38 percent chance

My usual early morning routine includes checking the early weather report to gauge the possibility of bicycling. I have a site that I always use that has nearly live radar which I use a lot and I also check the weather sites of a couple of local TV stations. The TV station said 38 percent chance of rain today and the radar confirmed that rain looked likely. With the temperature also quite a bit depressed from the high of the last couple of days I was pretty much resigned to missing a day.

As I was having lunch and trying to read the parts of the newspaper which I had not read earlier the dang sun started shining through the patio door and the too bright light began making reading at the table just a trifle uncomfortable on the unshaded eyes.

Well, we all know that 38 percent chance of rain means 62 percent chance of bicycling and with the sun out I rechecked the radar and decided to give it a try. I am glad I did.

I spotted my first northern half of the northern hemisphere (I know where the 45th parallel is and this spot is definitely north of it) great blue heron of the season on a little hummock of swamp grass at Lake Owasso. Here it is.Those birds are pretty shy and I suspect this one will be moving from Lake Owasso with its nearly fully built up shore line over to Lake Vadnais as soon as the lake water levels go down enough so that the similar hummocks which are common at Vadnais reappear above the water line there. The great blue spends most of its time sitting in shallow water waiting for food to come by.

Wait! You don't see the bird?

OK.

Regular viewers will know that I do not do video. I posted a couple yesterday but those were the second and third videos taken by me that I have ever posted. A quick scan down to yesterday's post will also show that as of yesterday I needed a little training on the video function of my pocket digital camera.

The obvious solution was "read the manual, dummy". I did. I believe I am now fully checked out on taking videos with that camera.

I pointed my camera at that bird and depressed the shutter button. I realized that something was amiss when the shutter sound that I expect was not heard, instead only a beep. As an aside I know that the shutter sound is not an actual shutter. I know that there is a sensor and that depressing the button activates the sensor to capture digital information. The shutter sound is provided by the camera manufacturer to assist doddering old fools in not being confused about what is going on with the modern apparatus in their hands. I digress.

The sound I heard I recognized as the sound provided by the camera manufacturer to indicate that a video is starting.

I have read the manual. I know how to do this.

But . . .

User error again. This time it is less in the nature of operation error and more in the nature of set up error. I forgot to check the camera settings before beginning operation. The little dial on the top of the camera was still on the video setting. When I realized I wasn't getting the snap shot I expected I reacted by jerking the camera down to have a look at the settings on the top of the camera to confirm what I already knew.

Behold the great blue:

By the time I reset and refocused the camera the great blue had moved on. They are shy birds.

I stumbled on this example of storm damage while riding through a neighborhood that I visit with some frequency but which I had not been to since last fall.That business was functioning every time I rode past last year but I don't think the current conditions are part of its business plan. There about six of those green houses in all. A couple of them have quonset style rounded roofs off to the left and those are still intact. All of the green houses with the peaked style roofs are collapsed, almost certainly as a result of the giant December snow storm. This place is a Roseville Heritage site as designated by the local historical society. It is a remnant of the long ago time when Roseville was at the edge of the city and there were lots of green houses out here (growing roses?). I fear that this one may not be able to survive this latest setback.