Bikes, Winter, Puppies

You have to scramble for bike rides now. But on New Years day the Cycling Saddlemen sponsor the First Dozen bike ride in Dearborn. Twelve miles, all in Dearborn. One municipality, one police department, one road commission for snow removal. I admit I don't preregister, but I've ridden it most every year. This year they will have homemade soup made by a volunteer at the end. I'm starting to check the 10 day weather forecasts.

In my last post I said that I was getting used to the winter cold. I was wrong: it got down to 18 degrees on Friday. My hands got so cold that I could barely turn the key in my front door lock. I've got a ways to go. On the brighter side, we have a puppy who has never seen snow and we were worried about her reaction. She is pretty high energy and if she couldn't go outside during the winter, we were in trouble. We found out she loves snow and that cold doesn't seem to bother her. Now if I could just take after her.

I was looking at the LMB website. They've revised and updated it. While I was there, I went to their Routes and Maps page. Click Route 1. It's a route across Michigan along the very southern part of the state. You can download a map and commentary on the route for free. If you check out the route, they go through a lot of cities that we've gone thru or had as sites during our southern routes: New Buffalo, Dowagiac, Colon, Constantine, Sturgis, Three Rivers, Coldwater, Hillsdale, Adrian, Hudson, Tecumseh, and Luna Pier. There is a lot of good information on self contained touring and the history of the area. The website itself has a slideshow of 75 photos that the people who created the map took while they were riding the route. They also agree that Monroe County has the worst roads in the state. Check it out.

How Registration Works

It's really winter now. When it snows, it doesn't go away. But I'm beginning to get used to temperatures in the 20s and the days are getting longer.

You have until January 1 to email PALM or email me and get on the mailing list for PALM applications. But you can still get an application mailed to you after January 1. If you email PALM, ie Ellie, after January 1, she will take your name and address an application for you by hand. It's work for her, but she'll do it. It will be mailed a couple of days after the mailing list applications are sented out because she won't have any applications until then so you'll be behind everyone. So it's better for you and her if you email us your mailing address before January 1.

Here's the registration process. First Ellie picks up the mail at the PALM post office box in Ann Arbor. She opens all the envelopes and counts all the riders. (This is one of the many other things she does for PALM besides her staff position. She's the Mail Granny: the one who answers the PALM phone and all the PALM emails.) The day we get the application for the 700th rider is the cutoff date. Every application we receive that day is on the ride. This means that we will actually register more than 700 riders, typically 50 more. We count on cancellations to bring us back down to 700. Since we register 50 riders more than our cutoff, we don't keep a waiting list.

Then Ellie sends the applications to Vickie to process. Before January 31 this is easy: the post office, Ellie, and Vickie are all in Ann Arbor. After January 31 it gets a little harder because Vickie is in Florida, poor girl. Vickie first checks all the applications. Have the releases been signed? Are parental consents necessary and have they been signed? If there are any riders under 18, do they have adult rider sponsors and have the sponsors signed? Is there an emergency contact on the application? Have the t shirt sizes been marked? Do the dollars add up correctly? Is the check/money order for the correct amount? If you forget to include a self addressed, stamped envelope, she has to make one out for you or you won't get a confirmation letter from us. If there are mistakes, she will have to get in touch with you, either by phone, email, or snail mail. She might have to mail you back your check so that you can send the correct amount this time. She's not done. Now she assigns the rider number, fills out the paperwork for our accountant, and sends the applications to me. This is a lot of work, esp if there are errors in the application. It's not like it's winter where she is and she's snowed in. There is a beach right outside her door. And yet she still does work for PALM.

Then I get the applications. I have the easiest job. The applications have already been checked and I get them in batches of 50 to 80 at a time, perfect for efficient processing. Everything I do is automated. I enter the application into a program I've written. I use Mail Merge to generate the confirmation letters. I produce t shirt counts, bus and meal lists using the data saved on the computer. It is winter where I am. Every application I do brings summer that much closer. I'm motivated.

The applications go thru several sets of hands. There really is too much work for just one person to do it all. There are 3 locations involved: Ann Arbor, Florida, and Detroit. Generally things run pretty smoothly but last year was a disaster. We mailed out applications on January 25 and we were filled by Febuary 5, a new record. Vickie went to Florida two weeks early and then broke the wrist of the her writing hand. (Remember she fills out a lot of paperwork and self addressed stamped envelopes by hand.) And the applications had an incredible amount of errors and for every error Vickie had to at least contact the rider by phone or email. About 100 applications were missing self addressed stamped envelopes. Remember this means that Vickie must stop and address an envelope. And she's in Florida and the sun is shining right outside her window. In the middle of the rush, I went on vacation and everything stopped on my end. What a mess. We didn't get done until May just in time to start handling the riders who wanted to cancel or transfer their application to someone else.

