Indy Sunday

It was very warm today, even right on the lakeshore. All three of the young people below spent some time swimming in the big lake this afternoon to cool off. The youngster in the middle just recently turned 14 -- yesterday, in fact, and I needed a picture to document that milestone. We do enjoy having all three of them around. It has been a good Memorial Day weekend, thus far.
The race is over -- finishing under the yellow flag.
3:58 pm. Getting towards the end. Lots of yellows -- 8, I think. It may determine the winner. 27 laps to go. Because of the cautions, Mike Conway is currently in first.

2:01 pm, EST, Three yellows, 51 laps, and Dario Franchetti is currently in first. Live blogging will cease for now.

The convalescent person here is doing quite well. Thank you, France, for checking in on her.
Yesterday was DB's birthday -- the COTU traced a happy birthday message in the sand, but it doesn't show up too well in the photo.

1:13pm Green

Car #21 - Davey Hamilton is out of the race. Two cars touched on the first green lap. Helio is in front.

It is a warm and sticky Sunday in Mi and in Indy.


Yes, Jim Nabors is still alive, and still singing at the Indy 500.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. Lap one! (1:08) Pace lap.


We are having phone issues. I think I have a working phone, but we may have to do this online -- or by skype.

• Emily, Will Power
• Gino, Marco Andretti
• BB, Dario Franchitti
  
• TT, Danica Patrick
  
• Brad, Helio Castroneves
• Santini, Scott Dixon

FR26NA

It has been a long day -- OSLO was due at the hospital by 6:00 am. We parked in the yellow lot, then checked her in. She was assigned a code name so that I could track her progress through the OR, recovery room, etc. She was FR for her last name, 26 for the day she was born, and NA for her first name. Other than that, there was no useful information provided. They didn't update the system until after her surgery was over.
Fortunately, the surgeon was more skilled than the Patient Service representatives. (Summa Cum Laude at Vanderbilt, early admission to medical school, honors here and there, was going to be a math major but it was too easy.... and about 12 years old.)
Really, who takes a camera to a hospital? She posed for this to demonstrate her newly re-found ability to stand up straight and walk. She has, of course, over-done it already, but she wouldn't be OSLO otherwise, right? She was discharged early, and I am about to exercise my maternal authority and tuck her into bed. The COTU have visited, and pronounced her to be 'fixed.' We are all very tired, but quite pleased with the results of the day.

Summer Explodes Upon the Scene

I only have a couple of days this week available for biking, and today was one of them. I checked my bike log, and discovered that most of this month's rides were in the 50's. Today started out warm and got warmer -- a high of 91 at the official reporting site in Holland. I got out early, but not early enough -- it was in the 80's, with a dew point of 74 when I got home from my ride.
The rhododendrons have started to bloom -- as flowering shrubs go, they are some of the showiest, I think. This photo was taken at the bay house, next to my front door.
My chives look a little healthier than the chives shown on other blogs recently. The irises are pretty at this point, though it isn't the Tuileries. Sigh.
Hostas and wild geraniums, for what it's worth. So far nothing has wilted in the heat, but the heat wave is predicted to last until the weekend. The clash of hot and cold air seems to be taking place across the Dakotas at this point, with thunderstorms and tornado warnings there all day. I've heard that it was warm in Paris today, but probably not as warm as it was in Minnesota and Michigan. Nice timing.

Fog and Cake

When two of your brothers are in Paris, and you're not .... and you wake up to lake effect fog that lasts all day.....
It is a good time to take a bike ride, because you know that lake effect fog doesn't last forever, and it doesn't even reach very far inland.
And really, the very best asparagus in the world is grown right here in west Michigan, and it is currently asparagus season.
Later in the day there was a retirement party for the COTU's grandmother at Jeff and Julie's, and there was cake. And sun.

OSLO Update

Today OSLO spent a couple of hours at Holland Hospital, going through pre-operative procedures. I was her designated driver, and pusher of the wheelchair. She is in remarkably good spirits for someone who is dealing with sciatic nerve pain. She's one tough cookie.
All tests were normal, and the nurses and the anesthesiologist proclaimed her to be in good health. Pain meds have been drastically cut back to give them time to clear her system before the surgery which is scheduled for next week. She is eager to get this behind her.

