It's a killing machine

OK, sorry. Things got sort of busy and some of you were kept in suspense for too long. Plus, I had to wait until I had good light during the day to take pictures. I got a new bike!

I ended up finding a good deal on a bike that is, in my opinion, a pretty good value even at MSRP. I bought a 2004 Jamis Satellite. I got intrigued by Jamis a few months ago because I saw a Quest on eBay for a reasonable amount that I could almost afford. When I was researching it I found out that the Quest had won Bicycling Magazine's 2005 Editor's Choice award for best value road bike. Pretty impressive for a brand I'd never heard of. So that put them on my radar. What I found was a 2004 Satellite that was new old stock. It sat in a warehouse somewhere, unsold, unbuilt, unridden, until somehow somebody found it and sold it to me.

The Satellite is the little brother to the Quest. The frame on the Satellite is Reynolds 520 where the Quest is 631, and the components are bottom of the barrel Shimano Sora instead of the Quest's 105 gear. But hey, let's be realistic. I'm not Lance Armstrong. I don't race. Currently the best bike I have has Suntour downtube friction shifters. Sora is a quantum leap up for me. And it's got a carbon fiber fork. I've never owned a carbon fiber anything before. Thrillsville, let me tell ya. It weighs a whopping 3 pounds more than the Quest too. Which I'm finding humorous. My winter bike weighs in at almost 50 pounds, not including the big commuting pannier I strap on it every day. This bike lists out at 23 pounds. But fortunately it's got a triple front chainring so I can really granny down if I struggle getting that extra weight up a hill.

I took it for a small spin this morning, just down the street in my neighborhood. Nor far enough to really get a feel for it. Not really even long enough to say I've ridden it. But just enough so I'm not quite so antsy to ride it. Don't worry, the streets were dry and I carried it over the snow in the driveway.

When's summer going to be here??

More pictures available my flickr account.

Happy St Paddy's Day!

Date: March 17
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 146
Year to date mileage: 595

So what did I do to celebrate St Paddy's day? Nothing. I got home, had dinner, watched some TV with the kids, then switched to college hockey and dozed off on the couch before the Gophers were able to let St Cloud State beat them in overtime. Such is the life of a mid-30's guy who's married with kids.

The morning ride yesterday was The Worst Ever. The roads were fine, the problem was the bike path. When I got to the point where I leave Sibley Memorial to cross the Mendota Bridge, I saw that the plow had been by and plowed out the parking lot. But nobody had plowed the path, so there was a huge plow barrier at the bottom of the hill. I gamely decided to ride through it. And to my surprise, I went right over, easy peasy. But going over took away just enough of my momentum that I couldn't make it up the hill. No big deal, I walked it up. At the top I tried to ride and couldn't. So I walked a little further to where there's a slight downhill. I thought "With a downhill to help, I can get started and once I'm rolling it will be no problem."

I was wrong.

There was something about the consistency of this snow that just would not allow it to be ridden. The snowfall from Thursday was nice and easy to ride in, but this stuff wasn't. I think it was a combination of the overspray of salty slush from the adjacent roadway and the fact that the sun had been shining on it all afternoon Thursday. There was a hard coating that I couldn't penetrate. I did see the tire marks of one other cyclist who tried before me, so I soldiered on. I walked the bike down to the bridge itself, thinking that the snow would be easier there.

It wasn't.

It was also here that the other cyclist's tracks stopped. So he/she had been defeated too. The other cyclist hadn't turned around though. The single track just stopped in the middle of the trail. So I did what I assume they did. I lifted my bike over the concrete wall and rode on the shoulder of Highway 55. Once I crossed the bridge I lifted it back to the path and continued. The rest of the path was rideable, but deep.

I was all set to rant and rave about the plowing folks shirking their duties. But on the way home last night, badda boom. Everything was cleared out! Good job and a hearty thank you to whoever took the time! We (me and at least one other person) appreciate it!

Shhhhhh

I have a surprise for you! Stay tuned...

