Picture Perfect

Back in early December we had Schwarzebeere's kids for an evening.  Brombeere had decided earlier that we were going to give Schwarzebeere a picture of his kids for Christmas and that evening, when we had the kids, was our opportunity to get the picture.  So we stood them up in front of our Christmas tree for pictures.  Now, those who have kids had have ever tried to get pictures of small children will understand that the process of getting good pictures did not go smoothly.  If you're a Calvin and Hobbs fan and have followed that little imp over the years it was in publication, you will understand what I mean.

We wanted one of all three and another of each one individually. The individual shots went well enough.

But getting all three to cooperate all together proved very difficult.  It seemed like each time we'd have two of them smiling good, the third one wouldn't.

Someone wasn't getting what they wanted, wasn't getting their way, wasn't happy for one reason or another.  IT wasn't always the same one, they took turns being uncooperative and pouty.  It was getting very frustrating.  Brombeere tried all kinds of stuff to get them to cooperate and just smile all together.  But some 30 minutes and 58 pictures later we had some that we thought might work.

They actually are cute little kids ...

... sweet and kind ...

... and very endearing. 

And while the one of all three of them wasn't show-window perfect, it was good and very representative of who they are.  So we decided to go with it.

At the Feet of Prophets

 When I was growing up I lived about 20 miles from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Twice a year General Conference would be held in the tabernacle on Temple Square but my family typically watched it on TV; all the sessions were available on one of the regular channels and we could just watch it from the comfort of our home.  If I remember correctly, I only attended conference in the tabernacle two or three times, the last time being my freshmen year of college when I took a friend who had never been to conference in person.  The crowds were large and the seats were not particularly comfortable; unpadded, wooden pews.  Besides, there were a lot of people who traveled a lot farther than I would have had to to be able to attend at the tabernacle.

In 2000 the church finished construction and began using the new Conference Center, just north across the street from the Tabernacle.  It can seat 21,000 people whereas the tabernacle could only seat 3,500 and the seats are padded.  It also has no pillars, nothing blocking anyone's view from anywhere in the auditorium.  A much nicer space.

But at the time it was completed, we were living out of state and our ability to get there was limited.  When we're out visiting family we often visited Temple Square. A few years ago, while we were out there, we even toured the conference center but that was the closest we ever came to being there. There was one year, when I took one of my kids out and handed her off to her aunt, Brombeere's sister.  Brombeere's brother was there for the hand-off and offered me a ticket to a session, since it was right at the right time of year, but I turned him down; I was there alone and wanted to spend the limited time I had with family so I didn't go. So, yeah, the Conference Center is over 20 years old and we've never attended a session of conference in it.

We've wanted to attend conference in the new conference center but it just never worked out, mostly because of the timing, which was limited by the cost of getting there.  Until this year.  This year we decided to go and it happen to coincide with when conference is held.  So we looked into getting tickets so we could go.  Normally you get tickets from your local stake so we checked with our stake and found the seating options were pretty limited.  We had talked to our family living in the area and decided who might be able to attend with us so we needed a big block of tickets but what our stake had available wouldn't accommodate everybody.  Fortunately, Moosbeere was able to get a big enough block of tickets from his stake.  

Having never been before we had no idea what to expect as far as getting there, dealing with traffic and parking, and getting into the building and to our seats. But all that happened with no complications or great difficulty, it went much better than I expected.  We ended up in our seats with about 15 minutes to wait before it started.

Because it has not been that long since all the covid restrictions have been lifted, and because the church is pretty conservative about such things, attendance had been limited so the auditorium wasn't full to capacity, but there were still a lot of people there.  But in the section we were sitting we had a big choice of where to sit. It was nice.  Our view of the pulpit was pretty distant, but they had big monitors on the walls so you could still see the speakers just fine, as well as from at home watching on TV.

It was nice to have been able to attend in person.  It was a new experience and much more comfortable than it had been in the old tabernacle.  I'm glad we went.  And I'd be willing to give it another go if we happened to be there at conference time again, even if they were seating to full capacity.  They handled the crowd very well.  It was a good day.

Another Season Comes to an End

My biking season began this year in the middle of March with a four mile ride.  Short, but I figured after all winter without getting on a bike, we'd keep it short.  And Brombeere went with me, that was nice.  Some people hit the gym all winter and do the stationary bike thing, not me.   

