Theme for May 1st

I'm going to go ahead and call these statues, for the purposes of theme day.
Punta Gorda, Florida. Across the street from the banyan tree.

Calostimucu :

This Indian carving is carved from the trunk of a monkey pod tree that died in 1973. It was carved by Peter Toth, an artist who has vowed to create an Indian statue in all fifty states. The artist spent three months creating this unusual carving. It depicts a brave on one side and a maiden on the other. Over their heads is an emerging dream of a dying bison and an eagle trying to honor the Indian and to raise awareness of the damage prejudice and injustice have caused.

Odd Bicycling Injury

It was a gray day today. The weather guessers had said that they expected it to be dry all day, but that they couldn't rule out the chance of a shower. I ignored the Weather Channel's radar showing a green cloud crossing the lake as I left the house -- enough wind to produce small craft advisories was projected for later in the afternoon, so if I wanted to ride, I needed to ride as early as possible. I also ignored the fact that the wind was from the SE, and I was riding NW. Sometimes rules are made to be broken, and I am not afraid of the wind. I averaged a good 2 or 3 mph faster than normal on my ride out -- tailwinds are always fun -- and got into the big ring for an extended period for the first time this year. The western sky got progressively darker as I got further from home. I knew I wasn't dressed for rain, but it was warm today for the first time in a long time, and 60 degrees and wet isn't fun, but it isn't cold. And it wasn't going to rain, I was pretty sure. I paused at the corner of 152nd and Port Sheldon Rd. to let a fast moving truck go by while I re-hydrated. Suddenly the hand that was on the handlebar felt like it was hit by a hammer -- the truck had kicked up a rock and thrown it into my thumb with enough power to force a four letter word (or two) out of my mouth.
That thumb is now swollen, bruised and sore, with a big red dot on the thumb joint where the rock hit it. Surely one of the odder bicycling injuries I've ever sustained. Both TOPWLH and I had the same odd reaction -- I was grateful for my Apache helicopter windshield material sunglasses. This makes no sense, of course, as I didn't get hit anywhere near my eyes. But still..... The rest of the story is that of course it rained -- two miles of sprinkles, two miles of steady showers, beginning 6 miles from home. Grit in my chain, a black streak of dirt up my back. And of course I was riding my good bike. The wind, which I had assumed was going to be the most memorable part of the ride was not a huge factor -- 15 mph or so, but I'd expected worse. A rock injury and a ride in the rain turned out to be the story instead. The moral of my story? Ride, then write. And wear good eye protection.

Post Number 751

I've taken a couple of bike rides this week, but nothing long or epic. Cold and windy, but that's an old story. TT mentioned that he's written more than 600 blog posts over the last four years, which is a lot of words and photos. I did the math, and my last post was number 750. I'm running out of inspiration.
I did take a ride to the beach earlier this week, and the crews were there preparing the park for tourist season, just around the corner, apparently. Part of the process involves removing the 'snow' fences and repositioning a lot -- and I do mean a lot -- of sand. It involves front end loaders, caterpillar plows and trucks. Multiple trucks. Big trucks.
Now, that's a big sandbox for a cat.
It isn't every day that you see this kind of thing. Dump trucks fully loaded with sand from the parking lot backing out into the big lake. And backing, and backing, then... nothing left to do but dump the load and drive out again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Here's the YouTube link to the video of the truck backing into the lake. The sound on the video is the caterpillar tractor in the second photo.

