Curiosities of English...

...the English language, that is!

My first task of the day was to check the National Weather Service site to see if the 70 degree forecast for today was still expected. I don't think I can waste a warm sunny day, and my bike decided to stay in the car when I got home from yesterday's ride, thinking that I could ride today at lunchtime. Let's see, get to the office early, take off to enjoy the mid-day sunshine, then work a little later than normal.

But back to the weather forecast... today looks great, tomorrow too. It was tomorrow's forecast that made me laugh though: Breezy, with a calm wind becoming south between 18 and 21 mph.
Tell me, do the words breezy and calm really go with one another?

I was seduced...

...by Denise Goldberg

What a start to a post on a web forum! I occasionally search in Google for my own name to see where my journals and blog come up in the search. I did that today, and I saw an entry titled I was seduced by Denise Goldberg. I was definitely curious, and I just had to follow that link. I ended up in a discussion on bikeforums.net about folding bikes. The author went on to say

"Yes, Denise's excellent travel journals in "Crazyguyonabike" and the postings of many of you on this forum, seduced me into dropping $2500 on a Bike Friday. It arrived yesterday and all I can say is, "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"!"

Wow. I have to say that made me feel really good. I just love hearing that folks (other than my family and friends) find my writing to be useful and enjoyable.

What a difference!

Today was an amazing change of seasons. Yes, the weather forecasters were absolutely right, but I have to admit I was having a hard time believing that today would be a beautiful day. From yesterday's snow with temperatures in the 30s when I went to sleep, to this morning's sunshine and above 40 degree early morning temperature, to this afternoons high 60s. Amazing!

It was a good riding afternoon too. Robyn & Steve & I left from their house in Boxborough and headed toward the hills in Harvard. Quiet country roads, sunshine, colored trees, enjoyable and comfortable cool to warm temps, a bit of wind...

Beautiful colored leaves. Too bad the color is a precursor to colder weather!

Accompanied by snow!

I woke up at 5 this morning, and looked outside to see if the predicted wet weather had appeared. Not yet... instead I saw a beautiful sliver of the moon hanging in a crystal clear but still dark sky. It was too early to start my Saturday, so I returned to sleep for a couple of hours. When I woke again I found that clouds had moved in, and it was a gray but still dry day. Cold too - in the low 30s.

With the forecast calling for rain and snow, I hadn't planned on riding today; the dry pavement almost made me change my plans. I'm very glad I decided not to ride though, since about 30 minutes into my walk white flakes started flying from the sky. In no time the ground was very wet - my bike would have been very unhappy and would definitely have needed a good washing. It was a beautiful walk though, and I was almost wearing the right clothing. I say almost because I could have used warmer gloves, and although my earbags kept my ears perfectly warm, by the time I got home there was a great deal of water dripping from my head. A hat would have been a good adddition!

Hopefully the forecast is right for tomorrow. The predicted sun and 50 to 60 degree temperatures should give me good riding weather.

A wonderful garden guardian - this little frog brought a big smile to my face.

Me, my pink earbags, and a few snowflakes.

Yup, those really are snowflakes!

End of season flowers, dressed with water droplets from melting snow

Flying figure 8's

Red lights sometimes give me the chance to see interesting things. As I was stopped at one this morning I looked up at the sky, and there was a flock of birds that looked to be 100 strong. I wonder if they were trying to get their morning exercise - they were flying figure 8's, moving a little further up the road with each loop.

It would have been a good morning to have a camera with me.

Absorbing beauty

A night out, I headed to the Museum of Fine Arts with friends to see the Ansel Adams exhibit. I really like his photos, and this is the first time I've had the opportunity to see them in person. I found the media contrast very interesting. In the early days, his photos were printed in sepia tones on textured paper. I have to say that I preferred the prints that were black & white on glossy paper - and there were some examples of the same photo printed in both ways hanging side by side.

I was fascinated by a print of three children, and wondering how he managed to stage the beautiful shot. A note next to the photo said that he borrowed a (fast) camera - one that didn't need his camera's normal setup - from a fellow photographer and took this single shot with it. Amazing.

