Odd noise

On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:32:26 GMT, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:46:16 GMT, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:

In article ,
Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:

On 2007-02-28, wrote:

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!

Ten feet behind me was a damned tumbleweed, keeping perfect pace with
me as it blew up the highway, bouncing up and down as it tumbled and
making a fairly regular whoosh-whoosh-whoosh noise as it kept hitting
the asphalt.

Did you scold it for jumping on your wheel without asking first?

Oh those tumbleweeds are notorious wheelsuckers, and you just can't talk
to them.

Dear Kristian & Ryan,

Here's the peloton on a previous ride:

http://i1.tinypic.com/2dir7t0.jpg

That's just flat-out creepy. I mean, wow. I guess you get used to it,
but surely the first time you see this sight, you're compelled to get
your camera out and...

Right.

Neat shot, Carl!

Dear Ryan,

Here we see an angry spectator, irritated because he was escorted off
the paved course and cautioned to stay out of the way in the futu

http://i12.tinypic.com/42m5qc8.jpg

Left-click on the lower right in Explorer to see his beady little
black eyes.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On 2007-02-28, wrote:
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Ten feet behind me was a damned tumbleweed, keeping perfect pace with
me as it blew up the highway, bouncing up and down as it tumbled and
making a fairly regular whoosh-whoosh-whoosh noise as it kept hitting
the asphalt.

Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
Did you scold it for jumping on your wheel without asking first?

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
Oh those tumbleweeds are notorious wheelsuckers, and you just can't talk
to them.

wrote:
Here's the peloton on a previous ride:
http://i1.tinypic.com/2dir7t0.jpg

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
That's just flat-out creepy. I mean, wow. I guess you get used to it,
but surely the first time you see this sight, you're compelled to get
your camera out and...
Right.
Neat shot, Carl!

wrote:
Here we see an angry spectator, irritated because he was escorted off
the paved course and cautioned to stay out of the way in the futu

http://i12.tinypic.com/42m5qc8.jpg

Left-click on the lower right in Explorer to see his beady little
black eyes.

Amazing detail in that photo for being focused at a gajillion meters
while pedalling at high rpm away from the photo subject.

Or at least that's how I would have taken that photo.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:24:30 -0600, A Muzi
wrote:

On 2007-02-28, wrote:
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Ten feet behind me was a damned tumbleweed, keeping perfect pace with
me as it blew up the highway, bouncing up and down as it tumbled and
making a fairly regular whoosh-whoosh-whoosh noise as it kept hitting
the asphalt.

Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
Did you scold it for jumping on your wheel without asking first?

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
Oh those tumbleweeds are notorious wheelsuckers, and you just can't talk
to them.

wrote:
Here's the peloton on a previous ride:
http://i1.tinypic.com/2dir7t0.jpg

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
That's just flat-out creepy. I mean, wow. I guess you get used to it,
but surely the first time you see this sight, you're compelled to get
your camera out and...
Right.
Neat shot, Carl!

wrote:
Here we see an angry spectator, irritated because he was escorted off
the paved course and cautioned to stay out of the way in the futu

http://i12.tinypic.com/42m5qc8.jpg

Left-click on the lower right in Explorer to see his beady little
black eyes.

Amazing detail in that photo for being focused at a gajillion meters
while pedalling at high rpm away from the photo subject.

Or at least that's how I would have taken that photo.

Dear Andrew,

No worries--it was just a modest-length bullsnake. It was only about
five feet long, but it was probably the fattest specimen I've ever
seen.

Chubby had been enjoying a siesta on the highway and pulled every
trick in the bullsnake book when I stopped to shoo it to safety:

1. Lie as limp as a string tossed on the ground and hope not to be
seen. Don't move until you're actually touched. (This tactic works
better if you're not lying in plain sight on asphalt.)

2. When prodded, suck in your sides and flatten your body like the
blade of an oar to double your height, like a cat arching its back.
Since you're only a few inches tall, this is more fascinating than
threatening.

