Happy Halloween

Conditioning

After I saw ice this morning I saw The Dad on his bike riding to work. I got to chat with him.

I left work a tad early and headed north on the MUP for 30 minutes into a 12mph wind. Figuring at least 10mph bike speed the wind chill calculator says it felt something like 30 degrees. That's good practice for the coming months. Test the clothing now before it really means something.

For example, on the Coffee/Doughnut ride I discovered the arms out front position of my road bike makes my new -20 degree jacket ride up in the back. Crucial information to avoid some lower back frost bite later in the season.

I also wanted to see if the reconstruction was complete on that section of trail. For a couple months the MUP was being detoured through the fairgrounds. Now it's not. The trail is open. I bet the fairground director is getting all sorts of e-mails thanking him for opening the grounds for this detour.

While I was that way I gave myself a little short tour of Elmen Park Trailhead. Funds for this park were provided by the Elmen family. I believe the patriarch held a certain affinity for the MUP. There will be bike related ammenities at this park - already you can see an uncommon number of things to lean one's bike against.

There are two structures like this...



Some restrooms...



And a Daktronics sign...



That's right. A Daktronics sign. One can only imagine the weath of information that can be communicated by this thing. Hopefully it will say "please don't block the trail while you stand and read this very important message as it scrolls."

See that asphalt? That's the new stuff. Isn't it nice? You'd hate to have a big park grand opening, complete with a shiny new Daktronics sign flashing "grand opening" without redoing the really really bad asphalt that was there a couple months ago, wouldn't you?

I Saw Ice...

...today. Real ice. On the way to work. As far as I could tell it wasn't black.

B & G Not C & D

This morning it was my turn to lead the FAB Coffee Doughnut ride. I didn’t know what to expect for attendance after I noticed the FAB Something For Everyone ride was merging then later splitting from my ride.

Complicating the estimated attendance factorizationing was four straight days of cloudy cold ret wainy weather. The TWC hourly forecast predicted an end to the rain by 3am and some actual sun for the morning. When you go to bed and it’s raining how could you possibly maintain your motivation wake up and recreationally ride a little bit?

As leader – I didn’t have much choice. I awoke bright and early (it was dark) and headed off to the meetup as the first rays of light were peeking above the horizon. The roads were still wet (possibly supersaturated) but the rain was gone.

Temperature: 35 degrees.

I was the first one there, and I waited patiently to see if I would be the only one attending. Within 5 minutes three others had joined me. I guess the roadies stayed home to watch Tour dFrance DVD’s from their rollers because there were no SFE riders there.

As the sun proper began to peek over the horizon we headed downtown to Michelle’s for some famous biscuits and gravy. By that I mean we went north for some then east a lot then south a bit then east a little more then north a whole bunch then west for some then a short bit north a short bit west and finally a short bit north again.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the wind was reasonable my feet were quite cold (conditioning for winter) and ready for some sweet sticky gravy.

We chatted. DW caught me up on the latest regional bike planning. Apparently the nearby communities really want bike trail connectivity to Sioux Falls. Apparently the idea of actually connecting to Sioux Falls by existing roadways was a new concept for some folks. That makes it a successful meeting in my book.

Roadlegs put out a challenge for me to map the ride. You got it RL!



It's raining again.

I'm Falling

Choices.

Last year I acquired a single speed road bike after deciding I wanted to participate in City Billy's Schnoctoberrfest. I'm sure there will be some recaps posted soon...as soon as the participants wake up.

I didn't go! Life is a series of choices, eh?

While The Boy 6 finished up his soccer season with The Grandma, the rest of The Family experienced a new non-consumptive activity - well except for the drive there. Life is a series of choices, eh?

We went here...


While Split Rock Creek bubbled happily nearby...


Our guide showed us what to do...


And we did...


Again...


And again...


I love fall...


Climbing at Palisades State Park.

Guide service from Sylvan Rocks.

Staying Inside The Lines

As a kindergartener The Boy 10 may have had some difficulty coloring inside the lines. Watch your toes when waiting to cross this intersection.



