Inside and Out

I took a short ride today -- it was too warm to stay inside, too windy to ride for long. Storms were just beginning to pop up on the radar about the time I got back.

The Granddaughter called to let me know that the ceremony will be inside the field house this evening, instead of at the football stadium.  She's in the process of getting one of her friends to donate an extra ticket so that no one will be left out.  She's thoughtful that way.  Photos taken inside are unlikely to be satisfactory, so we'll have to see if this post gets a late edit or not.

late edit:  As I feared, the photos from the graduation came out awful.  Still, she graduated with honors, and we were happy to be there.  It was hot and humid, not much air movement.... but all three of her grandparents (yes, me too), opted to sit in the chairs on the floor (occasionally referred to as the basketball court.)  Several rows of chairs behind the graduates were roped off and marked "for the handicapped and the elderly."  Backless bleachers vs. folding chairs.  I called myself elderly and sat in a folding chair.  No one challenged my decision.  *Small sob*

She carried a photo of her father in her pocket.  Her brother wrote her a poem -- that kid has some depth.  It was a nice night.

Idlewood Miles and More Rain than Seems Necessary

It hasn't been a total wash out, to be sure. The driest hour of the day both yesterday and today occurred around 8 p.m. This happens to line up with my friend and neighbor's preferred walk time.  Since I haven't been biking at all this week, I've joined her fairly often.

She's much better at recognizing and naming flowers, shrubs and bushes than I am, so I'm even learning a few things as we go along. The flowers in the photo above are irises.   The ones below are also irises, with some chives growing in the middle.

Our new path to the deck is still on hold, as it can't be done in the rain, I'm told. Tomorrow the eldest grandchild has her high school graduation ceremony, and we hope that it doesn't rain for that.  The backup plan involves inside seating, tickets and necessarily excluding someone or other from the ceremony.  (Not me as I'm the matriarch, apparently.)  My oldest brother turns a gazillion years old or so tomorrow, on the historic Memorial Day.  Or the real one, as I like to call it.  Time marches on.

Back Home Again

First things first -- the 97th running of the Indy 500 took place today.  I'm not much of a race car fan, but I lived in Indiana for nearly 13 years, so I get a little misty when Jim Nabors sings "Back Home Again in Indiana."   That took place about 12:05 pm, and by 12:15 I was on my bike.  My plan was to ride for an hour and a half and be back in time to see the end of it.  As plans go, it worked out fairly well.

I had brisket to tend to at home for tomorrow's family gathering here, and at my current level of biking fitness, an hour and a half is plenty.  The usual winner's pool for the race was won my lovely niece formerly known as Wireless, I believe.  Congrats on a good pick.  Was there money involved?  Really, you'd think I'd know that by now.  I leave you with the words traditionally sung by Gomer.  Apparently it is just the chorus.

Chorus:
Back home again in Indiana,
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight, still shining bright,
Through the sycamores for me.
The new-mown hay sends all its fragrance
From the fields I used to roam.
When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,
Then I long for my Indiana home.

The B List.

Blossoms. I love lilacs, in all of their various colors and forms. These were especially fragrant -- at the corner of Riley and 168th.

It's the birth of the blues. Yes, I've used that line before, probably many times, but it's what crosses my mind every year at this time when the blueberry fields begin to blossom. These are near the corner of 160th and New Holland Street.

Barking dogs at Quincy Park. There's a new dog park there -- I watched its construction last year, and decided to check out that area for the first time so far this year. It's pretty fancy, as dog parks go, with a separate fenced area for smaller dogs. Bike Snob NYC  made an observation today on his blog  -- "It's odd that our culture goes so far out of its way to accommodate pets yet we're so hostile to bicycles. "

The traditional route through here follows a drainage ditch through the trees for a while, before crossing over to the other half of the park. The two parks were separate at one time, now the connector path allows me to access a couple of interesting neighborhoods that used to be hard to get to. (The pig farm was in high fragrance mode today.)

So bridges and bicycles end the B list for today's ride. About 18 miles. A bit too far, but I lived to tell the story.

