Well It Certainly Will Be A Year Not Soon Forgotten.

Miles For 2011: 11361
Hardest Ride: Saturday, June 11th, "Little Extra Time On My Hands".
This was the first ride after breaking my ribs and wrist. I was pretty scared.
Favorite Ride: Saturday, June 25th, "PARTY!"
80 miles with a ton of friends for Amy's Birthday ride and then her party that night.
Favorite Post: Sunday, June 19th, "A Memory Of Me And My Dad".
Tenth anniversary of his death and ten years to the day of my most prestigious race win.
Images That Received The Most Comments:

My Favorite Image:

Other New And Exciting Experiences For 2011:
Started a new business by buying a foreclosed home, fixing it up, and renting it out.
Almost lost my Abstracting business, as the economy took its toll on the real estate market. Had a pretty remarkable come back in the last half of the year.
Met Penny and have had a wonderful time getting to know her. We are becoming very close and our relationship seems to have a longevity possibility that is scary and very exciting all at the same time. I'll have to tell you the story of how we met, and we didn't even know it, in an upcoming post.

I'm a very lucky man. This blog and the comments that come to me from it are a source of enjoyment for me. Thank you all for your cyber-friendships.

I'm fortunate to have friends that are willing to ride with me, and make my time on the bike so much more enjoyable.

Of course Amy, and our addiction to long Saturday rides...it's hard to imagine life without her friendship (this doesn't adequately describe my feelings and appreciation for her).

But nothing comes anywhere near the love and joy I receive from my children and grandchildren. I am rich beyond my wildest imaginations because of them, and my heart overflows with pride, amazement, and gratitude for the people they are, and the meaning they bring to my life.

Wishing all who read this a wonderful and happy new year.

Day Off The Bike

Did get in a nice walk around Isles this afternoon.

Here are the last of my favorite pics from 2011. I think I did pretty good this year, keeping the number of favorite pics to less than 20.

Favorites

Good ride. Felt better today on the bike than I have for several weeks. 20/15.8
End of the year means favorites and recaps.

Some Of My Favorite Images From 2011

This Is Great!

Rides have been simple, and I'm just amazed that I'm still on a road bike. Temp made it to 40 again. Hoards of people walking the lakes. No snow anywhere and no complaints here. 20/16.0

A Nice Afternoon Ride With Amy

25/15.5

No Complaints

Lots of warm out there today, along with plenty of wind and sun. Road bike, vest and 52 record breaking degrees...I'm lovin' this! 25/16.0

Christmas Day Ride

Santa brought me a very nice Christmas Day ride. Incredibly rare, I don't think I've ever done it before, but I was on a road bike, on Christmas Day, wearing a vest. When I rode through Excelsior at noon, the bank sign displayed 42 degrees as the current temp. 41/15.8

Lake Minnetonka

Christmas Lake

Christmas Eve

Not been feeling too hot lately. A little upper respiratory something going on, so I opted for a solo ride, on Evil, along the LRT trail to Excelsior. Wind wasn't blowing too hard, but seemed gale force to me. It wore me down fast.
I decided that I'd get to Strawberry Lane, and stop and wish Ron a merry Christmas. His wife Laurie and their whole family was there. We talked for...I bet ya 20 minutes. Great family - good people.
Just got back on the trail and headed for home. A little easier with the tail wind, but something's suckin' the energy out of me. 40/14.4

Got home to some hot chocolate and made some last preparations for the Christmas Eve festivities at my Ex's. Everybody was there. It was fantastic to have all my kids and grandkids around. Nothing better.
I was wearing a sweater I got from Penny. I walked in the door and Brit says, "hey dad, nice sweater, did Penny give that to you?" Now, why would Brit assume that? It didn't take long and Nate and I noticed we were wearing similar sweaters, both given  to us by our girlfriends....
I scored some major swag, and have wonderful kids and grandkids.

My Food Contribution To The Night's Festivities

Lots Of Love And Presents

Taylor Is Making The Best Of Her Circumstances

Elijah Getting To Know His Newest Cousin

Oh Tannenbaum

Friday Night Pics

Fuller

Inside again today. Got home with about a half hour of daylight, so I used that as an excuse to work out at the gym.
Finished up all the Christmas shopping tonight and got all the presents wrapped. DONE!

