each and every game. That will not happen.

Today's results were not unexpected but still a little disappointing. Sporting events are generally a bit more engrossing if the spectator has a rooting interest in one of the participants. I didn't think France was going to win the tournament but I was hoping that les Bleus would keep my rooting interest alive for a bit longer than this by surviving to the next round. They did not. I left as soon as the game was over for my bicycle ride and was able to get back just in time to watch my new favorite team, Argentina.

It was pretty warm and I think conditions outside my house at this moment, one game later, qualify as hot. I was out early enough that the warmth mostly felt pretty good. Evaporative cooling kept me from overheating while riding but I did rediscover the joy of sweat as soon as I arrived at home and stopped.

I rode the Capitol loop and passed by the Fitzgerald House on Summit Avenue. This is where Fitzgerald lived in 1919 while he was finishing the rewrite of his first novel, "This Side of Paradise".A version of this shot has already been published but I am using it again because it is so appropriate. This is me in front of 74 Rue de Cardinal Lemoine, where Hemingway lived in 1922 while he was finishing his first novel.The housing arrangements available to these young family men indicate that one of them was already rich.

However, neither one of them had participated in the let's go in the loo and look and my willy incident. That happened later.

Here's today's previously unpublished photo, a view of the back of the Rodin Museum from near the pool in the garden.The sculpture in the pool is "Ugolino", another view of which has already been posted.

English tennis

That English tennis tournament got under way today. Gadzooks! Roger almost lost!

I am going to be really, really busy for the next four days. The World Cup football business goes to a four games per day schedule starting tomorrow and there is also obviously tennis. And bicycling.

I must admit that tuning in ESPN2 this morning to find the tennis tournament about to begin caused me to spend part of the day scouring the intertubes to see what I could find in the way of accommodation providers that might somehow approach the wonderful experience we had with, shameless plug here, Cooper Apartments in Paris. I have nothing to report as of yet.

Today in Roseville I had to try something I have never, ever done before to get my bicycle ride. When I was pulling on my bicycle gloves and closing the garage door as I prepared to begin a ride I noticed that rain drops were forming wet spots on the driveway. I have never begun a ride in such conditions before. But my radar weather research had convinced me that there was a window of opportunity for a ride. I rode a world record number of times around the cul-de-sac convincing myself to go and eventually headed out. Throughout the entire ride there was moisture in the air. It wasn't raining and it wasn't a mist but it was like every couple of minutes an ambient drop of something wet would hit my face or arms. It always felt like rain was possible. In contrast, the sky was overcast but not that ominous threatening overcast that I associate with the onset of actual precipitation. It always felt risky but . . .

Ride completed, no rain yet.

Here, depending on one's perspective is either good news or a sign of unwelcome progress. Saint Bernard's is a Saint Paul church and high school. This past year there was some news reports that the school would be closing. It has been apparent for some time that the church and school sponsored dining hall at the Fairgrounds would also be closing (earlier this spring there was an auction of fixtures). This is pretty much the final notice though.If you like O'Gara's, and a lot of people do, you will probably be pleased to learn that the local Irish pub/restaurant will be establishing a presence at the Fair. If you think the loss of one of the church dining halls is a loss of one of the landmarks that makes the Fair the Fair then you will probably not be as pleased.

Count me in the latter group. I don't believe I have ever eaten in that particular establishment but I am sorry to see it go.

There is so much art in Paris that I don't even know that these are officially art or not. These are our two "local" fountains, the fountains at the corner of Rue Saint Honore and Avenue de la Opera. The first one is the one furthest from our flat, the one near Comedie Francais and the Palais Royale Metro stop.Many, many times when we walked past the fountains were not even turned on. I got a picture of the two of them on a day when water WAS flowing.

I looked through the guide books and even tried some intertubes research but can find nothing about either of these. They are still nice, quite photogenic. This is the closer one to our flat, next to the cab stand.London seems like it should be easier to go to than Paris. The natives of London speak a language very similar to ours, communication MIGHT be easier. Or maybe not.

Guest rider gets off the schneid

She did just fine for her first time out. Approximately knee high corn before the 4th of July for perspective.It was a pretty grey day. I kept circling hoping for the sun to come out so we could get a sunlit picture but eventually we were getting to he end of what she could be expected to ride on the first time out so we took what was available.

The chapelle royale, the royal chapel inside the chateau at Versailles. This is practically the very first thing you come to on the chateau tour. This is the spot where everyone figures out how to work the audio guide which is complimentary with admission and which therefore nearly everyone takes. Unlike many audio guides, it is useful, and the price is right.This photo is from Friday of the second week. Just as the vacation gradually wound down the secondary photo tour is also about to end.

