Say What?

I've Got Mail, Grandparenting (someday) and Lotsa Blocks

2008-07-17T23:50:00.000-05:00

I received an email this morning from someone who had read my posts titled A Brave New World from a few months ago. Here's the email...

Dear Kevin,

My name is Emilio and Im contacting you after reading with much interest your series of posts "A Brave New World" (from http://onekgguy.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html) and obtaining your email address from http://www.kevinandtammy.net/intro.htm (listed in your blog's info). The reason is that I'm currently working on a postgraduate on film studies on the topic of film reception, for which I'm building a collection of video-recorded accounts of memorable experiences with films and I was wondering if you might be interested in helping me out by collaborating with telling your experience with You've Got Mail and how it lead you to meet your wife. The idea is to have these videos uploaded to a site specifically dedicated to them, to explore the varied ways in which people make sense of films. Unfortunately I can't pay for any collaboration, but I guarantee you I'd be very thankful for it and the video would remain fully credited to you.

Please let me know if you might be interested or if you have any questions or comments.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Emilio

I responded to Emilio and told him that I'd be happy to help.

I love the internet for several reasons and this sort of connection is toward the top of that list. I don't know what I'll say in my video response to Emilio but I'll think of something. I did go to my Netflix account today and put You've Got Mail at the top of my queue.

Rachel is at Sonshine Fest in Willmar this weekend. She left yesterday with the youth group from Prince of Peace and Tammy will pick her up late Friday night. The past few years Tammy and Rachel have gone together to this event but Tammy's new work schedule kept her home this year. This is one of those areas where we as parents let go a little more and realize that the days of our child being dependent on us are becoming less and less. We're happy to see them grow into who they're becoming but we're sad for the child they no longer are.

Just tonight Tammy and I were in a restaurant and I noticed what looked to be a grandfather with his grandson. I had Tammy sneak a glance at them and I told her that that would be us before too long. She smiled. We began talking about some of the things we'll do with our grandchildren when the time comes. Disney World for sure. A summer day spent at Valley Fair and the occasional trip to the movies. Maybe we'll just pick them up to go to DQ. It will be a nice transition. We probably shouldn't be getting too far ahead of ourselves.

I made a few trips to Home Depot today to build my stockpile of garden blocks for the flower garden along our front walk. They weigh 22lbs each and I need approximately 130 of them. I'm careful not to overload my 7 year old truck. I made 3 trips today and I'll make a couple more tomorrow.

I'm in the middle of prepping where the blocks will go and hope to have the entire project done tomorrow. I'd planned to wait until a couple weeks from now when I'm off work to do this job but I'm glad I decided to get a jump on it. I was going to run the landscape lighting wire tonight but I couldn't find the 100 foot, 12 gauge wire I'd purchase a few nights ago for $39. I could remember unloading my truck of all the lights I'd bought but I couldn't recall bringing the wire in. I checked in our garage and in my truck but it wasn't there. I called Lowes to see if they have a place where they keep items that customers pay for but forgetfully leave behind. They connected me with that person and she told me that they had my wire and would hold it for me.

As I was saying in a previous post, I'm becoming more concerned with unnecessary trips in my truck in an effort to conserve fuel and this trip was one I could have done without. Anyway, I got to Lowes and sure enough they had my wire. Had I waited until next week to tackle this project I'm not so sure they'd have still been waiting for me to come looking for my wire. I like Lowes. I only wish they were closer.

Text Talk and Cementing Our Plans

2008-07-15T06:04:00.028-05:00

When I first met Tammy over nine years ago I was cellphoneless. I'd recently equipped myself with a pager but I didn't have much need for a cellphone, nor did I have the money. My first phone was a Qualcomm; the same kind Tammy owned. It was big by today's standards but it was state of the art when I bought it. I can't say that my current Envy is a whole lot smaller.

Until recently it used to be that I'd go days without so much as turning my phone on. Sometimes I'd find a message from a day or two before and I'd hurry to return the call so I wouldn't be perceived as being rude. I suppose I'm not much for talking on my phone and when I do it's mostly done while I'm in my truck, usually to or from work. My phone habits have been slowly evolving as I pretty much carry my Envy with me now wherever I go and it's always on. Surprisingly enough I use it mostly for text messaging with Tammy and Rachel. We talk some but not nearly as much as we text. That seems to work for us. Funny, because it wasn't long ago that I was asking Rachel why she would text so much instead of talking. Talking is easier...right? Maybe. Maybe not.

For me the new found value in texting is in not interrupting somebody. They can answer and respond to your text in their time. This works especially well between Tammy and I when she's working. She can retrieve and respond to my messages to her between her nurse-line calls. The quiet beep of her cellphone is the only intrusion she notices. We're much more inclined to stay in touch with each other throughout the day using text messages.

I took yesterday off from work to be around when the guys from mdconcrete came to pour our driveway. Having your driveway poured isn't something that happens too often and I wanted to be there to watch, oh, and to video of course. I got up early and stocked the cooler with ice and Gatorade. The guys showed up at 7:00 with the first of two cement trucks arriving an hour later. They quickly went over the surface one last time with a compactor then laid out the re-bar.

They're allowed 7 minutes of offload time per yard of cement in the truck. Anything over that becomes expensive and chews into their profits. Our job took roughly 20 yards of cement.

Watching them work was like watching choreography. Each person had their job to do and a place to be at the right moment. No doubt, the fact that there's a limited amount of time to work with the wet cement provides some real incentive.

The concrete goes down looking rough but with each step in the process it's transformed to a more finished look. The backs of some of their shirts said 'Concrete Artist at work' and yeah, I'd have to agree.

Tammy and I talked about scratching our initials and putting the pups paw prints in the concrete in some inconspicuous spot but after watching the guys take great care in all the finer details of the finishing work we couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

They were done by 11:00 and it was then that a bit of worry began to set in. We've got some good kids in our neighborhood but what if? What if one of them ran across the still wet driveway? Last week I was walking Toby and Allie when the local sullen goth kid threw a pack of firecrackers toward the bottom of his driveway as we walked by totally freaking out Allie. I politely told him how neither I nor the pups appreciated him doing that. Maybe this kid would walk by my drying driveway and decide to do something else I didn't appreciate? There was the possibility that a stray dog would run through the cement and leave its marks. Were these valid concerns? Probably not but I was having them.

I went inside to upload the video I'd taken and came back out an hour later to find that the yellow warning tape they'd placed at the end of the driveway was broken and laying out in the street. I thought for sure that my fears had been realized but no, the driveway was fine. The wind must have snapped the tape.

I spent the afternoon cleaning out the garage while keeping watch over my drying baby. It was a good excuse to spend a few hours in the garage giving it some much needed attention. I knew I was out of danger when Matt arrived around 6:00pm and walked up the driveway. He'd come to cut expansion joints in it to help keep it from cracking. Prior to him walking on it only the pups had run across it.

I told Matt I was uploading the videos I'd taken of them to YouTube. He wanted to know if he could link to the videos on his website. Absolutely. I told him I'd put together a DVD of the footage I got from beginning to end. He said that that was something he's wanted to do but it simply wasn't practical to expect someone to do it or try and use a tripod in the process. I told him that it's a bit of a hobby of mine and that I was glad to help.