April Aromas

It was the same temperature on today's ride as on yesterday's, but it was a whole lot warmer. How is this possible? I have no explanation, except that the wind today was from the ESE and ENE instead of from the NW, so it wasn't coming across the cold water. Today it was Milwaukee's turn to suffer.
I've been playing with the Macro setting on my camera, but I don't seem to be able to get the kind of results that other people get with my point and shoot camera. Still, this close up of lilac buds came out okay. I saw lilac buds, dogwood blossoms, apple and pear tree blossoms all within a block of each other today. I stopped counting the number of lilac bushes that were beginning to bloom along today's route. I don't remember seeing them yesterday.
Today's ride was short, a bit over an hour. My legs were tired from riding in the cold for the last few rides, but as I mentioned to TOPWLH, if you don't ride with tired legs, you won't get stronger. I rode a little different route than I typically do when riding north and east of here, and ended up on a street that parallels my usual route when riding south from the turnaround point. Animal noises caught my attention, and I got this photo of an old barn.
And surely this is the first posting of pigs on the blogs? I gotta say, that fence doesn't really look nearly sturdy enough to be containing three sows and a boar. They seemed quite curious about what I was doing when I stopped to take the photo, but lost interest when I didn't throw them any slop. I didn't notice the presence of the cement blocks in the enclosure until I got home and downloaded the pictures. They're a puzzle to me. (Tonight we will be attending a Choir Concert featuring Totally Jammin' and his fifth grade class. Along with several other classes. He has a nice voice. I'm not sure that will be true for all of the participants, however.)

Climate Change

The Centers of the Universe wanted to go to the beach today, in spite of my warnings that it was cold out there. I had a hard time convincing them to take something with them to cover their heads. Totally Jammin' at least put his jacket on before descending the stairs to the beach. The temperature at home before we left for the beach was about 50, the temperature at the waters edge was a good 10 degrees colder, with a wind chill of minus 40. (Okay, maybe I made that part up.) From the bay to the beach. Real climate change.
The sweatshirt went on and the hoods went up almost immediately. They look cold.My own reason for wanting to visit the beach was based on the realization that I've been doing this blogging thing for a little over four years now, and my first post was of the beach. So I'm closing a circle here.
As I look over these photos it occurs to me that it is a shame that I didn't have these photos for theme day this month -- the theme was Red, as I recall, and all I had was yellow.
Except for the ladybugs, we were alone on the beach today.

Progress at Tunnel Park

A day a lot like yesterday, except warmer. SE wind again, playing 'cheat the wind' again -- with a little less success than yesterday, but still okay. I rode a little further east before I rode a little further west, ending up at Tunnel Park before heading for home. Three things to note in the photo. Ruby. It was the first ride for her this year. The sand pile at the bottom of the hill -- an indication that there will be a bobcat around soon to resurface the downhill running surface. And the stairs are nearly finished, except for the rail that is clearly going to be constructed to keep people from jumping off the new deck area onto the dune. Buzz kill.
My legs are feeling a little rubbery at the moment, but it feels good to be tired from biking. Sort of. Tomorrow is forecast to be very warm and very windy. It is also tax day, so biking time will be limited or possibly unavailable. It's been hard to get a good roll going this spring.

NUUN

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. The NUUN reference is to an electrolyte replacement tablet that I purchased last weekend at Eric's. My opinion? Very mild taste, more like lightly salted water than anything else. I like the fact that it isn't sweet, but since I'm salt sensitive, I'm not sure how it's going to work out in the long run. I tried it out this afternoon -- on yet another 50 degree ride on a mostly cloudy, pretty windy day.
I do not know what kind of flowering shrub this is, but the blossoms are showy and look a little like tulips. They have a fairly distinct fragrance as well. I took the photo above while I was riding north on Butternut up near the high school.
I turned west on Quincy a few miles further on, playing a game of 'cheat the wind.' The ESE wind pushed me past the maple syrup sign above, then to 160th where I turned south and found plenty of trees to provide shelter from the crosswind, as well as enough of a downhill slope to the road to cancel out the southern element. It worked so well that I swung west again and rode out to 168th to add a couple of extra miles to the ride. I can feel the miles in my legs as I sit here typing -- but I needed the ride to clear the cobwebs from my brain, and the trade off was worth it. Tomorrow's forecast is for much warmer than average temperatures. That would be nice.

Home Again

It was a full circle weekend. Saturday's business was the long drive to Wisconsin. The old country church where the funeral was held is charming, the memorial service was full of the familiar liturgies of my youth.
Sunday was more about looking forward than looking back. Since TT has already posted a photo of the four of us, here is one of Andy and two of the women in his life.
I met one of the youngest members of the family this weekend. This is Jack. He is saying 'cheese' -- it was clearly not the first time he'd been asked to pose for a picture.
The plane trip home today was smooth and uneventful. It is good to be home.