The Ides of March

Date: March 15
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 126
Year to date mileage: 575


Today was my first ride of the week. Not because I'm a big scaredy-cat when it comes to snow, but because of the daughter who is sick but then isn't but then decides she is again saga. Not that I'm blaming her. She really has been ill. Monday morning when she woke up she was near 102 degrees, and she was warm yesterday too. But this morning when I woke her up she asked me "What day is it?" When I told her it was Wednesday she practically squealed with joy "Show and tell!" Any kid that happy about show and tell is well enough to go to school.

Unfortunately, I may have been hasty. The school nurse called my wife around 11:30 and said the fever was back up. Nancy went and picked up the feverish one (who wanted McDonald's for lunch). The feverish one remained sick for all of 1 1/2 hours, and then became well again. But I'll be home with her tomorrow morning, because the Nazi school nurse told us that a kid with a fever can't come back until she's fever free for 24 hours. And She's Putting Us On The List. Maybe the kid and I will find something fun to do tomorrow morning.

The ride today was pretty uneventful. It was a huge change from Friday's ride with no jacket, but still nice. The city of Minneapolis does a kick ass job of clearing the bike path, but they've got a way to go on the bike lanes. The bike lanes in downtown were still completely full of snow tonight. With an additional dump coming tonight if the weather gets a few degrees colder they will be unrideable. The cynic in me says that the city is subtly trying to herd the cyclists off the city streets and onto the bike paths. But the realist in me says that the guys who plow downtown don't care, whereas the guys who plow the parks and trails are more outdoorsy types and make more of an effort. Oh, and somebody better have a talk with the guy who was plowing down in the northern part of Minnehaha Park. They plowed a whole section of trail that really isn't trail, but just grass. Rookie.



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Snow Day!

My daughter Morgan woke me up at 6:30 this morning and told me that my other daughter was sick. I could hear Emma coughing, but it didn't sound too bad. While I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and brain, Morgan went into the kitchen and got the thermometer from the cupboard. She then went and took Emma's temperature. 101.9 degrees. OK kid, you're staying home. Then Nancy called and told me that school was closed. OK kids, you're both staying home.



This is the view from my living room. Welcome to March in Minnesota. Friday it was near 60, today we've got a snowstorm that's closing the schools. This would be your regularly scheduled snowstorm, just arriving a few days late. This weekend was the Minnesota Boys High School Hockey Tournament. All of this stuff normally blows in during tourney weekend and screws up travel for everybody. With the mild winter we're having I can see how management would slip up and forget about a thing like that, then have to scramble at the last minute to push a product out the door for a delayed delivery. I suppose it's too much to hope that somebody will go out and plow the Highway 55 bridge. Good thing I'm lazy and haven't taken the studded tires off yet. Memo to the boys at storm central: Nice work, job well done, now lay off the snow.



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Public Nudity!

Date: March 9
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 106
Year to date mileage: 555

I feel like things have been rolling along at a breakneck pace lately. Thursday I rode to work on the Raleigh. It was a beautiful ride home, and I could tell it was warm by the number of runners wearing shorts. Normally I see a few guys wearing shorts even whenever it gets above 35 or so. But Thursday's public nudity was remarkable in that 3 of the 5 people I saw in shorts were women. No matter what the internet has let you to believe, men are still more likely to take off their clothes in public (women who want to disprove this claim are encouraged to e-mail photos). So when the shorts wearing women outnumber the men I know it's a nice spring day in Minnesota. My wife called me when I was in Minnehaha Park and said that she and the girls were out for a ride. So I kicked it up into high gear (both on the bike and in my legs) and met them at the Big Rivers Regional Trail trailhead overlook. The kids were thrilled to see me ride up unexpectedly. After we fooled around for a while I "raced" them home. It's only about a mile, and I left while they were still buckling seat belts but they still beat me. Not by a lot, because I pulled into the driveway while they were all piling out of the van.