Now my work begins. I went out last night and bought some landscape lights for the area around the front walk. When the cement has had a few days to cure I'd like to begin work on rebuilding the wall around the flower bed next to the walk. Matt would like me to take some video of the finished product to add to what I've already taken.

There aren't enough hours in the day lately. It's not as though I've been the one doing the labor for the projects we've had done around our home but still I'm feeling like I could use a day off. Fortunately for me I've got some vacation time in a couple weeks which I'll use to wrap this project up. After that I'll have no choice but to be lazy because I'm out of money.

Home Improvement and Nasty Weather

2008-07-11T10:39:00.011-05:00

The crew from MdConcrete came by at 7:00pm Wednesday to tear-out our driveway. We were in the middle of hosting our small group from church but our guests didn't mind; especially the men as this is the sort of stuff that most males can appreciate. Tom, one of the guys from our small group commented that he was doing that same sort of work five years ago working for an asphalt company.

I spoke with the bobcat operator and asked him if they recycled the asphalt and he said, yes. They take it to a gravel mine near 160th and Pilot Knob to be disposed of.

I got up at 6:20 yesterday morning and cleared out the utility room where the furnace and air-conditioning people would be working. They were here by 7:00 and with their arrival our much appreciated air-conditioner was shut down.

An hour later the cement workers were on the scene and they got busy busting up the sidewalk in front. There wasn't enough room to use a bobcat so their work would have to be done by hand. Within a couple hours our sidewalk was a pile of rubble in the driveway and they then began setting the forms.

Our new furnace is a high efficiency model by Ruud. High efficiency means that it requires different venting and air supply lines than what our old Comfort Maker used. It's important to minimize the amount of elbows and the length of piping used to connect the furnace to the outside. With our basement having been finished a few years ago, finding a way to vent the furnace outside was made much more difficult. We considered an option of coming up into our laundry room then out through the garage but that would have required more linear footage than was desirable. The long-shot option was to drill through the foundation block next to where the air-conditioner would set on the side of our house and pipe it directly to our furnace above the ceiling in our glass shop. And that's what they did. I couldn't have been happier that they were able to go this route nor could I have been more impressed with their abilities in making it happen.

I noticed just after noon that the skies to the northwest were beginning to look a bit threatening so I went inside to check the radar. Sure enough, a large line of developing storms was moving our way. I told the furnace and concrete guys that it looked like we'd have maybe an hour before they arrived.

I went down in the basement to see how the furnace was coming along and one of the workers pointed out a bit of a problem they were having. A light above the laundry tub in the shop had to be sacrificed to allow for the furnace venting. He suggested that he could install a sconce light on the wall next to the tub if I wanted to pick one up. I jumped in my truck and made a quick trip to Menards to find one.

By the time I got back on the road and headed for home the storms were just minutes away. These weren't your garden variety afternoon thunderstorms. I sat at the light at County road 42 and Galaxie and watched a shelf cloud move into view just ahead of the gust front. Within minutes the winds were howling and I had my wipers on full. Traffic slowed to 20 mph in a 50 mph zone and 160th street was littered with limbs and leaves from the gust front a few minutes earlier. It began to hail as I turned onto Jaguar but thankfully it wasn't amounting to much. I parked in front of our house and made the dash into our garage to find the workers all camped out in there enjoying the show.

The storm set them back an hour but it's the forecast for today which may set them back a day or two. They're expecting temps in the 90's and severe weather later in the day which will make pouring concrete unlikely.

The guys from Dan Wohlers Southside finished up around 4:30 and walked us through all they had done and gave us a quick tutorial on how to use our new furnace and AC. We're very pleased with the job they did for us. Here's a before and after sequence of our utility room and some before and after shots of our AC.

Jim came by to do some touch-up painting this morning and said he's a little concerned that the out-take vent from the furnace is so close to the AC in that corrosive gasses from the furnace could damage the unit. I would think that the installation guys would have taken that into consideration if it truly is a concern but it does cause me to wonder. I suppose a call to Southside just to double-check wouldn't hurt.

Here's a couple videos from yesterday. The driveway work and the furnace and AC work.

3-D Speak, Hypermiling and Housework

2008-07-09T16:49:00.008-05:00

We had a GAF Viewmaster in our family when I was a kid. I can remember sitting on the couch in our living room flipping its lever to change from one photo to the next while becoming a part of each image as the 3-D effect worked its magic. There was one set of photos in particular of the Grand Canyon which I liked best. The scenery was breathtaking and the Viewmaster was the next best thing to actually being there.

I've played around some with producing my own 3-D shots. I first saw the technique used on the net with this photo on Robert Oddy's site. Seeing what he did gave me inspiration to try using it to photograph a couple of our lamps; here and here.

It's not all that difficult to do. Depending on how near or far your subject is you take photos which are offset by either a few inches or a few feet. The next step is to position the photos side by side. I use the photomerge feature in Photoshop to accomplish this. Be sure that the photos are swapped out from how they were originally taken. The photo taken from the left-side perspective needs to be placed to the right of the photo taken from the right-side perspective. That's really all there is to it.

The tricky part is for the person viewing the photo to achieve the 3-D affect. I'll do my best to explain how to do that. You simply stare at the photo and slightly cross your eyes. Once you've crossed your eyes enough you should begin to see a third photo emerge between the two originals. Try and work that photo over the top of one of the original photos by either weakening or strengthening the crossing of your eyes. Once you've positioned it over either of the photos it should sync into place and you'll see the image in 3-D.

Speaking of 3-D, there's a movie coming out in a couple days called, Journey to the Center of the Earth which is done in 3-D. Tammy already mentioned that she'd like to see it. I'm in.

Are you a Hypermiler? Watch this video to see what it's all about or read this article. I'm not one but with gas at about $4.00 a gallon I've changed my driving habits some. I'm not much of a speedster to begin with; maybe 3-4 mph over the limit. I've pretty much adopted the speed limit as my max speed now in an effort to improve my truck's gas mileage. I used to track that sort of stuff but I don't anymore. All I know is that by going a bit easier on the gas pedal I can make a small difference which will undoubtedly be cancelled out by Rachel's driving habits. :(

Matt, from the concrete company that will be doing our driveway called last night to see if they could move up the start time for tearing out our old driveway. They were supposed to be here on Thursday but he wanted to do it today instead. I gave him Jim's number and told him to coordinate it with him as I wasn't sure how long they'd be painting out front. Jim said Matt will be by later this afternoon to do the work.

I spent a little over an hour last night taking out the block from along the front flower garden as they'll be replacing the front walk as well. The blocks are 16 years old and they're showing their age. Matt told me to leave them on the driveway and he'd haul them away for me. Sweet. Time to go buy 130 new blocks.

Jim and his crew spent the day painting our house. They're just wrapping up as I type this. Jim does a great job and the proof in that is the ten years between now and the last time he did the job. Ten years from of a paint/stain job on cedar siding is very good.

They came by a couple days ago to re-caulk, sand and prime where it needed it. Yesterday they covered the windows and removed the lighting fixtures in preparation for painting today. Jim will be back tomorrow to paint our front door and finish some detail work.