I hope he never gets this bad.



Save a mailbox, ride a bike.



The lines are much more fun.

Save A Cup

Tired of losing your coffee off the top of your car?

Save a cup, ride a bike...



...and have more time for things like this.

The 3.5 Day Weekend That Was

My weekend started Thursday when my boss advised us, if we have vacation use it now because we probably won’t get to use it in December.

Can I have tomorrow off?

Thursday evening I briefly attended The City’s Railway Relocation Project Open House. It seems to me that if there’s a chance of abandonment of some city railways a bicycle type person might want to be in the right place at the right time to suggest a use for those abandoned tracks; or at least show interest. There isn’t a chance – at least not in this project; as far as you know.

Friday I actually worked half a day because really, why in the world would I want to display to my employer that my presence at work isn’t necessary?

Friday afternoon I joined with The Owner and a couple city types. We modeled for a camera on road bicycle facility use for some PSA’s that should be coming out yet this fall.

Friday evening I celebrated the 125th anniversary of the University of Sioux Falls. I attended the banquet which proved to be more desirous of 1960’s graduates than 1990’s graduates. Post banquet I celebrated my 20th year friendship with The TransitLibrarian. We spent 4 hours at Monk’s House of Ale Repute. Beautiful times.

Saturday was the FAB Annual Meeting. We rode south of town to the Country Apple Orchard which gave me a great idea for the upcoming bicycle planning process of the Southeastern Council of Governments. How about designated bicycle ways out of town and connecting the towns represented in the council? Even if it simply means adding six more inches to the right of the white line!

FAB board elections occurred. I’ll be treasurer for another year – which is my final year of that due to term limits. The Club replaced four members which beats the pants of the seven replaced last year. This should put FAB in a little better position for year three.

Sunday – some family time.

Monday I used my LBS 2008 reward money to purchase the Blackburn System x8 bike lighting system. Here’s hoping new lights will chase away my frustration with my current lighting systems.

Today I finished reading “Jesus Wants To Save Christians: A Manifesto For The Church In Exile.”

I searched for “Jesus For President: Politics For Ordinary Radicals” and “The Wordy Shipmates” on eReader. I found “Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do (And What It Says About Us).” So I’m reading that now.

Remember my theory that the automobile is actually a time machine? It’s right there in the Prologue:

“Traffic is an in between time in which we are more likely to think about where we are going than where we are at the moment. Time and Space are skewed in traffic…”

and by way of introduction:

“That ‘surrealistic’ side of traffic will be the focus of this book. I began my research with the intention of stopping to take a look around at an environment that has become so familiar we no longer see it; I wanted to slow down for a moment and think about what’s going on out there as we drive, walk, cycle, or find some other way to get around.”

Still In Exile

Eleutheros the blogger at How Many Miles From Babylon doesn't post often. When he does he almost always knocks me out of the park - and almost always makes me sad because I can't get there from here. But I can see it.

He writes about economics today:

"It takes only the vision to see that tokens are not real in the way, say, blackberry jam is to realize that at some time the world is not going to be willing for us to eat all its food, use all its fuel, take all its manufactured goods, and give nothing in return besides standing beside the pump and insisting someone put a motor on it."

Hello Babylon, I never left.

Who Does This Guy Think He Is?

On Governor Palin and her debate:

"My strongest impression through watching her...it was a mishmash of contradictory poses struck with what I thought was a breathtakingly cynical indifference to their radical incoherence and to me it captured kind of perfectly - it was like her performance was the apotheosis of the incoherence of republican thinking in 2008."

I listen to the weekly podcast of the KCRW - Left, Right and Center radio program. This quote is from the moderator Matt Miller - ostensibly off the top of his head. I think he fancies himself a bit of an elitist.

RNC v Biking, Walking and Dog Sledding

Thanks StankerTanker.

In Tandem

When we awoke this morning The Boys were absent. I guess that makes sense having left them with a grandparent after soccer for the evening. The Boy 6 scored a goal by the way.