A bicycle race was cancelled yesterday in Minnesota

As reported yesterday in VeloNews:

'After the Minnesota state patrol received reports of nearby tornadoes from the national weather service, stage 3 of the Nature Valley Grand Prix was brought to a halt 14 miles in. After a quick debate, chief commissaire Bonnie Walker made the call to cancel the stage just outside Cannon Falls, Minnesota."

This indicates to ME that I wasn't making up yesterday's powerful winds. It was a very serious storm in parts of Minnesota with authorities now pointing to a death toll of 3. The city of Wadena and areas near Kiester suffered major damage.

The winds were so strong that I may have injured myself. Today I have a twinge in my left calf, a completely new bicycling experience.

Today I came across another example not very far from home of someone with too much spare time. This is a backyard roller coaster in Saint Anthony Park.There are electrical cords on the ground indicating that this thing may be, in fact, a working scale model. It appears to be completely constructed from pieces from a children's toy building set. I am no longer in that stage of life so I cannot identify the brand of the toys.

Today I reaped, pretty much for the first time, a benefit from my attempts to follow FC Nantes in the French Ligue 2. It is a very tiny benefit but it is at least something. At the World Cup Algeria brought on a late substitute in the game against England, Djamal Abdoun. I thought he looked familiar and indeed, he is. In addition to the Algerian national team Abdoun is one the best players currently on the FC Nantes squad. As I say, not much, but at least something. He didn't do much but at one point he did have his shorts tugged on in the England penalty area. In what I think is an interesting detail, the FC Nantes website gives Abdoun's nationality as French.

Algeria 0:0 England, Slovenia now threatens to win the Group. No one, and I mean no one outside of Slovenia, expected that.

Here is today's photo, Eglise Saint Roch.This was our "local" stone church, only a short block or so from our apartment. The first stone of this church was laid by Louis XIV in 1653. The Marquis_de_Sade was married there on May 17, 1763.

At the time of the French Revolution, the centrally located church was the scene of many events including many shootings. There are still visible bullet holes on the facade.

That church was on our way to the boulangerie. There was very often a guy with a dog on the steps. He had a couple of small containers into which each morning he would be encouraging passersby to deposit coins. Most afternoons the same containers would have some dry dog food. I personally thought it was good multiple use of resources.

60x25

Much of the first half of the season is taken up by trying to get my average ride up to 25 miles. On the first several rides of the year 25 miles is not possible due to the incredible lack of fitness for which I have still not found a solution. Early on in the year the norm is short rides, hard work. Once fit enough I have to ride more than 25 miles virtually every time out gradually moving the average up to the desired level.

And today is the day. Today's ride was my 60th of the year and I now have ridden 1,500 miles.

Today's ride was unusual for another reason. Today was the first time I have ridden in the morning. It was already 80 degrees by 10am. The prediction is for thunderstorms developing later this afternoon. And France was playing the afternoon game in South Africa. Clearly a morning ride was called for.

I rode south into a pretty strong wind. Admittance to the Fairgrounds was denied today as preparations have begun for that big annual old car show. I did get a nice picture of a pink Cadillac.Eventually the wind was just too strong for me and I turned back from the originally intended route. I rode past the Monarch butterfly yard. No butterflies yet but the yard is starting to look like a sanctuary.I have been posting a previously unpublished photo from each day of our trip and I have been waiting for this day to come around. I have a couple that I like.

Here is le Tour Eiffel photographed from Roland Garros.Here is Roland Garros photographed from le Tour.The green area in the center is the Bois de Boulogne, the large park on the eastern edge of Paris. Just at the left edge of the woods the stadium at Roland Garros is visible.

And because I like that one so much, here is le Tour photographed from the Place de la Concorde end of the Tuileries.And here, taken from Level 2 of the tower, is the Tuileries and Concorde.It was very, very windy today. It was the hardest ride in a long time. Maybe I should have ridden this afternoon, Mexico has just scored again for 2-0.

*sigh*

Out of the neighborhood

The predicted sunny skies and 80 had not arrived by 1pm but once the sun managed to poke through the overcast I started out. The sky was still almost completely overcast and seemed to remain that way as I rode north. I rode for about 45 minutes before I began to see what I had been feeling happening behind me even as I rode. The sky cleared southwest to northeast. I couldn't see it happening, it was behind me, but I could feel the heat of the sun on my back and see my shadow as I rode. The way ahead remained resolutely grey almost all the way to the Shoreview water tower.

