White Stuff From The Sky

It's this time of the year again: Some white stuff falls from the sky, stays for a day or two and then melts again. Last Friday there had been some snow, but mostly it was more decorative than all-covering blanket. There's been some snow flakes and frozen puddles before, but either it was too dark to get photos or I didn't have my camera. No pic, no proof! :-)

Then there was supposed to be a snowstorm at night. I was a bit disappointed after all the hype in the news. No big storm here. It missed us, although there were some fallen trees around here too. Oops, sorry, those were from the storm that ripped all those leaves off the trees. The big storm  left just a few centimeters of snow. But enough for us to leave tyre tracks on it, and for the snow plow men to take their machines out for a ride.

And here's a short video clip before/after the snowfall.

What's wrong with this picture?

A nice bikeway. With the stones on the curb tilted so the edge is sort of rounded and not very high.

Detour to avoid bumps.

The gravel on the side is level with the road. A much smoother ride, at least until the ruts in the gravel get deep enough...

Open letter to the bloke in front of me

(upping an old rant from the drafts)
<start rant>
As we were approaching the intersection, I noticed you slowing down and looking over your shoulder. "Ah, a clear sign of someone who wants to do a left turn", I thought and positioned myself more to the right.

Then there was the hand signal. Anyone could have no more doubts of your intentions as you raised your left hand. Excellent.

What was not excellent was you slowing down and inching right. Which blocked my route so I had to brake. Did you expect me to pass you on the left? I'm not going to do it, as it is both illegal and stupid to do so.

I lost momentum and I had to accelerate again. That move you made cause me to arrive about one second late at my very important meeting with the telly. I'm glad I didn't miss Emmerdale because of you!

<end rant>

Autumn 2013

Here's two pictures I've taken recently. First one from last week shows the grass turning brown and the leaves turning yellow. Also note the fisherman on bike. :-)

I think the next one is one of the best shots I've taken this year. I actually stopped, which helps. One can't get perfect shots while riding a bike. And I took a few seconds to think what's in the view finder. Of course, the scene was pretty too.

And here's a clip on youtube. More of the same.

Not quite winter yet

Of course it is coming. It has been below freezing some nights and regularly falls below +10&degC. On the other hand, the sun is still high enough to warm up in the afternoon to reach +20°C.

Oulu 1957

Just read from the newspaper that an old film was found in the archives of Police so they decided to upload it to youtube.  Suomen Poliisi (Police of Finland) has some other videos too, but in Finnish. Sorry.

The old traffic education film shows the good and the bad ways to behave in traffic. The song is a children's song taught in kindergarten/first grade.

I recognize some of the buildings, but a lot of them have already been demolished. Maybe I'll try to go and find the locations and get a comparison video

Look at all the bikes! In the winter! :-D

Underhanded work in the underpass

I'm sure I've mentioned the pipe works the district heating company did last year (or was it the year before?) but right now I couldn't find the correct blog post. To recap: they dug up the bikeway so they could fix/replace the big pipes bringing bot water from the power plant to the buildings. Apparently they fixed the pipes all right, because I haven't seen any hot water fountains in the area.

Too bad they didn't fix the bikeway properly. They left it lumpy and edgy. Edgy in the sense that the edges of the hole they cut in the asphalt were easy to find with the rims of my bike. And the lumps? Anyone know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried? I have a possible location for the search!

One day I was riding along minding my own business when I noticed the bikeway was dirty. Hmm? It was not the usual fallen leaves and pine needles, it was icky mud! Slippery, made everything dirty mud! And some gravel, too.

Notice how the grass on both sides of the bikeway is turned into mud? Either they are driving some wide machines that don't fit on the asphalt, or they can't drive!

 There was a big excavator before, but now they've finished with the dig and it's gone. Maybe it's on the other side of the underpass. Makes me wonder of two things: a) did they drive it across the motorway (illegal, as it has 60km/h minimum speed limit) or take the long route and b) What did the excavator guy think about digging up the pipes under the underpass? One might think that was cramped... or maybe they used smaller machines! :-)

 The pipes are big. I've heard the company is replacing or installing seven kilometers of the pipes this year. I think this underpass pipe was supposed to be done two weeks ago. Are they behind the schedule? Better get busy, boys, or it'll start snowing before you're finished! :-)