Christmas Tidings

1. Adult Pi Patel: So which story do you prefer?
2. Writer: The one with the tiger. That's the better story.
3. Adult Pi Patel: Thank you. And so it goes with God.
4. Writer: It's an amazing story.
5. - The Life of Pi

Here in the Midwest, enough snow has fallen at this point, the ski trails will likely be skiable through February, barring any immoderate temperature increases, rain fall and unseasonable melt-off.  I have been out nordic skiing only once since the December third snowfall and the cold snap that followed it, (seven or eight days in a ten day stretch with single digit highs) and I have been using my free time lately working on Christmas - now that it's passed, it seems logical to discourse a little about it, but I don't have much to say.

It was fantastic.

I have on some level determined that the Frank Capra movie It's A Wonderful Life is a prescient adaptation of religious doctrine, brought into play as a causative agent to prevent one George Bailey, (Jimmy Stewart) from ever actually attempting to throw himself from that precipitous bridge in the middle of winter.  We the audience watch for seventeen minutes as his guardian angel Clarence Odbody, (Henry Travers), reassures George of his significance and relevance to those people he values, but George's decision likely lasted a fraction of a second longer than his initial impulse.

But then I get all woozy over Donna Reed and I reckon it's just a long winded ad for those trendy eyeglasses all the hipster kids wear these days...In other news, I made a rug out of old climbing rope for one of my Christmas gift recipients, and I borrowed some ideas from this blog here -

http://www.instructables.com/id/Rope-Rug/

Sterling and Bluewater 10.5 mm dynamic.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

My version turned out pretty well, and I was happy to have followed the website's suggestion to use Caulking and a secure base of duct tape before completing the project.  

Merry Christmas.

Dig in and growl.

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

"...and every time you drive that ski forward in the track, you launch yourself out onto it, gliding until you compress your weight down on that kick zone, push that ski flat and kick out onto the next ski, driving that one parallel and gliding until you compress and kick that ski...like tiger claws, gripping into the snow and pulling you down the track...just think of tigers claws...gripping...kicking..."
- Jake Moody

Imagine a math teacher, standing in front of a ski team, raking his fingers through the air, climbing an invisible ladder to describe the physical act of compressing a Petex ski on snow and ice, utilizing a special soft wax for grip, and creating forward propulsion out of that glide, compression and kick - if you do it wrong, you slip, fall down and no matter how many times you re-wax those plastic bases, your ski will always be too slippery to gain any traction. 

I think about that speech every year when the snow and ice become omnipresent - a person can not get through their day without at least once slowing their gait, gingerly weighting their steps and re-balancing their progression on a sidewalk, a driveway or a parking lot.  On a bicycle, it is dangerous to whisk over those patches on road tires.  I've used cyclocross tires the past couple of years, riding occasionally through the winter, but always dreading the next patch of hard packed snow and ice, or just glare ice, waiting for my knobby tires.

Suomi Tyres are made in Finland, and I bought a pair with my Felt F75X, back in January of this year.  They work.  They work so well I'd like to gush about them.  Done...they're just that effective.

I completed another pottery course, and held my first official showing, with fantastic sales to friends and family - for Thanksgiving, I made some bread and tried making Belgian brownies, which had a lot of flour and were too long in the oven...they wound up closer to a bitter truffle than a scrumptious brownie,  Oh well. 

I am currently reading A Civil Action, about a TCE water contamination case in Woburn, MA, made into a movie starring John Travolta.  Lots of legal proceedings, broke lawyers driving Porsches with multiple credit card debts, bankruptcies and Leukemia. 

I did capture a few decent pictures the past week, and posted them on a couple social media feeds.  I hope not having them "daisy chained" is less frustrating for anybody interested in reading this blog and seeing the photos as dealing with another hacked account would be for me. 

Tight lines, Rubber side down, Ciao, Take care, Peace love and happiness, happy holidays.

(Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you.)

