Uncle!

“No exposed flesh” is a reasonable dictum in mid-January. When winter is still six weeks away, it is almost enough to make a long-term resident cry “uncle!”

The temperature should not be in the single digits (Fahrenheit) in early November. When I got my bike out of the garage to go to work, the wheels wouldn’t turn. The tires were frozen solidly to the fenders and I had to chip them loose before I could roll the bike out of the garage. It wasn’t quite icy enough to lace up the skates but it was close. I usually put the studded tires on between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I may have to move that up to tonight. [And yes, the studded snow tires are now on.]

Meanwhile, corn and soybeans are still in the fields. Fall was too wet to harvest. Now the beans are beansicles. Flood watches are not normally issued in late fall around here, but we have them again this week. On the other hand, the university crew was out rowing yesterday. It may be below freezing, but the lake is still liquid, so they can still train on the water.

This is the first fall in memory in which I mowed the lawn and shoveled snow in the same week. The wet fall meant the grass had not yet gone dormant even after the first snowfall. Green leaves fell during the first snowstorm.

Usually we wonder if we’ll have a white Christmas. This year was a white Halloween/Samhain/Día de los Muertos.

“Winter Wonderland” Chet Baker (but it’s still fall!)

Checking my old backup hard drive, I came across a little something I did back in 2007. It was the magazine open on the lap of the snowperson in the photo below.

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Snow sculpture and Time magazine parody by hfcc

I also found a picture of my old bike.

Lake freezing before my eyes

Rowing season may have just ended. But I was wrong – they were out the day after this photo was taken. I don’t think the crew bought an icebreaker.

Might be time to get the piers and boat hoists in before it’s too late.

The half-fast cycling club got together to do what we do best, in accordance with our slogan: “When the going gets tough, the half-fast go for a beer.” The occasion was the 25th anniversary of a local brewpub, and even those we haven’t seen on a bike all year showed up. Not to be dropped by the group, I spent the week in training with single malt Scotch.

If it’s too cold and snowy for you to want to ride (we’ve already set records for both), and you’re in Madison WI, save the date: Sunday, December 8 at 3PM at Trinity Lutheran Church for “War and Peace: Music of Remembrance” with the Choral Arts Society.

In the Spring, a young man’s fancy…

My first longish ride of spring. 33 degrees when I left the house. 57 when I finished, but the sun (and lack of wind) when I relaxed with a post-ride Maibock at Capitol Brewery (since that’s where the ride started and ended) made it seem warmer. Since it was lunchtime and I was still far from home, I ate at a nearby diner. The flowers may not have figured out that it’s spring (but they’re coming along), but the spring peepers were out in force. Hard to believe that much sound comes from such tiny frogs.

I rode ~60 miles, which seemed like a lot until I remembered that on this day the year I rode the Death Ride, I was riding the Chico Wildflower Century. Of course, it wasn’t snowing mid-April that year (and I was 26 years younger).

The last dregs of snow

Also this week, I went to two choral concerts. Saturday night was “Free Wheeling: A Tribute to the Bicycle”, which featured “Song Cycle: Vive la vélorution!” by Alexander and Joanna Forbes L’Estrange. Also on the program were six bicycling poems set to music, five of which were world

premieres, commissioned for this event.

Some of the singers were dressed in bike clothes and a couple of songs featured bike bells and tire pumps as percussion instruments. The choirs were accompanied by a sextet of piano, trumpet (and flugelhorn), trombone, bass, drums, and percussion. I will link to the whole piece, but among my favorites were: “Freewheeling” (featuring trumpet), “The men who ride for fun” (featuring male voices) and “A woman (wearing bloomers) on a wheel” (featuring female voices).

On Friday night I heard the Choral Arts Society Chorale performing “Would You Harbor Me? music of longing and belonging” with songs of the diaspora and the immigrant experience, featuring the song cycle “The Golden Door” by Ronald Perera, with the choir accompanied by violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, clarinets, and percussion. The piece included the words of immigrants at Ellis Island and an ad for passage to the US juxtaposed with the experience of riding in steerage from Europe. (The first seven songs at the above link are the piece, though not in the same order as performed Friday night).

The performance included a talk by the Artistic Director with information on local opportunities to get involved in supporting immigrants.