More construction

Perhaps it will be a theme month. I ran into some more construction today.

It wasn't the new house being built on a lot backing up to the Como Golf Course that caught my eye. It was the well drilling rig in the front yard.Having a well in the front yard is probably not THAT unusual. But having any well at all in your yard is VERY unusual in the middle of the city. I had to take a look.

It turns out not be any ordinary water well. The sign on the door of the truck mounted drill rig identifies the company doing the drilling as specializing in geothermal energy. These folks are tapping into the deep underground water table for either heating or cooling purposes. That's expensive to install but everyone says that it will pay for itself in energy savings. Eventually.

I knew quite a bit about drilling and drill rigs in my previous life where I occasionally functioned as coordinator of registration for exploratory boring. I know that geothermal requires pretty extensive permitting, I know where to look up the state regulations, I know a few technical details of what is required in the actual drilling and I know that the drill rig itself has to be licensed by the Department of Health. I crept up a little closer to see what I could see.
Licensed by the Department of Health.

I wonder who does exploratory boring registration now. The last one I remember is Matt but these details are gradually slipping away into the sands of time.

So I was thinking some about my former life as I continued to ride into the strong (again) southeast wind. I came upon the Gateway State Trail Community Garden. State Trails are a service of my former employer and the sign identifies that entity as a co-sponsor, along with the City of Saint Paul. It is a nice looking garden on the trail right of way.But again, it wasn't really the garden that originally caught my eye. What caught my eye was this sign.They need one of those at that parking lot on the south end of Sucker Lake.

As long as I was that close I rode down past the place where I used to work. I was pleased to note that government still seems to functioning smoothly. Of course, we all now expect that the same will not be true next month at this time. The government shut down is scheduled to begin July 1. We are all pretty much resigned to the fact that the shut down WILL occur and that it may be lengthy.

Summer is definitely here, it was warm and sunny again today. Another sure sign of summer is that it is now officially the season when I ride through things that stick to my tires.There wasn't even any visible oil on the street. I just rode through some pot hole patching that apparently was using a particularly sticky mixture.

We all know that I ride for enjoyment. Today I had to stop TWICE to clean off my tires. I DO NOT ENJOY cleaning off my tires.

OK, under construction

June 1 is a summer day. It just is. On this June 1 there just wasn't any doubt.

There is something about the way the sun shines at mid day in summer. You get that beating straight down effect and as a result, the angles and sun reflections that make spring and autumn photography especially interesting just are not there. But this is obviously not a complaint. Today was a gorgeous summer day.

Here is a moment near the end of MY ride. This is in an area of the Fairgrounds still referred to as Machinery Hill even though the days when farm machinery was parked there during the Fair have passed. For example, as you can see by the sign, this area on what I guess could be called lower Machinery Hill is now occupied by Ford.Not satisfied with the tent that they have used the past couple of years, Ford is putting up a building. It changes things, changes things quite a bit for old timers.

For old timers as long as those blocks on Machinery Hill sat unbuilt upon during the Fair we could still imagine the huge tractors and the combines, the giant machinery that used to be displayed there during the Fair. Gazing upon those huge heaps of steel which were so unlike any other thing an urban dweller would EVER see during day to day urban life was part of what made the Fair an event for ALL of Minnesota. When you put up a building for the display of, just guessing here but check back with me on Labor Day and see if I was right, Ford pick ups, you have erased even the possibility of imagining the block full of Internationals (red), the block full of Minneapolis Moline (yellow), the huge display of Case (a lighter red than IH with accents of yellow), the Allis Chalmers (orange), the block full of John Deere (green and to be fair to the Fair, Deere already has a building), it just can now never be the same. The Fair more and more just looks like another extension of the suburbs.

*sigh*

The Guest Rider is serious about this bicycling thing, having announced an ambitious schedule of at least twice a week bicycling. She rode again today and rode farther than she rode on her first outing. This is, of course, the protocol, extend the distance a bit each time out. I took her to a lake today, her first on a bicycle lake of the year. She insists upon lakes.That is Lake Owasso. Her preferred destination is Lake Vadnais but Lake Vadnais is still outside of her range. She was doing OK at Owasso but started to lag a bit as we neared home. To be fair, the last bit was uphill and into a strong headwind.