If you're a fan of Ansel Adams or if you are as fascinated by good photography as I am, this is an exhibit worth seeing.

It was more than a little amazing to me to see images like this one where the tree in the foreground is seen close up and in focus, and yet the beautiful background scenery was still not blurry - even though it didn't have the sharp edges of a targeted focus. How did he do that?

I didn't have a clue that Ansel Adams ever worked in color until I saw this book in the museum bookshop. There were some beautiful photos in the book, some with the same subjects as his B&W shots. The introduction stated that Adams did some color work when Kodachrome was first introduced in the 1930s.

The weather wizard is out of control...

...again!

You're right, I have been complaining about the weather way too much lately, but the weather wizard hasn't given me much of a choice! It has definitely been a very wet October.

The forecast in the Boston Globe this morning was interesting. It didn't strike me as the forecast of a professional meterologist - or maybe they were as frustrated by the prediction as the rest of us. The forecast started with the words Nasty with high winds, heavy rain and flooding. It was absolutely correct, but I can't remember ever seeing a weather forecast begin with the word "nasty"! It rained for a good portion of the day, and the tops of the trees kept us informed about the presence of very strong winds. It was interesting watching people walk by our office windows clutching umbrellas that were seconds away from turning inside out. It was a raincoat day today, not an umbrella day!

I headed out for a solid one and a half hour fast walk this evening, decked out in warm tights, a long underwear tank, a Patagonia R1 shirt, and a rain jacket. I even wore my Ear Bags and light gloves, and I was toasty warm. The temperature was barely 40 degrees with a bit of wind, and a bit of drizzle. Drizzle? Well it almost felt like I was walking through a wall of water. It felt really good to be outside though, and within 10 minutes of my returning home the water was again cascading from the sky. I guess it was a good luck walk...

I really shouldn't complain about our weather here though. I spoke with my Mom after my walk, and she told me it was snowing. The section of upstate New York where my folks live seems to make its own weather, although I know that snow is forecast for higher elevations around here tonight too. Ouch!

There was a fair amount of water flying around outside today - as you can see from this rainfall totals map from the National Weather Service. The red patches are 3 inches (and above), and the yellow indicates a 2 inch rainfall. Where do I live? In one of the yellow bands...

Change of season musings

Tell me, why does a 50 degree day in the spring feel warm while the same temperature day in the fall feels cool? Is it wishful thinking, or is it because in the spring I'm looking forward to the next seasonal temperature change?

The past week was a good walking week, and a not so good biking week. I managed at least one and a half hours on my feet the days that I walked - all but Friday, which was a rest day for me, and Saturday, which was a biking day. I still need to get myself back to the gym on a regular basis; my goal is to try to maintain a level of 90 minutes of aerobic exercise most days, plus some weight workouts too.

The threat of an imminent cold rain canceled my Saturday riding plans, but I still managed a dry close-to-home ride. I think I was wearing the right layers for the temperature, but it was hard to get started. If I wore enough clothes to be comfortable at the start of my ride I would have been soaking wet from sweat by the time I returned home.

I find it much easier to get the right amount of exercise when I can ride my bike outside. Somehow indoor workouts just aren't as satisfying, and the time certainly doesn't seem to go by as fast. And yes, you're right - I need to stop complaining about the change of seasons and get used to the colder temperatures. After all, there is more and much deeper cold on the way before I get my choice of weather back again!

There are trees with very few leaves remaining - but those that are there are beautifully colored...

...and very close by, there are trees with little or no change. A mixed up color season?

Windy! but dry...

A beautiful blue sky greeted me this morning, but it soon was covered once more in gray. This time the gray was lighter and not threatening precipitation. In place of the rain, the wind was howling...

Yesterday was another very wet day. The almost 7 inches of rain from last weekend was supplemented by 5 additional inches yesterday. Needless to say, my bike and I didn't venture out on the road. I'm not that fond of riding in the rain, although a light rain isn't terrible. But yesterday's rain wasn't light!