Date: March 10
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 126
Year to date mileage: 575

Because it was so ungodly nice I couldn't resist taking the Schwinn out on Friday. Repacked bearing be damned! And it was totally worth it. On the ride home I managed to stuff my jacket into my pannier and rode wearing a jersey with a long sleeved shirt over it on top, and bike shorts with tights over them on the bottom. Perfect. The Schwinn is so much faster than the Raleigh! I had a fairly decent headwind on the way home, but still made it home faster than normal. And it was a joy. It was also nice to have a computer to see how many actual miles this new route was. I was a little mistrustful of my google maps estimate, but the computer clocked in at 19.97 miles, so that's close enough to 20 for me.

Nancy called me from the Y when I was on the Highway 55 bridge. She and the kids were swimming and she wanted to meet me at Granite City for dinner. I was home early enough that I was able to shower and change before heading over. I had their Smothered Beef sandwich and a nice glass of their MaiBock. After riding 5 consecutive days, a glass of beer and a good, heavy meal I was out like a light. I spent the rest of the weekend either working or doing homework, far from enjoyable but you gotta do what you gotta do.



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Confessions of a Teenaged Bike

Dear Diary,
Today Pete rode me to work. After being neglected for so many months I can't tell you how delicious it was to be ridden again. I found myself thinking about it all day, and I can't wait for the ride home. Squee!

Love,
The Good Bike

P.S. You're sworn to secrecy, so don't tell the interweb!

Sunrise, Sunset

Date: March 8
Mileage: 18
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 86
Year to date mileage: 535

This morning I went past the Franklin Ave stop that I usually exit on, and stayed on the train. I instead got off at the Downtown East/Metrodome station. I rode past the Kirby memorial that had appeared outside the main ticket window. I saw Bob Sansavere (pictured in black) talking to folks and taking notes for his next story. I didn't want to talk to him so I just slowly cruised past the site. I'm not sure what compels people to take their treasured memorabilia and leave it out on the street when a celebrity dies. There were homer hankies, Wheaties boxes, hats, t-shirts and jerseys. Obviously these people cared about Kirby in the way only a fan can. But I would think they would want to hang on to that stuff now that the celebrity is gone. I don't get it. Of course I'm not sure why I felt compelled to go look, so who am I to judge.

On the way home I stopped and took a photo of yet another sign that spring is nearly here. This shot is what I believe to be the U of M rowing club getting their shells out of storage and into a rack by the river. Soon we'll see rowers going up and down the river getting ready for the season.


I'm getting the itch to take the Schwinn out. But I really shouldn't. There's too many puddles. And it could still snow at any time. But I'm getting really tired of riding the Raleigh. So here's my promise to you, interweb: I will not ride the Schwinn until I have repacked the bearings in the front and rear hubs and the bottom bracket. It's the least I should do before I start riding it. Keep me honest, interweb.



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Just keep dragging on

Date: March 7
Mileage: 18
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 68
Year to date mileage: 517

It was a brutal one tonight. My first clue was that on the ride in I was able to switch up to the high gear, and pretty much had to to keep my ass from bouncing on the seat while spinning. That's a tailwind. Which means on the way home, that's a headwind. Reading that back, I'm not sure the term "high gear" is entirely appropriate. I'm riding the Raleigh this winter, and the salt has been taking it's toll on the components. When this bike originally began life it had 21 speeds. 21 seemed like an overabundance at the time, and it probably is. Though with the new bikes it's middle of the road. Anyway, the shiftig was sort of out of whack before winter began and the front derailleur would only go to the smallest two of the three chainrings. Not a big deal, since I rarely used the big one and didn't plan to increase that usage in the winter. Then as the grime piled on and the rust rusted further the rear derailleur started to malfunction. So now it's to the point where it doesn't shift at all. So I can move from the "low" gear, which is really #7, to the "high" gear, which is really #14. And for this bike, with the studded tires and all 50 glorious pounds, that's about all I need. It would be nice to be able to downshift a bit on the hills, but beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, back to the ride.

