Done with August

Another chilly start to an otherwise beautiful day. I rode down Lakewood a ways, just to check out the newly paved shoulders that have been installed. The next step is resurfacing the street. I'm frankly surprised that these went in, and even more surprised that the township website is referring to them as bike lanes. It will make biking a lot safer for the roadies who prefer the roads to the sidewalks. Lakewood, though it doesn't look like it here, is a very busy street. And here is yet one more reason why roadies prefer the roads to the paths. Along Lake shore. On the path that is used primarily by families and kids and joggers and rollerbladers and people walking their dogs -- I can ride in the road, but I don't know what options those other people have. This is just rude. And not necessary.

I did accumulate enough miles today to be happy with my monthly totals. And it was such a nice day that I re-cycled a bit this afternoon. It is a lovely early fall day here. (According to a Singapore daily photo blog site, the theme for September 1 is street signs in your city. We'll see. Maybe.)

Nice day, no ride

The day got off to about as good a start as I could have hoped for. Clear skies to the west -- this is the moon just before it set about 6 am. The sun came up before the moon went down. If I'd gotten up this early a few days ago, I could have seen the lunar eclipse. John was up early enough, and saw the eclipse start as he left the house very, very early. I had an early appointment with a student, so went in to the office early. Then a long, but good class, followed by another long, long appointment with another student. By the time I got home, it was nearly time for dinner out with an old friend -- and so it went. Too late to ride at this point, but one of the best days to ride we've had for a while. Well, it was a little windy, I guess. I am hoping for a nice ride tomorrow to finish out the month. I need about 18 more miles for a respectable total for the month. Then it will be 'split timber.' (Ask Tousan.)

Ozone Action Day

The semester has begun, and today was my first day back in the classroom. It was a good day to be inside someplace air conditioned, as the air quality had been declared to be marginal at best and unhealthy for 'sensitive' people. I ruled out a ride after work in the sun and heat and humidity, but gave it a try after supper. It was some cooler, but the humidity was still high and the winds were brisk, gusting over 20. With all the rain we had last week, it's been nice to have a few dry days in a row -- though the rain did green things up quite a bit. These flowers looked orange when I took the picture -- maybe it was the light.

58 and Fog

I find it interesting that no two bikes rides are the same. Some people think that I must get bored, riding the same roads and paths. Sometimes I wonder why I don't, myself. Here's one of the reasons. A little before 9 this morning. I usually consider it difficult to photograph fog, but this one was pretty easy. I took this one a few minutes later. The sun was getting brighter, and it was obvious that the fog was going to burn off fast. Which it did. Across the street from Tunnel Park.

As I was taking this photo, a runner passed me and greeted me by name. Actually, by my Professor name. It was a former student, one I've seen out running before. I caught up with her shortly, and chatted a bit. She's training for the Detroit Marathon. She lives over in 'the woods' so she was a ways from home, though not by marathon standards. She's turning 40 this winter, and wanted to do a 'big' marathon before that date. It was too late to sign up for Chicago, so she's doing Detroit. Moments like this make me feel like I live in a small town.

I have a biking story from yesterday that I forgot to share. I rode by a guy running in a bike jersey and bike shorts. I couldn't help myself, I asked him where his bike was. He was participating in a mini-triathlon, apparently. I soon passed half a dozen other people, probably part of the same group. It is true, though. The farther you get from your bike, the funnier it looks to be wearing bike gear.

Today is Nancy's birthday. She is resisting accepting the number that goes with it. I assured her that I was there, and it was 42 years ago this morning. Happy birthday OSLO.

And Then the Sun Came Out

I had a plan for today -- an early ride, then go in to the office to work on my syllabus. I woke up to thunder and gusting winds, so the early ride part didn't work. Then it was time to pick up the truck from the Ford place. New sensors for the anti-lock brakes. It was soon 11 ish, and the roads had begun to dry. And then the sun came out, so in spite of fairly sloppy conditions, out I went. It was a nice ride, other than a fair amount of 15 mph shifty wind. I rode over to the new golf course, where about the only sign of life was this little turtle. A lake breeze on the return trip was both a head wind and a welcome blast of cooler air. It got warm and sticky pretty fast. I did eventually make it in to the office, so I guess it all went according to plan. Only different.

Testing Ruby

I had to bend my personal rules a little today in order to take a bike ride. Rain appeared to be crossing the lake, but it had been falling apart and reforming all morning, so I prepared to get wet and rode anyway. Other than some wet spots on the roads, it proved to be a dry ride, so all in all I'm glad I went. Cool and hazy, with a few spots of color showing up on a few trees here and there. This one along Butternut near the PSPS.A point of clarification here. A wheelset is what bike shops and manufacturers and such call a set of wheels. One front, one back. My current wheelset seems to be back to normal functioning, with shifting as clean as I could hope for. No problems at all to report, so I'm calling it fixed for now. The problems apparently were in the hub of the rear wheel, causing slipping during shifting and climbing. It is good to have Ruby back in working condition.

