datlas 

Here is a nice shot from a hike mrs datlas and I took yesterday. Better?

MoAlpha

I’m cold.

Velo Vol 

Well, at least it doesn't look like a shot from Siberia, but not exactly.

We need photos from southern climes ( gnome ), or file photos from happier seasons gone by.

berner

The topic is baseball. It's not the season but I'm not a fan anyway of any professional sport. But as a boy of 10 y.o. no sound was sweeter than the crack of a bat hitting a baseball. I grew up in a rural community 65 miles north of NYC. On a certain day in Spring when we neigborhood boys knew baseball was in the air. I would walk across a field, cross over a stone wall, and their were the boys. There were only about seven of us, never enough to make full team, our bases were flat stones, we had only one bat and the ball had long since lost the leather cover and was wrapped in friction tape.

Five or six years later in high school our baseball coach, also English teacher, in summer played third base for a Brooklyn Dodger farm team. We learned some pro tactics such as obfuscating signals. For example, the signal for a hit and run might have been a tug at an earlobe. But in the pro ranks that signal was buried in a flurry of other signals and was valid, if and only if, it was preceded by some other signal such as the ever popular crotch grab.

Once or twice during the summer, the Dodgers would send up to the small nearby city of Newburgh, their second string for some more playing time. There was usually one or two players from the first string in the lineup which was great because it was free to watch. Most boys I knew were Yankee fans because they always won and my beloved Brooklyn bums were the opposite. It was easy to be a Yankee fan but to be a Dodger fan was a character building experience.

One year our coach, through his connection to the Dodgers, got tickets for our entire high school team to a Dodger game at the hallowed ground of Ebbets Field. And there they were, my heros; Peewee Reese, Duke Snyder, Preacher Roe and all the rest. Our seats were the best to be had, first tier behind home plate. I was proud that my team was the first to hire African Americans for their statting lineup. Jackie Robinson had been a track star in California and a fine player but a dangerous base runner because of his speed. He could rattle pitchers. Roy Campanella has probably been underrated. He batted over 300 and had been playing in the old Negro League and plus near year round in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, or Mexico or Japan and took a cut in pay by going to the majors.

I'm currently "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn who in those very early days was a sports writer for the old NY Herald Tribune. In those days reporters were assigned to a team and traveled with them and as a consequence became friends with the players and knew the inside gossip. I'm enjoying this book even if I'm not a baseball fan. And by the way, I can also recommend a biography of Tim Wakefield, a knuckle ball pitcher for Boston for most of his career.

abshipp 

#flatearther

The Midwest's version of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

WhyFi

That looks like it would be about 12 miles across the ice each way. Sure, that's doable. I wouldn't want to try it on my bike, but with a studded fatty, yeah.

bampilot06

You knows what’s awesome? Getting all suited up: Bibs, leg warmers, tights, socks, shoes, booties, base layer, jersey, vest, wind breaker, hat, face mask, and helmet to have nature call you to the bathroom.

indyfabz

This post needs photos.

rjones28 

big john

Last Saturday.

Mojo31

How about a nice pool shot. With snow falling in it.

Yes. Its snowing here.

Velo Vol 

I thought you already rode across a frozen lake?

Velo Vol 

That looks like a palm tree.

Mojo31

And, an hour west at my brothers lake house.

WhyFi

1 mile, not 20+

Without no/minimal snow, my bike would be fine, but more snow and/or the wrong kind of snow could be a tall order. I don't feel like being that epic.

Mojo31

We have palm trees. They are not stopping the. Snow though

zatopek

My four best friends, affectionately referred to as “pigs”. This is the only time I have caught them all four on the dog couch at the same time. The two pigs in the middle, Kobe and Cooper, were the primary destroyers of that previously fine piece of furniture. Those two were adopted together as puppies. Along with Maggie, my adopted female Rottweiler mix who died 3 years ago, they systematically disassembled a number of pieces of furniture. That’s Magoo on the left. He was already old when I adopted him. He was blind from birth as his optic nerves never formed. I believe he may be the Methuselah of dogs. On the right is the grand dame, big Daisy, 3.5 year old Kangal Shepherd I adopted 2.5 years ago. She was abandoned, made her way through a rescue to a kennel in Virginia. When she joined the pack, she tried to kill me and the other 3 pigs. Now, she is the biggest, sweetest, most delightful, gentle giant you ever met. She even goes to school with me some days and kids having a bad day often stop by my office or classroom to rub Daisy’s belly for some “therapy”. My pigs have given more than I can ever repay.

Mojo31

Tire question. I’m about to move from 32s to 28s on the Domane, but the question is which one. Originally, I was sold on the GP5000. When I picked up the bike the other day, the Trek store mech was really pushing the Bontrager R3 Hard Case Lights, saying he has them on the same wheels I have on his personal bike. He said that if he had the choice at no cost, he would go with the R3. The store sells both, with the GP5000 at a higher price.

Anyone have any experience with the R3, whether anecdotal or otherwise? Will stick with tubes for now.

Velo Vol 

I'm not sure what the wrong kind of snow is (it's all wrong), but YOLO, obv.
We have no palms in the quasi-north. Sad.

Velo Vol 

Just so you know we've had some pig hate expressed here recently.

WhyFi

No experience, but I have a hard time believing that I'd want to ride a tire with "Hard Case" in the name. Does it refer to puncture protection? Wear longevity? I wouldn't want either of those to be the main selling point of my tires.

In general, Bontrager road tires seem to be decent, from the reviews I've seen, but it's a matter or priorities.

phrantic09

every time

WhyFi

Guys from TN can't recognize a magnolia when they see one?

kissTheApex

Radish?

zatopek

I think I recall it.