3. Coil up and strike at your out-of-reach tormentor. Hope that you
don't actually bite him, since your teeth aren't designed to let go
and you can't swallow anything bigger than a small rabbit.

4. Hiss and make the loud throat-clearing noise that gives
you your latin name (Pituophis, or phlegm snake).

5. Try vibrating your tail to mimic a rattlesnake, even though there
are no dry leaves on the highway to provide sinister sound effects.
(The only thing a bullsnake can't do to imitate a rattlesnake is to
leave drops of yellow venom on the handle of a tire pump.)

6. Give up and slither off, pausing to coil and hiss and strike
half-heartedly if pursued.

So there's no need to fear bullsnakes.

A skunk on the other hand . . .

No, I didn't stop to take a picture of the mother skunk who had just
crossed the path with her squad of babies. I just froze on the bike
and coasted, hoping that she wouldn't take offense. I stopped pedaling
and even tried to sit very still on the bike as I rolled past the
danger.

Freezing on a moving bicycle may have been silly, but she didn't spray
me when I was an easy target.

From sad experience, I have no doubt that she could have hit me.

A neighbor once asked me to help with a skunk that had fallen into a
small, dry swimming pool on a summer's day

Thinking that the skunk would appreciate a shady hiding place, I crept
up to the side of the dry pool and gently tossed a cardboard box
toward the end where the skunk was, being careful not to expose myself
to the skunk's sight.

I was congratulating myself on my humanitarian act when I noticed a
spattering of thin yellow liquid on my forearm, which must have been
visible for about a second to the skunk at a range of about twenty
feet.

I always stop to shoo snakes, tarantulas, turtles, beavers, and deer
off the bike path and the highway, but I've never stuck around long
enough to identify which of Colorado's four species of skunks I'm
fleeing from:

http://wildlife.state.co.us/Wildlife...mals/Skunk.htm

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

wrote:


Dear Paul,

Strangely, cold fronts that blow up from the south bring the heaviest
snowstorms to Pueblo.

When moist air from the Gulf of Mexico wanders up from the south and a
low pressure system sets up over Albuquerque, New Mexico, the front
stalls against the mountains, cools, and dumps heavy snow, sometimes
for several days:

"ALBUQUERQUE LOW - When a low pressure system is over or near
Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the winter season, a low in this
position can bring heavy snow to parts of southeast Colorado."

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pub/wcm/media.pdf

In contrast, cold fronts from the north usually blow through Pueblo in
a few hours and bring little snow. The one that caught me out riding
yesterday left about a quarter-inch of snow, which has all melted this
morning.

Being from Albuquerque, it's interesting to learn where our cold weather
goes when we're tired of it. This winter, it seems it never ends. This
is the coldest, longest winter I and most others can remember.

-paul

On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:35:24 -0700, Paul Cassel
wrote:

wrote:


Dear Paul,

Strangely, cold fronts that blow up from the south bring the heaviest
snowstorms to Pueblo.

When moist air from the Gulf of Mexico wanders up from the south and a
low pressure system sets up over Albuquerque, New Mexico, the front
stalls against the mountains, cools, and dumps heavy snow, sometimes
for several days:

"ALBUQUERQUE LOW - When a low pressure system is over or near
Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the winter season, a low in this
position can bring heavy snow to parts of southeast Colorado."

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pub/wcm/media.pdf

In contrast, cold fronts from the north usually blow through Pueblo in
a few hours and bring little snow. The one that caught me out riding
yesterday left about a quarter-inch of snow, which has all melted this
morning.

Being from Albuquerque, it's interesting to learn where our cold weather
goes when we're tired of it. This winter, it seems it never ends. This
is the coldest, longest winter I and most others can remember.

-paul

Dear Paul,

It is human to think that any current weather is extreme, but records
often suggest otherwise.