Kinetic Linkage

I bought a Garmin Forerunner 210 in July, and have been making a consistent effort to record and track my rides on Garmin's website, Strava and MapMyRide for the past three or four months.  I selected Friday's ride into Minneapolis, a Thirty-Three mile ride along the Greenway, Cedar Trail and River Road then back to St. Paul.  There was a decent southern wind and rollerskiers were out in abundance. 
The GarminConnect, Strava and MapMyRide blog widgets allow me to post a coded link with a map and some information about the ride, as I have done here, but I'd rather be out riding.  The blog widgets will indubitably be garbled and messy, impossible to discern from somebody else's information and basically a waste of time. 
When I purchased my Felt F75X, I also bought a pair of studded winter tires from Finland.  Bring on the cold.

                    Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide
               

Footnote - this is a fantastic read.

It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels by Robert Penn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What can you say about a guy from Wales who rode around the world because an Irish woman inspired him?  foolish?  Naive?  Soft hearted sentimentalist? I am sure somebody has already had their say about Robert Penn's private devices, his proclamatory penchant for his own garage, his mountainous ascents, the people he hob knobs with, his own rough scrapes flying down nepalese gravel roads...it all sounds so free spirited and liberalizing a reader might be sidled with grief for their own lack of experience. 
As a journalist approaches a story though, Penn forgoes his own (admittedly infrequent, compared to an average Strava user's twitter feed) philandering, and adopts a humble, awed perspective, as if he were holding the museum curators hand after wandering into the lecture hall after closing time.  As a cyclist and as a journalist, he wants to know the long history of each component: the chain, the seat, the handlebars, the derailleur, the frame and does each piece of engineering the justice it deserves.  As a cyclist himself, Penn comes across as an individualist and nearly peerless - his attitude seems appropriate for the characters he encounters while building himself what amounts to a white elephant.
The vast majority of people who ride a bicycle would never have recourse to something like Penn's investment, but any of them could take it out for a spin. Perhaps that's what Penn would want to know he had expressed in his memoir - dream bike or not, if it's got two wheels, a drivetrain, a seat, handlebars and a sturdy frame, it'll roll.



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Goodreads Review of Let The Great World Spin

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ambitious and brave, McCann links the Vietnam "Police Action" and the Afghanistan "Conflict" though a well known series of juxtaposed and disparate images: Philip Petit walking between the Twin Towers serves as a seam in the narrative, joining the central characters together, despite the inevitable destruction of those same buildings.  The role of prostitution and priesthood seems disparate and parallel, while the vague reasons behind the Vietnam Conflict seem contradictory as compared to the immediate and unilateral response to the actions of September 11th.


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A sourdough variation

Rye flour and water starter, photo by Michael McKinney

 I have been following the Thom Leonard sourdough recipe from Artisan Baking Across America.  The recipe begins with a simple rye flour, mixed into a levain, and builds off of three or four subsequent mixtures of General Purpose flour and Bread Flour.  The recipe is notable in its lack of yeast, which I added, as well as raisins and walnuts.

Sourdough Levain, Photo by Michael McKinney

Risen Sourdough Raisin Walnut dough.  Photo by Michael McKinney

 

Finished bread.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Labor day 2013

Gateway Trail Construction, Photo by Michael McKinney

Stillwater Gazebo, Photo by Michael McKinney

Historic Stillwater Lift Bridge, Photo by Michael McKinney

Kaposia Park Sculpture, Photo by Michael McKinney

I had been thinking for awhile about a decent ride out through Stillwater and Afton via the Gateway and Military Road.  On Labor Day I took the day and set out in a clockwise fashion from Saint Paul, got past some construction on the Gateway Trail system and worked my way towards Pine Point - a north wind made the day a little more tolerable but also increased the resistance and wattage required for getting home.


Although I grew up in Stillwater, I no longer live there and do not get many opportunities for cordial visits with all of my old friends at the fantastic wine bars and social clubs Stillwater is so famous for.  The Dock Cafe, The Freight House, The Madcapper, The Oasis, Marx, Tin Bins, The Daily Grind, Smalleys Caribbean BBQ and a handful of other businesses in Stillwater are familiar to me as new and old establishments.