But we stopped and got the first of these for the year.The corn is ankle high on a college professor for June 1. We are all expecting knee high on Paul Bunyon by the Fourth of July.

Perhaps you can see in the background some examples of the strips of green that are found throughout the corn. These passages between the various corn plots, besides whatever their agricultural experimentation station purpose might be, are paths used by those who chose to walk to the Fair from our house. Closed circuit to Mrs. Smith, now would be a good time, before the corn gets too tall and obscures vision, to do a little investigation into exactly which of those paths is the most direct to the Fairgrounds gates.

Small craft advisory

The morning clouds rolled back leaving behind one of the prettiest days we have had for quite some time. The high sun and some cumulus clouds conspired to put on a show and it was a dandy. All was not perfect, however, as the wind blew and blew hard. It might have been the mightiest wind I have ridden in in at least a couple of years. It blew so hard that it caused me to look up who issues small craft advisories and under what conditions. I don't know for sure if the corollary, "inland lake wind advisory" was actually issued here today but I do know that the wind blew hard.

It blew so hard that on the occasions when I had a straight cross wind it was just a tiny bit tricky keeping the bicycle upright. And that is why I thought about the whole subject, because anyone who hasn't considered the matter carefully may not have concluded that a bicycle is a small craft.

The ride upwind was hard, really hard. It took most of an hour to reach this spot on the northwest shore of Lake Calhoun.This is my furthest penetration into Minneapolis this year. In fact, I was so far into Minneapolis that I almost rode all the way through and out the other side. Shortly before turning to the south to get over to the lake I saw a sign indicating less than a mile to Saint Louis Park.

I also stopped and got a picture of Lake of the Isles.I was riding down East Calhoun Boulevard where the street passes underneath the Midtown Greenway when I encountered the perhaps largest pothole ever. It was about 8 or 10 inches deep and at least two feet across. The lighting is always iffy underneath an overpass like that and I did not see the pothole until it was too late to avoid it. The chasm was so deep and so wide that it crossed my mind that I might be going down. Then it crossed my mind that I could damage my bicycle.

The ride home was made in the direction where I felt strong. The problem was that the ride over was so dang hard that I was a bit knackered and did not feel quite as strong as I had hoped. Even so there were periods when I was just coasting along soft pedaling, not doing much in the way of work, and still topping 22 mph.

So I guess even though I did not feel strong, I most definitely should have felt fast.

I found these orange flowers on the way home. I like orange, I think these are poppies.Some may have noticed that there is at least one paragraph in this blog post which contains only one sentence. Any (that means you Mrs. Smith) who question this are invited to read the most perceptive comment left to yesterday's post by the inimitable Marz Volpatz and be informed that in matters pertaining to content of this blog that the artist retains total artistic control over the work product.

Further the artist sayeth not. At least for now.

Wheldon wins, FC Nantes does not

What are the odds that both of the big American car races will end with the leader going into the final turn not winning the race? I wonder if they had anything similar at the day's other big car racing event, the Grand Prix of Monaco. I am sure I could Google and find out but I'm not going to right now.

On cue, summer appeared to arrive today. It was warm and muggy AND windy. The temperature was around 80 which meant that gear had to be rearranged. Today I went out riding in complete summer costume, no sleeves, no pants, no jacket. It was warm enough that evaporative cooling occurred.

There is fairly big news over at Como Park. The park has become too successful for its own good. Parking restrictions have become necessary to quiet the complaints of the neighbors that on busy days at the park they are unable to park at their own houses.The plan is to direct all of the cars to available parking across the street from the State Fair. As this parking lot is about 5 blocks from the nearest point of the park, shuttle buses will be provided.The plan is a common one, permit parking on several of the nearby streets. The sign announcing the new restrictions says that each resident can obtain 4 permits and 2 guest permits.It was a busy day over at Como. I was just a tiny bit surprised to find this along the street on Como Avenue near Lexington.I do not recall ever seeing anything other than ice cream trucks at the park itself. This trailer is open for business with the characteristic heavy grease odor of deep frying cheese curds wafting though the air. I have seen food stands a couple of times already at the Fairgrounds this year for big events over there but never before at Como.