Taking Ruby for a Ride

Given the general nastiness of the weather, the only riding that Ruby has done is in the back of my truck. She spent a little time in the bike shop today, being looked at closely for causes of her unacceptable behavior of late. Twice lately, when shifting from the big chain ring to the small, the pedals just spun. The chain hadn't fallen off, so some integral connection on my drive chain wasn't being made. Saturday it happened at the bottom of the hill near home. Last week it was on the way to Kirk Park. On both occasions, whatever was wrong eventually righted itself, and I was able to continue on. So Nate took apart the rear hub and declared it to be filthy. He cleaned it up, and checked over the rest of the drive train. It may well be good for a while, but I am now thinking of a new wheel set. Specialized has some nice new ones for 2008 -- Laura's husband quite likes his Fusee Star wheelset, for example. I'm nearing 5,000 miles on this wheelset, so I am now starting to look seriously. Everybody needs a back up wheelset, according to Laura (?) and my existing wheelset could be my back up. (I've ridden well over 25,000 miles over the past dozen years or so, maybe 30,000. I've never needed a back up wheelset.) There was no biking yesterday, as it rained all day. And all night. Even if it clears up later today, the roads are unlikely to dry up enough for a ride today. There are two or three spots in the neighborhood where significant amounts of water ponded over the streets.

Not exactly the Root River, of course. But I am anxious to try out the Ruby -- including the effects of resetting the bicycle computer to the appropriate wheel size.

Early Signs of Fall

I've been spending some time in my office the past few days, unpacking boxes from my old office space into the new office space. Greeting old colleagues, getting CIT to fix the password thing so I can access stuff on my computer, and figuring out where things are actually printing when I ask it to 'print.' I even did a meeting, a fairly rare event in my semi-retired status. Signs of fall, all of them. And a visit to the bookstore to make sure that the book I'm teaching out of is the same one that the students are buying. ($170 for ONE book.)
On my ride this morning I noticed a few trees have leaves that have started to change color. And there are a few leaves on the bike path already. A sharp eye will pick out some seed heads on the dune grass behind GZ and BB at Kirk Park, a sure sign of fall. And this morning our TV weather guy declared that tomorrow is the last day when the average high is 80 degrees. It will be June 18, 2008 before that is true again. I should be a little sad, but I love fall bike rides, and I am pretty much ready to say good-bye to hot and humid.

Solitary Ride

In spite of what KS has said, there is biking without Gino. Not when he's here, of course. So this morning I found the will to ride alone. Before I got to Tunnel Park, I encountered 8-10 bikers, mostly on recumbents. There were a few groups of them, accompanied by vans and other support vehicles. Some wheelchair basketball camp, from the signs. An inland route seemed in order, to leave Lakeshore to them -- the ride out was into a steady wind, but I felt strong on the way back. A pretty nice ride, through familiar territory. I saw a few blueberry fields still in the process of being harvested, but the blueberry season is over for me once the Eliots become the only berry available. I'm pretty sure that Kelsey's pie was made from the Blue Crops, though.

We were very glad to have her here again. It has been about 4 years since we had all 3 of our young adults with us -- first UH, then Wireless, then KS took a sabbatical in a foreign land. It was great to have them all together again. Kelsey prepared Japanese noodles for us all, Adam kept us supplied with excellent salads, and without Wireless, there would have been no runs to Captain Sundae. Time marches on.

Biking Broke Out

Kirk Park is a traditional turn around point -- it has a bathroom, water and a nice view of the big lake. The bathroom doors are red, and feature warnings about Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus. It's almost enough to make one re-think spending time in Kirk Park. I've had my own experience lately with the bite of the deer tick, as most of you know, so I add my caution to the one on the door. I'm still taking antibiotic, and will be for a while. Lyme Disease. Who would have guessed? So thanks to all those who helped with the cooking and cleaning up, and who entertained themselves and each other while I recovered. Good team effort.

A Week In August

A couple of photos from the past week, this one of the three brothers. And one of Tom and Darilyn. We were very glad they made the trip.

Bench

My, how this has changed. Much shorter legs are now required to sit on this bench.

Cardinals

The TV keeps broadcasting pretty much the same pictures of the bridge. It is still unimaginable to me that a major bridge in the middle of Minneapolis collapsed -- This is one of the very few Cardinal flowers that I have seen this year. If I remember what KS said correctly, they require a sunny location and wet feet. Our drought has probably made their usual spots too dry. I rode early this morning, another ozone action day with temperatures in the 90's. And yet our weather gurus say we haven't set a new record high temperature since 1988. It sure seems like it's been hot, though.

Breakfast

The first of another month, another theme day. Traditional breakfast, apparently. How about 5 pounds of blue boys, a banana and some coffee? It was already 72 degrees when I left the house a little after 8 this morning. And very, very muggy. When I first stepped outside I wasn't sure if I wanted to ride. It only took a block or two to get used to the thick air, but I wouldn't want to be out there now. It is about 20 degrees warmer, though a little bit cooler on the deck, I think.

I am not sure what kind of blues these are, but I had $2, and a jersey pocket they would fit in, so I bought a pint. I later ventured out to Bowerman's to buy some larger quantities. Either I misunderstood the name of the blues I bought earlier, or there is a variety between blue boys and eliots. I bought Blue Crop berries today, and they seem sweeter than the ones I bought on Monday. I asked how long they would be available, and was told a week or ten days. I bought a few boxes just to be safe, but it looks like I will have good blues available for a while longer from the local fruit stand. Good news.