Thing of Purpose

CULTURAL LEARNINGS FOR MAKE BENFIT • Today, the second Monday of October is either Indigenous Peoples Day or Columbus Day, or both in some places. Like many things in these decentralized United States the choice to go with one, or the other, or both, varies by state and even by city. The State of Utah remains with Columbus Day. Salt Lake City (the Utah state capital in the north of the state) went with duality. St George (the largest city in the south of the state) remains with Columbus Day and the Stars and Stripes were ubiquitous. Yesterday, we passed on the Art in Kayenta  show and chose to visit the  Shivwits  fourth annual native American arts and crafts show, which is held on the Shivwits tribal lands beyond the well-heeled satellite towns to the northwest of St George. I chatted with two sisters who were continuing their mothers work with Navajo jewelry. One sister had stayed with traditional designs and the other sister had taken a more contempora...

RECREATION WITH AN AHHH! • I was undecided what sort of a ride I wanted on this day. Gloriously warm sunshine with a cooling breeze combined with seventh successive-day knee stiffness determined that it was to be a [R]ecreation ride with an ahhh! I rode gently and enjoyed the weather and the countryside. Not every ride has to be fitness training and there are more ways to get high than from endorphins. [R] is the first ride designation on a personal classification system I am developing. It means riding purely for the purpose of enjoyment, which can include riding styles from easy to hard, and slow to fast, or anything in between. Any other activity is permissible; today I went for a walk. Sadly, I came across a dismembered deer, which I have reported to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources with photos and a location map. I will spare you the gruesome sight of the cadaver. For the first time this year I noticed touches of autumn color in the leaves on some trees. The Americ...

WE'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY • Since the demise of my Canon G11 (I miss ya baby; I'm so sorry I made all those niggling complaints about ya) I have been experimenting with carrying an old Canon A10 or an old Canon G2. I always have my iPhone 6S+ with me because that's how I record my rides on the Strava service. If only the iPhone didn't have such a wide-angle lens then I would probably not bother with a 'real' camera. Today, I had the Canon A10 and the iPhone stowed in a frame bag on the bicycle. I had not intended to take any photos, but when I made a water stop I realized that it has been a long time since I took a photo of the Hurricane Fault mountain tops—known as Mollies Nipple, the Three Brothers, Whiteface, and the Wart—in the late afternoon sun. I went to dig out the Canon A10, but on an impulse I first took a photo at that same location using the iPhone. The headline photo is Mollies Nipple. The upper photo in the collage of the string of tops wa...

NOURISHMENT v. PUNISHMENT • The 8mph wind was back again today, along with increased 18mph gusts. The direction was more favorable than on my outing the day before yesterday, with mostly cross-head and cross-tail winds. Riding in the wind is quite pleasant if it's not a cold, chilling blast and there is sunshine. Only when the wind impedes progress significantly enough to make riding a chore does it become unpleasant. Defining the circumstances that qualify as a chore is difficult, but I certainly recognize it when it happens. A couple or three stretches of my route qualified as tedious rather than unpleasant. Most of the way I was making fair progress. There was nothing exceptional happening: the roads were Sunday-quiet; the sun shone; I moved into that state of empty-minded reverie with awareness that makes bicycling so relaxing. This was to be my last ride before a couple or more days off after I have some medical tests done tomorrow. The consultant is a keen bicyclist, s...

QUALIFYING TIME • Yesterday, my time trial attempt was a failure. You probably thought I was just making excuses when I explained that I was hampered by wind. Today, I rode a similar route in less windy conditions. Today's conditions represented a more equitable comparison with average days than those of yesterday did. My targets were 14.85 miles with 355 feet of climbing in 1h:16m. I was able to do 15.2 miles with 390 feet of climbing in 1h:16m. Success! It seems my friend will not have to ride slowly or wait for me at the end of a ride. WEATHER report: *START* 11:34, Clear, 68°F, Feels like 68°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 12%, Dewpoint 14°F, Wind 5mph from ↙ (11mph gusts), UV index 5. *END* 12:56, Clear, 74°F, Feels like 74°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 10%, Dewpoint 14°F, Wind 4mph from ↗ (10mph gusts), UV index 7. feel 71°F, avg. temp. 71°F, avg. feel temp. 71°F.

NOT KEEPING UP • My foray into the world of bicycle time trials (aka ITT, individual time trial) began today. This is one of those rare occasion when French has more linguistic punch than English with ' contre le montre' ( trans. 'against the watch'). This was not racing per se;  I simply wanted to know if I would be able to keep up if I rode with a friend on his regular route should I ever impose myself. For the avoidance of doubt : That's not me in the headline photo. That's Rohan Dennis , the current world ITT champion in the UCI elite men division. Dennis has been the focus of controversy recently, as you may read in a Weekend Australian  report where the photo appears. I hope that Dennis will be able to resolve his issues and that he will be back racing soon. I mapped out a route (profile below) with the free  Komoot service. My target specification was 14.85miles and 355 feet of climbing within 1h:16m without over-taxing myself in the process. ...

