Wherein I walk on water

After four straight days of the tennis wars, I had the day off. I think I needed it, although I spent a lot of yesterday being a couch potato - watching the Vikings lose the NFC Championship to the Saints, and later watching a lot of Australian Open tennis on ESPN2. I watched a couple of sets of Nickolay Davydenko, the Russian ghost, trading ground strokes with a Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco. Much later, in the wee hours, Davydenko won in five sets to advance to the quarters against Federer.

This afternoon I got a little restless and took a trek down to the big river to see how the storm was coming. The western part of Minnesota is shut down today by blowing snow, but the Capitol City is functioning. I walked along the river, actually on the surface of the ice where the cross country ski tracks were, until I saw an object in the middle of the stream. I walked closer.



It appears to be an easy chair that someone dragged out to the center of the river and allowed to be frozen to the surface. It'll likely be there until spring.



I continued down the river past the end of Pike Island and back, then made a trip inland to Upper Lake. The snow grew some in intensity and the sun was nearly obscured and a little spooky over the lake. I was pretty much alone for most of the walk. The dock on Upper lake is shown below.



Two of the three people that I saw on the walk were carrying shovels, the pointed kind for digging trenches. It's odd to see anyone carrying a shovel down there, so it's kind of a mystery. I suspect it is related to the St Paul Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt, which I think is currently in session. I should look it up, but I know the ice sculpture contest was injured by the January thaw that hit over the weekend, so it is Winter Carnival time. Whoever finds the Winter Carnival medallion wins a nice cash prize

There will be more tennis to play again tomorrow.

Flood Plain

It's my first day off from my whirl of tennis playing. After four straight days, I deserved some R&R, I thought, so I decided to have a look at the big river to see if was comparable to the Red River in Fargo. I drove to the north entrance to Hidden Falls Park and found it blocked off from vehicle traffic by the city. Undaunted, I parked on a side street and burned some shoe leather. I was nearly alone in the park, but it didn't seem to be very dangerous. The Mississippi River is running high, not Red River high, but up on the banks and claiming some territory that is usually used for picnicking. [That is the correct spelling of picnicking.] St Paul's city fathers were smart enough to build the city on the bluffs above the flood plain and it seems impossible for the city to ever be inconvenienced by a spring flood. It would require a Lake Agassiz level disaster to even get close. I'm feeling pretty safe.


After about an hour in the flood plain, I climbed the hill by Hidden Falls and headed to Lund's to buy the raw materials for lunch. Incidentally, it is possible to see Hidden Falls this time of year from the entrance road. The tree foliage has yet to close off the view and thus return its status to "hidden."

A photo from yesterday when the Prairie Princess was getting ready for a bike ride. It wasn't purely recreational - she had an errand to run - and she had to borrow Herb's bike helmet, because hers is somewhere near Lake Harriet where she's currently residing. She and Herb congregated near the confluence of the back door and the kitchen bathroom and willingly posed for their tousan. As you can tell from their attire, spring has not permanently sprung here in this part of the tundra.



We are expecting snow again tonight. There are often April snow storms here, notably in early 1980 and 1983 to announce the arrival of Herb and PP to Minnesota. It's still March.

Minnehaha Falls again

The falls are roaring. The ice is almost gone and spring is threatening to return. Today's temp managed to eke into the melt zone, but just barely. I went over to see what the level of the creek is and the condition of the creek, now that they are working on stabilizing the banks of the creek. I walked the trail to the Mississippi, too. The water is very high there, too, but unlike Fargo, we aren't going to have a flood here. We have a wide river valley and some sizable hills to build houses on.



Winter is not giving up yet. The curling season is done and it's too cold to ride a bike - for me, at least. There will be more tennis tomorrow and into the weekend.

St.Patrick in St. Paul

I went to another parade today. It was the annual St Patrick's Day Parade in the Saintly City. It was somewhat cooler than the Tampa Rays parade in Punta Gorda and there were more people in attendance, but a parade is a parade. A bunch of bands, local politicians, and a lot of people who want to be seen in a parade showed up. There were people giving away cheap green necklaces and penny candies to kids. They were mainly marching with their families and clans, which is pretty cool, but parades get boring pretty fast. The mayor of St Paul, Chis Coleman, an Irish guy was there wearing his green. This parade had something that the Punta Gorda event did not. Guys wearing skirts. Well, kilts.


I got to the parade by parking near Harriet Island and hiking across the Wabasha Street bridge. The warm weather has melted all the river ice, but there was a pretty brisk wind on the bridge to remind me that it is still March, still three days before the vernal equinox. On the way home I took a photo of the Mississippi River looking upriver towards the High Bridge from atop the Wabasha Street bridge. Most of the green in town was being worn by the Irish folk and there wasn't much left for the bushes and trees, but their time is not so far off.
It was a day of rest from the interminable tennis wars.

Ford Bridge View

It's still wintry. Today almost climbed into melting territory, but stopped at 31 degrees. Tomorrow, maybe, a sunny 40 and the first time above freezing in much too long. Yesterday Herb took a bike ride to get a feel for what winter biking is about. It was about 20 degrees when he went out. He came back with a reddish face, but he said that the cold was bearable. I spent the day grousing about the interminable winter.

