Day of the Dead

Here's the skeleton mural I mentioned in my last post. I guessed that it had something to do with the Day of the Dead. Wikipedia helped make it clear for me.

Someday, I'll ride by with a better camera.

Today's Ride Home

The wind was at my back on the way home today. It was a very strong wind. The leaves raced me and they usually won. Every once in a while they caught in my fenders and buzzed the tires loudly.

Some people have decorated nicely for Halloween.

The sign says, "Bus stop to HELL" The little kid on the bench has a demon face.
A beautiful day.


These leaves are swirling, but you can't tell in this cell-phone cam shot.


I took this photo of the light rail train from a bike bridge overpass. The cell phone cam can't catch leaves in flight, but it stopped the train.

I had another phone shot of a nice skeleton mural, but my Verizon phone won't mail it to me. I have to email each photo to myself from my cell phone. My phone has a USB jack, but it's disabled by Verizon. Anyhoo, I tried to send the photo of the mural to myself three times. It never shows up.



This is where I park my bike when I pick the kids up from school. The school doesn't have bike racks. I wonder why the kids are so chubby?

My Netflix Flicks

I finally signed up for Netflix and this is the first movie I returned: The Fog of War. It's a great documentary. I feel like the topics covered are so important that I should spend time learning more about the questions the film raised.

• U.S. build up in Vietnam
• Firebombing of Japanese Cities in WWII
  
• The World Bank
• Curtis Lemay
• I also watched American Movie. I felt depressed after watching it. I'm still thinking about it and don't know what else to say.

The Replacement Camera

I lost my pocket camera this summer. It was a Canon A530. I've been trying to make due with the cell-phone cam since then and it's getting old. The cell-phone cam has lots of shortcomings.

I sold a bike the other night and it occurred to me that I could easily replace the missing camera with the bike money. Today, I went to National Camera to buy a camera that's a step down in the Canon line, the A460. When the salesguy handed it to me I liked the feel of it and that's important. He asked me why I picked that particular model. I explained that I lost an A530 and he told me they had refurbished ones for $90.

To heck with the feel. I'm cheap.

Gimme, gimme, gimme!

I went home, loaded the batteries and walked around the house taking photos. Here are some of the them. Photography is fun.


This dried up rose bud reminds me of a jester's hat.



How do they make red leaves?



The heron.



These leaves are the right color.

Followup on Bus Incident

I received a message from the local bus company (MTC) in response to my complaint about a specific driver. I think it's great that MTC responded. I usually find the MTC bus drivers to be great. It's the school bus drivers that are scary.

The response was from an MTC manager who said she talked to the driver and that the safety specialist would also talk with the driver. I'm satisfied with that. I've ridden the same route and not had any bus troubles again, whatever that's worth.

Sunday Ride

Because of the wet trails from days of rain, I didn't ride offroad today. I went for a fun ride in town. I first stopped to watch the Twin Cities marathon with my family. We cheered on the runners. The race passes about 6 blocks from my house.I crossed the path when it was clear enough to not get in the way of runners and rode north on 4th Avenue to the Midtown Greenway bike path. I've never used 4th Ave. as a through street, but I found it to be very nice. Not many cars or lights. Lots of interesting things to see.
The graffiti on this building is really nice. I hope it's OK with the owner.

One portion of today's ride goes through an area of St. Louis Park (or Hopkins) that has lots of elderly living facilities. I saw lots of older people out walking and enjoying the nice day. It immediately reminded me of Ray's comment on visiting people who live in elderly residences.

If you had a scratch-and-sniff monitor, you'd know the cloud above my bike smells like Ovaltine.
While downtown. I found this giant, red garage door. I thought it would be a nice backdrop for the Davidson 650B conversion bike. Instead, the result is that I really hate my cell-phone camera. I have officially started shopping for a replacement for the camera we left on a park bench in Duluth.