This year we are mailing out the applications earlier. We hope to mail them out around January 15. Given how quickly we filled last year, there is a good chance that we will hit our 700 rider limit before Vickie leaves for Florida so that she can take all the applications with her. She promises not to break her wrist this year. This year I'm taking time off around January 10 and I'll be back when the applications start coming in. And you, gentle reader, will do a much better job of filling out the applications correctly and sending in self addressed stamped envelopes. Things should go much smoother.

Suppose you do make a mistake on the application/check. What happens? If you read the application, it says that your application will be returned and your spot on PALM will be jeopardized. That's not the way Vickie does things. Vickie tries to get in touch with you by phone or email. She returns your check only if it is wrong. She holds your spot if you need to send a new check or a new application (in the case of missing signatures). She may even assign you a rider number. You do not lose your spot on PALM. One other thing: she doesn't deposit your check until she processes your application. If you are waiting to see if your check clears to see if you are on PALM, that won't work. You'll get the confirmation letter before the check clears.

Changes for PALM 2010

Basically the biggest changes in PALM every year are the sites. If you look over the last 5 years of PALM on the website you'll see that while we always go from west to east, every site but one has been different. (South Haven is the only duplicate. Not a bad choice.) If you ride PALM you'll see lots of Michigan.

One of the awkward things about PALM is that it's not a round trip: you finish 200 miles from where you started. We charter buses that take you, your luggage, and your bike to the beginning site on Saturday before the ride starts and other buses that return you to the start site after the ride is over on Friday. We arrange for week long parking at the ending site for the Saturday people and the starting site for the Friday people. Roughly 200 people take the bus on Saturday before the ride starts and about 100 take the bus after the ride is over on Friday.

If instead you are planning to take your car and/or camper from site to site, we've made a few changes that you'll be able to see from the application. If you know that you'll be taking your car and/or camper from site to site, you will need to indicate whether you are taking a vehicle and/or a camper and their approximate length in the fields provided below the city/state line on the application. (We need to know how much parking we will need at each site.) At registration on Saturday you will receive a PALM vehicle pass as part of your registration packet. We ask that it be visible from your vehicle at all times. Basically we rent the sites at which we stay and are responsible for them. We need to know that everybody on site is part of PALM.

We know that you may not know that you will be driving your vehicle site to site until just before PALM starts. You'll be able to sign up for a PALM vehicle pass at registration at the start of the ride. But if you do know you'll be doing this well beforehand, please let us know so that we can plan.

Everyone who is on PALM must register whether they are a rider or not. If someone is going to come with you to drive your vehicle from site to site, they still have to register even if they don't plan to ride. Up until last year we had separate non rider registration fee, but it was rarely used (the most we ever had was 13, generally it was around 6.) so we dropped it this year. Everyone who registers for PALM will get a t-shirt so be sure to indicate your size.

Some other things to know about taking your vehicle and/or camper from site to site. When you are driving to the next site, stay off the bike route. This is a safety issue. There will be 700 bikes on the route contending with existing local traffic and they don't any extra. You'll be provided with an alternate route to the next site. There will be a designated area for you to park. You must park there (or you will be asked to move). The luggage trucks and repair shops need parking too. Don't park or setup tents at the next site until 12:00 noon. Officially the site is not ours until 11:00. Any earlier than noon means that you will beat the site co-ordinator there. (Their first official duty is to police up the previous site before going on to their own site.) Please let the site co-ordinators setup shop before they have to start handling issues. These are rules that we've always had even though some have not followed them.

Some things though stay the same on PALM year to year. It's still Michigan. Midsummer's night will still occur on PALM. And for this year the registration, meal, and bus fees have also stayed the same.

Wind Chill is Back

Last weekend the temperature dipped down to 27 and the wind picked up to 15 mph. My hands were so cold when I was jogging that I thought it was really cold. I knew it was going to be about 20 degrees colder this winter and I was wondering how I was going to survive. The first thing I did was to remember to wear mittens over gloves. When my hands weren't aching, it didn't seem so cold. But now it's 18 degrees and the wind is 20-25 mph. I've pulled out all my winter gear and I still have to prepare for temperatures 10 degrees colder. This is going to be a challenge. At least I know where all my winter clothes are now. I can't complain yet. In SW Michigan we only got a dusting of snow. The western part of the state got 5 inches or so. Nothing like starting off winter with a bang.