For Emily

Clearly, obviously snow. This morning.
Seriously??????

More Rain

It's rained pretty constantly here for the last few days, filling the creeks and ditches to overflowing. We had a little hail, but not enough to damage anything.
Today we picked up the COTU for the afternoon. It is their spring break week. The teenage girl helped me do some clean up yard work at the beach, and we got quite a bit done before it started to rain, again. Tomorrow .... snow.
I should have taken the plastic wrap off the painting before I took the photo. Here's more of the story behind the landscape painting. I haven't decided yet where to hang it. Having the young 'uns here always cheers us up.

Yellow is the Color of April

It was 15 to 20 degrees cooler west of highway 131 than it was in Grand Rapids today. A west wind was the culprit. I had planned to take a somewhat longer ride today, but my legs didn't have any spring in them once I got on my bike. I settled for a shorter ride, more of a tour de spring flower ride. Yellow seems to be the most common color so far. I've posted a few photos of daffodils over the last few days -- now the tulips are beginning to appear.
The forsythia bushes have begun to bloom as well. I have some forsythia bushes at the beach, but they won't bloom for a week or two -- it's cooler out there.
I do have some yellow flowers blooming at the beach -- these are called primrose.
I visited Quincy Park for the first time this year while I was out and about. It wasn't the ride that I'd planned, but it was the ride that I took. Good enough.

More Photos of the Princess

Here are a few more pictures from the girl COTU's birthday gathering yesterday evening. I'm not sure why she's posing holding the candles, but her Mother insisted. Her brother is behind her, in shorts. Yes, it was that warm. It had rained pretty much all day, but cleared up about the time we got to their house.
Her favorite color is purple ... most of us probably know that already. The flowers were a birthday gift to her from her Mom's significant other. He also knows that her favorite color is purple, I'd guess.
Since I'm doing princesses, here's the original princess. Okay, maybe not the original. My dear dafter OSLO.
Before I click the 'publish button' I want to add one more photo from today. I rode out to the beach this afternoon, including my first trip up the Idlewood hill. It doesn't seem to have gotten any higher or steeper over the winter, but I was riding my bike with a triple chain ring, so I had lots of gears, and I used them all.
A major reconstruction of the stairs up the dune is underway. Worthy of note.

She's 15 and I'm Not Ready.

Tomorrow is the 15th anniversary of the day she was born. I remember it well. Time flies. I wanted to post this video tonight -- I have some photos from the party, and I may post some of those tomorrow. We'll see.



For now I just want to wish the girl COTU a very happy 15th birthday.

April Fools Day Ride

It did occur to me even before I left the house this afternoon that today was both Theme Day and April Fools Day. I didn't bother to check on what that theme was, though, figuring that if I took a lot of photos, one of them would surely fit the theme somehow.
Well, the theme for today is Red. And I live in a very Dutchy kind of place. So I'd have thought that a ride into that Dutch village on the other side of the river/lake would have produced a photo with red in it. Not so much. I did get this photo of a very nice yellow bench at the entrance to Window on the Waterfront Park. I rode through the park from end to end -- which turned out to be not so great an idea, since the west end of the park path is mostly boardwalk or gravel path, all in a state of disrepair.
That route did provide me with the shot of these yellow daffodils, though. This is the first mass blooming of them that I have seen this spring. At the east end of the park I rode out the road onto Windmill Island -- theoretically it is still closed until the 11th of April, but it was a busy place with a lot of clean up activity going on there today. Tulip time is only a month or so away.
There is some red in this photo -- the bridge and the windmill both have red accents, but the predominant color is not red. Still, it is as close as I got to the theme. I concluded that I really didn't care, so I posted all of my yellow photos anyhow. It was in the mid 70's by the time I got back -- near record warmth for these parts on this date. A very mellow ride. A mellow yellow ride. Maybe even a maillot jaune kind of ride.