I wasn't planning on stopping for long, and my planned route deviated slightly when I carried my bike up the 162 Main Street stairs on the South end of Main Street.  Other options for ascending Stillwater's River Valley and proceeding in a Southern direction are Third Street, Second Street, Highway 95 and Myrtle Street to Sixth Street.  For many graduates of Stillwater Senior High School, especially track athletes, cross country runners and cross country skiers, the Main Street stairs are a familiar beast of burden.


After the Stair Climb I went through the town of Bayport, neatly divided from Stillwater by a half mile of barren moonscape, dirt and rock known as the St. Croix River Bridge Project, a public works fiasco in Stillwater since time immemorial.  Since the project has been commissioned, the tentative completion date is 2014, but if you asked Stillwater townsfolk in 1992 when the new bridge was going to be completed, they would have told you 1998, at the latest.  Even though pylons are in the river, I won't believe it until I see it.


The easiest part of the ride was traveling South to Afton with the wind at my back, followed quickly by the meat of the altitude, comprised of five or six large hills before County Road 20 and the descent back to Saint Paul on Military Road.  The day was a total of 70 miles, no mechanicals, a few pictures and a newfound appreciation Stillwater's evolving infrastructure.

A 1958 Plymouth Fury by any other name.

Christine by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Remove all evidence of mysteria, (yep, I just made that word up, it means 'mysterious hysteria'), from a typical Stephen King novel and you're left with simple avarice, greed, obsession and average citizens caught up in extemporaneous circumstances - more often than not by their own failings.  King's sense of humor comes through in his characters, but also a certain disregard for most people and their interests.
The mysteria in question, Christine's demonic possession, is caused by Ronald's murderous spirit, formed by his own dented and scarred childhood.  Unable to repair himself, his life as a mechanic revolved around an oily thumb and a gift for keeping old cars and trucks "motorvating".  Pretty standard fare for a King novel, and I saw a very concise review stating any King novel can be summed up as an inanimate object, (car, toy, hotel), a lingering evil possessing a morally susceptible person, (Jack Torrance, Arnie Cunningham) and then everything gets put through the meat tenderizer until one or two characters are left standing.
So, remove all of the mysteria, forget about the demons, the possession, the impossible and impractical, and the reader is left with a handful of murders, a drug dealer, Arnie somehow caught up in all of it and Dennis, wanting to save his childhood friend.  There is no mystery more significant than watching somebody you have known all of your life make wrong decision after wrong decision and gradually implode.  Stephen King would like to fantasize about it, as a lot of people with escapist fetishes would, but reality is more terrifying than this book.


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Thursday Westerly Ride

That's 48.48 miles for mankind, and two steps back for the Einstellung Effect.

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay by Frank Partnoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I appreciated the wide set of examples used to construct a solid thesis.


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Nice Ride 170

Fort Snelling State Park.  7-28-2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Nice Ride!  7-28-2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Nice Ride 170 riders.  7-28-2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Nice Ride 170 riders.  7-28-2013.  Photo by Paul Jan.

Glenwood Avenue, MPLS.  7-28-2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney

So here's the thing - a Nice Ride bike is closer to eighty pounds than fifty.  It's a beast of efficiency and small wheels, with three gears and a basket and lights for safety.  If you need a bike to get somewhere, and you've got no access to one yourself, and yet crave the freedom of riding a bicycle, the Nice Ride will get you there.

There have been failed attempts at bike share programs, the only one I can recall off the top of my head is the Yellow Bicycle Coalition, started back in the 1980s I believe - St. Paul Minnesota had their own fleet of Yellow Bikes, stationed at what was the old Sibley Bike Depot in downtown.  That initiative failed, I was told, due to simple theft.