It was a good day for a ride, albeit a little on the cool side.  But the snow was mostly gone, the roads were dry, and the wind was down.  An excellent day for a first ride of the season. I was on my recumbent, Brombeere was also on her recumbent, a brand new one.  That was another reason to keep it a short ride, it was her first time out on a recumbent and they do take some getting used to.  But she decided she liked it.  In fact, she decided she wasn't going to go back to her upright so she gave it away a few weeks later.  Anyway, we got out a couple of times and then it snowed and that was the end of biking during March.

The next time out was a month later, in the middle of April, another good ride.  

I was by myself this time so I went a little farther.  This ride was closer to my average.  Still a bit early in the year, still a bit cool, but still a nice time out on the bike.  My favorite trails are a little father away from home so it isn't until I go more than at least three or so miles that I get into my favorite trails to ride.  That's okay, though, I like being out on the bike.  

During April I got on some longer rides, including out to my most favorite areas, where I most like to ride.  My favorite ice cream place had also opened for the season by then so that was yet another good reason to get out.  Oddly enough, I managed to go by the ice cream place pretty regularly when I was out.

Then, in April, we went out of state for a few weeks, there was a new grandbaby we had to go meet, among other things we wanted to do.  On that trip we ranged pretty far.  In addition to the usual family we went to see, we also slipped down south, passed the Grand Canyon, to see Brombeere's sister.  That was a good trip but not much biking got done while we were gone.  It wasn't until near the end of May that I got out on my bike again.

All the rest of May, and through June, July, August, and September, whenever the weather was good, I was out on my bike.  Often Brombeere would go with but often I was out by myself.  We also got over to visit Blaubeere and ride with her and her kids. 

Erdbeere and her kids also came up and we got to go for a ride with them.

During August I took my longest ride of the summer, just over 29 miles.  It was along a state trail that ran through a lot of farm land.  I ride this trail pretty often and frequently see field irrigation systems going while on it.  This time it was right next to the trail.  These irrigation systems move through the field and this time it was sprinkling right across the trail.  I had to stop and wait a bit for it to turn away from the trail so I could get by without getting soaked.  Fun stuff.  But I made the ride out and back. It was a good ride.

This summer we also had something happen that has not happened since I began riding bikes again several years ago; we had a flat tire on Brombeere's bike.  But I got it fixed with no major issues and it didn't slow us down at all.  I like that we live where that doesn't happen a lot.  There was one other time a few years ago where Brombeere got a flat but we pumped it back up and it held fine, didn't have to do any repair work at all.  I figured she must have hit a berm just right to break the bead on her tire.

We had been planning another vacation in late September to go back and see some of our kids that live out west so we were out there when fall got going and the leaves started turning colors. But we still got to see some very nice colors while we were out there. That is my favorite time of year to be out on my bike.  

But even though the colors had hit their peak while we were gone, there were still plenty of leaves and color left when we got back.  So I was still able to get out and enjoy them, even if they were no longer at their prettiest.  It was still a good time to be out and about.

One of my goals this season was to at least match the most number of miles I'd gotten since I started riding bikes again; that was 460 miles.  I did that back in 2016.  A number of things conspired to keep me from matching that since then, including having my season end early when I was hit by a car a couple of years ago.  It took me the next couple of years to work my way back up from that.  Getting my recumbent also helped as it enables me to go farther without having my shoulders get so sore.  

This year I am happy to report that I not only matched by previous best, I also got over 500 miles, 557 miles, to be exact. This was my view view when I reached my 500th mile. That was a happy thing.  

Because I could go farther on a ride on my recumbent I had more rides over 20 miles this season than any previous year.  That enabled me to get so many miles for the season even though I didn't get out quite as often as some years in the past.  It all worked out well.

There was another ride I had been wanting to do all summer.  I had kind of estimated it out and thought it would end up being somewhere between 30 and 35 miles, that would have been my life time longest for me, father than I had ever ridden before, even longer than any rides I ever did when I was in Germany.  As the season was coming to a close, in early November, I finally worked up the courage to make this ride.  

It was more or less a big triangle, first to a park ...

... then to the river, and then down along the river and back home. It also took me out of town a ways, to areas I had never been before on my bike, through some farm land, but also along some wooded lanes, most of this ride was along country roads. The only trails were as I was back in town, getting back toward home.  It was a fun ride, even if it wasn't quite as long as I had thought it would be.

