This post reminds me of the Thursday Night Sunset run of posts I did a while back. Then I ran into the difficulty of catching every Thursday night sunset…or perhaps a particular Thursday sky would be quite lame. Now I just go for quality, not regularity.
I’m one of those guys who takes 15 minutes after mowing the lawn to give the mower a beat-down maintenance session: make sure the blade and deck are clean, give it a head-to-toe cleaning, spray the blade with WD-40 or something so it doesn’t rust, and an all-over inspection. That’s also a good time to make sure that no bolts have worked their way loose or anything as well. It may sound a little overboard, but I bet my mower lasts for 20 years. My dad always taught me: “If you take good care of a tool, it’ll take good care of you.”
Of course, even driving around in the truck with my open camera bag on the passenger seat can’t prepare me for every picture. There was a time in Sibley Park where I glanced over to see an owl taking off with a snake in its claws…there just wasn’t time to get the camera steady before he’d flown off. The same situation happened with this Italian machine.
So, unless you’re a crane operator and a locksmith, you’re out of luck trying to make off with any free equipment from this site. I’ve even seen some job sites where a 4×4 ATV hangs suspended from the crane…it’s a clever and unique anti-theft mechanism, and I applaud whoever came up with this idea. I’m guessing it works pretty well!
While the 17th floor is undergoing its updates, the employees from there will be on the 18th. Then they’ll move back down a floor and the people from the 16th will move up two floors for a while. And, as far as this guy was aware, that was going to be the case for floors 15-17 only. I just hope that they get done soon so we can go up to the observation floor again as soon as possible.
If you were planning a trip to the top of the Capitol any time soon, don’t bother! Go to the Heritage Center or the State Library instead. When it opens again, you’ll see more pictures here.
One’s first impression of a “race tire” might be that it’s super sticky. Not at first; in fact, race tires are harder than street tires until they get hot due to high speed and extreme cornering. It’s unlikely you’ll ever see a race tire get hot enough on the street to look like this one, especially on North Dakota roads. I’ve gotten street tires close, but that’s a different matter.
The rubber balled up on the edges is also normal; it’s the balled-up gummy rubber on the edges that helps with traction at extreme lean, when I’m dragging my knee on the ground. The track surface at the edge of the racing line will typically have lots of little flung rubber balls on it.
Once these tires do get up to temperature on the track, though, they’re sticky like you wouldn’t believe. One time at Brainerd I crashed in the super tight corner nicknamed the “Bus Stop,” because that’s where everybody gets off at one time or another. While we pushed my bike through the gravel trap to transport it back to the pits, gravel rocks the size of quarters were stuck to the tire like sprinkles on a donut. Now THAT is a sticky tire!
I know this post didn’t really have a local theme to it, but I’ve really been pining for the track lately. Having a baby on the way really has me doubtful about returning to racing in the future, although I’m just about bursting with the need to turn some hard laps!
What’s neat about clouds like this is that they tend to get their color after the sun has appeared to set to those of us on the ground. With that in mind, you can enjoy a beautiful sunset, then turn to any really tall clouds in the area and take in all the colors they catch from 20,000 to 30,000 feet. Their colorful show doesn’t begin until the sun reaches the horizon from their point of view. It’s like two shows for the price of one…except they’re free already.