Met my 5th grandchild this afternoon only a half hour after she was born. Unbelievably small. Her name is Aubrey.

Whimpy Attack

Lots of year end work and a dusting of snow, made me head to the gym.

Getting the last minute Christmas gifts for the grandlumps. Made another foray tonight. I just about got it put together. Each gets a book, a musical instrument, and, of course, some toys. From right to left: The newest granddaughter, which will be born tomorrow, gets diapers, then Elijah, Kelsey, Taylor and Bryson. I've still got a little work to do with Taylor. Gonna start some wrapping right now.

If You Didn't Plan On It, Count On It.

A nice simple ride today. Vest and a road bike again! I just can't get over it. The prediction is no snow through the first of the year. Hard to imagine but it looks like a road bike ride on Christmas and New Years. 20/16.5

My granddaughter, Taylor, slipped on some juice in her kitchen this morning. This is what happened to her femur.

Just before I left the hospital she kept on saying, "stuck".  She is safe, comfortable and in good spirits, but this is going to be a long six weeks for all of them. Taylor's mom is due to have another baby any day. Can you say Merry Christmas.

Caught the setting December sun just as I got home from my ride. Daylight is on the increase starting tomorrow.

This Is My Kind Of Winter

Another December ride on my road bike. I may just be riding a road bike on Christmas Day. 20/15.5

Mentioned in yesterday's post that my chain broke during our Sunday ride, and we fixed it on the road. Replaced it today, and found that there was a lot of other damage. I'm not sure if it was just a bad chain, or what. I've never had problems with Shimano chains before. I think they're great. The other thing is this chain was relatively new, with less than 1000 miles. Maybe the derailleur sprockets caused the problem. As the picture shows below they're showin' a little wear. Whatever the cause, the chain and sprockets are all spankin' bran' new.

As Good As It Gets

Delightful December Day with temps in the 40's, road bikes, great friends, and Amy calling me names on the ascents....just doesn't get any better than that. Only one problem, my chain broke. Fortunately, Steven had a chain tool, and with Greg's help we had it fixed and rideable in short order. There are significant advantages to riding with talented, knowledgeable, safe and just plain nice cyclists. 46/17.1

The Smiles Say It All

A Bit Of Trail and A Bit Of Road

Was thinking it would be a nice day for a road ride until I woke up and saw someone had powdered the roads during the night. Opted for Evil. Amy, Steven and I pedaled our way to the LRT and Excelsior. Twelve miles into the ride I hit the 11,000 mile mark for the year. The celebration was brief, remaining on our bikes and not stopping. We did stop in Excelsior at Dunn Bros where I had a delicious cinnamon roll. They warmed it up for me, which made the butter cream frosting on top melt down into the cinnamon crevasses. It got a little gooy...had to lick my fingers.
Back on our bikes we were now traveling on asphalt. The 1/4 inch of snow had, for the most part, disappeared. Lots of talking, now that the wind was at our backs, and delighting in the fact that we were out, on the tar, we made our way to Wayzata. Amy even seemed happy. I couldn't let this last, so, once back into the city limits I directed the train up to Mt Curve, just above the Cedar Lake Trail and Lake of The Isles. At the summit of this very short, but rather steep ascent the volcano erupted and violence was perpetrated on my right arm by the said, Ms. Hanenburg. There were witnesses.
Satisfied with what I had accomplished, we made the descent down to and then around Lake of The Isles, and finally to the flatness of the greenway. I rode with Amy and Steven to Portland Ave, then made my way to the creek and home back along the lakes. A very nice mid-December ride. 55/15.5

Winter is being a little schizophrenic, and can't decided if it wants the lakes frozen or not.

But As The Sun Set It Dusted The Harriet Ice With A Little Gold

Then Turned It All To Gold

Day Off

Morning started with this view.

Day ended with Penny. Very nice.

What Could've Been?

32 years ago today.

Looked promising, huh?
One piece will always be missing now, but as I said to my daughter, Britney, tonight, "we've got it really good".

I'm only 10 miles or so from 11,000 for the year. The wind convinced me to wait until Saturday to hit that mileage marker. It was the gym again for me today.