As I was getting back into town and into areas more familiar to me, where I had ridden before, I began to realize the ride was not going to be as long as I had thought.  In the end, it ended up being only 27 miles; I didn't break 30 miles so my old record of 30.5 miles still stands.  Not a bad ride for me but certainly no record breaker.  That will have to wait until another year.

It was a good season, lots of time out on my bike, and lots of time out on the bikes with Brombeere.  I had hoped the season would extend farther into November but my last time out was November 1st and I think that is where the season is going to end.  It's been too cold, windy and/or rainy since then.  But all in all, it was a good season for biking.

Autumn Leaves

We have several trees in our yard, as do a lot of people in the community in which we live.  Enough so that the city is nice enough to go around all the residential neighborhoods twice a year and collect the leaves and tree branches from pruning.  All the residents have to do is pile them all neatly out by the curb.  The city does this in two rounds, once for leaves, garden clippings, and grass clippings and again for the branches and such "brush".  It's a very nice and convenient service but it does create a bit of a contest every year; will the trees drop all their leaves in time for us to get them raked and piled at the curb in time for the pick up?  Some years we get help from various kids and grandkids, other years we end up doing it by ourselves. Because we have several trees in our yard, one of which holds a bazillion leaves, getting them all raked can be a bit of work. It's an annual ritual.  But the backyard is not as urgent because we just rake those leaves into the garden space.  We can do that at our convenience.  It's the front yard where we race to get what leaves fall done in time for the pick-up.

We have one tree that is the major contributor, it holds lots and lots of leaves.

It's also tall so its leaves fall all over the whole front yard.

But the nice thing about this year was that by the time the weather dried out enough that we could rake, that big tree had lost most of its leaves.  And the city still hadn't been by.  So we got out there and got busy.  Took us a couple of hours but we got all the front lawn done, all the leaves out to the curb.

This morning the city finally came by.  I had to wonder if they had moved the date back because of the wet weather we'd had.  The pick up date had been moved back twice, if they had stuck with the first date we'd have missed it.

As it was, we got it all done.  So now the leaves in front are gone and the front yard is ready for winter.  It's always nice to have it all done and the leaves gone.  I like that.

Fall Foliage

We usually try to get to somewhere around us, a day trip, each fall to take in the fall colors.  We're blessed to live in a place that has four distinct seasons, the prettiest of which is the fall with all the marvelous colors.  This year, however, we ended up going out of town just as the colors were starting to turn; we were unable to make a day trip to see colors.  But on our way back home through some mountains out west, we got to see some spectacular colors anyway.  

Our trips out west are usually to the Intermountain West.  Lots of mountain areas, covered with trees.

The trees are a different kind, since the elevation, up in the mountains, is 7,000 - 10,000 feet and higher. Quite a bit higher than the 1,000 feet above sea level of the Mid-West.

That means different kinds of trees, different colors.  But still very beautiful.

Throw in the vistas afforded by being up in thee mountains, and you get some very nice scenery.

The colors didn't seem to us to be quite as bright and vibrant as at home, but in their own way, still very beautiful.

The roads usually run near the rivers, which are winding their way down out of the mountains.

All in all, it was a very nice drive home while we were up in the mountains.

These photos were taken in northern Utah and western Wyoming.  We went, among other places, through Jackson, Wyoming and passed the Grand Teton Mountains.  Some very beautiful area.  We made it through some pretty high mountain passes and got to see some spectacular mountain views, made all the more pretty by the colorful fall leaves.  It was a very nice drive for the time we were up in the  mountains.  A nice day trip in any case.

A Nice Day Trip

Brombeere has been working on a quilt for one of her daughters for the last while.  They have been talking a lot about the material and pattern and so it came to the point where Brombeere needed some very specific fabric to move forward with the quilt. She had checked the local fabric shops she normally shops at but hadn't found what she was looking for. So she checked a couple of shops near by she doesn't normally shop at but still hadn't found what she wanted.  But, in talking about what she was looking for with one of the people at one of the shops, she learned of a little store quite a ways away that specialized in the kind of fabric she was looking for.  So she called them and described what she wanted and they said they had some that would probably work.  So off we went, across the state to see if it actually would work.