Historic Spanish Outpost in Minnesota

A coworker (shown on his bike in the photo) and I rode to lunch today in Roseville where we work. We ate at a Davani's restaurant and discovered an old, Spanish adobe building next door. I had no idea Spanish settlements stretched as far northward as Minnesota.

I did a little research. Here's what I found.

The Spanish moved northward into Iowa and Minnesota in search of a permanent ice supply in the early 1770s. During the summer of 1771 the Spanish government sent a muletrain of 40 soldiers and a priest northward. They crossed the Mississippi River during late October. Winter was approaching so they set up a camp a couple of miles north of the river. They liked the flat ground that allowed them to see all directions. Sadly, their leader, Luis Portola Ortega died of a painful leg infection.

The winter of 1771 was mild allowing them to recuperate from the difficult journey north. Despite the setback of loosing their leader, the explorers flourished. They built wooden cabins using the abundant forests. They trapped beaver for clothing and hunted the plentiful deer population. Spring found them in better condition than in the preceding fall. They decided to turn their encampment into an outpost and named it Santa Muchos Lagos. They rebuilt the wooden buildings using their familiar technique of adobe construction. They also had time to build a little church. The building shown in the photo is believed to be the church, it's not for certain though.

Word of the comfortable settlement traveled back with the ice shipments to the large Spanish towns in the southwest. Settlers began to arrive and it's estimated the population may have reached 200.

The harsh winter of 1773, even by Minnesota standards, caught the newcomers by surprise. They didn't have the experience or proper equipment to withstand the cold. Evidence indicates the settlement was struck by an outbreak of food poisoning. Most of the Spanish explorers and settlers died during the long, snowy winter. The few who lived until spring, headed back south to more comfortable climates as soon as the snow melted. Their trek was slowed by thawing mud. They were forced to leave several other outposts along the way.

This building is the last piece of the Santa Muchos Lagos settlement. If you listen with your heart, you can still hear the voices of the intrepid, Spanish explorers skinning beavers and tending to their mules.

Male Teachers?

Lunatic Biker mentioned something about male teachers on his blog recently. I thought of the male elementary school teachers I had. One guy, Mr. Peavey spanked kids on their birthdays with a paddle. We feared him.

Another guy, Mr. Fero, was a real sicko. I moved to a new neighborhood the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. All summer, I heard from my buddies that you don't want to get Mean Gene Fero for a teacher in 4th grade.

A week before school, they posted the class rosters on the teacher's doors. I walked to school with my friends to look at who I got. I read the roster in front of Mr. Fero's door. My name was on it! I yelled at my buddy down the sidewalk, "I got Mean Gene!" I turned around and saw the janitor scowling at me. My buddy told me later that he wasn't the janitor, he was Mr. Fero. He dressed in gray pants, a gray shirt, and wore a matching gray hat. He looked like the janitor to me.

That was a really crappy way to start a really crappy semester with Mean Gene. I have lots of stories about this guy, but I won't bore you. He and I just didn't ever get along. My dad went to a special teacher conference and met Mean Gene. My dad came back and told me he understood why I was having trouble with my teacher.

The Air Force moved our family at semester and I was saved.

My point: I don't remember any decent male, elementary school teachers. I'm sure they exist, but I didn't have them. I remember plenty of great male teachers in Junior High and High School, though.

Odds and Ends

Yesterday, an MTC bus cut me off. I passed the same bus a couple blocks later and took a cell-phone photo of it. When I got to work, I submitted a complaint using the MTC website. I requested that they contact me. If I hear from them again, I'll mention it here.

I replaced the batteries in my flashing lights last night. What a huge difference it made! I thought they looked OK, but decided to replace them anyway to see if I noticed a difference in brightness. I think the brightness dims so gradually over the course of a few weeks that I don't notice how dim they become. I've tried to think of a way to prevent this and install batteries before it becomes an issue. I'm going to write the date I replaced the batteries on a piece of tape and stick it on one of the lights. That will give me an idea how long the batteries have been in there.