I'm happy to be able to pay someone to do this job for us. I'm not one for inching my way up a ladder trying to reach the highest points on the house. I'm satisfied with being able to manage to hang Christmas lights on those peaks and that can be a bit of a nerve wracking experience for me.

A Passing Summer

2008-07-05T19:26:00.015-05:00

How quickly the 4th of July comes and goes. Tammy and I went to the Taste of Minnesota on Harriet Island in St. Paul Thursday afternoon and evening. We strolled around seeing how much free food and beverages we could fill up on before finally breaking down and buying some tickets. We're not cheap; we only had $45 in cash and I'm one who hates to pay an ATM fee for taking money out of my account. It's quite easy to blow through $45 between the two of us at this event.

We got off the beaten path a bit and went down along the pier to look at the boats pulled along side. We talked about what it would be like to live on a house boat and then we talked about how maintenance would be a constant.

REO Speedwagon was the headline act. Tammy isn't real big on them but I enjoy some of their music. Here's one of the videos I took for my YouTube account...Golden Country.

As we were leaving we walked by the Christian music tent/stage and grabbed a seat inside with our Budweiser wrist bands still on minus our beers. There was a local group on stage, Josiah Smith, which we watched for a few songs. Not bad.

We opted for leaving early and beating the crush of exiting people after the fireworks. We always enjoy our time a the Taste.

It's going to be a busy week around our home. Jim had one of his sons out on Thursday to power-wash our house and I think the plan is to come back on Tuesday to continue the prep work. My guess is they'll be painting on Thursday.

Thursday is also the day we're having our furnace and air-conditioner replaced. We got a couple bids and decided to go with the guys our neighbors across the street used last winter when they replaced their furnace.

We're going with a high efficiency furnace with a variable speed fan which is continuously circulating air through the house. Our current furnace/AC setup isn't very efficient. It's builder grade stuff which came with the house when I had it built in 1992. It's served us well but the last tech who was out at our home a few weeks ago to service our air-conditioner said we should give some serious consideration to replacing at least the AC. He was worried about how loud the compressor was. We could do it now on our schedule or wait until either the furnace or AC breaks down for good and go into crisis mode. I don't like crisis mode.

We're trying to avoid using our savings for this. Tammy noticed a credit card offer in the mail a few weeks ago which was offering interest free financing until October 2009. Usually those envelopes don't get past the garbage can in our garage as the rest of the mail is brought in but this one slid by. We'll take advantage of it.

I got up yesterday morning intent on going for a long ride but then it struck me that Tammy and I had the day off together; something that doesn't happen often enough. I asked her what she thought about taking the pups for a walk around Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. A half hour later we were in the drive-thru at Starbucks ordering coffees for the ride. When we got to the window to pay, the woman inside gave us a piece of paper which would explain that our bill was paid by the driver of the SUV which had been in front of us. There's a Christian music station in town, KTIS 98.5, which promotes a program called Drive Thru Difference and we'd just become the latest recipients of it. Cool.

Rachel spent the weekend with her best friend, Camille. There would be several of them going camping a couple hours north. A bunch of kids and a few adults to chaperon them. We have a rule that she's not allowed to have more than one other person in the car when she's driving. I got a call from her asking if it would be alright for her to drive one of the cars they were taking to a carnival 15 miles away and that it would be full of other kids. I wasn't all that keen on the idea. An unfamiliar car on unfamiliar roads with a bunch of kids who I could hear in the background were loudly having a great time. She put Camille's dad, Chuck, on the phone. I told him that she's only ever had one other person in the car with her and she's still a very new driver and wondered if maybe they could minimize the amount of kids she would be driving. He told me he understood and that they would work around it. I sent Tammy a text explaining the situation and she agreed that it would be inviting trouble. I didn't want to rain on their parade and most likely everything would have turned out fine but it goes with the territory of being a parent. I appreciate that Rachel would ask us rather than tell us about it later.

It was a nice 4th of July weekend. Next stop, the Dakota County Fair.

Passports and I Like Turtles Too

2008-07-01T09:05:00.018-05:00

The last passport I had expired nearly ten years ago. Tammy has never had one. We had no intention of acquiring new passports because we don't have any out of the country trips planned but a friend at work, Rob, suggested that it's still a good idea to have them should we need them; especially with Rachel's trip to Guatemala next month. Should a circumstance arise where we would need to travel to be with her we wouldn't be able to without passports.

Tammy did all the leg work of filling out the forms and gathering the necessary documents and together we went to the local CVS pharmacy to have our photos taken.

The woman at the licensing bureau who we submitted our papers to told us it would be about six weeks before we'd receive them. She suggested we could pay an additional (I think) $60 each to have them expedited but we declined and decided to take our chances instead. I was surprised when they arrived in the mail less than two weeks later.

I was mowing the lawn the other day when my cellphone began to vibrate in my pocket. I shut the mower down and answered it. Reid, a friend from work, was killing time at an airport in CA and wanted to tell me about a video he'd seen on YouTube. He was sure it was my kind of humor and that I must see it. I decided it was a good time for a break so I went inside and typed 'i like turtles' into the search box on YouTube as he suggested.

I'd seen the video before but I couldn't recall where. Tim thinks he posted it in the comments section of my blog not too long ago. He may be right. Anyway, who am I to disagree with nearly 6,000,000 viewers? The kid's comment in the video is one of the more random things you're likely to hear somebody say but there's a part of me that agrees with the little zombie guy. You see, I like turtles too.

I've always been a sucker for getting off my bike and helping a turtle out of a certain death situation. A couple weeks ago I was coming into Prior Lake from the east on a busy highway when I came across a migrating turtle. It was small enough that I could carry it with me on my bike. I relocated it a mile up the road in a pond; not the most ideal spot but it was the best I could do at the time.

I've seen more dead turtles on the highway this year than I have in years past, especially the large 10-12 inch snappers. I have no idea why.

This video below is from a couple weeks ago. I was going to use it as part of a blog about all the dead turtles I'm seeing on the highway but the idea seemed a bit lame so I shelved it. Anyway, thanks to Reid for the unintentional prompt.

So yeah, I sort of relate to the little zombie guy. I suppose you shouldn't be surprised if you someday ask me how I'm doing and without hesitation I reply with 'I like turtles', because I do and I'm sure they like me too.

Buzzed, Alpha, Riding and Calf Convulsions

2008-06-26T22:08:00.021-05:00

Rachel had some friends over the other night and turned our garage into a hair salon. Tanner is a good sport. He shaved his head in preparation for the mission trip to Guatemala that he and Rachel and some of the kids from their Hosanna group are taking.

Tammy and I have been attending Alpha classes at Hosanna for the past ten weeks. Alpha is a course designed for people at all different levels in their Christian faith as well as nonbelievers. It's something we've been wanting to do for a while but our schedules didn't allow for us to do it together until now. We were divided into small groups the first night and have remained with the same people throughout. I wasn't sure what to think of setting aside nearly three hours every Thursday night for ten weeks (through part of summer no less) but once it began I soon realized that I was getting a lot out of it. I found that it became one of the highlights of my week.

The course concluded tonight and we've decided that we'd like to keep our small group together. We're going to plan on meeting at our home every other week initially and go from there. Tammy and I had been talking about getting involved in a small group and this became the perfect opportunity for us.

