I heard that Punxsutawney Phil emerged and "saw" his shadow this morning, so by groundhog forecasting there's to be another six weeks of winter. Here, it's so foggy that it's impossible to tell there's a sky, muchless any shadows.

Either way, if we have more winter like we've had, it'll be a breeze.

I think there's gonna be some trouble come spring due to the lack of ground cover, and therefore plant protection, and that initial melt of water to help prepare the ground for spring and plants.

I'm going to call it "still riding." Even though the calendar has turned to a new year, this is still the end of the last riding season, as I've not really put the Valkyrie away.

The last time I put it in the garage, a previous late season record of December 28 (yes, even after my last post!), I did ride the last half mile or so with the fuel valve turned off to drain the carbs. I did park it in "rear first" to be as out of the way as possible, and I had resigned myself to a season-ending ride.

There was a bit of snow between then and now. Still, a week does not a winter make, right? The alley was covered with car-crushed ice, blocking the bike in the garage, but a warm weekend melted it all away, including the small glacier on the north end. The south end is blocked by the ever-shaded ally parts behind the parking garage there; it'll be ice until May, I'm sure.

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Today marks my new personal latest day in the year riding the motorcycle. Previous best was set just last week, and the best before that was a few years ago on December 4.

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I don't think it's the network to which I'm connected, since I'm connected to more than one (client's fat wired Internet pipe and phone's 3G connection) and there are failures in all kinds of requests. Just making note so I can try to align my difficulties with any kind of reported stuff.

There's no way the Vikings can make the 2011 playoffs now, after losing so miserably to the Falcons. The best they can hope for is a 5-game winning streak and a bunch of losing streaks by other teams, that would still result in teams that already have seven wins ahead of the Vikings.

Only about three more months until baseball spring training starts.

The clothes dryer was making a distinctive "thump thump" sound. It was a sound it had made before, while still under warranty, and that time the (free) repair guy showed me how to clean where the lint collects after blowing by the filter.

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Not that I'm an eternal optimist (nor in this case a fool), but I want to point out that there's a chance the Minnesota Vikings could make the 2011 playoffs. Really, the field is wide open for the wildcard spots, and this situation could be true for anyone in the NFC, except the Colts.

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