And We're Back
Not that I've actually been
gone or anything. Just enjoying my summer too much to blog. Or, alternatively, being so tied up with work and home projects and cycling and CDFFL and
three god-damned admin-only head-to-head contests at Worth that I really haven't had time and energy to blog.
Speaking of bicycling (no, you
can't tune out now, you'll
like this post, really), there are a number of hazards involved in bicycling in Saint Paul and its surrounding communities. Cars, obviously, and trucks. Potholes and other wheel-damaging things in and on the roadway.
Then too, there are the living hazards. People. People with dogs whose leashes stretch the entire width of the bike path. Dogs without leashes. Squirrels and rabbits. The occasional deer. And, of course, Orthodox Jews, who (as you can imagine) are considerably more dangerous than the rest.
Seriously. Part of my commute involves a ride down (and in the afternoon, back up) Edgcumbe Road, a curvy hill connecting the lower and upper Highland Park neighborhoods.
Near the top of the hill is an Orthodox (possibly Hasidic/Lubavitch) temple, Adath Israel. There are no sidewalks on this stretch of Edgcumbe, and even in the early morning darkness I'll sometimes be speeding downhill around a curve at 20-something mph only to find a bearded dude dressed in solid black walking up the road right at me. It's scary. And not just because they're Orthodox. I've taken to riding out closer to the middle of the road -- there are sometimes fewer cars than Jews out at that hour. And Orthodox Jews aren't generally in the middle of the road.
Labels: bicycling
More Bike Blogging
There. You were warned.
Scooter is hard at work training for
RAGBRAI, and I'm so glad I'm not going. Seven days and 476 miles sounds, well, brutal. Add to that the sleeping on the ground and I'm just as happy not to be going; my lower back has been complaining a little about the mileage I'm putting on as it is.
Today's commute was smooth. The return trip in particular felt really good: 56 minutes, 13.8 mph. For me, that's about as good as it ever gets with the hybrid and the panniers.
Sightings: a truck driver who didn't cut me off at an intersection when he could have, but instead waved me through. A pair of inline skaters who (as all inline skaters seem to) completely ignored the yellow stripe dividing their portion of the path from that belonging to oncoming traffic. Many bunnies, even a few on the afternoon leg of the ride.
Labels: bicycling
Blogging has slipped again ...
As if anyone cares.
I rode to work yesterday -- only the second time this year, but I'm doing better than last year, so I suppose I shouldn't complain. Today, I volunteered to basically repeat the ride; Kristi had three books being held for her at the Westcott branch of Dakota County library, right down the street from Thomson-West, and one of them was coming off its hold at the end of the day today. So I got back on the bike and trundled off across two rivers again.
It was a nice ride, about 22 miles round trip. Much of it was on my regular commute route. But while I normally have the bridges and trails by the river to myself on my morning commute (and nearly to myself in the afternoon), on a Saturday morning there are all kinds of people about. Not just bicyclists, either -- lots of inline skaters to share the path with. Inline skaters, in my experience, aren't really good about this; they shoot back and forth across the entire width of a 7- or 8-foot-wide bike path, and appear downright resentful when they have to coast for a moment to let a bicycle past. Imagine the nerve! A bicyclist, on the bicycle path! Nor did the bicyclists themselves come off particularly well. Word: I don't care how much in love you are,
you don't ride next to each other on a narrow bike path, especially when there's another cyclist riding right at you less than 50 feet away. Sheesh. For once, the drivers came off much more polite and aware than did the riders.
The ride itself felt great; surprisingly, I felt stronger than I had during the Friday commute. I'm hoping to bike-commute again on Monday
Labels: bicycling
Sightings
Surrealism.
Riding the Highway 13 bike path below Acacia Park cemetery this morning at about 5:20 -- looking through the trees, caught site of a mylar balloon slowly skipping across the lawn, and suffered a serious flashback to
The Prisoner.
At work -- a maintenance cart with a single computer on it -- no monitor, no keyboard, no power cord or mouse. Taped to the computer, a very prominent sign: "Do Not Disconnect This Computer!"
Labels: bicycling, work
Outa Shape, Part 2
Rode to work today. The ride in, which (when I'm in shape) takes an hour, I clocked in 1:04. Pretty good, really, considering.
The ride home? 22 mile-an-hour winds gusting to 31, out of the northwest. My ride is
into the northwest. Took 1:16 and nearly everything I had. Every now and then I'd hear that Danny Glover voice in the back of my head saying, "I'm too old for this shit," but I stayed on the bike the whole way -- even up the hill on Edgcumbe where I was certain I was going to give up.
Labels: bicycling
Father's Day
Yesterday my next-door neighbor, Steve, recommended that I try out the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis. Never having ridden it, I thought that sounded like a fine idea, so this morning I headed on over.