A Nice Ride bike is not something a typical person would enjoy stealing.  Though I wouldn't have expected Big Wheel racing to be a thing either, so it goes to show you never can tell.  Last year a mutual acquaintance invited myself and whomever felt brazen enough to ride with him on the Nice Ride 145, an excursion throughout St. Paul and Minneapolis, stopping at all 145 Nice Ride stations.
The heat was the biggest factor that day, with a couple of technical glitches, (professionally and quickly dealt with by the Nice Ride Technical support team), and a few riders dropped out due to the heat.

After receiving an invite and the smallest bit of encouragement, I joined in again this year and enjoyed the same mind numbing, back breaking, thigh crushing, eye opening zeitgeist that must be the threshold of the incredibly brave or the incredibly foolish.  Five participants completed the whole route, consisting of 100 miles, 170 Nice Ride kiosks, many bridges, many patient and courteous drivers, (though a couple of nasty ones were in there too) and a stop at Northbound Organics, (YUM) and Psycho Suzies, (BEER ME).

To my understanding the Nice Ride phenomenon is not slowing down, not giving in to the occasional technical difficulty or allowing the even more rare theft to prevent the idea of the Yellow Bike Coalition from being silenced.  The radical concept of saving the environment through conserving what fossil fuels remain may start with a simple demand for more efficient urban commuting - think global and act local.  Get out and (Nice) Ride.

Editor's Note - if not for the other riders and the sequential manifest, I would not have completed this by myself.  I would suggest connecting a few kiosks at a time, as a start.  8-24-2013

Goodreads review of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Terrible self deprecating humorist tries to find substance in vapidity, uses first pronoun judiciously while recounting shameless vapidity, slanders Alexander De Tocqueville, Freud and numerous critical thinkers in a desperate attempt to validate his lack of credibility, appeals to the reader's sentimentality with his father's imminence while maintaining, mandating, repeatedly glorifying the role of all women as an object...I could go on.  Just pure tripe.
A worthwhile memoir is one that doesn't need to rely on the concept of "I Me Me Mine".


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Rhubarb

I am not a huge fan of debate.  Discussions pertaining to issues that do not affect me, or have some far reaching epistemological, rhetorical, esoteric purpose behind them seems redundant.  Not having an interest in argument does not provide a warranty against disagreements, and I often find myself being drawn into a discussion on one side or another, which brings me back to debate.  When to debate, when not to debate, how to debate, how to speak clearly, how to support your stand...all things I do not understand well enough to not feel a difference of opinion is anything more than a personal accord on my person.

John Mcenroe has always been a standard bearer for my understanding of how adults resolve disagreements.  "You've got to be kidding me!" seems a fairly reliable way of informing another person that he or she is wrong.  Obviously pejorative terminology is peppered in depending on the importance of the objection.

To deal with this obviously far reaching and naive view of the world, I sometimes think about British Parliament, and have taken the advice of a friend who likened the murmuring of dissent behind every statement made by Tony Blair as "rhubarb...rhubarb...rhubarb..." more likely parliament is uttering "...rubbish, rubbish, rubbish..." but often times it can be helpful to at least paint the Greek Chorus a Lighter Shade of Pale.

Last week's Tri-Loppet went very well, I placed in the top twenty and had a good day.  I rented an Hourcar to transport a rental kayak from Midwest Mountaineering.  Both Hourcar and Midwest were faultless in their customer service - demonstrating capability and patience with my questions and concerns.  My first transition was pretty rough and I almost incurred a scene from the 3 Stooges by turning to look behind me while carrying a kayak and hitting at least one or two spectators with the bow...nevertheless, nowhere in the planning process or during the event was my thinking concerned with rhubarb, tennis or John Mcenroe.

I brought up rhubarb as a means to an end though, and while surely there is some greater purpose involved, as far as my agenda is concerned, rhubarb is in season and my last two batches of bread have incorporated walnuts, rhubarb and honey.