The wind today wasn't as bad as the day in PEI that I was only able to ride at 8 miles per hour riding downhill, but it was pretty bad. I was almost blown off the road a couple of times, but worse than that were the couple of close encounters I had with tree branches. The leaves were flying, as expected. When branches (not huge, but noticeable, definitely not little twigs) started crashing to the ground it made me a bit nervous. When one landed just in front of my bike, I managed to ride over it - but what bothered me was the thought of one of the branches landing on my helmeted head. It was time to cut my ride short and head for home by the shortest route possible.

I don't know how many days of rain we had, but it was too many! Last week was a week that started to get me back into my off-season exercise mode. I did a fair amount of (fast) walking despite the wet weather, and I managed to get myself to the gym for a couple of exercise sessions too. Not too bad, but not at the level I need to maintain a decent level of fitness over the winter. I'll get there though, and hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

We many not have a spectacular color fall this year, but individual trees are making an effort. There are trees that changed early, almost overnight, whose leaves are already gone. There are trees that are still primarily green. And then there are those that are reaching out with some very pretty pockets of changing colors.

An afternoon diversion

Yes, today was a work day, and yes, I escaped for a couple of hours along with a few of my co-workers. We headed to the movie theater to see the first feature-length Wallace & Gromit movie, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Very funny!

If you haven't seen any of Nick Park's creations before, this one is well worth seeing. And if you have, this is a great continuation of the tales of Wallace & Gromit. I think I saw his previous films on PBS, so maybe you've seen them too...

Memories of Wallace & Gromit. Photos courtesy of Nick Park and Aardman Animations Ltd.

Rain, rain, walking!

As predicted, it was a very rainy weekend. According to spotter reports on the National Weather Service web site, we had 6.91 inches of rain. That's a lot of water! Yesterday was warm, in the 70s - a good day for a long walk in the rain. After I returned home, I left the windows and doors open to enjoy the warm air. That is, I left them open until I suddenly felt a very chilly breeze. When I again checked the weather service web site I found that the temperature had dropped 15 degrees from one hour to the next. That makes me think that the temperature drop was really instantaneous, as a front slammed (rather than meandered) through the area.

No biking for me this weekend. I probably could have managed a ride this afternoon, but the roads stayed wet for a long, long, time, and the sky stayed a rather dark gray. My bikes decided that none of them wanted to get wet and dirty, and I have to admit that I wasn't in the mood for a major clean and re-lube session today. Fast walking with a few stops to capture the things with my camera worked for today.

I'm pretty amazed to see what looks like freshly blooming flowers this late in the year.

A more seasonal view of the same plant - a very spiny seed pod.

At least there isn't snow here!

Wow. I guess I'd better start to happily accept the shorter days and loss of daylight here. I just saw a news report about a storm yesterday where some locations in North Dakota had 24 inches of snow!

The temperatures this week have been warmer than normal, and the loss of daylight continues. All things considered I guess I really shouldn't be complaining!

We are far from peak colors here, but there are definitely some leaves showing their bright colors

Blue skies, shorter days

I have to admit I'm having a hard time accepting the shortening of the daylight. You're right, I have months to get through before the days stop getting shorter, so I'd better get used to it soon!

Last week was my first non-vacation, non-bike-to-work week in a long time. I knew when I got home that the days would be too short to support a daylight bicycle commute, but that's still hard to accept. I used the week to start rebuilding my off-season exercise schedule. The weather was nice in spite of the shorter days, so I haven't started a gym routine yet. Instead, I walked between an hour and a half and two hours each day during the week. And of course on Saturday and Sunday my bike and I wandered the roads again.

The nights have been relatively cold, sneaking down into the lower 40s. We've had some cool days too, but today's mid-70 degree temperature was a pleasure for riding. The colors are changing, but slowly. I noticed last week that there is a tinge of brown in the trees, and there are a few pockets of red, orange, and yellow. As long as we have to accept this change in temperatures, I'm hoping that we have a good color season to go along with the change in daylight and temperatures.

Hopefully I'll stop complaining about the change in seasons soon!

A beautiful sign of the changing seasons, I'm fascinated by these milkweed seed pods.