The football season is over. FC Nantes has finished 13th in Ligue 2. Nantes led the league in attendance and in nothing else assuring a third consecutive season in the lower ranks. Ligue 2 champion Evian will join Ligue 1 as will Dijon and Corsican side Ajaccio. Relegated to the French third division will be Vannes, Nimes and Grenoble. Promoted from the third division to Ligue 2 will be Bastia, Amiens and Gunigamp.

In Ligue 1, Lille has completed the historic double by capturing the league championship to go with their win in le Coupe de France. Relegated are this season promotees Arles-Avignon (last year's Ligue 2 champions) and Lens. Also relegated, for the first time in 34 years, AS Monaco.

Next year's Ligue 2 will include three teams with long and proud histories in Ligue 1 (and large stadia), Nantes, Monaco and LeMans. The road back to Ligue 1 for FC Nantes through next season's Ligue 2 schedule will be difficult with the presence in the league of these other two heavyweights.

Guest Rider

I am probably going to suspend complaining but probably only temporarily. Today was except for that one awkward threat of severe weather in mid afternoon, a pretty nice day. It was warm enough and sunny most of the time. In an effort to add perspective to the whole discussion I decided to check the archives to see what the weather was like one year ago on this date. I am not positive about the weather in Roseville but it was cool that morning at les Jardins du Palais Royale.While I was in the archives I also came across this. Wireless recently informed me that they don't have school buses in France.Every motorist in Minnesota is hereby requested to ratchet up their bicyclist awareness quotient to allow for the entry of one more rider in the metro area. Today the Guest Rider made her first guest appearance of the season. Either that or the aliens have proliferated.I also took her past the snow pile at the Fairgrounds. It is a mere shadow of its former self but it is most definitely still present.May 28, impressive staying power.

We rode for a little less than an hour and then I called a rest stop at Langford Park. After taking what I deemed to be a sufficient break I asked her how much further she wanted to ride. She replied, "How far is it home?"

If everyone will promise not to tell her I will let you all know that she actually did quite well for a first ride of the year, completing a tad over 16 miles. If you don't think that is a lot, you haven't tried to ride 16 miles recently. I checked my own log and discovered that my first ride of this season was only 14 miles so she has made an impressive debut.

Plus, she said she likes it.

Today's milestone for me is that I have at long last dragged the season mileage beyond the first big milestone, today reaching 1,008 miles for the year.

As for tomorrow's event, I am declaring the first round complete. A recap:
Gino takes Dixon
TCWUTH takes Will Power
The cyclist formerly known as Santini takes the guy with the Italian sounding name Tagliani
Castroneves goes to the tennis player sometimes previously known as JQ
GRider takes Danny Sullivan

For my second pick I admit strong interest in the French bread guy in the middle of the 5th row but I am going to take outside row 2, Dan Wheldon. The Commissioner (me) declares that if no one takes Baguette with a formal draft choice that Gino (me) will be awarded rights to that driver as a "bonus pick". Further the Commissioner sayeth not (for now).

And her actual pick is the driver married to Ashley Judd.

April returns

The cloud banks rolled back in and 60 today doesn't feel a bit like 60 yesterday. Today was once again too cold.

I have been thinking though, and I can remember several Memorial Day weekends when it was too cold. It has happened before. Of course, I can also remember quite a few Memorial Day weekends when the sun came out, the temperatures rose and it was suddenly and completely summer. Summer would be good, although I would have preferred that we have a little spring first.

But Memorial Day weekend is upon us and with it comes the greatest spectacle in racing. And, no, I do not mean the end of the Giro. In line with family tradition I get first pick and I am taking the guy in the middle of the first row. I am not even positive who that is right off hand, but I think it is Dixon.

I HAVE noticed that the Giro is going on but I have also noted that the extremely unlikable Alberto Contador is making a mockery of the competition, leading the last time I checked a couple of days ago by nearly five minutes. What this shows me is that Alberto's "drug team" is clearly far superior to the "drug detecting team" being employed by the woeful World Anti-Doping Agency. That WADA continues to fail to detect the performance enhancing drug masking agent being provided to Alberto by his team indicates that bicycle racing is not "clean". Actually in the modern world of sport with the financial rewards available it seems unlikely that ANY sport is anywhere close to clean.

