Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Night Time Bike Art

After the 90F heat subsided yesterday, the evening offered some interesting photo opportunities.

Bike against the Harvard Square skyline.

Self-portrait with bike in shop window. (You can see the outline of my hat on the far left.)

In that spirit, we stopped by the opening of the Momentum show at Open Bicycle's Chorus Gallery, which was amazingly well attended. My treacherous camera decided to run out of batteries, so I only have a couple of shots. The show features the work of graphic designer Matt W. Moore, including paintings, limited edition prints, and painted bicycle frames.

The painted frames made me think of Anna from Cycling is Good for You. Anna, I can so easily imagine you riding this in Vienna, especially one of the red frames!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

A no skiing day and a tour of Saint Francois Longchamp village

On our last skiing day that our ski passes are still valid, which was a Friday, it rained and to add insult to this bad weather, I had a mild migraine. So I decided not to ski and spent the morning indoors recovering from the pain. Around noon time the migraine eased up a bit and I was looking to get out for some fresh air.



The plan was to take a walk around the 1540m village all the way up to the 1650m village. I was looking forward to score a nice item or find some gourmet stuff but all these would depend on what the shops have to offer.



Now come with me for a little walk around this mountain ski resort village including a quick peek to the local gourmet shops.



Saint Francois Longchamp 1650m. The numbers of the village corresponds to the altitude of the sub villages in Saint Francois Longchamp.





On the way to the main village.



Saw a group of children by the ski school ready for a snowshoeing journey.



I was in dried sausage heaven!



The bakery-chocolaterie-gourmet shop.



The main ski lift of Saint Francois Longchamp 1650.



Saw a number of Dutch guys dressed in animal suits... here are 3 of them.



View to Saint Francois Longchamp 1540m and 1650m villages.



Our village is the one right below.



This is the slope and ski lift from our village.



Our village, Saint Francois Longchamp 1540m.



The next day Saturday we will be leaving the Alps and drive back to the Netherlands, however, we were told that heavy snow would fall in the evening and into the morning. Dutchman and I dreaded fitting the snow chains on the car.


Saturday, September 25, 2010

Eyes!!

Upps! Camera setting was wrong, and did weird things to the kittens eyes.





Friday, September 24, 2010

Phend-Fisher Family Reunion Ledger (1932)

[page 1]
23rd Annual Phend and Fisher Reunion held at John Earnest home near Sugar Grove Goshen, Ind. Aug 28, 1932

The presiding officers were
President Claude Poole
Vice Pres Ruben Pletcher
Sec & Treas Cecil Phend

Death & Birth Reporter
Mrs Barton Thornton

Entertainment Committee
Fred Earnest Chairman
Mr Cecil Phend
Mrs Cecil Phend
Mr Russell Phend
Mr Barton Thornton

The day was dark and dreary and so the meal was served in Uncle John Earnest home, every one had all they could hold. Pres. Claude Poole ask that we sing Dixology and then Ruben Pletcher ask blessing before we ate. After a social good time the meeting was called to order at the Sugar Grove Church by Pres Claude Poole. A groupe song was sung.

[page 2]
Report of last Reunino was Read and approved. It was moved and seconed to have 1933 reunion at H. A. Phends - Columbia City Ind.

Entertianments
Short talks were given by Mrs John Earnest on first Phend Reunion
Mrs Barton Thornton reads the Phend & Fisher year newspaper which was rather shocking to many
a piano and vocal duet by Mrs Cecil Phend & Daughter and Mrs Victor Phend
a Piano duet by Richard & Anna May Thornton
a talk by H A Phend on Reunion
a talk by Fred Earnest on Honesty

Presents were given to
Mrs John Earnest oldest lady
Mr James Shaw oldest man
Ruben Pletchers Son youngest boy
Paul Phends daughter youngest girl
John Earnest Bald headest man
Henry Phend Largest family
Letter from Howard Phend

[page 3]
Financial Report 1932
In Treasure 4.35
Payed out for Cards 1.90
Coffee sugar Ect 1.58
Total expence 3.48
Balance on Hand .87
Collection 2.30
[balance on hand] .87
[new total] $3.17

Birth and Death Record By Mrs Bartan Thornton
John Phend. Son of Grandfather
Jacob Phend & Wife
Died Nov 1931 age 83.

