Pic O' the Day

So far I'm doing rather terrible with my resolution to take photographs regularly. It may be due to the lack of space to bring my camera with me (all I have is a backpack, it gets quickly filled with clothes) and also because if I don't have room for my camera, I definitely don't have room for my tripod. Sadly enough there was a building down the street from me I wanted to photograph and there were two times that were perfect to go capture it (lighting, clouds, time of day, etc) but just couldn't get over there.

The Obama inauguration is this week. Sweet as! It will be warm that day too. A good thing as there are a couple of celebrations to attend. So many people have waited so long for this day. Bush will finally be gone. This is the biggest change to happen in my political life and I gladly await Tuesday.

Lakeside campsite on the Superior Hiking Trail. Bear Lake, near Tettegouche State Park.

Snow plow

Not quite sure what I was thinking today when I woke up and looked at the forecast. I knew it was going to be windy -gusts up to 40 MPH- I knew it was going to snow -4 inches- I knew the windchill was going to drop -down to 30F below or more- yet I still hopped on my bike and made the easy ride to the station and then to work. I watched the snow fall and wondered why I did rode in. I knew it was going to be tricky getting home. I left work at 5 and had an ok time getting back to the station downtown. Nothing had been plowed obviously and my front tire was sucked into the mush created by car tires driving over fresh snow. My rear tire spun with any pedaling. I tried to find the shallowed parts to get traction and any sort of solid connection. I had to walk over the narrower bridges by the new Twins stadium. When I arrived at 28th st. station I made it a couple blocks before I was unable to go any further. I had to walk about a mile along American Blvd. as there was no way I was riding in the street with moronic drivers. I plowed through the snow with it eventually reaching the bottom of my fork (middle of the wheel!) and snow up to my shins. Riding past the airport plains the snow tends to drift and pile up. It just so happened to pile up on the sidewalk where I was walking. The last couple streets I take were OK to ride on without fear of death by auto. I was biking along Old Cedar Ave through the snow moving faster than people going south on HWY 77. It was a parking lot. That's my favorite part of the ride. In the end, my commute took about 15 minutes longer than usual because of the on and off walking.

Cullen and I at our start of the Superior Hiking Trail outside Two Harbors, MN. September, 2008.

Resolute in my resolutions

Here we are well in to 2009. Happy New Year btw. 2008 went by awfully quick but it was by and large a pretty sweet year. I spent nearly half of it unemployed. I spent nearly all of it with a torn ACL but tried hard to let that not affect what I did with my leisure. It was a bad year for blogging. Looking back I was pretty god damn lazy with posting and content (as Dan rightly pointed out at the end of the year). While getting ready for the countdown at the party we went to, I thought about what I could do for 2009 resolutions. I don't make all those bullshit get-in-shape self-promises I know I'm not going to fulfill. Here was what I came up with:

1. 5000 VMT. The average car owner drives 12,000 miles. That's ridiculous, unsustainable and can't continue into a future of depleting fossil fuels. (I hope I have made my thoughts on that crystal clear over the last 4 years!) I won't put more than 5,000 miles on my car this year. That's 400 miles/month or 100/miles a week, roughly. I'll track them on a spreadsheet and everything. As of 1 January, 2009 there was 184,050 miles on my car. When 31 December, 2009 rolls around I should have less than 189,050 on it (if it even lasts that long!).

2. PotW. Picture of the day. I got this from someone else, who's friend takes at least one picture every day. I'm not going to be that gung-ho about it and probably knock it back to a picture of the week. I have a nice camera, and will be getting a better lens so there is no reason not to let it sit under my bed. This is a good reason to get it out and use it!

3. Limit the # of flights I take. There are a few places I'd like to travel to this year (L.A., London, Oregon?). I know a few years back I took over 25 flights in an 18 month period. This is also something that is not sustainable and won't be able to continue into the future ala resolution 1. I've heard both good and bad about long distance train service in the US but it can't be any worse than the Ghan in Centralia. And I think I can get a coupon for the daily out to Seattle with companion fares.

4. Fix my knee. Doable with my knewly acquired health insurnace.

5. Expand my garden to grow a good portion of food during the 2009 growing season. The only thing that really worked out last year was basil (which remains as frozen pesto and a slowly dying plant in the kitchen) and jalapenos with absolutely no heat to them and tiny, funny shaped onions. It was a steep learning curve in extremely poor soils with lots of rodents attacking my small garden at night. This year I will try my hand at square foot gardening, planter boxes for herbs, peppers and other small plants and a few stalks of corn.

A very low Gooseberry River. Taken from the Superior Hiking Trail bridge. September 2008. You can see the storm coming in from the West. It rained on us about an hour later as we hiked down to the visitor center for water and electricity.