As long as I am on the subject, earlier this year Barry Bonds' personal trainer for the second time went to jail for refusing to provide testimony against Bonds at Barry's criminal trial. It gets harder and harder to find that kind of loyalty in employees. Unfortunately for Lance Armstrong it appears that his long time chief domestique George Hincapie has declined a similar opportunity and has instead testified to the federal grand jury about drug use on the US Postal bicycle racing team.

Lance's defense remains as he apparently recently posted on Twitter: “20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.” It almost seems like that defense ought to be good enough and that he SHOULD be able to rest his case. Unfortunately for Lance that defense is getting less and less credible. As admissions from various others in the sport gradually make it abundantly clear that bicycle racing during the time that Armstrong competed was saturated with performance enhancing drugs, that many of Armstrong's chief competitors and many of his teammates were using those drugs, it gradually becomes too much for Armstrong to ask us to believe that he was clean and that his ability was so much superior to the others that he was able to dominate the sport without using the aids that all of the others were using.

Which does nothing to diminish the fact that it all made for great theater.

We recently had delivered to the house a freebie from a local real estate company. Produced in conjunction with the Roseville Historical Society, it is entitled "Historical Atlas of Early Rose Township". I like this sort of thing so I have been looking it over. It has a couple of early plat maps of the township and a bunch of historical notes. For example, I note that an 1867 plat shows that the place where I now live was at that time part of a 40 acre parcel owned, well, insider information here, what it actually means is that the taxes were being paid by "H & F" an abbreviation quite likely related to the 80 to the north for which taxes were being paid by "Hardy & Hough". By 1886 the 40 had been joined to the immediately adjacent to the west 40 and both were having taxes paid by Nicholas Pothen.

The first settlement made in the town of Rose was by Stephen Desnoyer in 1843 on the bank of the Mississippi River in section 32 of the surveyed township (29N, 23W for those who care) which was eventually incorporated as the Town of Rose.In the fall of 1843, Isaac Rose, for whom the town was named, settled just a little to the west of Desnoyer's riverbank location. The atlas states that he "had built a log house . . . near present day Shadow Falls" and that Isaac "ran a ferry for the convenience of the soldiers coming to sample Mrs. Desnoyer's cooking."

This got me thinking about the Mississippi River. It is not currently really much in the way of a river, it is more in the nature of a series of dams built and maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers with resulting pools behind the dams.

I know where Shadow Falls is so I went over to take a look at the area of the pool above Lock and Dam Number 1. Here is the river photographed from the east side of the river and the south side of the gorge which conceals Shadow Falls.Even allowing for the fact that the river is running high right now, this area doesn't look to me to be very prospective for a ferry business. The reduction of the Father of Waters to a concrete channel is going to have to be a rant engaged upon at some other time but suffice to say, this photo probably resembles the river as seen by Stephen Desnoyer and Isaac Rose not at all.

So I ended up repairing both tubes. Partly I did this because it is the right thing to do. On the one hand, tubes only cost six or eight dollars or so but patching a tube isn't rocket science and I have ridden thousands of miles on patched tubes. Partly I did the repair because I suspected that the repaired tubes would provide just exactly THIS photo opportunity.Everyone all together now:

"He was right, there is something suspicious about the way those flat tires keep occurring at the same spot on the rim".

And finally, even though it may appear to be so, TOPWLH and I are pleased to report that there is NOT some sort of domestic dispute going on over here. I said to her, "I didn't think you would be so sensitive." She said to me, "I didn't think YOU would be so sensitive". Neither of us was ever actually upset with the other.

We now resume regular programming.

Tire maintenance nightmare

It was very cool again today but . . .

At this point in late May, when the cloud bank finally rolls back we all discover that the sun is SO HIGH in the sky that even if the day is cool the sun angle still ends up making the day seem pretty dang pleasant. That was today.

I wanted to get an early start and possibly take a long ride to enjoy the cloudless sky. But as I rolled down the driveway shortly past noon I felt the always unpleasant sensation of rear wheel rim making direct contact with the pavement. This only occurs if the rear tire is not providing the essential buffer to keep those two too hard surfaces apart.

Flat tire.

It is too early in the year to have already had multiple flats. Honestly, some years I have zero flats. Already this year, two.