ABOVE AND BELOW • I have tried umpteen times to take a photo of a plane approaching the Gen. Dick Stout Field strip with Signal Peak and the Pine Valley Mountains in the background. It seems like a straightforward task, but my position is always wrong relative to the height and path of the planes. There is no way to predict what is going to work, so it's pure happenstance for what is possible. Today, the yellow plane, which I don't see very often, obliged with a low, slow approach. I was able to take three images in succession as it drifted down onto the runway My luck held down below, too. A hawk flew away from me, also going low and slow, so that I was able to see how beautiful it was in flight. A new batch of cattle arrived into one of the recently mown fields. They are still somewhat on edge and keep bunched together, moving off nervously as I approach. Two young girls on horses were driving the herd around the field the day yesterday when they arrived. I was unable to...

PLAYING BO PEEP WITH THE COPY EDITOR • My own writing has been criticized—quite fairly, I admit—for being long-winded and using over-complex sentence construction. At the polar extreme, Jeff Albertson spawned a host of imitators when he wore a T-shirt declaiming, "Worst Episode Ever." My starched-collar grammar checker tartly comments, "This may be a sentence fragment." The Albertson catchphrase is often written and punctuated in the form of "Worst. Whatever.  Ever." because of the way Albertson delivers such comments when voiced by Frank Azaria. My grammar checker remains silent on this development. I settled down with  English Traits by  Ralph Waldo Emerson and the first sentence of the second paragraph brought my reading to a screeching halt: Like most young men at that time, I was much indebted to the men of Edinburgh and of the Edinburgh Review, — to Jeffrey, Mackintosh, Hallam, and to Scott, Playfair and De Quincey; and my narrow and des...

MELLOW YELLOW • After a brief flirtation with exotic purples, the local flora returned to predominantly yellows this week. I tried to look more carefully at the 'weeds' that grow by the roadsides. That was when I espied a packaged ham burrito impaled on the top of a fence post. I realized I had seen it before, but not really looked closely. I imagine the owner was bereft when (s)he discovered the loss. It is a shame the pig had to die needlessly. The roads are strewn with clues to human activity. I always wondered how archaeologists managed to find any evidence, but the handful of small-denomination coins and multiple items of kit that I have found have made me realize that humans leave traces everywhere they go. WEATHER report: *START* 09:59, Clear, 57°F, Feels like 57°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 18%, Dewpoint 14°F, Wind 5mph from ↙ (9mph gusts), UV index 2. *END* 12:50, Clear, 68°F, Feels like 68°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 12%, Dewpoint 14°F, Wind 4mph from ↗ (10mph gust...

BACKEND AFTERNOON • I was not expecting to be able to ride today. I jumped at the chance of my first afternoon ride of what they call 'the backend' in my homeland. You may well smirk, but it is a much less forbidding term for Autumn than 'The Fall', which always sounds to my ear as though people are talking about original sin. My bicycle riding is a guilt-free pleasure. I had almost forgotten how pleasant afternoon riding can be, especially when I saw the Fault illuminated by the sunlight rather than against the sunlight. The blog template has some quirky ideas about how to display the first image in a post, so I used a cropped version above and the full panorama appears below. It makes a refreshing change from interminable photos looking west to the Pine Valley Mountains! It's too bad that the Canon A10 camera does such poor color rendition. Following on from two days of wind there was a cool breeze. It was enough enough to warrant a light pullover, which ...

DAY OF WIND TWO • I thought my reading of the weather forecast was probably too optimistic, or at least too early to call. The day started cool, cloudy, and windy; however, it was still a fair bicycle riding day. It was also the first day since the spring that I rode the whole ride in an upper top-layer, albeit unzipped in the sunshine and if I was in a tailwind. The pomegranate fruits split this week, which must be another seasonal indicator for those more in touch with such things than I am. After harvesting the fruit, the seeds inside (called arils) have to be harvested. The specific gravity difference between the arils and the membrane surrounding them is your secret ally: the membrane floats in water and the arils sink. There are instructions on the Simply Recipes website. The manufactured extracts and juices of the pomegranate have no magical properties, as  research summaries  show, but it is a valuable fresh  wholefood in the armory of a healthy p...

WINDS OF CHANGE • My mother was fond of Kathleen Ferrier singing ' Blow the Winds Southerly '. Overnight, my weather-forecast application suddenly announced that there would be strong winds from the south. A wind advisory was issued by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for 25-35mph winds with gusts up to 45mph in the afternoon and evening. Sailors and singers may like winds, but as a bicyclist I am not so keen. I complained over my first cup of coffee about the short notice for this previously unheralded change in the forecast. I complain often, which is probably why I am so often ignored. I had awoken with knots in my left bicep and quadricep. I was lying on my right side, so no explanation there, unless you support some kind of reverse physiology hypothesis. I was also snuffly and grumpy. If you have read ' Diseases from Space ' by  Fred Hoyle  and Chandra Wickramasinghe you may believe that the snuffles came from an extraterrestrial sourc...

