I’ve been wanting to spend more time with Hayden this summer and perhaps bike a bit more. Since it has been so warm, and I don’t like the heat, things haven’t come together very often. We have done a few rides locally on the trails but not for very long. So, I’ve been looking for a chance to go down to the Hennepin Canal south of here and start doing the trails. About the most interesting ride that I could find was around the confluence of the main canal and the feeder canal. Going north from there is an aqueduct and I thought that would be interesting to see. It would be around a 12 mile ride round trip. We started out around lock #22 at a nice park. The confluence was nice, a big lake. I was surprised that the canal was only traverse-able via canoe and only just barely. Several portages would be needed.
The road to the aqueduct was a nice ride. Warm, but nice. We found some strange behavior with some butterflies. They would cluster on the path around dark patches. When the wind would rustle them, the would flap their wings like a wave in a stadium. Kind of cool to watch. Somewhere around there a dog met us. Considering there wasn’t really a farm or road around there...not sure where he came from, but he didn’t follow us. Hayden did ask me about the green balls. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about but he pointed to the walnuts that were scattered around the ground. Some of them were quite large and had a very interesting texture. They weren’t like the ones that we have in Michigan.
After getting back to the park, we packed up and went to Wyanet where there is a cluster of locks. That was a short ride, and we saw some interesting people and some nice scenery. Perhaps if we lived a bit closer, I would want to bike the entire path, all 104 miles of it.
Links:
Photos
http://groesser.multiply.com/video/item/49/Lock_15
http://groesser.multiply.com/video/item/48
http://groesser.multiply.com/video/item/47
Wikipedia on Hennepin Canal
Interesting Site
Feeder and Canal
Wyanet
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Hennepin Canal
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Hennepin Canal, July 2010
At lock 22, we prepare for our trip up the feeder canal. In the background is the stump chair and my bike...far right.
Hayden and I travel to the Hennepin Canal.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Google Your Name
When I googled my name, or a derivation of it, I found out I was a drug-using, gun-hiding dentist in Washington.
http://www.seattlepi.com/specials/dentists/243117_slow26.asp
BARRY GROSSER
Despite heroin use, his license was not promptly suspended
On May 19, 2003, Barry Grosser told a department investigator he was using 1.5 grams of heroin a day, and had been using heroin for the past year and a half. Grosser also admitted he’d kept guns in the office. According to the investigator’s report, Grosser opened a safe that contained three assault rifles and two semiautomatic handguns.
Though experts from other states said a dentist with a daily heroin habit should be immediately suspended, Washington's dental board did not suspend Grosser's license at the time. Instead, the investigator wrote that staff told Grosser "it would be to his advantage not to see any more patients starting now." According to documents, Grosser agreed to stop seeing patients. He said he agreed to enroll in the state's substance abuse treatment program for dentists.
Grosser said he didn't see any more patients after being told not to, but an office worker said that he did, state documents show.
Grosser said he has completed two three-month rehab stints and is in recovery. He said he has not used heroin since May 2003. His license is currently suspended, but he hopes to return to work soon.
Unfortunately, my own site is only found on the second page. Make sure you check up on your name. Yahoo didn't even list it.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Wonderful poem by Kipling
I recently found this wonderful poem. Just for interpretation, Gods of the Market place is Government, Gods of Copybook Headings is "common sense". It helps with what the poem is trying to get across.
http://www.olimu.com/readings/GodsOfTheCopybookHeadings.htm
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four—
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!