When I got home my neighbor made a comment about how it "must have been a wet one" coming home. I told him that I would have gladly traded a little more wet for a little less wind. It really wasn't raining that hard for most of the way, but the wind was killing me. Instead of taking the river road home I took Franklin to Minnehaha Ave. I did this for a couple of reasons:

1. The wind. Minnehaha is a lot more sheltered than the River Road. It may not make much of a difference, but any little bit helps.
2. Distance. The Minnehaha route is about 2 miles shorter. Again, not much of a difference but any port in a storm.
3. The wind. Did I mention that it was windy out? Cripes amighty.

One good thing about the rain, it washed away a lot of the crap that's been collecting around my bottom bracket. And I found out tonight that my neoprene booties are pretty darn water resistant. I wouldn't want to go wading in them, but they did a good job keeping some larger than expected puddle splashes off and keeping my toes dry. Before this winter booties weren't real high on my list of priorities but now I'm a fan. Though the way they get torn up I'll probably go with the cheap $20 ones from Performance in the future. They got a pretty decent review on bike forums too.

Ride on, y'all.



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RIP Kirby

I've never been a huge baseball fan. I usually catch a few games on the television during the season, and every couple of years I go to the ballpark. But it's to see the Saints more than the Twins. The Twins are playing some great ball these days, and any year it feels like they could make a run at the Series. But it's not something I obsess over. I can't keep track of stats for sports. I just don't have the head for it. You can get away with that with many sports, but not baseball. To be a true baseball fan, you've got to be a numbers person. Batting averages, box scores, Earned Run Averages. It's like a statistics class with athletes.

Yesterday I heard that Kirby Puckett had a stroke and had been taken to the hospital. This morning when I checked the news there was little more information. But one thing caught my eye. An employee of the hospital he was admitted to anonymously stated that Puckett was in critical condition. Call it a premonition, call it a feeling; I was sure he was going to die after reading that. And he did.

The Vikings went to the Superbowl four times and always came home as losers. The North Stars made some admirable attempts, but their names never went on Lord Stanley's cup. Neither has the young Wild team, yet. Wolves, nope. The Twins are one of the few hometown teams we have here in Minnesota that got it done. They went to the big dance and came home a winner. Not once, but twice. And a huge part of that was thanks to Kirby Puckett. Thanks for the memories, Kirby.

Date: March 6
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 50
Year to date mileage: 499



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Non Sequitur

Date: March 3
Mileage: 10
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 30
Year to date mileage: 479

I cut my ride short today because the school nurse called and said my girls were sick. So I rode 6 miles in the morning by riding from home to the Ft Snelling light rail, then getting off at the Franklin station and riding the additional 2 miles into work. When I left work I took the LRT from downtown to Ft Snelling and then booked it home, got my truck and picked up the girls. They laid on the couch for a couple of hours and then, like a miracle, they recovered. Grrrr.



I saw this bumper sticker the other day near the Franklin Ave LRT station. I'm not sure who Bertha is, or why I should be eating her mussels. My brother-in-law used to have a Volkswagen Golf with a bumper sticker that read "Eat My Fish" We were never sure whose fish it referred to or how to find out. For some reason people in this area are compelled to give seafood recommendations from the back of their car. I'm not even going to try to understand. But Bertha, if you're out there, give me a holla' and I'll try your mussels.



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Party Animal

Date: March 2
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 40
Year to date mileage: 469

I swear to god, there was no posing. I found him, and the can, exactly like this.


Perhaps he was depressed and like his smelly brethren the skunks, he committed suicide. Perhaps after a few too many Lites he staggered in front of the wrong moving vehicle. Either way, as the weather gets warmer it's gonna get smelly riding past this party animal.



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What is it with the meat theme this week?

Date: March 1
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 20
Year to date mileage: 449

For the first day of March, not bad at all. The promised freezing rain/rain/snow never appeared and even though the day was overcast it made for a nice commute home. I did have one interesting problem getting ready to go home. I normally don't blog about work, but this is related. I've been helping another project manager out with some tasks for her project for the last few months. She keeps telling me that she's going to buy me a steak as a way of saying thanks. One day last week we were talking about brisket, and I honestly couldn't tell you why. But it inspired her. Today, she brought me a brisket.