I've had some people ask whether they were on the PALM mailing list or not. If you got an application last year and you haven't moved, you are going to get one this year. If you have ever been on PALM, you'll be getting applications until you disappear or ask to be taken off the mailing list. If you didn't mail in your application in time to get on the ride last year, I put you on the mailing list (or tried to) and you should get an application this year. If you emailed palmbiketour@yahoo.com with your mailing address, you're on the mailing list. So far the mailing list contains 3300 addresses, about 300 more than usual. You have until Jan 1 to get me your mailing address before I have to put the mailing list together for the printer. On the application itself: I've completed the corrections to the proof and I'll be sending it back to the printer Monday. They should be all set.

On the garden front, I did harvest my last collard plant when the temperature got down to 27. I need daylight to work in the garden so my window of opportunity is down to the weekend. I was trying to wait out the pea sized Brussel sprouts and now they are frozen. I'm going to need a pick ax to clear the rest of the garden. My compost heap is a frozen lump. If a compost heap is active it's supposed to be warm, over 100 degrees. It looks like it wasn't active enough and now it will have to wait until spring like the rest of us. Well, there is the First Dozen. I did get a postcard for it today.

PALM 2010 Application

I marked up the 2009 application with some changes for 2010 and have taken it to the printer. They will typeset it and send me a proof to review. (Typeset is an anachronism here. There is no type involved. In fact the guy who does it for them lives in the UP and does it all by computer.) So we are on our way.

We plan to mail out the applications in the middle of January, a week earlier than last year. Our next PALM meeting is January 24. This is the chance for staff to pick up applications that they can distribute to friends, bike shops, bike clubs in their area. This will be a week after the applications are mailed out. Last year we mailed out the applications around January 25 and we were filled by Feb 5. There is a good chance that the ride will almost be filled by the time we have the PALM meeting. If you are waiting for the application to show up at your bike shop so that you can sign up for PALM, your odds are not so good. We put the application on the website about a week after the applications are mailed. (A lot of our riders are not friends of the web and we want to give them first crack.) If you are waiting to download the application from our website, you could be way behind. If you think you may want to do PALM, please, please, please get on our mailing list by January 1. (Email your mailing address to palmbiketour@yahoo.com or email it to me at palmwebguy@ameritech.net) We mail out the applications by 1st class mail so that everyone will get the application at the same time (well, close to the same time) and have an equal chance of getting on PALM. If last year is any indication, the ride could be filled by the end of January.

The middle of January is when everyone gets their credit card statements that cover Christmas shopping. Michigan's economy is bad: 15% unemployment and a huge turmoil in the auto industry. (In the last year, I had to find a new job twice. ) When you get the PALM application, you may be low on funds. You don't have to pay for everything at once. To get on PALM you only need to pay the registration ($110 for 18 and over, $65 for 11 - 17 year olds, $55 for people less than 11) when you mail in your appplication. You have up until May 15 to add any meals or bus rides you may need. January is pretty early to commit to a week off in June. If you have to cancel, it will only cost you $15 for an individual, $20 for an application. Keep your eye on the mail and mail in your registration payment soon.

Just because you have to mail in your application quickly doesn't mean you don't have to fill it out completely. We got an unbelievable amount of incorrect, incomplete applications last year. We had people who left their names off the applications. The biggest problems were missing emergency contact information, incorrect dollar amounts, and missing/misplaced signatures. For these errors we (actually Vickie) has to contact you and you have to mail us corrections. This takes time (especially if you break your writing hand, like Vickie did last year). 77 applications did not include a self addressed stamped envelope. So how do we mail you a confirmation to let you know you are on the ride? Not only does it cost us money, but we have to fill out the address (with our nonbroken hand). It took us (well, me actually) forever to finish the registration last year. We hope that by starting a little earlier and getting your help, we can do a much better job.

More About Fall

This November has really been warm: it was up in the 60's and sunny again last Saturday. At 3:00 I decided to take a bike ride: down Outer Drive, thru Rouge Park (to check on the new statue) to Dearborn via a bit of Hines Drive and the new bike path. I stopped off at Starbucks at about 4:10. Some things don't change in Fall even if it is in the 60's. It gets dark and early. I got home around 5:20. It wasn't twilight, it was way darker than that. I should have started at 2:00. Thank goodness the traffic was light (no pun intended).

My garden is down to some scraggly Swiss chard and one collard plant with leaves as large as a tennis racket. But this Tuesday was the Garden Resource Program's Fall Potluck and Planning meeting. It was a gathering of gardeners from all over the city at the 4H Center. ( I still can't believe that there's a 4H Center on the near eastside, south of Gratiot at 5710 McClellan Street. Look it up on Google Maps.) Even though winter is ahead of us, it was a large, diverse, enthusiastic group fresh from a great summer of gardens. This season the Garden Resource Program distributed 48,000 packets of seeds and over 200,000 plants to over 850 community, school, and family gardens within Detroit. There were over 3500 adults and 7400 kids involved and they produced and sold over 11 tons of fresh vegetables, all within Detroit. There were 40 workshops ranging from gardening (pest control, composting, seed starting) to cooking (bread making, west African cooking, making garden fresh pizzas) to vegetable preservation (pickling, canning, freezing and dehydrating). The potluck was a mixture of everything in the city: neighborhoods, ages, nationalities. We reviewed what we did the last year to see what we did well and what we could do better. The program grew by 40% this year. Their big question was how they could make it even bigger next year.