I got new license plates in the mail today for my truck. I hope this isn't a sign of who I'm going to become now that I'm in my 50's. Bah...as in humbug.

I've been off this past week and I've taken some time to focus on my riding. Not that I haven't been doing my share but I've missed doing some of the longer rides I enjoy so much. I hadn't been taking time for them and maybe I simply needed a break because I feel refreshed. I managed a few 100+ mile rides this past week and hope to put in one more tomorrow.

Last Friday's ride took me out to St. Bonifacious. I started out expecting to do 70 miles but during the ride I was on the phone with Tammy and she told me to enjoy the day and that I'd earned it. That's all I needed to hear. Besides, she would be doing her telephone-nurse-triage thing until 7:30 that night.

The ride began with beautiful weather but coming out of Belle Plaine I noticed the clouds were thickening and what looked like the beginnings of a line of weather behind me. A few miles later climbing hwy 282 out of Jordan it looked like it was going to be all I could do to make it home ahead of the storms. Thankfully I had a tailwind for the final push home but there's about a 1.25 mile section on Texas avenue where I had to turn north. It was there that I hit the gust front from the storms. Turning on to Eagle Creek Avenue I picked up the tailwind again and did my best to beat the rain. Big drops began to fall but then they'd stop. I knew I was on the leading edge of the storm. The roads were wet by the end of my ride but Lakeville was spared the heavy rains. They went north and south of us. The threat for severe weather always adds an interesting wrinkle to a ride when you're out there with no protection.

I was back out again for another long ride on Monday. I had to go through Hastings and I wasn't sure what to expect with the bridge repair they're doing. Whether the bridge is open or not can be hit or miss. When I arrived it was open to one lane of traffic at a time. I waited my turn with the others then crossed into Wisconsin for some of the best riding in the area along hwy 35. I hadn't been to Bay City for a while so I made that my goal. From Bay City I would backtrack a bit and cross back into Minnesota at Red Wing. There's a nice gradual climb coming out of Red Wing for nearly three miles that I always look forward to. I finished the day with 105 miles.

I left the house yesterday not sure how far I'd go. Part of me thought I'd bring it home after 50 miles but I also had thoughts of doing something much longer, on the order of 150 miles; possibly to Mankato and back. I find that I'm doing a better job of listening to my body these days and going with what I feel rather than a strict adherence to a predetermined mileage. With the temp pushing into the upper 80's I decided that 150 miles could easily be more than I needed. I've done very little hot weather riding this year with our cool spring.

I had a driver in Shakopee let me know that he didn't have any appreciation for cyclists. He passed me with no more than 8 inches to spare and flipped me off as he went by. I've gotten good at not reacting in kind and realizing that some people simply have issues and they aren't likely to change. I made an effort to remember his Minnesota license plate; LHS 907.

I made it to Glencoe, bought a 64oz Gatorade and found the shade of a tree to sit under. I checked in with Tammy to let her know I was okay and that I was going to head for home.

Looking at my GPS I noticed that I'd gained 4 minutes of daylight from when I'd left Lakeville. It's always a bit disheartening to watch the days grow shorter as I can't get enough daylight as it is. As of today my Edge tells me the sun is setting at 9:02 and the days have just begun to get shorter.

On the way to Glencoe I made note of a road which I thought could make for an interesting route home rather than going back the same way I came. I'd never taken this stretch of hwy 25. I was feeling a bit adventurous and my legs were doing fine so I decided to see where it went. Shortly after turning onto it I saw a sign for 'Green Isle 7 miles'. Cool. A few weeks ago I'd seen a sign for Green Isle coming out of Belle Plaine but I wasn't headed that way so I took a pass on it then.

It turned out to be a nice diversion from my regular route and with a lot less traffic. There wasn't much in Green Isle but once hwy 25 veered east out of the city the road turned to fresh blacktop which would take me to Belle Plaine. The sort of road you expect to find in heaven.

I couldn't help but have thoughts that this is why I ride while I was out there. Gorgeous weather and a beautiful road with such little traffic. I remember thinking that it must have been a big expense to put so much money into a road which is used by so few. But I didn't mind.

I still had a couple hours of daylight to work with by the time I got home. I was tempted to see how many miles I could pile on but I didn't. 115 was plenty in this heat.

I was sitting on the couch with Tammy after I showered and I noticed my calves twitching as they like to do after a ride. The video camera was nearby and I thought...hey...this is why there's a YouTube.

Enjoy...

Reminiscing...part 3

2008-06-25T21:21:00.033-05:00

David Crowder Band, Stars, Mp3 or Wma

Continuing with a series of posts I started this past week. This is part 3 of 3. Part 1 and part 2.

When our family moved to Bloomington in 1966 I'm not sure than any of us thought we'd be there very long. My dad had a history of moving us between Minnesota and Michigan every year or two. I suppose it was all a part of climbing in his position as a financial manager with Control Data. In Kindergarten and 1st grade I was in the same school. I was in a different school each year from 2nd grade through 5th grade. I'm not sure my parents even fully unpacked on some of our moves.

When we moved into our home on 102nd street there were no schools within walking distance but construction would begin on Hubert Olson Elementary/Jr. HS shortly after we arrived. Our little neighborhood was situated between Hubert Olson and the soon to be built Tomas Jefferson HS. Our days of moving from school to school were over even if we didn't yet know it. Stability is good.

Continuing with my walk through the schoolyards and my old neighborhood.

As I left the grounds of Hubert Olson I walked across the street to the southwest corner of Jefferson High School's property. I remember sitting on the hill in the photo to the left with Kurt Langer on the last day of 9th grade and talking about our plans for summer. Kurt's girlfriend, Colleen Morrison and my girlfriend, Sandy Jacobson, were best friends.

A few years earlier, before the highschool was built and before the hill was smoothed and sodded it was more of a cliff face. Mark Testin and I were there looking for skinks one day when we spotted one going down a hole in the dirt. When a skink is chased it will separate its body from its tail in hopes that the predator will go after the wiggling tail and not the body. We didn't let that fool us. We dug as fast as we could trying to get to the skink before it got too deep into the cliff face. In a matter of moments we were being swarmed by bees. The skink had gone down a yellowjacket nest similar to this one. We took off running up the street a quarter mile toward our homes all the while trying to slap and brush the stinging bees off of us. I was stung a dozen times or more but I had no adverse reaction. Mark had to spend the night in the hospital. I can remember seeing my mom drive by us in our station wagon while we were running home but I think she thought we were just having fun...you know...running and slapping ourselves at the same time. I can't ever remember having any nightmares about that incident.

Across from the hill and the track is a memorial for Tomas E. Burnett, Jr., class of 1981.

I can safely say there will never be any memorial for me at Jefferson no matter what heroic deed I may perform. I never left a mark; no legacy whatsoever. Pretty much all I've got to show for my time at Jefferson is an ability to type reasonably well and a damaged right knee.

The incident with my knee happened on the softball field which would be in the middle of this photo but the backstop and bases are gone now. I was batting when I hit the ball and ran for 1st base. There was loose gravel over hard-packed dirt and I slipped before I ever got out of the batter's box. I heard what sounded like somebody cracking their knuckles except that the noise came from my right knee and the pain was intense.