Now this is a piece of meat. 4.12 pounds. And I'm riding my bike. The single pannier I use for commuting (the other was run over by my wife) isn't the largest bag on the market, but it usually does the job. Though in the winter I'm usually pushing maximum capacity with all the warm clothes. So quitting time rolls around and I go and get my brisket from the fridge. Huh, that's funny. It's wider than the opening of my bag. I had to squeeze it in just so. I could barely get the top closed. And while four pounds may not sound like much, coupled with a full day's worth of work clothes, a repair kit, a 3/4" socket, a spare tube and various other sundry items it makes for one heavy as hell pannier. When I attached it to the bike it caused the bike to lean so quickly I almost dropped the whole thing. I was amazed that it didn't fall off on the way home. But the brisket is now safely in my refrigerator at home. Now I need to figure out what to do with it.

As long as I'm breaking the "don't blog about work" rule, here's what else happened today. A few years ago (this is backstory, hang on) when we first moved into our new building there was a urinal in our bathroom that was out of order. It remained out of order for over 7 months. Dust settled on the thing. The people in charge had clearly forgotten all about it. My friend Tim called building services and got the thing fixed. So I nominated him for an award using our company's internal recognition program. In that nomination, I made sure used the word "urinal" as often as I could. It was a proud moment when our team leader got to read the entire nomination in front of our department. She turned several shades of red. It was beautiful.

Fast forward several years. Tim and I are now in different departments, but we've both moved from the 7th floor to the 8th floor. There was now a urinal on 8 that would flush for well over a minute every time it was used. Once finished, you zip up and walk away. Most urinals are done flushing before you're done washing your hands. This one was still flushing when you walked out of the bathroom. It has the autoflush sensor thing, so there was no avoiding this. What a waste of water. I mentioned it to my buddy Tim at work, and he had noticed it too. So he promised to call building services if I would submit another nomination. The terms were agreed to. He called, it was fixed, I nominated. We have a new recognition program so I was limited to 500 characters this time around, but I think I captured something.

The roar of rushing water. It makes one think of falls. Niagra Falls. Angel Falls. Closer to home, the sound of St. Anthony Falls. It should not, however, make one think of urinals. However for the last few months this has sadly been the case. The #1 urinal in the 8th floor men's room was showing signs of being an overachiever. Most urinals are content to flush for approximately 20 seconds. Thorough, yet not overkill. Once business had concluded at #1 it would begin a hearty flush. Not content to stop at 20 seconds it continued on, recklessly exceeding the advertised 1 gallon per flush emblazened on the top of the unit. Our #1 was clearly going above and beyond the call of duty.

Speaking of above and beyond the call of duty, we turn to Tim (nice segue, eh?). Tim noticed the existence of a problem. Tim called building services. Order (and the promised 1 gallon per flush) was restored. Huzzah!



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Water, cool water.

Date: February 28
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
February mileage: 182
Year to date mileage: 429

The other day I posted two pictures of a green pump to display how wonderfully bright it's been getting in these parts. I'm sure most of you were impressed and thinking things like, "Dang, that VelociPete really has it going on. Planning a month ahead and taking pictures of the pump to show us how light it's getting. I should really buy him something nice." But sadly, this isn't the case. I took the original picture of the pump in January intending to post it along with a quick ode to the pump. I got as far as uploading the picture. Fast forward to February. I stopped and took another picture of the pump, again with the same plan. Finally, in a desperate attempt to use the pictures I came up with the daylight demonstration scheme. It all worked out in the end, and I got a nice post out of the deal. Feel free to still buy me something nice.

I do really like that pump. That pump nearly saved my life once (claim exaggerated for effect). It was one of those really hot days last summer, and I hadn't drank nearly enough water at work before heading out. If I remember correctly, there was lots of pop and coffee involved that day. I headed out and started sweating immediately. I found that I had also forgotten to fill my water bottle before leaving. So I rode a few miles and then came to the hill on the River Road Trail where the road passes under Franklin Ave. I don't like that hill much. It's not too long, but just long enough. And it's not too steep, but just steep enough. And the kicker is, once you get to the top where it looks like it's flat, there's really a gentle incline still there so it takes forever to get back to speed. Climbing the hill isn't such a problem, but it's the mental toll at the top when you can't help beating yourself up because you can't get going on this flat surface.