Busschers

All of you city folk who believe that when you flush your toilet, the contents are magically transported to a treatment facility where it is recycled, you can go about your business. (No pun intended.) This is not a story you can relate to. Busscher's is the oldest pumping services business in our area -- in fact their old trucks used to say, "We're Number 1 in Number 2." The new trucks do not say that. I checked when they arrived this morning to pump out our septic tank.
And no, we're not the type of people who schedule regular maintenance for the septic tank. We wait for something to go wrong, then we call in the experts. This past weekend, something went wrong. Horribly wrong. In keeping with some rule or other, it also went wrong at the worst possible time. The beach house has no stairs between the bathroom and three of the bedrooms, and we had planned that this house was where OSLO would go following her back surgery next week. She'd been told that stairs would be difficult for a while, and she should avoid them as much as possible for the first week. Thus the plan to have her recuperate here.
When it became clear that pumping out the septic tank wasn't going to solve our drainage problems, Andy dug right in to diagnose the problem. The first hole he dug was outside the bathroom window. A snake and a hose convinced him that there was an obstruction in the pipe more or less underneath the air conditioner. When we explained the pressing need for a working bathroom on this floor, Andy called in reinforcements. By early afternoon the air conditioner had been moved and the old pipe underneath it had been replaced with new PVC pipe. For reasons that are not clear, all of the rest of the pipe was PVC pipe except the stuff under the a/c which was the old style made of tarpaper -- we thought we'd had all of that replaced about 7 years ago, but apparently not quite.
The shiny white stuff is the good stuff (above). The black stuff (below) has a tendency to deteriorate over time and allow tree roots to grow into the line. The black stuff is no longer considered to be 'up to code.' I'd have to agree.
The long snake like clog next to the old black pipe is all tree roots, I was told. Here I will quote TOPWLH. #1, there was a clog. #2, it has been fixed.

A Little Taste of Summer

This was the first day this year when sitting on the deck seemed like a good idea. We got out the bench pads for OSLO, something that we normally only do when BB visits. OSLO has trouble finding a comfortable position to sit these days, but she hates to miss out on the action.
Most of that was happening off camera at this point. The three 'boys' were on the beach, checking to see if there was enough wind to fly kites. There were a couple of semi-successful launches, but there just wasn't quite enough of a breeze to keep them aloft for very long. Still, it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and I think that a good time was had by all.

Finished

It has been over a month since I last reported on the state of the dune at Tunnel Park.
In my humble opinion, the angle of the dune is too steep. It's called the angle of repose, and Mother Nature prefers that it be about 32 to 34 degrees. Rain, wind and runners will all have an effect, I think, and the sand at the top of the dune will gravitate towards the bottom. All of the construction tape is gone, and the dune seems to be open for business. The official opening of tourist season begins in about two weeks.

Bow Fishing?

We put up new shades on the windows where the rays from the rising sun hit me in the eyes as I drink my morning coffee and send off emails to my grandson. Naturally, the sun hasn't shone through those windows since they were installed. Just my way of saying that today was a cold, gray day.
No rain, though, and the streets were dry by noon. I found this sign a few hundred feet from the PSPS on my way home. Somehow I got to be this old without knowing that you could fish with a bow. And, I presume, arrows? Apparently enough people do it that you can put together a two day tournament for those folks on Memorial Day weekend. Some of you probably have something much, much better to do.

Frosty Start

Really it was two frosty starts in a row. TOPWLH said that there was frost on the ground when he got up on Sunday morning -- Mothers Day. (It was warmer for the Santa Claus parade last December than it was for the last parade for Tulip Time this past weekend.) I had time for a short ride before my oldest child and her children arrived to shower me with cards and such -- but only if I got out early. Normally I wouldn't have considered riding at 38 degrees, but it had been two days without a ride, and I was pretty sure that I could manage a dozen miles without freezing to death. Cold muscles complained, and my legs felt sluggish as I struggled up the short incline before the long downhill ride to Lakeshore. On the way out I gave myself permission to walk back up the hill on the return trip -- a concession both to the cold morning and to the advancing years that make this whole biking thing harder every year. I added an extra mile on to the planned north end of the loop, enjoying the ride a bit more than I had expected before turning back. I did, of course, rescind the permission to walk the hill about the time I got to Tunnel Park. I was riding the bike with all the gears, and though I was breathing hard and my heart rate was a bit above normal by the time I got to the top of the hill, no one got hurt. Today I had all day to ride, so I waited until the temperature got into the mid 50's about noon before I headed out. The plan was to ride to the PSPS. It has been a common destination over the last couple of weeks, but it still hasn't reached the status of an easy ride. In my opinion, I'm still at level 1 biking fitness until the PSPS becomes 'just a spin out and back.' Somewhere along the way today, my brain and my legs came up with a different plan. Instead of turning west at 152nd and Blair, towards the PSPS, I turned east. Then north at 144th. Which eventually took me, for the first time this year, to ---- (drum roll),
Hemlock Crossing Park. One of my fellow bloggers has been showcasing stone churches for a while now -- and this is pretty clearly not a church, unless you're a Wiccan, or a Pantheist, perhaps. (What would we do without Google?) It is the new Ottawa County nature center. Odd architecture, stone siding, pine log entrance and all. As well as the first bike rack I've seen at this park, just as an aside. The sign in front and the one on the front door both said the same thing -- it is open six days a week. Guess which day it is closed? Yep. Monday. Still, my legs felt fresher today than I had expected, and stretching out the ride for the second day in a row past the original plan felt like progress of a sort. Anybody know who won stage 3 of the Giro?

