Fall at the Falls

It doesn't really qualify as an after work ride. A brief explanation: Yesterday was an extremely nice day and I rushed away from work hoping to get in a few miles. But I ended up in idle chit-chat with the painter after the bedroom got painted. By the time we were through . . . Well, anyway, no ride yesterday on a spectacular late October day.

But today might have been even nicer. So I took some time off and left work early. I really, really wanted a chance to ride.

The traffic conditions, wind direction, and desired mileage all aligned in such a way that I ended up at Minnehaha Falls.The Falls have been pictured numerous times here and at TT but it is a location that still stands up to another look.

I call this one: "Fall at the Falls".

Wild and wacky in Niort

FC Nantes won today in Niort, 1-0 to once again edge past Le Havre and back into first place.

I tried to follow the action on the live update page at the FC Nantes website. I don't speak French but the zaniness transcends the language barrier.

The game was 0-0 deep into the second half. Someone check my French. Here is the entry from the 73rd minute:

BUTTTTT DE DAVID DE FREITASSSSSS !!!!! Le milieu de terrain nantais file côté gauche du terrain avant de s'infiltrer dans la surface et d'ouvrir son pied dans un angle très fermé. Le petit piquet enroulé du Canari trompe Simon Pontdeve pour la première fois de la soirée.

I think David de Freitas, the Nantes midfielder infiltrated down the left side of the pitch and found an opening from a sharp angle. The small "piquet" from the Canary player eluded Pontdeve, the Niort keeper, for the first goal of the game.

74th minute: David De Freitas est sanctionné pour avoir manifesté sa joie irrégulièrement...

The goal scorer receives a yellow card. He is sanctioned for expressing his joy in an irregular manner. In American football this would be called excessive celebration.

In the 91st minute: Michel Der Zakarian donne de la voix en cette fin de rencontre pour recarder ses joueurs et notamment Jean-Jacques Pierre qui avait "déserté" son poste...

The Nantes coach complains to the referee about the many yellow cards Nantes has received.

Et l'entraîneur de Nantes se fait expulsé du banc !!! Mr Auroux demande au technicien nantais de suivre la fin de rencontre depuis les vestiaires...

The coach is expelled from the bench! The referee demands that the Nantes coach spend the end of the game in the "vestiarires".

Not over yet, 92nd minute: Et carton rouge pour Aurélien Capoue !!! Nantes va terminer à dix suite à un second carton jaune pour un accrochage avec Denis Tsoumou. Fin de match houleuse au stade René-Gaillard...

A second yellow card for Capoue, two yellows is a red card, carton rouge. Nantes will finish with a ten player side because of a dust up with Denis Tsoumou. An exciting end to the match at Rene-Gaillard Stadium.

And then: Denis Tsoumou est également sanctionné...

Tsoumou also receives a yellow.

I don't speak the language but it seems clear to me that it was a wild and wacky finish.

Allez Nantes.

Above average fall day

We had an at least unofficial freezing temperature overnight and a chilly morning but it was glorious this afternoon.

I took a short ride. The buzz is that the fall color peak is past here. Someone forgot to tell these maple trees lined up along the east side of Langford Park.On the way home I heard a car accident. I was coasting up to Garden and Snelling, expecting to cross, looking behind me to check traffic, when KABOOM. No life threatening injuries but two police squads, an ambulance and a fire truck convened. The ambulance did get used by the passenger in the smaller car who looked to have an arm injury which was causing some pain. The fire guys casually did a little sweeping and made sure after the tow that no gasoline had been left on the street. One of the officers asked me if I saw it. I told him I was there but I was looking the other direction.

The rest of the day will be devoted to raking.

Weekend solo

There was a hockey game this afternoon so I had to try to get in a ride this morning. It was only about 42 when I headed out. TOPWLH has been a bit under the weather so I rode alone.

I have tinkered with the layers a bit but I had just exactly the right combination for today. I was warm, I was dry.

I have a different base layer than I have used in the past but I also have switched from fleece under the jacket to a windstopper vest. I am uncertain which of these changes to ascribe the effect to but in any case this is a set up which is now fine down into the low 40s.