I'd torn ligaments and cartilage and would end up in a leg length cast for nearly a month to immobilize my knee. That was pretty much all they did back then or maybe that's all my insurance covered.

Anyway, I got out of the cast and I was doing well; even running a bit. Less than a month after having the cast removed I was walking down a grassy slope outside my apartment building with my hands full of stuff as I was in the process of moving. The grass was wet with dew and I slipped only to hear the familiar sound that cartilage and ligaments make when they're being damaged. I lay on the grass and I remember feeling nauseated because the pain was so bad. My leg would be put in another cast.

I'm still in recovery from that incident back in the summer of 1975. My knee will never be what it once was. Even with all the bicycling I do there's a noticeable difference in the size of my right and left quadriceps.

Just for the record. Never did the cast hinder me from getting behind the wheel of my Ford Maverick. My Maverick had a bench seat with a 3 on the tree transmission. I was able to stretch my right leg out over the bench seat and work the clutch, brake and gas with my left foot. Yes, I'm proud of that.

I walked along the south side of the school toward the balcony which overlooked what I think is supposed to be a courtyard. The facade on the balcony was crumbling; maybe from years of weather or maybe from kids picking at it. Below the balcony to the left was what we called 'the pit'. It was where kids could go light up. There would be a teacher stationed just inside the door but for what I'm not sure. It was no secret what the students were doing out there...even the pot smoking. A few from in the pit.

There wasn't much else to see of the school. I'd been inside it a few years ago when Rachel had a dance recital there. I wish I did but I don't have a lot of fond memories from highschool. I found it a complete waste of time; or so I thought. The opportunities were there but I was too immature to take advantage of them. I regret that.

The walk back to my truck parked in the culdesac took me past the tennis courts. I paused when I came to Melke's backyard opposite the courts. I believe they still live there. I looked for activity around their house as I'd intended to stop and say hello but I never saw anyone. Their backyard was the scene for the one and only time I ever saw my dad threaten somebody.

My brother, Keith (the one on the left), was maybe 7 or 8 at the time and he did something for which Mr. Melke wanted me to tell my parents about. I can't remember what it was but I didn't see Keith do it and I told Mr. Melke that I wasn't going to tell on Keith or some such words. I was being a smart-ass more than anything. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and made it clear that I would convey his unhappiness with my brother to my parents. He was being heavy-handed.

When my dad got home I told him what had happened. Together we went over there and my dad walked into Melke's backyard where Mr. Melke was sitting on the back step. I can still hear my dad say, "If there's any shirt pulling to be done around here I'll be the one doing it", meaning...you wanna piece of me? Mr. Melke got up from the step and went inside and that was that. Somewhere along the way they made amends.

I got to my truck but decided that I wanted to see if it was possible to walk around the school's pond across the street from our home. I hopped the fence and got beyond the heavy growth to find a path. I used to love to spend time here as a kid. Tadpoles, snakes, frogs, turtles, anything that moved in there had my interest. I actually hatched a mosquito larva once in a fishbowl next to my bed. I came into my room to find the newly emerged mosquito stretching its wings on the rim of the bowl. I let it go.

One sad note for me...the shoreline of the pond is where I buried my pet rat, Topo; named after Topo Gigio from the Ed Sullivan Show. I actually stopped to see if I could find the approximate spot where I'd buried him. I could do an entire post on Topo. He wasn't just an ordinary lab rat. He was one of two rats in my 4th grade classroom and I got to keep him when the school year was done.

A few days ago I wrote a letter to the owners of our old home to ask if they could accommodate my mom and me on a tour of their home. I'm still hoping to arrange that but I'll understand if they decline.

Reminiscing...part 2

2008-06-22T12:31:00.043-05:00

Continuing with a post I made a few days ago...

I got back in my truck and headed in the direction of my old neighborhood about a mile away. I made a small detour and drove past where John Bodger used to live. How is it that I still remember his phone number after all these years? 831-6859.

I parked in the culdesac behind our old house and in front of what used to be the Testin's home. I got out and walked around the culdesac snapping a few pics. There was a guy mowing his yard in what had been the Barbour's residence back in the day. I interrupted him and told him that my folks had built the house behind him in 1966 and would he mind if I stepped into his backyard to take a few photos. He was a man of few words; "go ahead". I was half hoping to engage him in conversation about the neighborhood and give him a perspective from forty years earlier but he had more pressing issues with a lawn which needed mowing. His lawn will need mowing again in a few days.

It was odd to be standing in his backyard viewing our home from this angle. I looked to the right to see if the volleyball court in the Testin's yard was still there. It was. I remember how the adults in the neighborhood would sometimes get together at night to play volleyball. I also remember the time my dad twisted his ankle and had to leave the game. Some of us kids would hang around hoping they would need us if there weren't enough adults for a game but that was seldom the case. Gale Testin would usually give us some court time before or after they were done. He was a mellow fellow who would often stroll around his yard enjoying his little corner of the world. He died too soon from cancer in the early '70s.

I made my way back out to the street and tried to thank the guy over the noise of his lawn mower but I don't think he cared much. I walked around the corner to the front of our old home and shot a few more photos. I've uploaded them here to my Flickr account.

A while back I blogged about actually getting to meet the people who now live in the house and their invitation to come inside.

I walked up the street toward the elementary school. I looked to see if I could find our initials in the cement of the sidewalk along the way but those sections were either replaced or our etchings were hidden by grass overgrowing the concrete.

I made my way between a gap in the fence which led onto the school grounds and walked toward the hill behind the elementary school. As a kid we'd spend countless hours sliding here in the winter. At night the lights from Buck Hill could be seen off in the distance. I learned to golf in these school yards. Atop the hill was easily my favorite place from which to tee it up. You had to be careful not to let your shot get away to the right because school maintenance workers would park down there beyond where the hill sloped away. I don't think I ever hit one of their cars but I know that too often that area came into play.

Down past the hill on the other side was a playground where I got into the one and only physical fight of my life (with the exception of a couple skirmishes on the ice). I was in 6th grade and I'm not sure how it happened but it was orchestrated ahead of time that Bob Johnson and I were going to fight after school. I'm not a fighter but I went out there so as not to be looked at as being a wuss. The next thing I knew there was a circle of kids surrounding us and we were soon scrapping it out. It didn't last long. A teacher had pulled us apart and just as quickly as it began we found ourselves in the Principal's office attempting to explain why we were fighting.

I walked around to the front of the building to see if I could get inside. I hadn't walked through the grade-school wing since leaving in the spring of 1969. I tugged on the door and it opened. I explained to the receptionist just inside the entrance that I was one of the original students at the school when it opened in the fall of '67. She assured me it would be fine to walk the halls and take some photos.

It took me a little bit to get oriented but once I came upon the boys bathroom everything else seemed to fall into place. I remembered how we used to as a class walk single-file to the restrooms. When we were done we would line up along the wall and wait to walk back to our classroom together. I have a vivid memory of measuring the height of my shoulders against the lines in the brick of the wall as my shoulders matched up with one of the lines. I located what I figured would have been the line I'd used all those years ago and imagined myself that height again as I stood there. The line would've been the one running through the number 211.

Around a couple more corners I came upon my old 6th grade classroom. I have so many memories from this room. The mock election we held in the fall of 1968 being one of them. I voted for Nixon. A few weeks later it appeared I'd cast a vote for my first winner; or so I thought. This Republican thing isn't new for me but the disenchantment is.