2nd leg of the 2013 Tri-Loppet, photo property of Skinnyski.com

Rhubarb walnut bread, photo by Michael McKinney

Wilderness Systems Eclipse, Hourcar.  Photo by Michael McKinney

2nd Transition area, Tri-Loppet.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Queueing for the start, 2013 Tri-Loppet.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Rhubarb walnut bread.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

2013 Red Ride

The Commuters, Photo by Michael McKinney

At this point, I half expect somebody to pull up on a Surly Cross Check and tell me I'm riding on two different sized wheels.  I can almost hear the way he or she would express disdain for my naive attempt at riding in the city, not really getting anywhere that doesn't have coffee for less than three dollars a cup:  "Dude, I know you blog and shit.  But, you're riding a 27 inch front wheel with a 26 inch rear, you just gave me the finger and there's a really bad smell in your draft.  Nice try."

That is of course, without addressing the copious issues I have with Sudoku and the New York Times Crossword.

That being said, it was providential to be included as a guest on the 2013 Saint John's University Almuni Cycling Club's Red Ride in and around Stearns County, Minnesota.  To get there, I could have used the route I rode in 2011, from the Basilica in Minneapolis to the Marcel Breuer bell tower, roughly 100 miles later.  Being fortunate to have the option, I chose rather to invest in new components, the skill of a Freewheel mechanic to fine tune them and public transportation to Saint Johns - though I missed an additional few hundred miles of cycling, I think the investment was wise.

The ride left St. John's on Saturday morning, June 22nd, and was a fast and enjoyable tour - many skilled riders were participating and I felt at ease in the group.  One outstanding difference between riding a bicycle in the city and riding through farming communities is the lack of distractions.  A rider in the city might have to stop and start many times between here and there, for stop signs, red lights, walkers, dog walkers, very young children weaving on small bicycles as their parents watch nervously, runners, possums...you can imagine.

Once a group is settled in and a pace is set, given the capacity for the road one is riding on, the distractions become fewer and the objective becomes less about avoiding collisions and more about spinning the turbines, tuning into the other riders and maintaining a cadence commensurate with the group.  Getting to Saturday morning took a lot more than I can dictate, but a train ride, a bus ride and a big hoagie at Bo Diddley's was a perfect start.

I returned home on Saturday night and got back to riding in and through Minneapolis and St. Paul, stopping at the Minneapolis Farmers Market and collecting water as a volunteer with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for the Minnehaha Watershed District, reading and occasionally investigating the many gastronomic treasures of the area.  I am happy to report a new bicycle has been purchased, though it took months of lay away.

I rode my Felt F75X for the first time last night and after bunny hopping a couple of curbs and scorching some dirt trails, I nailed an exposed man hole cover and double pinched.  I walked the remaining mile home, hoping it wasn't inoperable.

Here are some photos of the June 22nd weekend.

Finishing the 2013 Red Ride, Courtesy of the Saint John's University Alumni Association.

Minneapolis Farmer's Market Vegetables, Photo by Michael McKinney

Lake Sagatagan, Photo by Michael McKinney

Felt F75x, Photo by Michael McKinney

Spring Pottery

Red Earth Pottery, Photo by Michael McKinney

Glazed, fired, greenware pottery, Photo by Michael McKinney

Lake Harriet, Minneapolis.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Snapping turtle, Minneapolis.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

With the last of winter finally letting go sometime around May, I registered for another six week pottery course through the Saint Paul Community Education Program.  This six week course covered throwing basic vessels, glazing and firing in a small volume, low heat kiln and took place in a different studio than previous classes.  The clay was also different, utilizing Red Earthen Ware clay rather than the Raku clay I had gotten accustomed to over the past year.


As the reader might accurately predict, I was disappointed with my results.  By my count, that leaves 9,900 pieces of pottery to be thrown before I can call myself a master potter, meanwhile the rivers streams and lakes are full of fish - I went fly fishing on Lake Harriet and Minnehaha Creek last week and caught a mess of panfish, (a bluegill, a pumpkinseed, some sunnies and a couple of crappies) and a Smallmouth Bass.