So we jumped on the tandem.

We visited the I-29 pedestrian bridge. The Wife, for the first time, didn’t like my driving. As we descended the tight curly Q ramp she was wishing for brakes. Adjacent to that are some newly painted sharrows on the west bound lane of Teem Drive. The east bound lane has had a poorly maintained fully painted bike lane since the construction of the bridge. The road no longer suggests riding bicycles on the wrong side of the two-way road.

We rode through the Japanese Gardens to find a previously elusive letterbox. Our first attempt at finding it a month ago was thwarted by some teens quite happily enjoying the seclusion of the area. It was clear they were just as intent to wait us out as we were them. The won last time, we found it this time.

We then toured the relatively new Veteran’s Memorial Park. There are a variety of memorials there including some dramatic readings of ways veteran’s earned their medals of honor. It’s a nice park for remembering that sort of thing...and they left room for growth.

From there we ventured into downtown and enjoyed newly painted southbound sharrows on Main Ave, then enjoyed the south side of the MUP. Stops at Starbucks and Walgreens, introducing The Wife to my wet weather Louise Ave avoidance techniques, finally after 23 miles she was happy to be finished with her longest bike ride ever.

Have a nice rainy day…or three.

Lambchop and Liberal Libertarians

Lambchop Rides posted this YouTube Video. There are gas shortages in Atlanta. It's so serious...well, you might remember my previous post.



--

And then there's this...

The Missing Link

Wow...apparently even the occasional petroleum executive is able to link demand for gasoline to its consumption, "A petroleum executive suggested Thursday that Gov. Sonny Perdue should cancel Saturday's football game between Georgia and Alabama."

Sort of reminds me of a conversation I had once about the LifeLight Festival. The question was - how can we make it green? The correct answer is cancel it - because no amount of effort will erase the carbon footprint of all those people driving that far. There are some compromise answers too but that's for another day.

The destruction of the economy used to always come up in conversations about global warming and cutting carbon. That's starting to seem quaint.

Funday

Ever So Close

I attended a meeting this afternoon. I arrived at my destination and began to scan for bike parking. I was coasting and slowing and BAM! - I encountered a rather substantial and wholly unexpected speed bump.

My hands bounced off the handlebar into the air. As they came back down they missed the handlebar, the bridge of my nose caught the stem and I landed in a heap of blood and metal on the parking lot asphalt...

OR...

my hands landed back on the hoods and I was thankfully left with a reminder to pay more attention.

I am so lucky the latter is what actually happened.

A Strange Sort Of Timing

Much has been said about the rift, gap, schism, separation, disagreement, incongruity, discord, conflict, division between science and religion. Much more will be said, perhaps even here after I post this.

I found something in common between the two today. It’s a sweet sort of timing given my recent post about the common religious belief that the earth will burn up and some will be whisked away to a better place.

I listened to Peter Diamandis’ TED Talk today. He’s the CEO/Chairman of the X-prize. The prize most well known for being awarded to the first private sector manned spaceflight.

It turns out that he wants to be whisked away too:

"...everything we hold of value on this planet: metals and minerals and real estate and energy is in infinite quantities in space. In fact the earth is a crumb in a supermarket filled with resources."

Pfft.

Miniature Earth

Dining With Strangers

We went walking Sunday. It was windy but quite nice. It’s fun being in a part this time of year seeing the people struggle with how to dress - sweaters, jackets, 83 degrees and sunny.



Saturday The Wife declared she’d really like to drag The Boy 6 around the MUP in the daylight since last time it was a bit on the dark side. So the four of us did; those 20 miles put me at 169.9 miles for the week. Can I take the miles in excess of 150, apply it to last week and declare I made my goal last week?

This week I put 25 miles on my car when The Boy 11 and I visited the orthodontist. Ahh…my orthodontist experience. One of the reasons it’s amazing my parents survived me. I was this close (picture me holding my thumb and index finger closely together) to getting The Boy 11 out of school early enough to ride the tandem but couldn’t quite justify a lesson in transportation over a lesson in math.