It was a pretty day, the sun was shining. The breeze was mild out of the NW. This picture is taken shortly after the turn around. This is Sucker Lake, next upstream from Vadnais and always passed on the 8 lakes tour but pictured far less often.It seems obvious to me that the reason why this lake is pictured less often has not a single thing to do with whether or not it is deserving of a photo. It is a pretty nice spot.

I think I achieved a season high today. The road to Snail Lake goes abruptly downhill. I routinely achieve 30 or 31 mph on this hill. Today I turned to go down the hill and I also had a slight tail wind. It felt fast on the way down. When I checked the computer a few miles later and flashed through the various settings I was a little surprised to see a maximum speed of 33 mph. I don't keep track of such things but I think I would remember and I do not remember going that fast any time earlier this year.

Calmer crowd

Curling yesterday, hockey tomorrow, today's ride is the last after work ride for this week, and just possibly for the year. Only a week of daylight savings remains but even with the clock change there is barely enough daylight being saved to allow for very many miles after 8 hours at the plant. All it would take is a bit of inclement weather or some emergency at work and the after work opportunity would just not present itself again. Truly the season is nearly over.

There are good things about the end of the season. The end of the season crowd is all that is riding now. Racer boy has pretty much disappeared from the streets. During the time when racer boy is out and about there is an aggressive rudeness which bubbles up all over the city. Racer boy has gone inside and the remaining riders are actually cordial to one another, greeting each other with a raised hand or a nod, civilities which completely disappear during the heat of the summer.

I don't miss racer boy.

It was 57 today, a disappointment to some as the forecast high was for something in the 60s. But the average high for this date is only 54 so it was an above average day. The wind was tolerable, the ride was nice. We have had frost but have not yet had an official temperature reading of freezing or below so it seems possible that we will get out of October without seeing our first snow flurry. Knock on wood though, a lot can happen in 6 days, including snow.

My route today was to the south and the return took me through the campus. Here are the cows in probably their last appearance for this year. I call it "Cows in Repose in Fall".Life is good.

3,900

As recently as last Tuesday I may have said aloud that I was having doubts about my ability to reach my mileage goal for the year. It seemed to rain every day.

The best antidote to such gloom is the opportunity to ride. The weather has cooperated and I rode my bike again today. Five days in a row on my bike and 102 miles later I now am restored to confidence. Heck, I am starting to feel like there might still be time this fall for another 3 or 400 miles. Who knows? Anything suddenly seems possible.

This is what I was doing at approximately sunset today. This picture is again on Roselawn, this time at the Falcon Heights Community Center. The trees and the radio tower are on the University golf course. Again I am about a mile from home, all on side streets.Also at this time I was composing a newspaper headline in my head to amuse TOPWLH. When I got home I repeated it to her, complete with punctuation and she was amused. Ask her.

Records have been falling

According to the local newspaper the endless days of rain and leaden skies we have just endured washed out a 107 year old record. The total amount of rain broke the previous record for the 3 month period of August, September and October set in 1900.

The paper also said that the climatological observatory at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus reported that the first 16 days of October were the cloudiest stretch for that time of year in the 45 years the observatory has been measuring solar radiation, measuring less than three-quarters of average.

So yes, it has been pretty rainy and quite dreary this month.

But today was very nice indeed. It was cool, very Octoberish, a high of about 52. But the sun was out and it was glorious.

It was so nice that it ended up making my ride a bit shorter than I intended. The fabulous light conditions made me stop 3 times for photos. The delays meant that I barely made it home before dark.

Here is Garden Avenue just east of Lexington providing proof that at least some of the trees in town are going through leaf color changes.I figured at this point that I had successfully completed my mission of obtaining a photo and continued along on my ride.

But when I turned off Hamline onto whatever that street is along the west side of Lake Josephine I came upon these bushes. It didn't come out quite as stunning as it was in person but I think you can get the idea. The sun filtering through the bushes, highlighting some leaves, leaving others in the shade created a very nice effect.But by now I was too far from home and had to ride hard towards the barn. The dark falls precipitously at this time of year, virtually without twilight. One minute it is still daytime and almost without warning it is suddenly dark. Really dark.

This is over the corn field along Roselawn, less than a mile from home (but with two miles more to ride). I was hoping to catch more of the clouds but with lighting conditions being what they were I am just glad that there was enough light to capture an image.As is probably pretty obvious, it was getting to be too dark to be out on a bicycle.