But I digress.  This isn't about quilting today.  It turned out that this little shop is near a state park we've been thinking about visiting.  So we decided that since we were going to be so close, we'd make the trip to the park while we were there.

I had looked at this park online previously and studied the maps enough to see that there were some nice looking trails through the park.  I had actually thought it might be fun to take our bikes to the park and ride around, which is the best way for me to explore places like this.  These were designated, maintained trails through the park but still, you can only tell so much from maps.  One of the things we learned from our visit is that some of the trails are paved and would be good to ride on, but most were not.  Some were pretty narrow and would be difficult to ride on a recumbent.  Good to know.

We also learned that there were a number of hills throughout the park.  Hills make pretty scenery but they can be difficult on a bike, for me, at least.

Not real bad hills, but enough to make it a challenging place to ride here and there.  Still, while we were there we saw an older lady riding a two-wheeled recumbent around the park. If she can do it so can we. 

Driving and walking through the park that day we found it a very restful, peaceful place. We were there on a weekday, and its getting late in the season so there weren't many people camping; there were two camping areas and one of them was completely empty.  We didn't see anyone picnicking.  

Lots of flowers, and the leaves were just beginning to turn.  Brombeere even found a wild berry plant with mature, albeit small fruit on it.  It was very tart, but good.  Yum, wild berries.

So we spent a little time driving, walking, and looking through the park, enjoying the quite scenery.  A very restful way to spend a couple of hours.  And the good news was that the fabric Brombeere was looking for, that we traveled so far to find? Yes, the little shop had some that she felt would work wonderfully.  In fact, Brombeere, said she definitely would be back next time she was working on a bigger quilt that called for a wide piece of fabric.  A good trip all around!

The Flat Tire

The other day Brombeere and I came out to go on a bike ride when, lo and behold, she had a flat tire!  It was totally flat, the rim was resting on the ground flat.  It had been a week since we'd last been out, there was no way to remember if we'd hit any road hazards but we must have because there was the flat.  So we pumped it up and did the rest of all the stuff we do to get ready to go for a ride.  Ten minutes later, when we were actually ready to start, it was still up so we took off. The ride we went on that day was short, only about five miles, and we kept an eye on that tire; it did okay and still looked fine when we got back so we thought maybe all it had needed was air.  That has happened before.  But the next day, when I went for a ride by myself, I checked the tire and it was again flat as could be.  

It had been a long time since I had patched a tire. I did have a patch kit, one I had bought a long time ago when the kids were littler and rode bikes.  You could tell by the price tag: $1.29.  Now days a similar kit would be over $5.00.  So I got my stuff out and set about fixing this flat.

One thing I like about Brombeere's bike is that flats on the back tires can be worked on without taking the whole tire off the bike, they're open on one side.  And that's where this flat was.

And it already had all the air out so all I had to do was pull the tube out.

I pried the tire out of the rim ....

... and began pulling the tube out. Pretty soon I had the whole tube out and was ready to patch it.

All I had to do then was find the leak.  

That was the fun part; get the bucket of water out, fill the tube, and put it in the water.  Pretty soon the little bubbles were rising to the surface and I had the leak.

So I marked where the leak was, dried the tube off, and slapped the patch on.  Then I was ready to put it all back together.

I got it all back together and began pumping it up but then I ran into trouble.  When I got it to about 40 pounds suddenly a loud bang rang out, it even got Brombeere to peek out into the garage to make sure everything was okay.  

It sounded like a shot but it was just a blow-out.  Bummer, I didn't have a tube that size.  I was going to have to get one from the store. Judging from where it blew out, I most likely pinched it when I was putting the tube back in.  I'd had trouble getting the tube in correctly there by the stem. 

Anyway, there are two kind of tube stems, one smaller than the other. I hadn't realized that the hole through the rim was matched to the kind of stem so I had bought the wrong kind the first time and had to go back for the right kind.  But, once I had the right tube stem, it went in much better.  I was more careful tucking the tube into the tire and getting the tire in position on the rim.  This time it blew up to full pressure quite nicely.  I'll check it again before we go for our next ride, I usually do anyway.  But I don't anticipate any problem.  I think we're back in business!  And the whole operation all happened while the weather was bad so we didn't miss any biking days.  That's a happy thing!