I walked outside the school and headed toward the west side of the parking lot where just beyond the lot and down the hill was where we'd play hockey. I negotiated my way through the thick overgrowth and made my way down to where the rinks used to be. Again, so many memories from my time spent here. This view is standing just to the left of where the warming house used to be and looking out over where the pleasure rink was. This view is in the direction of where the hockey rink would've been. It's been years since they took out the warming house and boards. Maybe as the neighborhood aged the demand was no longer there. When we were growing up there were five to six rinks within two miles of home; maybe more. There's a good chance that number is zero today.

The southwest side of the school's parking lot was where you could find the best sledding on Hamburger Hill. It wasn't on school property but was actually somebody's backyard. They apparently didn't mind because you could always find kids sledding there. Even in the summer there would be big sheets of cardboard that kids would use to slide with. The hill doesn't look as big as it once did but I have no doubts that it's the same as it was except for being a bit overgrown with grass.

Just beyond the hill was Mark Splethoff's house. Several of us in Jr. HS probably hung out here more than anywhere else. His parents were divorced and his mom was rarely home. You could get from his back deck onto his garage roof pretty easily with a chair. The joke we'd play was to be ready with a bucket of water when we knew someone was riding their bike over; we'd douse them. That joke only worked a few times. I'm sure that made quite an impression on Mark's neighbors to see us running around on the roof with buckets of water.

The Elementary and Jr High schools were connected. Mark's house was across from the Jr High and the football/soccer fields. I walked across the field toward the south side of the school and wasn't sure what to make of the soccer net. It gave me the impression that the program and the net were both abandoned. The fields used to be kept up but now there's more weeds than grass.

My parents would get us season passes to the school's pool each summer. It's just inside these walls and where I learned to swim. The grass in the photo used to be a huge fenced in cement patio where you could lay out in the sun after swimming. I suppose demand for the pool has gone the same way as demand for hockey rinks.

From this photo you can see off in the distance the hill I spoke of earlier where I mentioned I used to like to golf from. The schoolyards were great for that. I'd often kick around with a few clubs and balls for a couple hours at a time, sometimes with my dad or brothers. Maybe it's a lack of funds for upkeep but when we lived here you would always see the sprinkler tractor making its way around the grounds. There was none in sight that I could see. This field also made for a good dare once for somebody to streak across.

Look for the rest of this step back in time in a day or two.

At an Intersection in My Life

2008-06-19T17:10:00.054-05:00

David Crowder Band, Come Awake, Mp3 or Wma

I was on a ride yesterday when I found myself waiting for the light at the intersection of France avenue and Old Shakopee road in Bloomington. I was only a mile away from where I grew up from 1966 to 1975. As I sat waiting for the light I quickly surveyed the area and noticed that there was very little left from when these were my stomping grounds. I thought to myself that I should come back and take a slow walk around and do some reminiscing.

I got up this morning and drove my truck back to the same intersection to have a closer look around; my camera in hand.

I pulled into the McDonald's and went inside. I ordered my usual; Egg McMuffin, Cinnamon Melts and a large decaf coffee. I recalled when the McDonald's first opened in the early '70s. Before then the nearest McDonald's was off Nicollet and 494. Maybe once a month a couple of us would go there and bring dinner back for everyone. I can still remember holding the warm bags of food on my lap for the 10 or 15 minutes it would take to get home and the smell coming from within. It was all a kid could do to not reach in and grab a few fries that had fallen to the bottom of the bag. Sometimes the temptation was too great.

I left my truck parked where it was and walked across the parking lot to the Valley West shopping center. I remember riding my bike here with Miles Harvey while it was still under construction in the late '60s. It was through this parking lot where Doug Orman, Kurt Langer and I were chasing each other on our bikes where I suffered a nasty spill. The pedals disengaged on my bike and I went down hard breaking my wrist. I was on my sister's three speed and the problem with the gears/pedals slipping was a known one; in fact, my dad had told me not to ride it for that very reason. I should have listened.

After my crash I was walking home through the high-school ball fields when my sister came running up behind me asking me what was wrong. I was no longer riding the bike but pushing it. I showed her my wrist. I wasn't sure if it was broken, I just saw a big lump and knew something wasn't right. My dad was between jobs for a few weeks during that time and he had no health insurance for our family of 8. He wasn't happy with me especially since he'd told me to stay off the bike. I don't think two minutes went by on the drive to the hospital where he didn't express his disappointment. I got it.

On the other side of the parking lot is what remains of the old movie theater which opened when the mall opened. After the theater closed I believe it became a bank but now the building stands empty. I remember going there on a double date with Sandy Jacobson, Kurt Langer and Colleen Morrison to see John Wayne in, Cahill, U.S. Marshal. I have no idea why we went to see a John Wayne movie other than that must have been all that was playing.

I walked through the mall and tried to picture some of the stores which used to be there. Of course none of the originals remain. I remembered the bank where I had my first savings account and the Radio Shack where once a month you could get a free transistor battery. Its spot was vacant. There are some military recruiting offices toward the back section which weren't there before.

I stepped outside behind the mall to see if the bike trail through the woods was still there. It was a scenic shortcut for us. The woods don't look much different but any access to whatever was left of the trail was now blocked off.

I walked back across Old Shakopee to what used to be a happening place; Andy's Tap. It too is now closed and from what I hear that was a fairly recent closing. I only went there a handful of times over the years. I recalled a lunch I had there with my dad and Keith in the early '90s when my dad was in town. To the right of Andy's Tap was The Sweet Shop (long since closed) which sold all sorts of penny candy. We'd take our bikes there after school and for 50 cents you could ride away with a nice stash.

To the left of Andy's Tap was a drug store but the space is vacant now. Beyond that and south is what is left of Bloomdale. There used to be a grocery store there which I remember going to with my mom as a kid. I'm not sure but I think it was Red Owl...or maybe it was Country Club. Several other stores have come and gone in the same space since; most recently a True Value Hardware store but now there's no longer anything as it too stands vacant.

The one shop in Bloomdale I remember most of all was an indoor golf range where you could hit balls against a screen in an animated setting. There was nothing else like it. For a few dollars you could play 18 holes of golf against the screen in the dead of winter. I never had the money or my clubs to play there but the shop always intrigued me. It was sad to see what had become of a place which as a kid was always so alive with activity.

I left the intersection which brought me there and walked south along France Avenue to the ball fields of Westwood Elementary school where I attended 4th grade. I thought about the time my dad came to one of my ball games. I sucked. I knew nothing about batting. I remember being at the plate and looking over my left shoulder to where my dad was sitting on a small hill as he watched me strike out. I recalled his advice later to get my bat cocked and ready to swing rather than have it resting on my shoulder. It sounded like a good idea.

The modular units outside the main school building which served as classrooms for many of us were now gone. I think 4th grade with Mrs Struve was probably one of my more enjoyable school years. It was also the year I would get to take one of our lab rats, Retta and Gretta, home for my very own pet. More about that later.

