1972 & 1982

Troy and I are sporting dickeys under our disco collar velour shirts. Please note the horrible hair cuts on my brothers and me; dad insisted he cut it even though he had a job.

Here I'm only sporting a smile with a friend Verna out at the lakes.

Black Friday White Ride (pics&vid)

The 950 looks puny but did quite well on the trail today. Jared and I met at the Bloomington Ferry Bridge and rode east. The sun, trail conditions and pleasant temperature rocked.

Urban Bike Lock

Would it be foiled by a universal remote

Trunk-ated

Found this on National Geographic. The elephant drags the croc. from the water and the baby trips over it. Both elephants run away and the croc. heads back to the water.

Kids are signed up for Glacier Ski team!

Anti-matter does matter

Anti-hydrogen lives (briefly). There are times when the future seems to be here now. This is the stuff of Star-Trek.

Tires

Minnesota is a great place to live because of the little joys found in changing weather. The new snow this week behooved the kids to get up early and create snowmen, forts and a castle for toy horses. I too was excited to go ride around in the fresh white crystals. It's fun to make the first tracks in anything, peanut butter jar or new fallen snow. But, what came to mind first was the joy of clean freshly blackened tires scoured by the abrasive flakes.




I am similarly refreshed by new weather patterns. A different bike to commute on and the start of ski seasons help me. As each season ends I'm excited to make some old toys new again.

Some thoughts on Veterans Day.

According to the Center for Military History, when first adopted Veterans Day was called Armistice Day in memory of the soldiers who served during the Great War (Later WWI), a horrible war where 37 million people world wide were injured or killed.

WWI had several causes; one of which was nationalism, or feelings that ones country is better or more deserving than other countries. Nationalism can take the form of sacred displays of flags banners, slogans and national identities. I think of nationalism as being arrogant or as being excessively prideful regarding ones country to the detriment of others.

Holding these two thoughts, I plan to be historically mindful of and grateful for the services and tremendous sacrifices of those who have served and of those who are serving in the military, while rejecting displays of nationalism. Veterans day is a time to remember war's savage cost to nations and cost to individual people; it's not a time to romantically beat the drums of nationalism.

Bike Season Continues

Saturday I hooked up with Q and Sean to mountain bike at Salem Hills just a couple of mile from home. Thanks for playing guide Sean. Fun place to ride with good flow.
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Then my neighbor John and I did a quick overnight trip to Afton State Park. About 18 mile from home to campground. left shorty after 4pm, so the last hour or so of our ride was in the dark, blinkies flashing. Grabbed a Subway sandwich at the last sign of civilization, enjoyed a starry night and a fire. Woke up early to watch the sunrise over the St. Croix valley. The photo above is of the Trucker bathed in this light. Trip wasn't far but had some big climbs up Baily Hill and out of the park. Granny gear felt some love.

Today I rode to and from school in shorts. Not bad for the second week in Nov.

I'm posting this with my new micro laptop. Just picked up a little Acer from Costco for $299. So far I'm very pleased with the purchase. 1gig ram, 250gig hard drive and an Intel Atom processor N550. Puny 10" screen and very light. I'm digging the truly portable nature of it.

Getting Ready to Ski

Super busy lately getting my two ski teams going. One is a Minnesota Youth Ski League team for kids K-6. Claire and Harris love this. The other is my High School Team. I'm ready for snow.