The PALM meeting was on Sunday. The sites are coming along well: some of the sites even know what their meals will be. This year most of the sites have pools we can access. The total mileage of the route will be 253 miles (spread over 6 days). We'll be going by lots of lakes (with swimming) and we'll have shade. A tentative route has been laid out and Andy will be getting it out on MapMyRide soon. I'll be getting with the printer about the 2010 application in the next couple of weeks. Summer is here before winter has even started.

November

So far November has been much better than October. We and a group of friends do a Tuesday night bike ride around downtown Detroit (roughly New Center, Mexican Town, Ren Cen, Belle Isle, Eastern Market, and Wayne State). On last Saturday we had a party to celebrate this year's biking season. We invite everybody who has done the ride at least once and give out "awards". Even though the bike season was over with the miserable weather in October (and the shorter days), it was good to see everybody and talk about the summer. This year we took the suggestions of some new riders and made a few alterations to our route: we started taking East Grand Boulevard after Belle Isle past the old Packard plant all the way to the Poletown plant instead of going through Eastern Market and Wayne State. The road was wider, traffic was lighter, and we got to see more of how Detroit looked back in the day. We also rode the River Walk on the way to Belle Isle instead of taking Larnard. This took us right along the river, hard to beat that. Next year the I-75 construction by the Ambassador Bridge should be done and we'll be able to use the pedestrian bridge to include more of Mexicantown in our ride like we used to do. The Greenways Initiative offers some interesting possibilities next year, besides the Dequindre Cut.

So far the weather in November has been what the weather in October should have been. I was able to ride my bike for the first time in a month. We rode Hines Drive last Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny late fall day. As a bonus, Hines Drive was close to motor traffic so that they could put up the holiday lights so we didn't have to worry about cars. On our way there we went through Rouge Park and went by where they fly remote controlled model airplanes. We also met an artist there who was installing one of his scupltures in the park. And today I was able to squeeze in one more bike ride. Would you believe it, it was in the 60's and sunny two weekends in a row. Fall light and fall colors, what could be better? It's all the sweeter because October's weather has already shown us that we are stealing these days.

The next PALM meeting is November 22. After that I have to get to work: I have to put together the 2010 PALM application and get it to the printer. Remember that we mail out these applications by 1st class mail at the end of January. If you are interested in getting on PALM, the best thing you can do is to get on our mailing list by emailing us your mailing address, ie where you will be in January. You cannot register online (we're too cheap for that) and we don't put the application online for about 10 days. People who get the application mailed to them have the first crack at getting on PALM.

Bikes and Halloween

Happy Halloween! I helped giving out candy at our Community House. We had a Haunted House and had almost 1,000 kids swarm there for candy and scares. The scariest thing I saw as a man walking his cat on a leash. I stayed far away.

I got a postcard from Adventure Cycling about a meeting to be held at Second Baptist Church downtown that mentioned the Underground Railway Bike Route . It was about bikes, it was at night, it was in town, and I hadn't ridden all month so I went. The meeting was far ranging and I learned a lot. It ends up that Detroit was an important stop on the Underground Railroad and that the Second Baptist Church and the First Congregational Church were major centers here. I found out that Adventure Cycling is adding a spur off their original Mobile, Alabama to Owen Sound, Ontario Underground Railway Bike Route route that will go thru Detroit. There was a presentation on the Greenways Initative for bike routes within Detroit and the metro area, complete with maps of planned and existing routes. I now have places to explore on my Tuesday night bike rides in the city. I got to take a tour of the church and hear about the interactive exhibit on the Underground Railway that will be at the African American Museum here in 2010. Not bad for a cold October night that looked like rain.

While the only thing growing in my garden is the compost heap, the greens are holding their own. It takes a deep snow to kill off kale, Swiss chard, and collards. As long as they hang on it's not winter yet. I'm harvesting them bit by bit and waiting for the green tomatoes to ripen. In the fall, I collect leaves that my neighbors rake up to add to the grass clippings next summer in the compost heap. I'm learning a little bit each year. Now if I can just control the insects and mildew.