Sand Drive

It was a cool day for a ride -- about 50 degrees, and the wind was brisk -- from the NW around 15 to 20 mph. As usual the first two miles were harder than I think they should be for May rides. Still, today was mostly about enjoying the multiple colors of green in the landscape that are seen only at this time of year.

This is one of my favorite stretches of road -- I ride it on the way to the PSPS and back, when I want to stretch out the ride just a little bit. It's quiet, it's a little curvy and a little rolling, and a lot closed. There seems to be a fair amount of ditch type construction going on along my usual routes north of town.
Tulip time continues on in Holland, with the Kinder Parade as the main attraction for today. My plan for the remaining two days of the festival is to try to stay away from all areas where tourists might be milling about.

A Fine Dutch Whine

The first stretch of road heading west into a mostly westerly wind seemed too hard, and I almost gave up and turned around. It isn't the first time that my head has tried to talk me out of a bike ride even after I've geared up and gotten out the door. Too cold, too windy. Too.... not in the mood. Two miles, I negotiated. That's about what it takes to warm up and get the kinks worked out enough to be comfortable on the bike. So I was feeling pretty proud of myself by the time I got to this point -- about 8 miles into my ride.
A little advance warning would have been helpful. Maybe even before I made the turn down this road, nearly a mile before this 'road closed ahead' sign. I was already as far north as I had planned to go today, and the detour went north only. Or I could have turned around, I suppose. Which did I do? I was on a bicycle. I decided the road was only closed to cars. I went straight ahead.
It worked like a charm. While on the topic of unexpected closures, I bring you this last photo of a spot you might find vaguely familiar. And before I finish whining, I'd like to mention that the local TV stations are predicting snow this weekend. Seriously. Snow.

Part Two -- More Tulip Pics

Here are the best of the rest of the photos that I took on Saturday afternoon. Orange tulips!
There just aren't enough orange flowers.
I took this photo because the little girl's hat matched the color of the tulips. Charming.
And here are a few more mass plantings -- the one above was taken in Centennial Park, the one below is from the Kinder Plaatz area.
Tulip Time is overlapping with final exam week and graduation weekend at Hope this year. I always assumed that the city and the college coordinated their schedules, since this never has happened before in the 27 years I've been here, at least as far as I can remember. I will be avoiding the downtown area for the next week.

Tulip Time, Part One

The COTU and I spent Saturday afternoon in downtown Holland, 'browsing' Tulip Time.
Centennial Park is one of the hubs of activity, with thousands of tulips, and this year, an arts and craft fair.
Laura's soybean candles anyone? The Tulip Trolley leaves from this park, and it is one of the venues for the Klompen Dancers. It was a busy, crowded place.
TJ's favorite color is ???? Finding the best yellow tulips is a tradition for us, and of course, it is a photo opportunity.
Finding the best purple tulips was a bigger challenge. We ventured downtown (a two block stretch of 8th street is what we call downtown) and found these near the Holland Museum. Or as it is known to long time residents, the old post office.
She found some purple blooms that she liked better at Kinder Plaatz, known as Windows on the Waterfront Park during the rest of the year. Notice that we had given in to the aroma of fresh popped popcorn from a street vendor by this point. I passed up the Elephant Ears, having no one to share it with -- and I'm still working off the funnel cake I had at the Rays baseball game.
I couldn't resist the photo of the bench. Notice the tulip stems next to TJ. Tulip time is early this year, but the tulips bloomed even earlier.
I took a lot of tulip photos, and I will likely post more of them as the week goes on.
And one last photo for today -- the black tulips.