I quickly switched into bicycle repairman mode and got started. The steps in the process come pretty automatically by now and I was soon confronting the non-performing tube. A step in tire repair that should never be overlooked is figuring out why the tire went flat in the first place. The usual first step in the procedure is to pump some air into the tube and find the place where air is escaping. This time much to my surprise the tube seemed to hold air just fine.

I was skeptical but after doing a little more investigation on the inside of the tire itself (the usual second step in the procedure) during which I discovered no obvious sharp things I went ahead and put the whole business back together. I remounted the tire and began to pump.

Well, this time it wouldn't pump at all. Curious.

The whole thing came off again. This time I discovered three ugly little holes ripped into a small area of the tube from which air absolutely hissed. Funny I couldn't find it before and ominously it seemed all too much like the year's earlier flat tire where I had multiple holes in the tube. Using the tube as a guide this time I located the general area of the tire where the hole in the tube had been when the tube was inside the tire (step 3). The search resumed for sharp things and again came up empty.

I wanted to get on the road so I planned to replace the tube for now and patch the hole later. I recently purchased some new tubes so I unboxed one of the new tubes and after applying a few pump strokes to ensure that the tube held air, I put everything back together. I attempted for a second time to pump the mounted tire and for the second time it wouldn't pump at all.

So the tire came apart again. Ominously the new tube had the same three hole pattern ripped into the same spot half way around from the valve.

The way it goes with tire repair, you are pretty safe in assuming that when you find ANY problem with the tube you have found THE problem with the tube. But there is an adage which says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Shame on me. This time I wasn't going to be fooled.

I took the tube out. I took the tire completely off the rim. I turned the tire inside out and went completely around the inside of the tire inch by inch with the tire clasped between thumb and forefinger, searching for the cause of the flats. I found nothing. I turned the tire back to right side out and repeated the process on the outside of the tire. I then took up the bare tire rim (which, by the way, weighs NOTHING) and did a similar examination of the tire seating area. I searched for any sharp spot or roughness which could be causing the flats. Nothing.

But with that level of examination complete, this time when the whole thing went back together (with a second brand new tube) I was cautiously optimistic that it would hold air. The tire pumped up just fine and I was at long last prepared to ride.

The problem seems obvious. Tire repair had consumed most of the time during which I usually ride. I had been in bicycle repairman mode for more than 90 minutes.

It was a sunny May day, so I went riding anyway. I ended up finishing my ride only after the very earliest part of rush hour was under way which I don't like but which I survived. It was such a nice day that I ended up finishing the two hour ride in a shade under two hours, my fastest time of the year.

I felt strong, I felt fast.

I didn't feel like taking pictures. This is a collection of signs that piqued my curiosity at the corner of Lydia and Hamline. Hamline is clearly also Ramsey County 50 at this point. Lydia has to STOP. And there is something for rent down there towards the right (south if you care). That's a church parking lot across the street.I find it curious that Ramsey County numbers the county highways while also giving them street names which are letters. This is Hamline and also County Highway 50. Nearby the street most often referred to as County Road C is also Ramsey County Highway 23. I find it curious.

I have returned home now and am undecided about the fate of the two tubes. One of the tubes has never even been fully inflated much less have any miles ridden on it. That tube seems like it should be repaired. But even the other one has only 424 miles on it, not enough for the trash heap.

*pause*

Yes, I do keep track of such things as mileage between flats, it is one of the reasons for keeping a bike log. And just in case anyone wonders, I only have 810 miles on that set of tires, again far too few for the trash heap.

But enough tire maintenance for one day, I shall make these momentous decisions on the morrow.

TCWUTH has returned from France. Strasbourg looks nice.

Lastly, it is not a manuscript intended for professional peer review and publication. It is a bicycle blog, more in the nature of a journal. Within the stylistic considerations of a BLOG I feel completely justified in occasionally writing a sentence, stopping, skipping a line, and starting again. If this offends it offends, perhaps I should be sorry. I do this whole blog thing to amuse myself. I readily concede that I am always pleased if someone else is also even slightly entertained. But for my violation of the requirements of formal composition rules I apologize not. Please everyone be assured that it is definitely not my intention to be harsh here but what is under discussion is, after all, an informal collection of doggerel composed by someone referring to himself as GZMOOHOO. It's not the Magna Carta.