Here are the opening comments from the National Weather Service about
the last two months of weather in Albuquerque:

"January 2007 was active, with unsettled weather much of the month.
This led to generally above normal precipitation and below to much
below normal temperatures."

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/climate/.../January/2007/

(Translation: We had a few more snowstorms than usual, so it stayed
cold and the snow didn't melt.)

"February 2007 was certainly windy, especially over the second half of
the month. Temperatures were generally close to normal, although they
swung wildly from below normal to above normal a couple of times
throughout the month. Precipitation did not stray too far from normal
as well, with northern areas seeing a little above normal, while
southern areas were a bit below normal."

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/climate/...February/2007/

(Translation: A fairly normal February.)

Meanwhile, bicyclists in Pueblo are complaining bitterly that it was
too cold and snowy to ride for half of January. I get to explain that
I missed more rides last January than I've missed in a year for over
twenty years.

But I do get to gloat that I was riding in my shorts on a few 60F days
while Peter Chisholm was still staring at head-high piles of snow up
in Boulder.

I have to be careful not to mention seeing little girls having fun on
their bikes when I was out walking my dog on the snow-packed streets.

And I get to read articles about the National Guard dropping hay bales
to starving cattle in the disaster areas out on the eastern plains:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...8ME84NO0.shtml

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

wrote:

Dear Paul,

It is human to think that any current weather is extreme, but records
often suggest otherwise.

Here are the opening comments from the National Weather Service about
the last two months of weather in Albuquerque:

"January 2007 was active, with unsettled weather much of the month.
This led to generally above normal precipitation and below to much
below normal temperatures."

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/climate/.../January/2007/

(Translation: We had a few more snowstorms than usual, so it stayed
cold and the snow didn't melt.)

"February 2007 was certainly windy, especially over the second half of
the month. Temperatures were generally close to normal, although they
swung wildly from below normal to above normal a couple of times
throughout the month. Precipitation did not stray too far from normal
as well, with northern areas seeing a little above normal, while
southern areas were a bit below normal."

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/abq/climate/...February/2007/

(Translation: A fairly normal February.)

Meanwhile, bicyclists in Pueblo are complaining bitterly that it was
too cold and snowy to ride for half of January. I get to explain that
I missed more rides last January than I've missed in a year for over
twenty years.

But I do get to gloat that I was riding in my shorts on a few 60F days
while Peter Chisholm was still staring at head-high piles of snow up
in Boulder.

I have to be careful not to mention seeing little girls having fun on
their bikes when I was out walking my dog on the snow-packed streets.

And I get to read articles about the National Guard dropping hay bales
to starving cattle in the disaster areas out on the eastern plains:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...8ME84NO0.shtml


I agree and also realize that seat of one's pants is hardly a scientific
measure. My saying such is more one of perceptions. Frex, I believe that
while temperatures aren't very different from other years (readings are
readings) they feel worse due to two factors.

First, this winter we had more wind with less sun than other winters.
The temperatures are measured in the shade so to the weather thermometer
temp is temp, but to humans here at 5k feel elevation, a winter
feels less cold if the sun is upon them. So a temperature of 38F is
quite bearable if in strong sun and no wind. Add 10 mph wind with full
cloud cover and it's a different story. I think we had much less sun and
much more wind than in previous winters. Others have volunteered the same.

Second, and now we're deep into my personal subjectivity, it seems to me
that the hourly graph of temperature had more slope than in other years.
To put this another way, the dwell of max temperature or max +/- 10% was
shorter than in years past.

All this is reinforced by my personal observation that the snow which
fell on New Year's lasted month if in the shade of trees or buildings.
Even in the open, this snow lasted weeks. My ride on 2/15 took me over
an ice patch which formed on 1/31/06 preserved by being on a street with
tall trees running east - west.

All in all, we here have the mutual feeling that this winter was longer,
colder, wetter and less comfortable than any in memory. I think I"m
speaking for most of my neighbors when I say that.

-paul