The sun WAS out in Shoreview though. Most or maybe even all of the miles I have ridden since I got back from France have been done in loops near home. I ride a ways north, circle back past home and ride a ways south, not wanting to get too far from home in questionable weather conditions. Today in Shoreview was a nice day, a nice enough day to persuade me to push on for the first trip out of the neighborhood on bicycle in over a month.

The water level of Snail Lake is still pretty low but last year at this time you could see the sand bar at the end of the public access site. The project to allow water to flow between Snail Lake and Sucker Lake has been completed and it has rained a bunch. Snail Lake is nearing full recovery.It was pretty today at Snail Lake. I spotted no sign of the recently reported bobcat.

I did see signs that there appear to be some kids living near Snail Lake who have plentiful supplies of both sidewalk chalk and time. They are out to create an epic game of hopscotch. The squares run all the way to the top of the hill in both directions, probably something over a quarter of a mile.They have a sign posted that says that this is Minnesota's largest hopscotch and that their goal is 10,000 squares. Good luck, kids.

I haven't been out to these lakes for over a month but some things never change. Guess what, guess where.Lake Vadnais was pretty but what really struck me today was how good it smells. Anyone visiting Vadnais should do so by bicycle, not by car. The road is one way and traveling in the car legal south to north direction you just wouldn't get the same impact that you get traveling north to south on a bicycle. You turn off the county road and enter the park and it smells just like Itasca County.LOOK at Lake Vadnais.

Today's unpublished photo is Palais Borbon. Built in the 18th century, the palace is now the meeting place of the Assemblée Nationale, the lower house of the French parliament.Here is some more information about the Arago line. Someone named Chris Molloy has done pretty extensive research on the medallions and their locations. Here is a link to his Google Maps data on all locations.

I think that may qualify as a GIS layer.

Four days without rain

To be completely fair I concede that late afternoon in the Twin Cities has turned nice, extremely nice. The sun is out, the sky is blue, the temperature approaches average for the day.

But there have only been four days so far this month without measureable precipitation and conditions overnight and this morning ruled out the possibility that today might join the four. It was wet and ugly all morning. One of the weather website declared 80 percent chance of thunderstorms.

Well, that didn't happen, but during the time when I was riding I felt sprinkles more than a couple of times and once rode through an area where damp streets clearly indicated that rain had fallen. Even so I did not get rained on. The sun appeared occasionally. I am going to go with "plenty nice enough".

I tried to find some moments when the sun was out to get a picture or two. The sun WAS out while I was framing this photo but it seems that clouds intervened at the moment the shutter was released. Still, the abundance of precipitation means that the corn is doing really well.Keen observers might note that TOPWLH is NOT pictured for scale. I put new tires on her bicycle earlier but even the new equipment inducement has not lured her onto her Bianchi.

I am sure she has an explanation, one that I accept without reservation. I know she loves it, I expect she will be out there soon.

The sun actually was out when I rode past these folks. Sunlit cows with flowering tree for scale.Here's another previously unpublished photo. This is 2,000 year old brick work with family for scale.That's the cold baths, the frigidarium if you will, at the 2nd century Roman baths inside the Musée National du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages), also known as Musée de Cluny. That area of the building is intact from nearly 2,000 years ago. Neither of the human beings approaches that age although one is a bit closer to it than the other.

Another howler

If a person is going to ride on 160 days during a seven month bicycling season it is necessary to sometimes ride in questionable looking conditions. It was ugly and grey all day long with radar showing rain just to the south. But by about Germany 4, Australia 0 it still hadn't rained and the websites still said only 25 percent chance. It might have been worry about reaching nightfall and having missed a completely rideable day that finally got me out there or it might have been Germany's fourth goal.

Three days into the tournament and I have now seen half of the teams. Germany easily earns most impressive to date designation. Not only are the four goals impressive but Deutschland also displayed the best organization and teamwork so far. Of course it is one game and every team must play three before the field is cut in half, it is 8 games with 40 to go to the end of the first round, lots of football to come.

In today's first game I thought I had found another team to root for. Algeria has on its 23 man roster 17 players born in France. I wanted to like them but they lost as the Algerian keeper produced the second howler goal in as many days. A harmless looking shot from distance bounced once and skidded in off the keeper's arm. Algeria has a host of creative players and is fun to watch but it now looks like they will be going home early (most of them to France).

It turns out that it will not be necessary for me to view all 32 teams play a game before reporting on the apparel choices for the World Cup. There is a website selling official gear (only $102 for a Gerrard England jersey). I looked at the jerseys there and can report Adidas 12, Nike 9, Puma 7, Umbro 1, Brooks 1, Joma 1, with North Korea unknown (probably home sewn in a workers' commune). It turns out that it was an anomaly to have so many Adidas teams at the start of the tournament and they are not going to be as dominant as I first thought. Adidas scores bonus points though, as the ball is Adidas and the game officials are wearing Adidas.