I approached the front entrance and saw a sign of the times. The security didn't amount to much as the receptionist simply had me sign my name to a sign-in sheet and put on a visitor's badge, then I was free to roam. I didn't go far. I found the east entrance which was the one I used to enter and used that as my point of reference. The door to the right was where we used to get our singing lessons. I must have totally failed that class as I can't sing a note. I have vivid memories of being in that room and singing a song with the lyrics "Ahdoray-oh! Ahdoray-boomday-oh! Ahdoray-boomday-retsetset, awsay-pawsay-oh!" I have no idea what the words mean.

Down another hall I found the lunch room. It doesn't look like much has changed. Again, I have distinct memories of being in this room as well over forty years earlier. Maybe had I stepped inside the room and looked around it would have evoked even more memories. I do have one odd recollection from here. Whenever I hear the song, I Think We're Alone Now by Tommy James and the Shondells I'm taken back to this lunchroom. I have no idea why.

I walked outside and headed back toward France Avenue. I had to take a photo of the chimney which rises above the school. I always thought it was a cool looking chimney...not round like all the others but with corners. I also appreciate the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

I walked back up France avenue to the southeast corner of Old Shakopee where the Dairy Queen used to be. The building is gone and has been replaced with a Bruger's Bagel shop. They rebuilt the DQ at the other end of the parking lot next to Mount Hope Lutheran Church where we attended for one year before we left the area.

I headed back toward the intersection on the northeast side. There was never much on that corner, at least for me. A gas station and an assortment of small shops. One of those shops was a coin dealer where for one summer (maybe longer) my brothers and I (mostly my brothers) were into collecting coins and filling up the little coin holders with our rare coins. We never found the holy grail of penny's...the 1909-s vdb.

Across the street on the northwest corner used to be Harold's Skelly gas station. It's where my dad would take our cars to get worked on. When my folks moved away in my senior year my dad bought me a 1970 Ford Maverick. We brought it by Harold's and paid him a few dollars to give it the once over. I remember gas being pumped at his station for thirty something per gallon. His shop is gone and so is the building. They've turned the corner into a small park with some benches.

Just beyond the park is Penn Cycle. It's been there for probably close to 30 years but before it became a bike shop it was a hardware store. I recall going in there with my dad as a kid and looking around. I think the owner died of cancer.

It's surprising that the bike shop seems unaffected by time as does the McDonald's next to it but most everywhere else you look it's been either totally renovated or it sits vacant. Bikes and burgers...maybe that's where the smart money is at.

I could easily write a dozen blog posts about memories from this little intersection from my youth. Maybe some day I will. I got back in my truck at this point and drove to my old neighborhood to continue my stroll. I'll post about that later.

Part 2

A Hat-tip to Tim, Father's Day and A Plea

2008-06-16T18:43:00.042-05:00

Okay, I first have to congratulate one of my co-workers for a milestone a video of his has achieved on the website, Break.com. Tim posted this video several months back and it became one of their featured videos giving it meteoric rise in the amount of hits it's received. He's now well over the half million mark and it's still humming along.

I, on the other hand have my own little gem (shameless link) on YouTube which has 73,000 views and may ultimately pass Tim's video in a dozen years (if ever) once his runs out of steam and mine becomes the little video that could.

Tim has one other effort which is also doing remarkably well...check out Headless Solder Guy.

I had to work Father's Day but Tammy and I were able to get out Friday night for dinner at Outback. Rachel was going to come with us but a night spent with friends won out.

Earlier in the evening I was getting ready to take the pups for a walk when Tammy and Rachel cornered me and asked if I wanted one of my Father's Day gifts early? Tammy insisted that now would be a good time. They'd bought me a Sony radio with an AM/FM/TV/Weather tuner. I'm a gadget guy but the radio I'd been using on my walks was one I'd bought at least a dozen years ago and Tammy felt I needed something less clunky looking. She was right. In fact, just last week I'd been kicking around the idea of buying a new one but I hadn't mentioned it to her. Funny how that works.

The other gift they gave me was a beautiful cross to replace the one I'd damaged last month. I was pretty sure they were getting it for me and I'm very happy to have it.

There's a show on A&E called, Intervention. It profiles people with addictions who are at or near rock bottom and the struggles their families endure as they helplessly watch their loved ones slip away. Last night the show told the story of former professional bicycle racer, Chad Gerlach. He raced with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal team for a couple years in the late '90s. A harmless joke by Chad directed at Lance led to his dismissal from the team and his fall from grace. He poked Lance in the stomach while calling him doh-boy. Nobody has ever accused Lance of having a sense of humor. Chad's addiction soon followed.

It can be a difficult show to watch as too often the addict is unable to overcome their addiction or is unwilling to try. Meanwhile the family is left to try and move forward without them. In Chad's case, he entered treatment and has been sober since late February. Maybe it was the editing of the show but while watching it I didn't have much hope for him. I'm glad I was wrong. The final minutes of the show gave you a glimpse of Chad having found a new lease on life and focused on his recovery. It was great to see. What struck me most of all was the heartfelt apology he gave to his family for the torment he'd caused them and how truly grateful he was for their love.

My family is no stranger to addiction. We've each had our own way of coping and often times that led to rifts within our family. I was always a 'tough love' sort of person. I saw no reason to enable a behavior which did nothing but tear us apart. Tough love should not be confused with 'no love'. There are still residual wounds which I'm doubtful will ever heal. Personally, I'd love nothing more than a rebirth of those relationships but I'm realistic about the chances of that happening.

We, as a family picked up and continued living life but the dysfunction which entangled us remained. I think we all could have benefited from an intense group therapy session strung out over a few months. Nothing more.

That dysfunction is now being played out in the next generation. I have a sister whom I dearly love. She's a solid person who I would drop everything for in an instant should she need me and somebody I'd never hesitate to call for advice. She and her husband are two of the most giving people I know. They're good people; how else can I say it? I'm disturbed because she's under attack from others in her/our family. Unlike the way our family chose to put our collective heads in the sand she has attempted to reclaim her family through counseling; a let the chips fall where they may approach. Her attempts have been met with a curious silence. I don't understand why people would feel threatened by sitting down and discussing that which divides them.

I'm disturbed that some would twist the truth and campaign against her. I'm sorry that others are willing to sell her out for their own selfish gain. There's no excuse for that. I love you, Jackie.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?

2008-06-14T17:56:00.004-05:00

Our air conditioner hasn't been doing the best job of keeping up with demand. I first began to notice it last summer. By the time I got around to calling our service company the temps had cooled too much to put a load on it for them to check it out. They made it out a couple days ago and found that it was low 1.5 lbs of freon. The guy who came out topped it off but told me that we may want to give some consideration to having it replaced. The compressor was making more noise than it should. He said the average life span of an air conditioner is 15 years and ours is one year beyond that. Furnaces typically last 20 years. We could probably use a new one of those too he suggested as what we've got in our home is just standard builder grade stuff. Nothing at all efficient...just enough to satisfy code requirements I'm guessing. He said that the newer stuff is much cheaper to run and will pay for itself over time.

I suppose these are the sort of things you want to replace while they're still working rather than waiting until a crisis. We've got a guy coming out next Wednesday to give us a bid on both our furnace and air conditioner.

We've already got plans to replace our asphalt driveway with a concrete driveway as well as the front walk in a couple weeks. The driveway isn't in terrible shape but it's showing its age. The front walk is suffering from a lack of rebar to hold the slabs together; they're separating. It's mostly a cosmetic thing and we're still debating the need to have it replaced.