Classification conundrum • Earlier in the day, in an otherwise clear blue sky, a line of low cloud developed along the eastward-facing flank of the Pine Valley Mountains about halfway up the slope. I am not going to put myself on the line by attempting a classification. Those feeling emboldened by confidence in their own abilities, warranted or otherwise, to decipher the Wikipedia page on cloud identification are welcome to leave their call in the comments. I am going to leave it at "a line of low cloud". By noon those clouds had risen in altitude to cap the crest of the mountain range. Cue Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes"…lift us up where we belong / Where the eagles cry / On a mountain high" ('Up Where We Belong', the  #1 hit song from the movie soundtrack of 'An Officer and a Gentleman', 1982). I was reliably informed by a loved one on my cellphone messaging app that it was raining in Southern California. I thought it never rained in Southern...

A super-abundance of produce • I went to Ali's Organics to collect the produce shares for this week and I was amazed by the pumpkin display. Some of them are destined to be  jack-o'-lanterns —although they are edible, as Ali told me, "You wouldn't want to!" I am a turnip-lantern man and the removed flesh of those are edible. I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie and I wonder why this vegetable (it's a cultivar of the squash plant) is so strongly associated with the baked goods department. Check out the last link: hidden among all the sugary comestibles there are curry and chili recipes and even one for lasagna! Both  pumpkin leaf  kimchi and  pumpkin spice kimchi from Korean cuisine both seem like more interesting alternatives to dumping shovelfuls of refined sugar onto the mashed flesh and baking the resulting mucilage into a pastry flan.

Magic waterfall • For the first time in many weeks my legs felt like they were working for me and not for my enemies. Following the longer-than-usual ride yesterday, I had expected my legs to be tired today and accordingly my plan was a shorter ride. Immediately after I set off on my ride, I could feel my legs were functioning better than I had anticipated. To check that this new development was not just a flash in the pan , I decided to replicate the ride from yesterday as a way of establishing a direct performance comparison. I am delaying celebration through the declaration of an International Magnificent Legs Day, just in case this is an example of the one step forward and two steps back syndrome. Been there. Experienced that. Too old to be caught out again. As I was descending from the moor after my first turnaround, I saw a strange aircraft in the sky. It was too far away for good viewing and certainly well outside the iPhone's comfort zone. A small section of the photo, ...

High, wide, blue & white (oh, purple & yellow, too!) • It took me all morning to do what I used to do all morning. Like the gruff old Scottish Highlander who took a young bride, "It's work I dinnae grudge!" I have eschewed carrying a camera in recent days, but the big skies today were suitable for the wide-eyed and legless focal length of the iPhone lens. The Canon G3 took one last photo of a sunset a few nights past and then died. Farewell, my faithful servant during 17,869 exposures. My legs were in better shape than the Strava stats indicate. I went slowly, but did my full route that does not include venturing down the hill known as Mercy. What goes down has to come back up. I'm not ready for that just yet. I walked a couple of sections just to stretch out my back and feet. Overall output was modest, but a respectable distance for endurance. Not for the first time a camera almost had me involved in fisticuffs. The driver of a Kenworth rig (who looked...

Remembering an English bluesman • It is almost five years since John Robert Cocker OBE 1944-2014, better known as Joe Cocker  [ Wikipedia ], died in Crawford, Colorado. His last tour was in 2013, preserved on the 'Fire It Up' DVD and an eponymous album [ Spotify ]. A 2017 documentary, 'Joe Cocker Mad Dog with Soul' [ Men's Journal review], summarized his turbulent life and career. None of this explains why, as I was riding along this morning, in my mind's ear I could hear snippets of Cocker's best known tracks wafting towards me on a breeze across the Rocky Mountains.

Sun & moon • I rode with the sun and the moon in the sky. The headline photo is a confession of failure: I did not manage to get a satisfactory picture of the moon with any of the other objects that were moving around in the sky. This is as close as I was able to achieve and shows the moon, a yellow plane that I missed on its take-off, and a powerchutist who refused to come close enough to be visually significant. There was a lot to see on the ride. I realized how much the repeated stopping and restarting was negatively impacting my cycling performance, which I had planned to improve by a sufficient factor so that by the last day of October of this year I will be riding at the same speed that world record runners complete a marathon. I need a plan that will address that issue. WEATHER report: *START* 08:09, Clear, 57°F, Feels like 57°F, Cloud: 0%, Humidity 25%, Dewpoint 22°F, Wind 1mph from ↙, 3mph, UV index 0. *END* 11:32, Clear, 79°F, Feels like 79°F, Cloud: 0%, H...