The pump is another 1/4 mile or so up the trail. This day, by the time I reached the pump I was parched. I stopped, pumped the handle and filled my bottle. The water tasted great. And the great thing is, the water from this thing always tastes great. It's not purified by reverse osmosis. It's not from a fancy spring in France. It's good old, naturally cooled, full of rust and minerals, and the best tasting stuff. Now I make it a point to keep my bottle on the low side so I can stop and fill it up with the pump.

To enjoy this treat yourself, there's a process to follow. Pump the handle a few times and watching the water start to trickle out of the drinking fountain. Keep pumping and you get a respectable stream equal to any indoor water fountain. This is where the amateurs normally stop. Don't. You want the stream to be so high that it looks like it's in danger of overshooting the bowl. That's when you stop pumping, stick your bottle under the faucet dispenser and pull the lever. If you did it right, you can fill your bottle and still have enough pressure to get a nice long drink from the fountain. They could bottle and sell this stuff, but it wouldn't be the same if you didn't pump it yourself.



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Blogebrity

Blogebrity has released it's A-list, B-list and C-list rating of blogs. I checked, you're not there. Neither am I. But, what kind of world are we living in when Chewbacca only rates a B-list ranking??



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Why is there a weiner on your website?

Perhaps it's because I'm the son of a librarian. My mother is a law librarian, not the true "Shhhhh!" type you would find in the public library. And if there's any group that stands up against the man for First Amendment rights, it's librarians. Just google "librarian & censorship" and you'll get "about 645,000 for librarian & censorship." These folks are activists who whisper. Trust me.

I've always been opposed to censorship. If we can't see something, discuss it and attempt to understand it, we create an environment of fear, hostility and repression. I feel this most strongly about books and other printed materiels. A case could be made about the internet being different. The sheer quantity of porn available is amazing. And yet, so is the amount of good, helpful and free information. It gets kind of grey as to where those lines cross. And honestly, I'm not sure there is a line. It's just a matter of what is appropriate for whom. And that, in a nutshell, is why I don't like companies like Secure Computing. The folks at boingboing have done a much more eloquent job of explaining why filtering software doesn't work so I won't go into depth here. Suffice it to say, it don't work. We have this stuff at work, and yet if I wanted to I could dial up pictures of naked chicks all day long. I don't, because I prefer to remain gainfully employed. And I'm sure any 13 year old kid could do the same.

So, back to the weiner. Boingboing reader Kurt von Finck "created the attached button (standard 120x90 size) that BB readers can put on their sites. It features the pubic region of Michelangelo's David sculpture, uses fairly neutral colors, and is taken from public domain stock photography. I release this work into the public domain, relinquish any claims over its use, and encourage BB readers to put it on their sites.

Maybe if enough of us do so, SmartFilter will just collapse under the weight of its own odious censoring."

It's over there, in the sidebar. It will remain there. It's my way of figuratively misquoting Dr. Johnny Fever. "Oh, I almost forgot, fellow babies... WEINER!!" Sorry if you're offended. We now return you to your regularly scheduled bike blog.



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Genius

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Weekend Update

It's been a hell of a nice weekend here in Pete Land. Friday night we went to Family Fun Night at the girls' school. You haven't lived until you've been in an elementary school gym on a Friday watching young'uns boogie their hearts out to songs you used to boogie your heart out to in college. And it's a lot like a college dance. It started out pretty orderly and everybody followed the conventions they were expected to follow. But as the night dragged on, soon dancers were falling down and running into each other and laughing hysterically. The only difference is that here the kids weren't sneaking out for beers. And once you've heard the extended dance mix of The Hampster Dance, you'll know you can die. Maybe not happy, but you can die. Quickly, if possible.

Saturday was good too. I had to work, but only for a couple of hours and I managed to get in some rare daylight riding time. The girls, still riding the Family Fun Night high, were completely adorable and played together nicely all day. That right there is enough to make my weekend. I made an italian pot roast for dinner, but used a homebrewed Scottish Wee Heavy instead of the red wine the recipe called for. It turned out really well.