October PALM Meeting

This month's PALM meeting is when we pick tshirt colors and next year's patch. We did pick out a patch (there were several good entries this year) but we put off picking the tshirt color until next meeting when we can see some samples. It looks like it will be another bright color. We got a treasurer's report: we didn't lose money this year, in fact we are a little ahead. This means that the registration, meal, and bus fees will stay the same. Registration will be $110 for riders 18 and over, $65 for riders 11 thru 17, $55 for riders 10 and under, and $75 for nonriders. Meals will be $5 for breakfast and $9 for dinner. (You pick the meals you want, if any.) A bus ride to the start will be $45.

I was late for the meeting: who knew that I-96 was going to be closed at I-275? I ended up going along 8 Mile until Milford Road and I-96. Then Mt Hope Road was closed when I got to Lansing. I was an hour late and missed all the good stuff. If it wasn't for the meeting minutes I would not have known anything. I did get there in time for a (long) discussion of campers on PALM. More on this later.

Lately I've been cold all the time. I thought that I was getting weak, but it ends up that October for the last two weeks or so has been 10 to 15 degrees below the seasonal average. I was worried that I could no longer appreciate Indian Summer. But no, it was nature's way of telling me that Eskimos are also Indians. At least the greens (kale, collards and swiss chard) in my garden are holding up. Everything else is dead and on the compost heap: tomatoes, marigolds, basil. I left the cone flowers standing: the finches eat the thistles from their flowers. It drives my cats crazy but it keeps another species going and reminds me of summer when the flowers were in bloom.

Frost and the PALM Meeting

I mentioned that my garden was looking a little ragged because of the lack of sunlight in the fall. On Saturday we had a hard frost. It killed my basil dead. It went from a sickly yellow green to brown overnight. My tomatoes are also goners. I have lots of green tomatoes. Does anybody know of a fried green tomato recipe for Italian (ie pear shaped) tomatoes? I have dozens of them, all very green. I'm beginning to put the garden to bed. I've pulled up all the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants and put them in the compost heap. (The green beans, squash, and lettuce are already there.) My greens are still hanging in there. It takes an ice storm to kill them. If it seems like it's getting dark awfully early now, remember that daylight savings time is still in effect and it really should getting darker even sooner.

Our second PALM meeting is this Sunday. The last I heard, the schools we wanted gave us a tentative OK. This meeting our route guy will tell us if he was able to find us a suitable route between the schools, a route with low traffic, a decent paved surface, and at least a hint of a shoulder, one that is not not too long. Any long day (ie over 60 miles) needs to have short days (ie 35 miles) around it. We are still at the mercy of construction, especially road construction though. You really don't know if you have a route until a couple of weeks before the ride. Road construction: it wouldn't be summer without it.

This meeting we'll pick the patch for next year and (maybe) the color for the tshirt. You wouldn't think it, but we've had some long discussions about tshirt colors. I can't figure it out. If you look at what bikers wear when they ride, it's obvious that they have no color sense. Having bikers pick out a color is like having Detroiters pick out a City Council. (Remember, I live in Detroit. I can say that.) The last couple of years we've had neon colors. At least you could see our riders when they rode their bikes. But the PALM parade at the end of the ride, 700 bikers all wearing the same neon shirt, good God! It was blinding and I wear progressive glasses. Wish us luck.

Fall in Michigan

It was a cool summer this year in Michigan, but it has been long. It's been in the 70's and sometimes the 80's all the way through September. You just didn't think about summer ever ending. The days did get shorter and now that it's officially Fall (and the nights are longer than the days) I can't really do my Tuesday night bike ride in the city any more. It just gets too dark especially if it is cloudy at all. My garden and trees look ragged like there is some kind of insect or disease working on them. But it's just a case of lack of sun. Thursday it got down to the 30's and I had to scrape my windows before I could drive to work. (The plants all survived.)

We have a tentative route for PALM 2010: South Haven, Otswego, Hastings, Eton Rapids, Grass Lake, Milan, and Erie Metro Park (actually the school across the street from Erie Metro Park). Beth Best, our new vice chair in charge of sites, has contacted all the schools and they seem receptive. There could still be site changes: we've had years where we've had to change 4 of the sites for various reasons. So don't make those reservations at the Ritz Carlton's along our route just yet.

Fall is the best season in Michigan. It's more consistently warm than the spring but not too hot to enjoy being outside. You are prepared for any outside activity because you've had the whole summer to get in shape. You have the last burst of color from every plant and tree and the golden fall light to see them in. Winter is still far enough away not to dread it. Things are settling down into a routine but fall allows you to appreciate every good day instead of taking it for granted. You can still do everything you want to do, like take a long bike ride, even though you may have to do it on a weekend. Enjoy the fall: can those tomatoes, make that pesto. And remember that the 2010 PALM application will be there in January to rescue you from winter.

