So when does France play?

I have watched lots of the doings from Roland Garros the past nearly two weeks. My favorite moments are always whenever the coverage pauses briefly at Court 2 (fellow travelers will know what I mean and why). I have greatly enjoyed the coverage on the Tennis Channel and have also found the ESPN2 coverage to be completely adequate. With the arrival of the semi-finals and an expected spike in viewership the matches have moved to NBC, the network of the Olympics. Well . . .

Here's what to expect from coverage from London this summer. I know about the, for me, 7 hour time difference. So I know that I have to watch in the morning. Today there was no coverage on either the Tennis Channel or ESPN. I checked on line and discovered that there was a rain delay. OK.

At 11am the event came on NBC. The NBC coverage featured a bug in the corner identifying that this was live coverage. By live, of course, the network of the Olympics means "plausibly" live. The NBC coverage picked up at 2-2 in the first set. I knew from the earlier on-line check that the rain delay had come at 4-3 of the SECOND SET. So it was live only if you were a big enough idiot to believe those bloodsuckers at NBC.

Shameful.

Disgusting.

I clicked over to ESPN again and tuned in the opening ceremonies and the first game of Euro 2012. Actually live from Warsaw.

See the deal is that football fans actually care about the game and would not under any circumstances tolerate a delayed broadcast masquerading as "live".

Shameful, disgusting, oh, never mind.

Poland 1:1 10 man Greece
Russia 4:1 Czech Republic

France is in Group D and will open the tournament against England in the early game on Monday.

Yikes!! The English!!

There was precipitation about in the radar view of the immediate area so I headed out thinking I might be just riding around. But actually the sun came out a few times and mostly it was pretty nice, if a trifle warm. I ended up, quite by accident, riding over to the Stone Arch Bridge. The video today involves NO rock and roll but it is quite musical, I think.

The Falls of Saint Anthony:

The falls provide additional evidence of the very wet spring as an enormous amount of water is still pouring over the concrete apron.

There are probably some lessons there somewhere for the beavers.

I placed the camera on the railing of the bridge to take the video. That's why the picture remains so steady throughout. I didn't notice until later that a secondary result was that I included part of the railing in the video.

I am not offended, particularly, this is pretty insignificant compared to my usual level of user error. But I also have the photograph and except for the charming roar of the water available in the video, the photo is probably a slightly better reflection of today on the Stone Arch Bridge.

Closed circuit to travelers: The Empire Builder crossed that span back when it was still a railroad bridge.

Beaver spotting

I am not enamored of the new blogger. It has betrayed me again.

These things are all really just my fault, both big booboos have been primarily user error.

But it does seem to me that the interface could be just a trifle more forgiving. Click the wrong button and YOUR ENTIRE POST DISAPPEARS? With no avenue whatsoever for recovery?

OK, so it's gone. But why can't I go back to some master list and recover it? Just because I am editing the text why does that mean that the previous version NO LONGER EXISTS? Are you kidding me? You can revert to previous versions in every word processing program even the lamentably bug ridden Microsoft Word. Why is the original just completely gone?

Nothing further on this for now.

OK, I can't leave it alone.

Regular users of blogger will know that in the new interface there are two different photo posting processes. If you upload a photo before you enter any text you get one process. This one aligns the photo "center" as specified in blogger preferences. It also uploads a photo size of 240x320 pixels. The standard size for photos that I have been posting for, what, FIVE YEARS? has been 300x400.

If you put in some text and then "insert" a photo it uploads 300x400 but aligns at the left margin.

I have worked out how to deal with both of these problems (hint: edit HTML) but why do I have to be the one responsible for making new blogger do what old blogger did automatically.

New blogger is buggy, it sux.

I had a Guest Rider today as we rode out to check on the beavers.

The water level seems to have gone down just a tad but when we were at the dam the beaver work crew had been present for a considerable amount of work since the last appearance by the human work crew. There is very little water flowing through that dam.

Here is the Guest Rider at Lake Vadnais.

I have edited all of the HTML and the photos should be 300x400 and aligned center. I CAN do it, I AM doing it. I am tiring of having to go through the hassle.

Is anyone at blogger central listening?

Today's (actually yesterday's) milestone: 1,000 miles this bicycle, this year.

One last thing, I was recently reminded of George Harrison's comment upon being asked if he thought there would soon be a Beatles reunion. He said, "I do not believe there will be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead."

And of course George himself is now gone. I love this performance.

George leaves the stage at the 3:30 mark leaving the likes of Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell to finish up.

Aack!!!

The street next to mine has been oiled and graveled.  This leads to oil and gravel on the tires.  I am not happy.

I ride lots on Hamline usually but probably not for the next several weeks.

The humans are gaining ground but the beavers are still not giving up.

A video of a day at the beaver dam.

Warning: Do not attempt to edit a published post by messing with the picture alignment.

Bad things can happen.

Humans show resolve

I ended last month 60 miles behind the pace set last year. I have ridden all four days so far this month probably hoping to get back to close to even with last years pace. The problem with trying to gain on last year's pace at this time of year is that EVERY year in June I ride lots. After yesterday, for example, I was STILL 60 miles behind the pace set last year.

But today is Monday and under the new plan Monday is stretch day. Today's stretch involved a ride out to and into North Oaks.