Today I hit the Bike Swap over in St Paul. I wasn't planning on buying much, but it was great fun to walk around and just look at stuff. I did end up with a new wheelset. I was looking for a wheelset for the orange bike, and these are a little nicer than what I was hoping for. But they're Campy with brand new Panaracer tires and new tubes. The guy selling them had to make a quick phone call to his girlfriend to OK the haggle price, so I think I did alright. I also stopped and picked up a water bottle from Jim at Hiawatha Cyclery with my last $5. It was nice to meet Jim though he looked a little shell-shocked, probably from the sheer volume of people he'd talked to. I didn't show up until about 11am, and it sounds like business was steady the whole morning from conversations I had and overheard. On my way out the door I passed somebody who looked like Annie, but I wasn't sure and needed to get to the grocery store. If it was you Annie, Hi! I spent the afternoon swimming at the Y with the kids. We stopped of on the way home and got some new fish for the aquarium, since we needed to get more fish food anyway. And now I'm relaxing and reading blogs while watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics wind down. I just heard this morning that my cousin has a very real chance of going to the Olympics in 2010 as part of the women's curling team, so I'm extremely excited for her.

Even though things can get stressful and overwhelming at times and my newest bike is well over 10 years old, life is good.



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Damn vandals

I was still thinking about how amazing the difference was last week with the increased daylight. But I couldn't figure out a way to quantitatively demonstrate it. But then I remembered that I could! Last month, I stopped and took a picture of the pump that is by the River Road trail. Here it is from January 23:


As you can see, it's dark. The pump is lit up by my Planet Bike Alias 10w headlight and the flash from the camera. But it's a localized pool of light which quickly fades to black outside the immediate circle.

Now, here's the second shot. It's the same pump at roughly the same time of day, around 5:30 or so. Whenever I get from downtown Minneapolis to this spot.


This picture was just taken on Thursday. Notice how light it is! You can see the line of the sun hitting the river bluff on the other side of the Mississippi. Beautiful. No flash, no headlight. Spring is coming. Sometimes we just need to prove it to ourselves. Keep your chin up, it will be bike shorts weather before you know it.



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She's real fine, my 409

Date: February 25
Mileage: 22 (per gmaps pedometer)
Ride type: Commute
February mileage: 162
Year to date mileage: 409

That's right, it's the rare and elusive Saturday commute. I don't work a lot of Saturdays, and when I do I usually drive in. But not today. Thursday's ride reminded me how much better riding is than driving or taking the train, and the thought of a full AM and PM commute in daylight was too tantalizing to turn down. However, the wind out of the northwest was a bugger on the way in. I kept on pedaling and chanting my mantra: "The ride home will be worth it."

Work was fine. I was just doing some post-install checkout, which is a task I kind of enjoy. Nobody's around, the lights are off and it's peaceful. I turned on MPR's Sounds Eclectic and got to work. It took me longer to get done than I thought, so I scrapped my original thought of doing some off-route exploring and headed straight home. The ride home was worth it. Beautiful sunshine, a near perfect tailwind, and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Today's ride brought my year to date total to 409 (unless I misadded). Most folks think of the cleaning spray, but I think of the Beach Boys when I hear that number. When I was a kid my grandmother had a rack of 45s left by her kids and I believe 409 was the B-side to a more popular tune. But it was always one of my favorites and was in heavy rotation whenever we would visit. Not as heavy as The Fendermen's Mule Skinner Blues, but it was up there. Speaking of 45s, according to Musician's Friend, the 45 was originally introduced this week in 1949. By 1955 they were outselling 78s for the first time. For you youngsters. I'm talking about vinyl. Your parents and grandparent's version of an iPod.

I've got that old Mule Skinner Blues 45 and a bunch of others from grandma sitting behind my basement bar. I've also got a green steel box of square dance 45s that they used to take to the local dance hall. I should find a platter (those things the DJs use to scratch) and give 'em a listen.



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