If anyone has other ideas for remembering when to change batteries in the flashing bike lights, let me know.

I was a little late riding in this morning and saw a nice sunrise.

Sunrise over I-35W and Industrial Blvd.

ID the Poo

My last post mentioned some poo I found on a local bike trail. Matt-J thought it might be mountain lion poo. I had thought of that, because it's commonly known that a mountain lion lived in the area a couple years ago.

I found the thread about it on the local mountain bike site (MORC).

The thread is pretty funny, but it's serious too. I used to ride that trail at dawn with regularity. After reading about the cougar, I've been less eager to place myself in that situation.

The funniest comment is the one that says people will start inviting slow riders along for their group rides. I assume, they mean the cougar will eat the slow rider first.

The photo of the mountain lion I inserted here is from the thread. Scroll down in the thread several comments to see the photo. Click on it for a larger size version.

I did a tiny bit of research and found that cougar poop is about the size of a large dog turd and is usually filled with hair. It is segmented and has rounded ends. This describes what I saw on the trail pretty well. The internet sites I found that had photos were old dried up scat. The stuff I saw yesterday was still glistening. If I had taken a photo of it, I would apparently have the only fresh looking cougar poo photos on the internet.

Of course, this is not definitive. It may have been from another animal.

Lunchtime Ride -- Offroad

Today's lunchtime ride was great even though I rode alone. I chose the Minnesota River Bottoms, but only rode the east end, east of Lyndale Ave, that is. I encountered four other riders. I noticed that a couple of them had 29ers. It's easy to spot those big tires, even when passing oncoming single-track traffic.

I performed trail maintenance by cleaning up three piles of dog poop. At least I think they were dog poop. I just missed the first pile and decided to stop and get it off the trail. I've ridden through it before and figured it would be best to save someone else from having crap sprayed on their helmet, jersey and bike.

Not far down the trail, I saw another pile. I used the same reasoning to justify stopping and moving this beauty off the trail also. When I encountered the third pile, I was a little ticked off. I mean, that's a lotta poop! Each time, I grabbed a branch from the trailside and just flicked the offensive material into the weeds. But the third pile was extra ugly. It looked like the owner of the poop had eaten a gray haired thing. The poop had lots of hair in it.

I'm not even sure it was left by a dog. Although, if a dog ate a bunny, it might result in this style of poop. All the piles were exactly in the middle of the trail. At first I figured they were left a by a hiker's dog, but I'm not so sure now. I imagined wild, or mostly free-running dogs could be the owners of the piles. Most dog owners are more careful and it seems unlikely that it would happen three times in so short a distance. They were freshies too.

Anyway, if you ride the MN Riverbottom trail, thank me for your poop-free experience.

And the ride was great today because riding is great, not because I got to examine too much scat. That was really just an interesting side note.

Lunchtime Bike and Bridges Photo

Today's lunchtime ride took me down Minnehaha Creek to Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. I've always liked the little pathway bridges they have along the creek. I've taken lots of photos of them, some with bikes in the frame.

Here are a couple from the cell-phone camera. Minneapolis just finished rebuilding the bridges and they did a great job.

Pedro the Acorn Squash

My son moved to middle school this year and has a new friend, Pedro. Pedro is an acorn squash. My wife joked about baking Pedro with butter (the preferred cooking method for squash). My son was not having any part of that.

"What happens when Pedro rots," my wife asked?

"He's better as compost, than being eaten. At least then he'll go back to the earth," my son answered.

We'll see where this goes.

Saturday's HC Ride

Last Saturday, I rode the HC ride for the first time in many weeks. I've had lots of things filling my Saturday morning schedule. I've missed the ride and enjoy the company of the motley crew that attends.

These guys had on electric clothing.

This bike is orange with purple panels. I didn't think these two colors would look good together, but this bike is beautiful, despite the quality of the cell-phone camera image.


