The end

I spent some time cruising YouTube looking for a video of the Doors doing "The End". I found a couple but didn't find one that I like. I do like this video though. In the intro Jim asks if when you died did you have enough to base a movie on. Jim certainly did.

I note that Florida Governor Charlie Crist is seeking a pardon for Jim's indecent exposure conviction for allegedly exposing himself during a concert in Miami in 1969. Jim was convicted but he never did any time. He was appealing his conviction when he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971 at age 27.

So, this is the end.Everyone just pretend that the video is of "The End" and let's get on to December.

Warm enough to ride

Today was warm enough to ride. This is a view of our backyard in mid-morning. Visible if perhaps not terribly evident there is standing water. In the liquid form! On a day when water will not freeze in your water bottle I would have to consider riding.Of course, riding was not actually possible. The first problem is evident in this photo of the front yard and street taken about the same time as the above photo. Too much snow in the yard, too much slush in the street.The real problem made itself evident a bit later on when, gadzooks, it began to rain. I do not ride in the rain, especially I do not ride in the rain when the temperature is hovering in the 30s.

Rain has many effects but two are paramount for me at this time and in this place. First, rain melts snow. Who knows, if the temperature can somehow remain above freezing we might lose most of our snow cover and then, bicycling speaking, many things might still be possible.

I know. Pipe dream.

Here is reality. The second relevant effect is that rain forces, ewwwww, mall walking. I can report that the Goldie Gopher plush toy is actually just a bear with gopher front teeth sewn on. Very, very tacky.

Still raining.

Possibly the final look back at fall

The way things have worked out I still have a couple of photographs taken while bicycling that have not been published. Here is a picture of the pyramid church in our neighborhood. I published it last year but I again this year it struck me as unusual how it takes a special combination of the light from the low in the sky sun and the clear azure blue sky of early fall to produce this particular effect.That church never looks quite like that any other time of the year.

Called

Every year that we have lived here there has been a touch football game in the field next to our house on Thanksgiving weekend. We have come to expect it on Thanksgiving Day morning. The event occurs regardless of weather. It has been played in deep snow and achingly cold weather. It has been played in sunshine and balmy breezes. Thus we were a bit disappointed this year that either the game did not occur or it was so brief that we missed it. Not to worry, apparently. The game has just been rescheduled to Saturday and it went off again this morning.I walked over to BestBuy to look around at stuff. While walking I realized that the time has come and after letting myself into the garage upon returning home I did it.

Feeling like a B level actor on a prime time TV doctor show I today ended that overwrought scene they often have where the pretend doctors stand around and try to decide which of them is going to "call it". Today I called it.It has snowed twice, it is cold, the season is over. So there in the basement with my bicycle gear laundry drying on the wooden stand in the background stand my two LOOKs. The season is over.

I found this video on the FC Nantes website. It is a Flash video and despite my best efforts, including visiting Blogger help, I could not find a way to embed a Flash video in Blogger. But I recommend giving it a look. It is the goals scored (all seven) by FC Nantes in their recent French Cup victory over ASC Romagné.

Romagné - FC Nantes : Les buts nantais

There is a button in the lower right of the viewer which will expand the video to full screen. I recommend this because the goals can be pretty hard to see if you do not go full screen.

A couple of things make the video, to me, really fun. First is the really charming moment at the beginning where the ASC Romagné team is posing for what for them is a football life highlight, a team photo before taking to their home pitch to play one of the storied teams of French football, a professional side with eight French league championships and three French Cup championships in its list of honors. The Romagné team is an amateur side and all of the players are amateurs, they all have jobs. It is a little like some men's league amateur baseball team like the Dundas Dukes lining up to play the Saint Louis Cardinals in Dundas. This is a big, big moment for ASC Romagné and for its fans. In the end, the FC Nantes professionals and the game officials join Romagné in the photo to make the moment even more memorable as the fans visible in the background applaud.

The other is the view of field as the goals unfold. It bespeaks the charm of the French Cup and similar competitions like the English FA Cup where amateur sides can find themselves drawn at home against one of the big teams. Whereas FC Nantes plays in a nearly 40,000 seat fully modern stadium, Romagné has a covered grandstand on one side of the field and on the opposite side beyond the running track it looks to me like they have rented some of those aluminum two or three step bleachers such as the ones often seen in this country at playgrounds or softball fields. In some places the fans look to be merely standing on a slight hill with no bleachers of any kind available. What you get in the video is a football pitch and a view of late fall in France, complete with the changing leaves on some pretty, orange trees.

Allez Romagné, allez Nantes, vive la France.

Venerable

Usually we just call them "Sorels". I believe these are the "Caribou" model.They are, indeed, high quality, tundra ready winter foot gear. This particular pair also qualify as venerable. They are just the thing for an activity which requires warmth but does not require a huge degree of agility (they are big and they are heavy).

This evening in Nantes, FC Nantes has continued its rise in the league standings with a 2-0 victory over Clermont Foot. FC Nantes has now gone two months and 10 games in a row in all competitions, 9 games in a row in Ligue 2 without a loss, its last defeat occurring on September 20. Included are 4 victories and 5 ties in Ligue 2 and a victory in le Coupe de France. FC Nantes now sits 5th in the table, its highest position since early LAST season. It is not yet time to begin planning for next year, however, as they remain, depending on the outcome of the Monday night game, either two or three points outside the promotion zone.

I'm Dreaming of . . .

The morning newspaper reported that today was the first white Thanksgiving since 2003. I checked my bicycle log and last year I rode both the day before and the day after Thanksgiving. Tomorrow doesn't look likely and yesterday clearly didn't happen. Instead today I shoveled. I am always a little surprised at how hard shoveling is the first few times I do it each season. Fortunately yesterday's accumulation was minor and even though harder than I expected today's shoveling was well within acceptable levels.I am nearly finished there so I was back inside shortly thereafter. My turkey duties this year for the first time had been handed over to TCWUTH. I wasn't completely cut out of kitchen chores as I still peeled potatoes, prepared vegetables and carved the turkey. But Wireless tackled the preparation and roasting of the turkey and performed admirably. Check out her report for details of the big event of the day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, especially those at Rekdal Skule and those covered with diamonds (and rust).

Ding Dong Norwegian Blue

I won't walk in the rain but I am willing to walk in the snow. It verged on sleet at times but remained reliably solid form for the time I was out there. It was really very pretty.

In response to the questions about the fate of yesterday's lead character I am torn between the reply suggested by this:That response would quote the coroner who says, "And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead."

Or I could reply as suggested by this:That response would be as spoken by Mr. Cleese and for which Mr. Chapman also receives a writing credit:" 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!! "

A house has fallen on that ex-bird and the only way it will stand on a perch ever again is if it is NAILED there.