PALM 2010 Begins

I know what you're thinking. It's still 2009, in fact it is still summer (at least for another few days). But along with the new school year, the planning for PALM 2010 starts now. The first PALM meeting is the Sunday after Labor Day (this year September 13). It will be a potluck picnic held at 2:00 in Granger Park in Dewitt Township outside of Lansing. Basically we use the meeting to discuss last year's ride, select people for next year's staff positions and site coordinators, and to select a route for next year. Typically there is not much of a battle for staff positions. In general we find out where we are short. But the route...

This year we will be doing a more southern route. (We alternate northern and southern routes.) People come up with proposed routes. We discuss them. (How are the roads, the traffic, the schools? Any long days?). We vote twice, once to narrow the choice down to two routes, and once to pick the candidate route. Now the work begins. Before the next meeting, the schools we hope to stay at are contacted and a route is mapped out. Sometimes we can't get the schools. Sometimes there is no good way to get from one school to another. Generally we have to change one or two schools but we've had years where we had to change 4 schools. So even when a route is picked, it's not over.

This summer I noticed more finches than usual. They seem to like a particular blue flowered weed that is growing in vacant lots along my running route. I've planted some cone flowers and Black Eyed Susans in front of my house. They are also supposed to produce seeds that finches like, but no finches yet. Another case of weeds overpowering the flowers.

I've expanded my vegetable garden this year. I was able to get some green peppers and some eggplant. Not a lot, just some, but better than last year when I got none. My turnips grew like weeds, but my beets didn't do so well. And, of course, I like beets more than turnips. This year I'm having success with zucchini: I have one plant that produces all that we need. My tomatoes are doing well, especially the Amish Paste tomatoes, a pear shaped variety. I put a raised bed behind my garage where there used to be an alley. I planted some carrots and parsnips there. Amazingly the carrots are doing well, but the jury is out on the parsnips. And I have enough basil for pesto! However my broccoli failed miserably. I planted butternut squash which wandered everywhere, produced big leaves, flowers, and one squash which the dog ate. At least I got some of the cucumbers.

Summer

Another thing I notice when I get back from PALM is the fireflies around my yard. This summer has been so cool (after the 90 degree day on PALM the next 90 degree day was August 8) that they have been around well into August.

After PALM the highpoint of my summer is the Detroit Urban Garden and Farm Tour put on by the Detroit Agriculture Network. I've mentioned the Garden Resource Program in Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck. This year there are 244 community, 48 school and 517 family gardens participating, up 45% from last year. This your the tour was on August 5. You could take one of three bus tours or two bike tours. The tours started at Catherine Ferguson Academy, a Detroit public school for pregnant and parenting teenagers that has a farm with chickens, goats, rabbits, geese, ducks, turkeys and a horse plus a garden that produces food for both animals and students. All of the students are involved in the farm. Read more about gardening in Detroit here.

I took the Central City Bus tour and saw some gardens in the Highland Park area. One of the nice things about this tour is that you get to see some of the older distinctive homes in Detroit. Some of them are gorgeous, some of them need a lot of work, but even those show what they were. We saw a couple of first year community gardens, one started by a church for outreach and one by a community group that was trying develop a source for fresh vegetables for the neighborhood. The last garden, the Gloryland Community Garden near U of D, has a cistern, bee hives, flowers, vegetables, berries, and fruit trees laid out like a park. Afterward we all returned to Catherine Ferguson and ate some of the produce from the gardens at a reception.

Back to PALM. Our first PALM meeting will be September 13 in Lansing. It will be a picnic where we bring a dish to pass. We will be picking a route for 2010 from the proposals that people bring. If you would like to be on staff (and we are always looking for new staff), email us. I will post more details in a later post.

Post PALM Post

Did you ever notice that the days are always getting longer leading up to PALM and afterword the days start getting shorter? That can't be a coincidence, can it?

This year's PALM was on the only hot week we had this summer. It was in high 80's or low 90's and it seemed a lot hotter because it was 20 degrees cooler on the weeks leading up to PALM. The Thursday before PALM we had thunder that sounded like artillery in SE Michigan. The next night, it poured. Either one of those nights would have been bad for PALM. You have to be careful what you wish for. Typically hot weather breaks with thunderstorms in Michigan. In fact we were supposed to get some bad weather Wednesday night and Thursday morning. 50 miles away it was bad, but we were lucky: no rain in Vassar and none on the way to Marlette. At 7PM, it sprinkled for 30 minutes, but everybody was setup already and it just cooled things down.

But it was hot. I drank lots of water (and we had SAGs with water every 6 or 7 miles. Thank God for the SAGs.) I still didn't drink enough. I kept forgetting where I put things and I was pretty cranky at times. (I apologize.) On Thursday and Friday I left camp at 7:30 AM and beat the bad afternoon heat. That made a big difference. It was a tough PALM for me. I was still tired for the whole week after PALM.