Progress Report

Step one:

There's more to come.

And Summer Officially Begins.

The girl noticed a couple of people wading in the water down on the beach this afternoon. She takes pride in being hard core, and being one of the first people into the water every year. (Water temperatures near shore were in the 50's, I believe.)

She begins by stating that the water isn't that bad, and that they can "make this." She ends by yelling for her brother to get moving -- he's on the beach applying sunscreen. She didn't go in any deeper, but returned to the beach to wait for him to be ready. Eventually, it is une, deux,trois, and they're off.
The boy dived in about six more times, by his count. It must be great to be that young.

FYI

As many of you are aware, there have been two house rules here for quite some time.  Today we had to  add a third.  So here's the updated list:

1. No singing at the table.
2. No throwing blueberries M&M's.
3. No Zombies in the house.

Just thought you ought to know.  (It is possible that this post will be updated with a photo later, but then again, maybe not.)

Two Different Walks

Today was much like yesterday --  pretty to look at, very sunny but quite cool where I live.  It barely hit 60 here, but was 80 in Grand Rapids.  This has an interesting effect on the blooming patterns of lilac bushes. The lilacs on the northwest side of my house have barely set their buds, while those just a few blocks away, but still up here on the hill, are in bloom.  It's one of my favorite smells.  It reminds me of the lilac bush at the house in Coleraine.  This photo was taken this afternoon on a walk with RRP.

Biking fitness has been slow to return, and I regularly take a day off between rides. Sometimes more. I need  more exercise than that,  and RRP has declared her intent to walk more often now that she's retired, so we've been circling the local streets with some regularity. The route we usually take is calculated to give us about 2 miles of walking. The plan is to kick this up a bit, perhaps soon.  (Her knees were fine today.)

This is an awful photo, but it was getting a bit dark.  I think this was taken on Tuesday -- they're grazing on the landscaping plants.  Now that the sun is setting after 9:00 pm, there is plenty of daylight for evening walks.

Historic Cottages, Bikinis and a Castle

The title will save you some time if you're of that mindset. Here are three photos from a bike ride that I took today, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they are. It seems like an interesting enough mix, though.

Today was the RRP's (Recently Retired Professor) first ride of the year, so we kept it short and easy. (As an aside, she asked her companion to pump up the tires on her bike while she was at work this morning. He squeezed the tires, decided they felt fine -- having been pumped up as recently as October or so -- and she rode with what eventually turned out to be about 25 pounds of pressure in her tires.) We made a brief stop at the Mt. Pisgah trailhead near the State Park, then continued on through the the historic cottage district back behind it.  No bikes are allowed in this neighborhood which has no roads, only walkway access to the houses built on the edge of a sand dune.  We rode some of it and walked our bikes through the sketchier parts that had precipitous drop-offs on one side or the other of the boardwalk.  We also tried to avoid big piles of sand.  Which was difficult given that the walkway, after a couple of interesting switchbacks, empties out on the beach.

You'll have to pretty much take my word for it that those people are wearing bikinis.  We saw even more people applying sunscreen to their toddlers and heading for the beach when we eventually arrived at the State Park.  Mind you, the air temperature near the water was approximately 50 degrees at the time.  (Degrees C unknown, but go ahead and do the math if you're so inclined.)  Lest you think Hollanders are idiots, it was 70 something in town.  Though you'd think that if they lived here they'd know that it is cooler near the lake.

Big Red is my usual subject at this point, but it's somewhat overshadowed by the McCastle being built behind it by one of our local billionaires.  It looks  --- I really don't have a good word for this.  Too much.  We toured the Black Lake walkways and the cottage areas along Lake Mac before heading home.  Not a lot of miles, but a nice ride.   And by the way, the RRP's legs were tired and her knees hurt when we got back.

Not Much of a Story

No posts since the Iris on Thursday, no rides since Wednesday. Mostly because of the uncooperative weather we've been having.  I'm just not hard core enough any more to ride in temperatures much below 50.  The full sunshine today was encouraging, so I set out on the usual northern loop.  It was a really nice ride, but totally lacking in story material.  I rode the loop around Ransom Park, scaring off a wild turkey, but didn't get a photo.