Considering wisdom offered elsewhere on the internet I intended to make today just a simple two rides of 18 miles each. I had pretty much the same result. It turns out that North Oaks is, like, really hilly. It is a scenic road but it goes around a lake in a manner probably preferred by the robber baron who was the first European descendant to claim ownership of that property out there (James J. Hill for those who don't want to have to look it up). He used the land as a retreat from the city, as an experimental farm and as a hunting lodge. Most likely if you were in his position you wouldn't want to do the enormous amount of engineering typical of modern road building to create a nice flat street circling the main lake. Instead you would have a nice country lane going mostly up and down. In fact, pretty much always up and down. North Oaks is hilly.

I completed the first 18 mile ride at about this point. That's a picnic shelter in the woods, a pretty nice spot.

The problem for me is that the person who rides out there regularly with me and probably others will recognize that the picnic shelter is at the top end of Sucker Lake, the usual turn around spot of the 8 lake tour.

Did I mention that North Oaks is hilly? I know I didn't mention that today for the first time on a bicycle this year it felt HOT.

I made it home without having to call for assistance but I did come up a few miles short of 18 miles on that second ride of the day. I got another 14 and that was PLENTY. I am now 54 miles behind the pace set last year.

*sigh*

I was out there on the north end and all rides to the north end pass through this area. The humans are not giving up any more easily than the beavers. Today the work crew had returned and this time was taking a much more aggressive bite out of the beaver dam.

I chatted with the work crew again. The truck driver recognized me from last week and we had a long strategy session about the task ahead of them. Again he and I both agreed that this is a really good task. He is getting paid to be out there in the woods on a beautiful day with heavy equipment doing the hard part of the job.

I gave him what information I had about beavers (they are nocturnal, there is most likely more than a single pair of beavers out there in the vast beaver pond created by this dam, and that they will be back tonight for another session of dam building).

The struggle continues. It is good to see human persevering but I really MUST get out there tomorrow and see what the beaver response is.

Looked like rain, felt like rain

Even the radar looked like rain but you can't ride lots unless you sometimes set out to ride into threatening conditions.

Today is the first Sunday in June, the traditional date for Grand Old Days.  That crowd is most definitely not bicycle friendly so I intended to stay at least a couple of miles away at all times.  I did expect though, that most of the folks out for a little Sunday recreational stroll would be over on Grand Avenue.

So I was pretty surprised to discover an extremely large crowd at the Fairgrounds.  It seemed to me to rival even the really large horse show event crowds, certainly parking was crazier.  I thought it was the largest crowd I have ever seen over there other than the Fair itself and also excluding rent a fence events.

It turns out that it may have looked like rain and felt like rain but what it actually was was cheese. It was the Minnesota Cheese Festival.

I note from the website that they not only had cheese, they had wine and cheese AND beer and cheese. I have felt for several years now that one of the primary attractions of Grand Old Days is that it is an opportunity for public drunkenness. It appears that an opportunity to get a bit tipsy was also part of the attraction at the cheese deal.

But it was early when I was there, actually everyone seemed pretty orderly.

Tickets, you had to buy tickets to get into a cheese festival!

The sun came out in about the last mile or so of the ride. In conditions like that I ride nearby routes, trying to keep within a half hour sprint or so of home, just in case it does rain. Well withing a half hour sprint of home are these big pieces of metal.

That's a seldom photographed angle as I have to cyclocross a bit on a road bike to get into position for that. But that white flowering tree called out to be included in the picture so cyclocross I did.

I wonder what's up with the beavers.

Beavers reassert control

I really did suspect that this was a possibility but I didn't expect it quite this soon.

Yesterday I reported on the partial removal of a beaver dam out at Sucker Lake park. It appears that about as soon as the work crew departed the permanent residents out there noticed that something was amiss. Since then they have been busy as, well, busy as beavers.

We rode the shortest possible straight line out to Highway 96 and circled back through Lake Vadnais. This is only her third ride of the season but she tolerated 20 miles OK on her last outing. I have done the research and I was pretty sure I could get the full tour completed in around 20 miles.

She carried on a bit about "stretching" on the way home so we took the usual Snelling crossing loop. This adds a mile and a half or so but allows for the most relaxed crossing (when you hit traffic just right) of that major thoroughfare.

It was a very pleasant day for a ride, sunny and low 70s with a breeze that did not punish too severely.

Beavers lose

There was another bicycle fatality here last evening at about 10pm. Wireless alerted me to it when she saw it reported on the intertubes as she thought it might be in a spot where I frequently ride. Indeed the accident occurred just east of the intersection of Hodgson and Highway 96 in the east bound lane of 96. I ride through that intersection all the time, it is part of the Vadnais route although for me I am usually east bound on 96 but then turn south on Hodgson. Still I wanted to go out and take a look. I just feel that if I can look at where these things happen and understand how it happened it will make me more safe. So I rode out to Lake Vadnais again today.

This led me back through the Snail Lake regional swamp, er, park. I pictured this beaver dam once before.

Today I discovered that the beavers have lost. The water utility had heavy machinery, a couple of trucks and four men out there. I chatted with the fellow leaning on the shovel.  We agreed that beavers are pests and that at the stage in the process that they had reached he had a wonderful day on which to watch water flow.

There's still plenty of water to flow, by the way.  He pointed out that the water directly in front of where he is standing is still about four feet deep.  And we also both recognized that the beavers will not give up easily.  He thought that a trapper had been arranged for.

Even that process could be problematic as it seems likely that there is an entire colony of beavers out there.  This could take a while.

Today's daily photo blog monthly theme day is tranquility.  Here is a spot on the north end of Sucker Lake where the creek flows into the lake.

Park bench for added tranquility.

And because I was there and because I don't like any trip out there to go undocumented, here is Lake Vadnais on June 1.

Summer is making a comeback as temperatures were at or very close to 70 allowing me to remove a complete layer of gear including off my legs.