We start planning for PALM in September, the Sunday after Labor Day. The first meeting we pick a route (and who will hold what staff position, but that's the boring stuff). Ten months later PALM happens. For me it's the best part of the summer. I do the web site and it's hard for me to do any updates after PALM. This year I've been better than most years. It only took 3 weeks to get Dottie's pictures of PALM 2009 on the web site, drop the "Preparing for PALM" pages, and put up the Patch Contest page. Some years I haven't gotten this done until the end of August. If you read my PALM day by day description, you can tell it was too hot for me to notice a lot, but that Thursday and Friday were pretty good days for me. Fortunately we have a great blog from Ken Kaye. He nails what we hope that PALM would be all about for all the riders. Being from North Carolina, the heat must not affect him

PALM Meeting: Stuffing Packets

Last Sunday was the last PALM meeting before the ride. We've been talking about (and planning) PALM since last September. This is the meeting where you realize that PALM is really going to happen. It is the meeting that you stuff all the packets that get distributed at registration: 813 packets, each with a participant's name on it. I spent Memorial Day weekend creating packet labels and rider info sheets. I had to use two reams of paper. The packets contain the map booklet, the ride patch, and the Milestone booklet that describes what is on the route, all visible proof that PALM is real and will be happening soon. I also created all the meal lists for the sites. I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited.

I've added some statistics about this year's participants to the website and you can compare this year to previous years. This year we have 263 first timers to PALM, 32%. As you can tell by looking that the statistics from previous years, this is normal. We did a survey one year and found that this was the first week long tour for about half of the first time riders. So if this is your first time on a week long tour, you'll have plenty of company.

You can also see that PALM participants come in all ages, that if your kids are on the ride, they won't be alone, and that if you are over 40 (or 50 or 60 or 70), you won't stand out. The smallest age brackets are riders in their 20's and 30's which has always surprised me. The great majority of the participants are from Michigan, 75%, but we have people from 28 states and one province. This year we have participants from Louisiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Go figure.

So even if the weather is a little cool, get out and ride: 3 more weeks to PALM and we mean it.

Getting Ready

It’s been over 80 degrees the last two days with more sunny, warm weather in the forecast and it’s only 4 more weeks to PALM.

No more excuses to not ride your bike.

By now you should have had your bike into the shop for a tune-up. Maybe you did it yourself. You should have a number of rides in and are taking advantage of this great weather by riding, at least a little, almost daily. Maybe you’ve completed a longish organized ride like the Metro Grand Spring Tour or the Zoo-de-Mac. If so, you are well on your way to being prepared for PALM.

If not, do yourself a favor and get started. The more you train now, the more you will enjoy yourself on PALM.

For more on preparing for PALM, check out this PALM web page ( if nessesary, copy and paste the link into your browser):
http://www.lmb.org/palm/training.html

As you ramp up your training, please review my web page on Cycling Safety:
http://www.lmb.org/palm/safety.html

PALM Change Deadline: May 15

If you have registered for PALM, May 15 is the deadline for any meal or bus changes. After May 15, whatever you got, you got. May 15 is also the deadline for cancellations. Before May 15 individuals on an application can cancel and get their money back except for a $15 cancellation fee. If everyone on an application cancels, the cancellation fee is $20 for the whole application. (The idea behind this is that if a family has to cancel, it should cost them $20, not $15 for every member of the family. It's part of making PALM a family friendly ride.) All cancellations have to done in writing and mailed to the PALM address (PALM; PO Box 7161; Ann Arbor, MI 48107) . No email cancellations will be accepted. What this means to me is that registration finally ends. All I have to do is create meal and bus lists, packet content sheets and labels and I'm done. After the last PALM meeting on May 31, all that's left is riding the PALM. I'll be processing odds and ends up until then, some of which I'll be getting today.

It's time for the big garden push. I have to extend the garden on one side because a tree is starting to shade it on the other. I have to put in the warm weather vegetables, some of which will be plants that I'll be getting this week. I have flowers to plant in the front yard to hide the vegetables that I have there. The irony is that with all this garden work, I've done nothing on my lawn. I haven't even cut it yet. Since I've stopped putting weed killer on it I have every weed in the world growing there and almost no grass. My neighbors must think I'm crazy especially when they see me going out for a bike ride instead of working on my lawn. On the plus side the turnips, lettuce and greens that I planted from seed on Tuesday have already sprouted. Maybe I can plant my entire front yard in turnips and zucchini.