No pictures today so back to the archives. Here is one of the medallions marking the Paris Meridian, also known as the Arago Line. This one is located in le Jardin du Palais Royal.The line is referred to in "The DaVinci Code" as the Rose Line, leading, it is believed, to the disappearance of some of the medallions.

In several places replacement medallions, more elaborate have been placed. This one is on Rue Saint Honore near the Palais Royal Metro stop.And what the heck, as long as the topic seems to be brass things embedded in pavement, here is Point Zero.All official distances in France are measured from this spot in the place across the street from the front entrance to Notre Dame.

World Cup howler

Two things.

First, five games played so far. That means ten teams have appeared, the first four were Adidas. In the first game today South Korea became the first Nike team. The second game today was again all Adidas. Today's third game was Nike (USA) against Umbro (England). I will be keeping track.

In actual game action, this happened in the game most hyped by USA television:

I love the term already being ascribed to this goal by the English:

HOWLER. Listen to the sound track: "Oh, my god, what a wanker!"

Howler indeed.

World Cup

The tournament started today and as is the usual case with major international sporting events, Day 1 was a light day, only two games. One conclusion is clear, however. I am going to be busy.

Watching football, fitting in a two hour bicycle ride and for crying out loud the Tour de France starts in a couple of weeks. Yup, I may not have a job but I have way too much on my calendar.

Let the fun begin.

Actually the fun began today. Allez les bleus. France looked to me to be the strongest of the four teams in Group A. I suspect the host team will be suffocated by the extremely defensive style of Uruguay. I suspect that the occasionally cavalier defensive style exhibited by Mexico will work to the advantage of France.

My predictions for the tournament are already on record but have not been posted here. No one, and I mean NO ONE can predict the World Cup. But what the hey, I predict a final four of England, Brazil, Spain and Argentina. I predict Argentina and England in the final. I predict that the winner of the tournament will be Argentina. Why? Lionel Messi, best player in the world, that's why.

It rained really hard this morning. I got in a couple of miles between games and then rode again after France v. Uruguay. I passed through the Fairgrounds. They have already had one antique motorcycle event over there but another one is on tap for this weekend. This picture indicates to me that at least one of the participants is an extremely serious hobbyist.Just driving down the street cruising for antique motorcycle parts, now there's a guy with well established priorities.

Here's a previously unpublished picture from Day 4, the Deportation Memorial. In a city dedicated to tourism this site is sobering. They only let a few people in at a time. We waited in line and when four people came out, we were allowed in. We quickly discovered that we were the only four in the memorial. No more than four at a time. Before we were allowed in we witnessed staff asking the German lady waiting in line behind us to put on her jacket to cover her bare shoulders. It isn't a tourist site, it is a serious memorial.The picture shows a hallway lined with 200,000 lights, one for each French victim of the Nazi concentration camps. The inscription reads, "Dedicated to the living memory of the 200,000 French deportees sleeping in the night and fog, exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps."

They got the wind part mostly right

The cold front dipped further to the south than the computer models suggested is what I am guessing is going to be the explanation. But sunny and 76 never came close. It was complete overcast at my 12:40 start. It remained overcast for the first hour or so, some patches of sun appeared after that and at about one and a half hours the sun actually very briefly lined up with one of those breaks in the clouds and shone down upon me. This phenomenon proved to be rare.

I wore a jacket.

Unfortunately, they were right about the wind. It blew pretty hard but even there the prediction missed out. Right up to the time I headed out the local weather channels were saying WNW winds. Well it was west alright but to the extent that the wind was anything other than straight out of the west I found it to be a couple of ticks south of west. This makes a big difference to a rider whose regular routes are mostly either north or south.

But who cares? It was grey and unpleasantly windy, I got no photos.

On the subject of bone density my credentials to comment are thin (Bachelor of Arts, not Science) but I am betting that cyclists have lower bone density than all of the athletes whose activity involves standing directly up on their two feet. However, I suspect that cyclists' bones may not be much less dense than, for example, swimmers, and I am pretty sure cyclist bone density is way better than bone density for someone whose major activities are deciding which ESPN to watch and whether or not to supersize that.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Here's an unpublished photo from Day 3. It is the backside of the former Bourse, the former stock market.The Bourse is a round building and because of that it ends up being a very useful landmark. This picture was taken from the corner of the Eglise Saint Eustache on our way to the street market. That's the head and hand sculpture on the left.