I was having a better day than the FedEx guy, I believe.  I predict that packages will be late.  Another FedEx truck pulled up while I was inside, but if there's a story there, I don't know what it is.

Almost home.  This is a good spot to finish off what's in the water bottle and readjust the gear before making the turn back towards the colder pool of air along the lake shore.  That's it for today.

Iris

Taken on a walk around the neighborhood this morning.

Still Crazy After all these Years

My exercise habits have evolved over the years, with every year being different from the one before. It's one of the benefits of keeping an exercise log, since I find the comparisons endlessly fascinating. Last year I had put together nearly 1,000 miles by this time of year, and was on pace for a big number year. Somewhere in late summer, I could not remember for the life of me why I wanted to ride that much, and I took up water aerobics, followed by wogging.  The year ended with a decent number of miles, but not a lot of riding after mid September.  Jogging was fun, and provided me with about the same brain chemicals as biking.  Then about a month ago, it turns out that I could not remember for the life of me why I wanted to jog when I had a perfectly nice bike with wheels and gears.

I'm not at all sure where this is taking me.  For a while I thought that I could do both -- but honestly, that is a painful combination.  But having spent the winter doing most of my exercise on two feet rather than wheels, my bicycling specific fitness level is pretty low right now.  Not quite ground zero -- I have been to the PSPS about three times in the last 10 days, after all.  But low enough that my legs hurt after I ride up the Idlewood hill at the end of that ride.  I went that way on Monday, stopping to take a photo of the ornamental pear trees in bloom along Lakeshore.

The hundred year rain storm that we got a few weeks ago has left the woods up near the Pigeon River with a lot of standing water.  Yesterday I got in a morning walk with the RRP (recently retired professor) that included climbing over a chain link fence in search of trillium and bell wort. (Wild flowers.)  We were pleased that we were still crazy enough to do something like that.  No one was hurt, and since I didn't have a camera with me to document any of this, it will have to remain just one of those stories that I tell from time to time. I declared the rest of the day to be a rest day and read a book.  Also fun.

Today I found myself (and Ruby) rolling down those same roads.  I stopped to take this photo of -- I think -- marsh marigolds.  Low 70's, plenty of sunshine.  My legs complained on the way up the Idlewood hill yet again, but maybe -- just maybe -- I was a few yards closer to the top.  Biking makes me smile again.  I just needed a bit of a break.

Weekend Photo Stream

It's been a quiet weekend here. The Grands are the lawn mowing crew here, and they work for peanuts. Or ice cream, as the case may be.  Plus a little cash.

Sunset walks on the beach are something of a tradition when the weather is nice. When I commented to the girl that this was our first sunset walk for the season, and that it is way late, she replied, "I figure it is just Mother Nature's way of reminding us where we live." Good point.

Tulip Time started this weekend, and we made a short trip into town this afternoon to check out the tulips.  The crowds were light and the tulips were colorful.

We ate a little bit of Carney food before heading off to the mall to shop for Mothers Day gifts for their Mom.

Hmmm.  Cash + dinner + ice cream + Carny food + dinner again -----  maybe not exactly peanuts.
I also got a guest photographer in with the deal, though.  Here are a few of her photos from the tulip fields.

Nice.

We're on the Warm Side of Achilles

Days like this show up here every spring, and every spring I need to relearn how to dress for them. It was barely 50 on our deck because of the lake breeze from the west.   It was mid 70's two miles from home, having headed inland as directly as was possible, when I stopped to remove an unnecessary layer. ( Bicycles make good subject matter for the pencil sketch effect, I think.)

I stopped again on the way back to add back the layer I'd taken off earlier.  The lake breeze had pushed further inland by that point in time, and I wasn't willing to freeze for the 5 miles I still had to ride to get home.

The good news is that the construction work that kept 160th closed all of last summer is over, and I got a chance to ride it today.  Perfect timing -- the wind was from the southwest, I was headed south, and 160th is downhill headed south.  Today's ride was purely exercise, no goals in mind.