Of course, a few got away.  Robert Traver has a great story about his fishing rig, and the appropriate amount of fly fishing equipment to carry to and from one's destination while using this vehicle.  A veritable feast of spacial management, a Doctor Who's Tartus of nets, poles, fly boxes, waders, creels and coolers stacked under the seats and behind the passenger compartment.


Riding my bicycle with a fly rod and a pair of stinking running shoes I use for wading isn't what he had in mind I'm sure, and the assumption is that some things are better left unexplained, for want of encouraging fools to try...not that it stopped me from lashing my St. Croix Avid 5 Weight to my horizental tube, loading up my messenger bag and standing in the foulest smelling water I could find for three hours.


Two big events later this month are taking up some of my discretionary thinking - The Saint John's University Red Ride Century and the City of Lakes Loppet Tri-Loppet.  Both events I have participated in before, and both events I would encourage anybody else to as well.

Wednesday, May 15th

DIY Pizza, photo by Michael McKinney

With Farmers Markets opening and spring already turning into summer, (yesterday the temperature spiked to over ninety degrees), the Minneapolis lakes have opened, the winds have become more formidable and the lack of mild weather has changed to more severe and unpredictable patterns.  Last Saturday I bicycled to the Saint Paul Lowertown Farmer's Market and spoke with another cyclist who had just been caught out in a brief hailstorm, though I later saw MPR news reported the brief hail was more of a Graupel.  Whatever, ice cubes from the sky, I say hail.
I made a pizza with some asparagus, Feta cheese, brocoli, and tried to discern the difference between tomato paste and tomato

Cranberry / Walnut Bread, Photo by Michael McKinney

Lake Calhoun, Photo by Michael McKinney

 sauce, but they seemed both to be palatable.  I followed that up with making bread on monday night, two yeast-risen loaves made with organic flour, walnuts and cranberries.  I lacked a sweetener though, so I used a cup and a half of confectioners sugar, some almond extract and a teaspoon of cardamom.

After riding and blogging about the half-century last week, a ride out to Stillwater seemed appropriate.  The route I took utilized half of the Gateway trail, then wound past Lake Jane to County Road 12, then a rapid descent on Myrtle street to downtown, and a rapid ascent up Chilkoot hill to Chestnut street.

I stopped in at Chilkoot Cafe, a bicycle shop and bakery / cafe located across the street from The Bikery, another bike shop and bakery / cafe.  Although I worked at The Bikery in 2008-2009, I don't frequent either establishment enough to have become cynical of their products or their clientele.  The lemon bread tasted like it had been made with Meyers lemons grown from the tears of unicorns.  Simply that good.

Red Earthen Ware, Green and Bisqued, Photo by Michael McKinney

I am including a review from Goodreads I wrote about a book called The Imperfectionists, concerning a failing English newspaper in Rome, Italy.  It's not a bad book, and doesn't have any limiting factor to its success other than being a bit esoteric.  If you really enjoy the thought of living by a deadline, and being pursued by editors for some jingoistic malaise on the human condition, it might be right up your alley.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The newspaper industry is dangerous to Basset Hounds.  Because the internet is dangerous to the newspaper industry.  Therefore, Basset Hounds invented the internet.

I didn't get much from this novel, just some anecdotes about journalism, the vainglorious lifestyles of foreign correspondents, some mild hedonism and a blatant disregard for reporting accuracy in favor of manipulating the public at their won expense.  Does a certain politician pose a threat to your industry?  Why not punish that person with disreputable articles?  Punish them first with fallacy, and again with the truth.  Make their honest and best work seem underhanded and duplicitous by misinterpreting their words and actions.
That is what journalism is about, selling copy.
Making money.
Creating furor in order to pull back the layers of deception and reveal...journalism.


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Finally - I don't want to speak too soon, but if it's one thing I've learned about cycling the Minneapolis Lakes, don't go the wrong way.  Folks are really serious about the unidirectional signals for each lake.  A couple of years ago I almost got clotheslined by an irate Rollerblader.