I was on my bike yesterday and saw a concrete driveway which had a nice color to it. I thought that would be a nice touch for ours rather than the stark white color of typical concrete. I phoned our concrete guy when I got home and he told me it would be an additional $2000 to add color. I have a hard time believing that. How much can the upcharge be on the pigment they're using? I'll need to do some checking around and see if I can get some figures together to make a case to our contractor for a more reasonable price if we're in fact being gouged.

I was at Fleet Farm a couple weeks ago when I got a call from Rachel. Jim Wolters was at our home and wanted to know if I was around. Jim last painted (stained) our house ten years ago and he was back to give us a bid on doing it again. I was hoping to put it off another year with the expense of the driveway but he said we should really do it now to avoid a more expensive job next year. He's right; it really does need it.

So, between the driveway, painting the house and replacing the air conditioner and furnace we've got some expenses to cover in the coming months. I suppose it's nice to have these projects done before I retire. Sorry Tim and Mark but I won't be turning down any OT calls...not that I get any.

A Quick Test and a Cyclist's Perspective

2008-06-10T13:15:00.028-05:00

The Bodeans, Hearing, Mp3 or Wma

Here's an interesting site hosted by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network where you can plug in some specific information and get an approximation for how long you may expect to live. I suppose if a person can avoid getting a terminal illness or having a fatal accident the number you come up with may be somewhat accurate. There are just too many variables along the way. Anyway, my estimate came in at 90 years old.

Not only is Gordy Shields still riding at the age of 90 but he's breaking records too. To be honest, I think he's alone in his age group. If my body holds up and I'm able I hope to be riding well into my 70s. It's my belief that once you stop moving, age catches up with you. Maybe that's why it so often feels like I'm on the run...or ride.

Speaking of riding, I rode back across the river yesterday on the bike path adjacent to 494 where it dumps me out by the Mall of America. I'd done nearly the same ride two weeks ago on Memorial Day but there was very little traffic then. What a difference a holiday can make. I lost a lot of time yesterday waiting at stop lights.

I'd say that 99.99% of all drivers out there are extremely courteous toward me. When I think of the hundreds of thousands of people who pass me in their vehicles in the course of a year of cycling it's only ever a handful of drivers who feel it necessary to endanger my life by not allowing me the 3 foot buffer the law requires; or worse yet, giving me the brush back by coming within inches of me. Fortunately that seldom ever happens.

An incident of a different sort happened a few years ago while riding home on highway 13 just west of county road 5. I was in the zone and hammering out a nice rhythm. A car load of kids came up behind me and a guy in the front passenger seat stuck his head out and yelled at me. It rattled me as I wasn't expecting it. I made a note of the car's color and type and watched as it drove away. I didn't think much else about it and once again found my rhythm.

Traffic along this stretch of road can easily back up depending on the time of day and this was late afternoon...rush hour. A mile later I noticed that there was a long line of traffic waiting for the light at CR5. Was it possible that I could catch up to the car and turn the tables on the kids inside? Sure enough; I saw their car, still in the right lane and stuck in traffic. The kid who yelled at me never suspected that I'd be able to catch him. I came up behind him, his window still down, got real close and let out a yell as loud as I could totally startling him. I know it was wrong to do but it was such sweet revenge. I smiled and could see that the other kids in the car were laughing. He smiled too so all was well.

You may wonder why some of us 'roadies' don't use bike paths when they're just off to the side of the road we're biking on. They're actually more hazardous for us than being out on the road. Where a side street intersects a bike path there will typically be a stop sign before the path. It's been my experience that drivers nearly always wait until they're straddling the path to complete their stop. For me to negotiate a bike path safely I would have to slow at each intersection to be sure a car wasn't going to pull in front of me. It's next to impossible to find any kind of rhythm doing that. It's simply much safer and easier to use the road and leave the path to riders who aren't so much focused on speed and distance. They're great for families on a leisurely ride.

Many of the highways in Minnesota have a nice 8-10 foot shoulder. That's heaven to a cyclist. You may notice that when we're on the shoulder we'll tend to cheat toward the left rather than far to the right where it would appear to be safer. The reason for this is that the further to the right we ride, the greater the amount of debris we encounter and with it increased risk for a punctured tire. We're seriously not trying to antagonize drivers on the road. It's all a matter of self (and tire) preservation.

I made a slight detour on yesterday's route. A friend at work and his wife recently purchased a dog grooming shop in Savage. I've biked past this area dozens of times this year but I'm usually intent on not interrupting my ride. I had some extra time yesterday and biked up to Tim and Kim's shop but it was closed. Another time, Tim. Maybe I'll leave my bike at home and bring Allie and Toby along. Do you have any treats I can promise them?

Edit...Should Tim decide to find time in his busy schedule and spruce up the outside of his shop this is what the sign above his business will look like.

How 'bout that bike in the photo?

Knock Knock er Text Text, 1st Prom and a Beautiful Day

2008-06-08T18:16:00.013-05:00

Tammy got the green light to begin working from home this past week. There were a couple small glitches getting the computer and all her gear synced but it's working fine now. The den used to be primarily my domain but there's not much room for me in there anymore. The sign on the door pretty much says it all. Rachel and I will have to get used to keeping it quiet outside her office; not that we're all that noisy to begin with. Toby and Allie are another story once they get wound up and begin racing around the house.

I covered it in an earlier blog but for those not aware, Tammy is working as a triage nurse over the phone helping direct people to the right care for their needs. I'd much rather see her do this sort of nursing as it's much easier on her body; there's no heavy lifting involved unlike what she's been used to. She'll miss working with the elderly though as she's always felt that has been her calling. Now she'll be helping them on the phone.

Rachel attended her first prom last night. She went as a favor to Matty, a friend of hers from one of her church groups. Matty is a senior at Apple Valley and Rachel goes to Lakeville North. She didn't know anybody except for Matty. I told her that she should look at it as a practice prom for a year or two in the future when she has a boyfriend. She said she got a lot of compliments on the dress Tammy made for her.

My riding has been spotty this year. A friend at work just asked me how many miles I've ridden so far and I told him 2200. He thought that was a lot but I'm typically over 3000 by the first of June. We've got a couple projects we're having done at our home over the next couple months so they will no doubt take a bite out of my time on the road. That's okay...I have to keep telling myself that.

Yesterday's ride was one of those rides which remind me (as if I need that) why I bike. A beautiful day and an even more beautiful route winding my way along the back roads to Belle Plaine. Just past East Union I was about to begin a descent when I noticed a motorcycle group coming up behind me. There were easily over 100 bikes in the group. I descended the hill at 45 mph and had one of the riders come along side me and shout 'nice job!' I needed another couple percent of grade to reach the 55 mph which most of the group was traveling at.

I sold my motorcycle when Tammy and I married nine years ago. I don't miss it all that much. I usually only rode it at night and around here there are too many deer to ever feel comfortable out on the highway once the sun goes down. They say that the deer you hit is usually the one you don't see. Not that I haven't had my run-ins with deer on my bike because I've had that as well. I think my odds are much better at 20 mph on my bike than at 60 mph on a motorcycle.