The greenway runs east-west through the heart of Minneapolis, all the way from the Mississippi River Parkway to Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. Oddly enough, as I transitioned from the River Parkway to the greenway, I saw yet another two-door purple RAV. They're suddenly everywhere I'm bicycling, but when I'm out driving mine, I never see another one. Weird.
The greenway makes good use of existing and former railway rights-of-way to carve a path across town with a minimum of cross-traffic. Much of the route is below-grade, between 29th and 28th streets, with "onramps/offramps" every half-mile or so to get you back into traffic if you're so inclined. (
Here's an example of one looping off of the greenway and up to 18th Avenue, and
here's a picture of one from on the greenway itself.) Dotting the path are community gardens and other things to look at, including a
restaurant patio at the back of the old Sears building (now upscale condos, hotel, shopping and dining). When you get to Uptown and close to the lakes, people's front yards come right down to the path, and you can admire the landscaping and (inwardly) thank them for the scenery.
The whole ride this morning was about 17 or 18 miles. Sitting at the lakes, I considered riding south past Calhoun and Harriet and catching the Minnehaha Creek trail back east, but I figured that would've taken too long. So I simply retraced.
When I got home, Emma had a Father's Day present waiting for me. I'm wearing it now: a blue t-shirt with "Dad: The Man, The Myth, The Legend" embroidered on it. (Very tastefully.)
After a (prolonged) call to Kristi's dad, we walked down to the Saint Clair Broiler, where Emma has bought me breakfast the last two Father's Days. With Kristi no longer working weekends, this was the first time we'd all eaten there together. Food: fine. Company: great. Booths: in serious need of repair.
Then a relaxing rest-of-the-morning around the house, followed by
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in Oakdale. I was thoroughly satisfied; despite what I'd heard, I had no trouble whatsoever sorting out the various plots and double-crosses. Topped off everything with dinner at Sawatdee, another Father's Day tradition.
Labels: bicycling, family, movies
Outa Shape
I took Thursday and today off -- we'd planned to go camping, so Kristi is off too (Emma's last day of school was Tuesday), but those plans changed. Anyway, this morning I took a bike ride.
Oof.
Haven't been on the bike much at all this year so far, and it shows. I did an 11.5-mile loop to Dakota County, across the 35E bridge and back across the Mendota bridge. And I'm feeling it.
I did, however, notice some things. The cool quasi-historical markers on the bike trail coming off Lilydale Road (never ridden that path before). The birds flying out of "nests" that are holes in the sandstone (?) bluffs above the path. The purple two-door RAV, just like mine (you hardly ever see 'em), parked just off Hamline above Montreal. The impression of bicycle shoe cleats in the concrete steps leading down from Fort Snelling to the Mississippi bridge along Highway 5 (how did I never notice those before, and how did that guy ever get the cement out of his cleats?).
Yesterday Kristi, Emma and I had an adventure afternoon. Around noon, Kristi took us to REI to climb the pinnacles. Emma has tried before and barely made it her own height off the ground; this time she did somewhat better. Kristi made it more than halfway up the adult beginner's route. And I made it all the way up. (I was very disappointed to find out there was neither a bell to ring nor $20 to grab. What a ripoff.) After that we dropped our car at the megamall and took the Hiawatha light-rail line to downtown Minneapolis. The plan was to go to the viewing deck in the IDS building; Kristi had called the Wells Fargo building and asked if they had one, and they said no, but IDS does. So we go to IDS, and yes, there's a viewing deck, but it's closed. For the last 28 years. Sigh. We had a nice lunch at Panera and came home.
Anyway, between the 50-foot climb yesterday and the ride today, plus lots of hand-planing of the new porch screens to fit their openings and cutting/hanging of trim in Emma's playhouse, I feel a little like somebody's been kicking me in the ribs and shoulders. Repeatedly. And hard.
Ow.
Labels: adventures, bicycling, home
Gorgeous
Spring has made it to the Cities, finally. We've had a beautiful weekend, and for me, that means getting on the bike. Yesterday I made two neighborhood rides, once to Office Max for a printer cartridge and once to Kowalski's for some artichoke hearts. Today, while Kristi took Emma for her swim lesson, I did a 12-mile loop around western Saint Paul -- started out reversing the route of the Saint Paul Classic 30-mile loop, then ... well,
here's a map, including the detour to Minnehaha and Snelling to find out that the Minnehaha library branch is closed on Sundays. About 12 miles without getting out of the saddle, which in April is enough to wear me down. But it felt
good -- the knee is solid. And 12 miles is just a little shy of the 13-mile ride to work, so I'm thinking that I'll be in solid commuting shape well before Emma goes into a summer program that stretches to late afternoon and I actually have time to do the commute.
Oh, yeah. And taxes. The less said, the better. We owe less this year than last, but that's largely because of donating Kristi's old Mazda last year; I doubt we'll be doing
that again soon.
Labels: bicycling, weather