We saw signs of fall.



I like to play with the idea of time travel – but not in the traditional sense. I like to imagine that time travel is already here in the form of our current motorized transportation. I can never get my thoughts together enough to make a complete post but check this quote out that I saw on the It’s Just A Ride Blog – When You Treat People Like Idiots, They’ll Behave Like Idiots:

“Monderman was interested in this notion that the car changed time and space…The implications are clear to any modern driver. Commute times are precisely that—times—with distance obliterated, as if we were driving across the face of a clock. Cities have essentially expanded in size to the extent that new transportation means have arisen to keep commuting times more or less stable. Pedestrians, on the other hand, who possess a more intimate knowledge of the geography they are traversing (and must provide the actual power to do so), tend to think in terms of distance.”

We also saw signs of the fall. I’m guessing this is some of the damage from Friday night’s storm. Didn’t know it stormed? I think it was a Category 3 Adolescent.



I understand there’s a certain segment of the population that believes the planet’s not worth saving because it’s going to burn up in the end anyway. I understand that a certain segment of that population believes this because they read in a book once that

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar: the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

The MinusCar Project hit the road this week when I had lunch with a guy that could name the exact place in that book of this verse. He mentioned that he’s been starting to entertain the idea that instead of the fire destroying the planet the fire cleanses it.

Seems to me that sort of thinking might cause millions of people to believe the planet has unsurpassable worth. Wouldn’t that be uhh…dare I say – cool?

I think it's also safe to say he'd never before had lunch in a nice resturant with a sweaty guy wearing a helmet.

Play. Seriously.

I began the day riding to work listening to Dr Stuart Brown director of the National Institute for Play. He’s saying this…

“…our capacity as a species to adapt, whether we're in the Arctic or the tropics, the desert or a rain forest, appears to me to be related significantly to our capacity and, as developing creatures, to play.

And then if you look more closely at the human being, you find that the human being really is designed biologically to play throughout the life cycle. And that, and from my standpoint as a clinician, when one really doesn't play at all or very little in adulthood, there are consequences: rigidities, depression, lack of adaptability, no irony — you know, things that are pretty important, that enable us to cope in a world of many demands.”

…and I’m thinking it explains a lot. Read the transcript or download the whole program at this Speaking of Faith radio show website.

At lunch I headed out with The Owner for a reenactment of a ride we used to do regularly. I thought to myself at least once on the ride that I really need new tires for the mountain bike. Toward the end of the ride the sidewall ripped out and the tube blew with a bang.

I put a far to small patch over the hole, we wrapped the tube with a garbage salvaged potato chip bag to hold it all together and I limped to his store ultimately riding six or seven blocks completely flat.

I have new tires now - and lunch – was long - but hey, I had vehicle trouble.

Later that evening I joined a biggish group at the now nationally renowned Monk’s House of Ale Repute. I had one very nice bbq pizza. We headed over to a high school for the FAB Starlight Ride and found our group would be 26 in size for the evening. Wow, that’s a lot of red blinky lights.

One lap around the 20 mile MUP, one more quick stop at Monks, the ride home and I ended the day with 61.9 miles.

To put icing on this already beautiful cake of a day I discovered The MinusCar Project has been written about in a language that is not my own. Ciudad Ciclista writes El proceso personal de abandonar el automóvil. To that I respond - yeah, I think I do.

Google Translate says City Cycling says:

“Our goal is to convert the bike into the dominant vehicle in the city. To achieve this we must promote a culture of cycling as an integral (and integrated) of urban mobility as a vehicle driven by responsible users who have the same duties and same rights as any other vehicle drivers in urban areas, and not as juguetito locked in an apartheid of segregated roads, also called ‘bicycle lanes.’”

I appreciate the mention and I appreciate that similar efforts are occurring in your localities. Thank you.

Ciudad Cicista: No vamos a esperar a nada para usar nuestras bicis indeed.

City Cycling: We will not wait for anything to use our bikes.