[editor's note: John Phend died December 10, 1931. His third wife , Eliza Ann Shorb Sponhauer, died January 14, 1931. Jacob J Phend had died in 1929 and his second wife was still living in 1931 so I don't know what Uncle Cecil meant by listing "Jacob Phend & wife" in the deaths.]

Dela [Della] Phend Senniff [Senff] age 56 Died April 1932. Daughter of uncle John Phend & wife.

Born to
Paul Phend & Wife a girl, June Joan Phend

New Officers Elected for 1933
Pres H. A. Phend
Vice Pres Mrs James Shaw
Sec & Treas. Cecil Phend

Entertainment
Chairman Fred Earnest
Mr Barton Thornton
Cecil Phend
[page 4]
Birth & Death Reporter
Mrs Katherine Pletcher

A congregational Son was sung and the meet was dismissed.
Cecil Phend Sec.

Ballance 3.17
Cost of Cards 1.70
In Treasure 1.47
Collection 1.95
[total] 3.42



The Phend-Fisher families gathered for a reunion in Elkhart County, Indiana almost annually from 1909 until 1943. The events of the day were recorded in an old ledger book. Spelling has been retained as it was in the original though some punctuation and paragraph breaks have been added. To view all articles in this series click on the "Phend-Fisher Reunion Ledger" label at the bottom of this post.

Rana-gate

This morning, before dawn.

"Hurry, bring your camera!"



Bullfrog at the gate (Rana catesbeiana).



"I'm not stuck, I just like the view."

Sand Trails Meet Road Tires

I know that some people are afraid to venture off road on road tires, but you might be surprised how versatile a good road tire can be.

We were cycling along the coast in Wellfleet, Mass., when we came upon this spectacular fire road.

The sand road, which is no more than a narrow trail in some stretches, runs trough several miles of dunes and saltwater marshes. You can see the depth of the sand here by the tire tracks on the left and the foot prints on the right.

There were no other cyclists on the trail and at first we did not think that our bicycles could handle it, but apparently they could. We rode at a slow and even pace without incident, enjoying the gorgeous views that were inaccessible from the road.

We both have 32mm tires on our Motobecanes: mine are Panaracer Pasela Tourguards and his are Continental Ultra GatorSkins. Both of these have good kevlar protection and are pretty fast on the road. Great to know that they perform off road as well. The above photo gives a pretty good sense of the depth of the sand we were able to cycle through. If you have never encountered sand on a bicycle before, the thing to keep in mind is that you should avoid making sudden or sharp turns. If you need to turn, make it a very wide turn and do it smoothly and gradually.

Here is a deeper pile of sand where we had to stop and walk the bikes (or in my case, push the bike forward with my feet). There were a couple of these patches, but not many.

As the trail wound closer to the water's edge, the sand became increasingly wet and covered in shards of sea shells.

Here is a close-up. We rode through that too.

I was worried that the sea shell shards might puncture our tires, and here I am yelling something to that effect. But in the end we decided to go through with it, and que sera sera.

The tires emerged filthy, but intact.

Cycling through the sand felt wonderful, especially since it gave us access to places that would otherwise have gone unexplored. One does not necessarily need a mountain bike just to go on some fire trails, even if they involve dunes and marshes. Invest in good tires with kevlar protection and don't underestimate your roadbike!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Winter Estates

We missed another get together with good food and good people in order to get out and do some sight seeing yesterday. It was the warmest day for some days to come, and I was getting very stir crazy!



We headed down to a neat place south of us. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had winter estates in Ft Myers, Florida. Their homes were on the same piece of land and Edison had a lab there also. We've been here a few times before, but we had not seen all of the museum yet. It had the usual cool Edison inventions that I enjoyed seeing. I think the first two pictures were my favorite things to see this visit:



and a picture of Helen Keller and her autograph which reads: To Mr. Edison Not loudness but Love sounds in your ear my friend. Helen Keller

For those that don't know, he was almost completely deaf.



Some of his inventions:





I love all of the cars on display there:



My very favorite thing here by far though is the Banyan tree. All of this is the same tree, and I didn't begin to capture all of it because it was raining by the time I took these shots:





Living the life in chilly Florida!