Charlie is 2, A Flood Day Riding and Strike 2

Charlie turned two last Wednesday. Tammy got him some new stuffed animals to go with the dozen others the pups already drag out regularly. I've never had a more playful pup and he knows I'm a soft touch for indulging him. His big thing lately is to taunt us with his toys as if to challenge us to try and get them from him. Or being a mop. Toby and Allie are content for the most part to watch rather than partake in his antics although they both engage him regularly, too. We're careful to spread the love around to them all.

It's been 9 days since the rain stopped after dumping anywhere from 5-7 inches (or more) in a day. What's odd is that our sump-pumps are still being triggered occasionally which must be a symptom of an unusually high water table. You read that right: we have two pumps to be extra safe. We put the additional one in several years ago when we finished our basement. They've never run this long after the rain quit and I'm curious to see how long it continues.

I took to the road Thursday afternoon completely forgetting that my normal access points across the Minnesota River were closed due to flooding. I'd intended to ride out to New Germany crossing over the Minnesota River in Shakopee but soon scrapped those plans after seeing the barricades. I continued on southwest through Chaska toward Jordan wondering if maybe I could get across there but no such luck. I'd given up on making any tracks into the wind in a northwesterly direction so I was content to follow the river and observe the flooding for myself while putting in some beautiful 66 degree fall miles.

I was finally able to get across in Belle Plaine where I followed the river along the other side while wondering if I might be able to get back across near Blakeley but figured those chances were rather slim. And they were. I didn't really care; I was riding and feeling good, plus, it was the beginning of my weekend.

I noodled around out east and south of Belle Plaine before working my way through New Prague while doing some calculations to make sure I was giving myself enough daylight to make it home. I've been cutting it close on a lot of my rides lately. I finished the day working the hills of Judicial with a Loop Road kicker to put me over 100 miles.

I got a message from YouTube a few days ago informing me that our Judge Judy video was being pulled for copyright violation. I'm guilty. That was our 2nd of 3 strikes. The first being for a compilation I'd put together of the Wizard of Oz/Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon synchronization. All of those videos were generating lots of hits so I was disappointed to see them go. I got busy going through our account looking for any other videos that might garner us our 3rd strike so as not to have our account deleted. I took down all of Rachel's dance videos due to their soundtracks and any other videos I could find that had any sort of music playing in them. Some record companies are more aggressive than others about protecting their music with Warner Bros probably being much more of a junkyard dog than any of them.

But all is not lost.

I've resurrected our Judge Judy appearance here.

Our church, Hosanna, has taken a stand on beverages in the sanctuary; or have they? Cup-holders appeared over the last couple weeks and it's now permissible to have covered beverages with you during worship. I'm not sure what to make of it. My understanding was that it was done as a lure to encourage the younger crowd to attend. I get that but I wonder what the next step is in this evolution? A snack to go with your coffee? Why not? The lines between worship and entertainment may be becoming blurred. As I said, I'm not sure what to make of it just yet.


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