Back to the Aster Cafe on St. Anthony Main in Minneapolis for coffee and pastries. This place serves beer too. Maybe I'll come by some afternoon when I have nothing better to do.

This little bird hopped around under our chairs while we drank coffee outdoors.

Soccer 3

The cake was not poison!

My soccer team is scheduled to play every Tuesday and Thursday night. Our last two games have been cancelled due to weather. Tuesday was cancelled because of rain, but we took team photos indoors. Last night's game was cancelled due to rain, lightning, and a tornado watch (or was it a warning?).

It's too bad, because I've found some fun, new soccer drills for 8 and 9 year olds. They love drills that seem more like games than drills. I found lots of excellent videos of soccer drills on YouTube. That's one of the great things about the internet. There is so much relevant and useful information available.

If I don't mention the other side, someone will bring it up. There's lots of crap out there too.

Did I Just Eat Poison Cake?

We have a really unsafe behavior in the office where I work. Here's an example:

I just walked back from the bathroom and saw two of my coworkers eating delicious looking pieces of crumb cake. I made an immediate about face and marched into the kitchen like a zombie, cut a piece for myself, and took it back to my desk. I ate about half of it before I asked myself these questions, "Where did this come from?" and "Who brought this?"

A bad person could kill off most of the people in our office in about half an hour with a poison cake. We routinely eat anything on the break-room table without questioning the contents. Maybe next time, I'll find out who brought it before digging in.

If you want to see a reasonable facsimile of how quickly a piece of this crumb cake disappeared, watch this little video, but imagine it at twice the speed.

My kid said ...

This weekend, we stayed at a friend's cabin in the Wisconsin woods. During the morning my daughter was singing a monotonous, two-word song for much longer than necessary. I was working to ignore it when my son told her that if she didn't stop it, he was going to dress her up as a buck and shove her in the woods.

Soccer Report 2

I had my first soccer game of the season last night with the 2nd and 3rd graded girls team I'm coaching. My daughter is one of the playes. The association that runs this league calls it micro soccer. The kids play three-on-three with no goalie on a very reduced field size. This keeps everyone playing. Every player gets lots of touches.

It's a fast game with lots of goals and everyone goes home tired. My goal is to get them to have fun playing soccer and teach them a few fundamentals that might stick.

We don't keep score. I'm sure some of those people who think we're ruining kids by not forcing them to compete wouldn't like that. I don't think the score is important, because we don't have refs so the game is not fair in the first place. The kids try to keep score anyway. It's funny to hear their numbers after the game. One girl told another the score was 12 to 2. I know I saw the other team put in at least 6 goals.

Another unique item of this league is that we split into two teams and play two games at the same time. I coached one game and the other coach took care of the other game. After the game, I asked one of the girls how it went in her game. She's very talented and seems pretty grown up so I was interested in her opinion. She said it went terrible. Why, I asked. She said it was because I'm a terrible coach.

I'll make sure to ask her each game and see what else she has to say. Is this her talking or her parents? Her father is an British guy who plays soccer, er correction, football and made sure I knew it on the first night.

This will be fun.

Hot Sauces

I go through phases of using hot sauces. Right now, I'm on a Cholula kick. I like Cholula because it doesn't have the vinegar taste of those Louisiana style sauces.

This bottle is an extra large 10 incher (250mm for you metric people). I should have put something next to it in the photo for scale.

It's nearly empty. What should I buy next?

Anti Bike Theft Plan via Treehugger

This anti-bike theft program doesn't sound as satisifying as the one I have in mind, but it's the best thing I've heard of.

The program: cops attach a GPS beacon to a bait bike and allow it to be stolen. Then they track the bike and arrest the thief. It appears to be reducing bike thefts, according to the story.

My buddies and I, who have had bikes stolen, have another idea that involves a bait bike. The next step in our plan is much less high tech than GPS though. Our plan involves a pipe and some violence. I'm not serious, but at some point after having something stolen, those thoughts go through our heads.