Weekend report: Saturday seemed like a nice day to go to the beach, so I rode the bicycle up to Harrington Beach, north of Port Washington, WI, which is probably my favorite overall spot on Lake Michigan, and it's a very pleasant 60km or so trip. I make the trip often enough that it's nice familiar route with no map-reading-head-scratching moments. Not too many people at the beach for such a nice day, though Harrington isn't usually crowded any time. The wind was fairly light and blowing out toward the lake, so the lake was very calm, possibly about the calmest I've ever seen it. The big lake is big, and quite often builds up some significant waves, but it was looking more like one of the little lakes, just slight waves.

Sunday I headed into the city in my car, for Bastille Days, and found to my surprise that there were people everywhere, cars parked everywhere, streets closed all around downtown. I was headed to a special event, but clearly there was some other, even more special event on, because Bastille Days is not nearly that big. It turns out the Great Circus Parade was Sunday. I had no idea....

The Circus Parade, which apparently was run annually for decades back in the day, last ran six years ago. It's not the sort of thing I thought I had any particular interest in, but since I was around, I did wander down a few times during the parade to have a look. Now, lots of things billed as "Great" would be more honestly characterized at "pathetic" but this is a big event. I didn't even see most of it and I saw a heck of a lot (and took a few hundred photos that will get sorted through and posted in the fullness of time).

Bastille Days was nice, too. Four stages of mostly music most of the time, the crazy guys juggling torches while riding unicycles, the belly dancers were back, and of course, food onna stick. Some of the better restaurants participate, so you can actually get some pretty darn good meat onna stick. Plus we have a miniature Eiffel Tower. They do actually have some people singing in French, but lots of other music. I did enjoy the over-caffeinated Irish band. You know the type, the 'you think you're fiddler can play fast, wait until you hear ours' sort, and these guys played that concept for all it's worth. I bought a few CDs from Fox and Branch, a very enjoyable local folk duo.

And Joyce arrived safely back Sunday night, so I had my chance to look around the used bookstore in the airport while waiting for her arrival.

I've been seeing the letter V within a circle spray-painted all over the place. I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Now, back when I was younger, the thing kids marked all over was the letter A within a circle, which was supposed to mean Anarchy. Just the concept that appeals to 14 year old boys. The V, I don't know. V is for Vitamins? Evidently not Verbosity. Possibly Valence shell electron pair repulsion? That must be it. The circle around the V would be a subtle reference to a spherically symmetrical s orbital. Something like that.

It is spring here. Plants are turning green and flowering and having sex with each other.
( photos )

The winter storm wasn't nearly as impressive as the forecasts, with only a few centimeters of snow on the ground instead of 20 or 30, though it's very wet snow. The same amount of water in fluffier form would be a lot deeper. There were some intervals of very heavy snowfall rates last night, though, which was pretty impressive to see. I took a few photos this morning. Spring snow is always interesting to walk in. The ground is all snow-covered, the tree branches covered with snow, but the birds are loudly singing like spring. Mid winter isn't silent, but there is much less birdsong than there is now.

I knew everyone would want photos when I wrote about the ice in the woods by the river. When I went out walking yesterday it was near sunset, and I did not have camera and tripod with me to take photos in the growing darkness. The ice is still there, though, and this morning I got some photos before work, then more after work with the full tripod-and-multiple-lenses array of gear. Set here on Flickr.

Over the weekend we had warm weather and a lot of rain, and the area by my local river flooded. Just a few weeks earlier I was out snow shoeing by the river, now the area is accessible only to ducks. We've had a bit of cold weather, and the surface of the water froze to a thickness of a few millimeters. Now the water has partly drained away, leaving the layer of cracked ice suspended in the air by the tree trunks it froze around, some centimeters above the ground in many places. Much of it is thin and smooth enough to be semi transparent, and in a few places very thin clear ice sheets can be found. It's like a weird accident at a glass factory that somehow left the adjacent forest floor glazed.

One of the local car dealers has a giant flagpole from which they used to fly a giant flag. They've given up on the flag, possibly due to the cost of replacing one of those huge flags, but the lights that formerly lit the flag all night are still on, lighting the pole up uselessly. So there it stands, the biggest, longest, tallest white pole around, glowing all night long. And wasting electric power. And contributing to the blotting out of the night sky. But at least we know who has the biggest pole.

Well, we did get some more snow over the weekend, and I've had the chance to go out on the snowshoes again. It really is more fun that it sounded like it would be. I live right by the Little Menomonee River, and with a good snowcover and snowshoes the area along the river becomes easily accessible and fun to explore. In the summer it's all muddy, covered in tall grass, and partly blocked by the growing trees and bushes. In winter the leaves are gone, opening up the area a bit, and walking in deep snow is what snowshoes are for.

Three laps (4 km each) skiing around the lighted loop at Lapham Peak on Monday night was much fun. Clear sky, no moon, and a typical cold clear night with temperatures down to around a comfortable -13°C. Good fast conditions on the "Hoot Owl Hill" descent, which is a fairly gentle descent, especially toward the end, and which can be pretty dull if the snow is slow. My last skiing before this was on February 4th, just before the warm weather melted much of the snow. That was another beautiful night, and much colder at around -18°C. That was fun, and I'm glad I had the chance to spend an hour and a half out skiing in some cold weather.

I get passed a lot when skiing, and it's always especially fun when by someone who is clearly decades older than me. Up near the top of the "Two Tier" climb an older gentleman passed me going at least double my speed. If I keep at it, maybe someday I can be fast, too. (Also, I need to buy some new skis.)

( Photo of snowshoes, hurriedly taken just before sunset on Sunday )

Happy birthday to jrittenhouse!

I was looking through the "Mountain Gear" catalog, at the coats, boots, backpacks, etc., and realized that I was actually missing the best part: The names of the colors. Oh, sure, some items are "black" or "white" or a normal color name prefixed with some semi-silly addition such as "English Green" or "Rubix Red." But the best are just plain weird. "Typhoon" (kind of blue) "Shark" (sort of gray) "Bran," "Nightfall," "Chili" (a red and green and misc. checkered pattern) "Otter" (kind a green) "Kelp," "Grill," and my personal favorite, "Panda," which is blue and brown, unlike any panda I've seen.