Today, I went over the Ford Bridge to Minnehaha Falls to see if it had changed. It looked a lot like my previous winter shots of it, so it you're curious, page back to some of my previous entries. Minnehaha Creek is still firmly frozen over. I trekked up to the bridge on foot to see what the river is up to. The Ford plant where they make some sort of Ford pickup truck, and which is set to close in about a year, is visible in the distance. The river has open water, but the edges retain some ice. Winter is starting to slowly give up its grip on the landscape.



I played tennis at Wooddale tonight. The cast of players changes every night as we struggle to keep the games going while Jerry recovers from his surgery and Tennis Dennis tries to recover from his shoulder and hip infirmities. I had a pretty good night. I was as close to the zone as I have been in a while and it felt pretty good. The whole group played pretty well for 90 minutes and we'll give it another run on Saturday.

I have a Super Seniors men's doubles USTA league match tomorrow night at 8 pm on the other side of Minneapolis. This is a new team for me, but I know at least three of the players pretty well. There are only two teams in this level of Super Seniors this season (the winter season) so we'll be playing the same guys about four times. The summer league of 4.0 Super Seniors gets more teams, so we'll have some varied competition then.

Thursday will be another night of mixed doubles with the hard core girls at Wooddale. Jerry is still out so we will have a sub for him, Pat G., whi is playing well, and it should be a good match. Jerry is doing well and has the stitches out from his operation. He plans to return to tennis in April.

Kagami Sensei will also return in April, or perhaps May. Her last day at work in Ogaki is March 24. She has her visa for her planned trip to India, so her plans are working out okay. She'll be home in time for garden planting.

This is January

I'm posting two photos from my trip to Minnehaha Falls yesterday. The first one is from below the falls and depicts some people walking on the ice over the creek without much fear of falling in. It was very cold but the water under the ice was running. A little dangerous perhaps, but an attractive pile of ice was sticking out from the hillside. No one got hurt.



And this is one of the kayakers in the Mississippi at the end on Minnehaha Creek. He, too, is engaged in a perilous activity. The temperature was in the single digits, so if he capsized, he would have been in hypothermia almost immediately. Minnesota seems to encourage this sort of individual to defy death.



It was another cold day today, starting below zero and reminding us all that this is a cold state.

Curling, another ice related activity, is on the agenda again tonight. Our three game streak is on the line.

Trek to Old Man River

A beautiful day in this river city. It's easy to forget that the Mississippi runs through this city sometimes, but it does and along its banks for many miles there are forest and parks, and then there is downtown. I rode both sides of the river today - my first 20 mile ride of the year. This photo was taken in Hidden Falls Park - the east bank - as I rolled past the river. I had to scramble to get off the bike before the riverboat got too far upstream to be in the photo. I like the juxtaposition of trees, bike, river, and boat.



There were a lot of walking primates out and about with their canine companions. I crossed the 35E bridge past the old Lilydale Tennis Club and rode to Harriet Island to where the railroad tracks cross the bike path. The tracks were in use by a long string of freight cars, so I turned and rode back past the water front park, through the forested bike path, and home. The trip up Benhill Road at 19 miles took my breath away, but I got it back.

Leftover pizza for lunch. I played some tennis this afternoon: ground strokes and overheads. Now I may need a nap.

I'm considering a plan to plant new flowers in the back yard. The native grass garden planted by the good Kagami is thriving, although it's getting competition from quack grass and other weeds. I think there will be black eyed susans galore. I have come to the conclusion that the term "weed" is a social construct. One man's dandelion is another man's lilac.

Gas was $3.259 in Mendota Heights. A nice jump for those who profit from our addiction.

It rains on Saturday sometimes

It's Saturday in Minnesota. And it rains. What can I say? I am inside, but spent about 90 minutes smacking tennis balls inside at Wooddale with the aging gentlemen that I often share the court with. We managed three sets with three different arrangements of combatants. 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 today. I was a little off my game, slow sometimes, which I attribute to the change of surface and lighting differences inside. But the new racket did its job when I was able to locate the sweet spot. A sweet red Wilson racket.

I have few recent tennis photos, so I'm posting a photo from this January in Florida with my high school tennis coach. He is a few years older than me, but still an active and effective player. The tennis we played was the first in about 40 years and an identical time since we had seen each other. Thanks to the internet and a little tool called 'google' used by Sylvi, I was able to relocate him. We had a great time, recalling triumphs of our "youths" and filling in the gaps in our histories, at his home near St Petersburg. Sylvi, who was one of his French student faves in high school was there, too.



My tennis schedule is pretty busy for next week. I'll be hitting with the geezer group a few times, and the USTA 8.0 mixed doubles league starts up on Sunday.

I'm also planning to do some biking next week when the rain ceases. I'll try to get some good photos of the trails by the Mississippi River and the vegetation that is again showing its beauty. The river is the dominant feature on many of my rides - it's about 2 miles down hill from here. That means, of course, that my ride home is dominated by a climb up Benhill Street.

Gas is $2.95. The war goes on. Visualize peace.