Metro Grand

Sunday was a good day for bicycling. There was sun and the temperatures reached into the 60's. It was a good day for the Metro Grand. I registered on the day of the ride and I wasn't alone. The one year I signed up early it was 43 degrees and raining. Some people rode anyway (not me). They looked like textbook examples of hypothermia. But not this Sunday. Because of construction the route had to go west inland instead of east to Lake Erie. We rode thru New Boston, Romulus (no, not by the airport), Belleville, and Ypsilanti Township. I now know where the Rawsonville Ford plant is. What I remember about past Metro Grands is how bad Huron River Drive is and the number of railroad tracks. Yesterday there were only two sets of railroad tracks which we crossed twice, once on the way out and once on the way back. And I found out that Huron River Drive is just as bad going west as it is going east.

The most I had ridden this year before Sunday was 30 miles. The most Judy had ridden was 24 miles. We rode 47 miles. Fortunately it was pretty flat and the winds weren't too bad (10 mph) but still we were tired by the end. Actually I was tired half way thru, Judy was OK. Thank God for SAG stops and cookies. You know, when you're tired you don't notice the route much and it's not as much fun. You just look at the road about 10 feet in front of your bike and try not to think about how far you still have to go. This is not the position you want to be in for the PALM. PALM is meant to be enjoyed. You are on vacation and touring Michigan by bike. My advice would be to be in better shape than I am now when you do PALM. I plan to be.

A little garden update: my radishes are up. I took heart and planted some beets and turnips after the bike ride. I should develop a garden plan. Mostly I look at the open ground, look at the seeds I have, pick out one I want, and plant a row. Zen gardening. I'm getting a little better: I try not to plant the same plants in the same place, especially tomatoes and greens, and I try to avoid the shadow of the tree that's beside my garden. This year's experiment will be putting a raised bed behind my garage where there used to be an alley. Putting together the raised bed involved a hand drill and took me a couple of hours. My sister the graphics artist probably could have done it in 15 minutes.

Hot Weather Training

After last weekend I think I'm ready to ride in the summer. I got to ride three times when the temperature was in the 80's. I learned to sweat and I emptied two large water bottles while riding 25 miles. I still can't sit on a bicycle seat but I can stay hydrated. The other thing I am ready for is wind. I don't think I've done a ride yet where I didn't have to buck a 20 MPH headwind. And last week I caught in the rain on my bike. I got one 30 mile ride in which is good since the Metro Grand is this Sunday and I want to ride 45 miles. I should be a tired puppy come Sunday afternoon even without wind.

Just a reminder: if you have registered for PALM and want to add meals and/or bus rides, you have only until May 15 to do so. If you want to add/change meals and/or bus rides, download an application from the website, fill in your name and address (and your rider number if you can find it), the meals and/or bus rides you want, mail it to the PALM address (PALM; PO Box 7161; Ann Arbor, MI 48107) with a check for the correct amount and a stamped self addressed envelope. You don't have to sign the waiver or pick a t shirt size or include an emergency contact or anything else. We have a May 15 deadline because we have to let the bus company and the sites know the number of people well in advance. There are more people taking the bus on June 20 to the start than ever before. We are going to have 6 buses, over 280 riders. It's going to look like a wagon train.

Applications Done

At long last we have entered all the PALM applications except for a handful of problems. We are up to 806 people who have registered. I sent out the confirmation letters on Friday which means that should start receiving them on Monday. This has been an ordeal to say the least. We reached our cutoff before we even started processing the applications but we've closed early before and haven't had this much trouble. There were extenuating circumstances like broken hands and lots of problem applications but still this has taken way too long. This will be something we improve for next year.

I've worked up some preliminary counts. We have 260 first time PALM riders. Typically 35% of our riders have never done PALM before so this is normal. I was worried that because we closed so quickly that first time riders wouldn't have a chance to get on the ride. People who have been on PALM before have applications mailed to them automatically so they would have an advantage. But lots of people who had never ridden PALM before got on the mailing list and received applications when they were first mailed out. That balanced things out.

This year the largest age bracket is 60 to 69 with 183 riders, followed by 50 to 59 with 179, and 10 to 19 with 117. The number of teenagers on our ride has been trending downward since we've started closing early. One of PALM's missions is to promote family biking and to offer a inexpensive family vacation. With this in mind we will need to find out ways that families can know about PALM and feel comfortable registering their families in February for a bike tour that is going to take place in June. If you have any suggestions for how we can accomplish this, please email us.

This year we have 69 riders in the 70 to 79 age bracket and 11 in the 80 to 89 age bracket. This is typical and shows that bicycling is an enjoyable activity that has no age limits and that doing PALM is with in the reach of any active person, not just trained athletes. Roughly 40% of the people who ride PALM are women and women of all ages. (22 of the riders over 70 are women.) The variety of people who do PALM are one of the things that make it a special social and recreational event. It's not just a ride for 20 year old males. And you get a t shirt.

70's At Last

I rode on Thursday. The temperature crept into the 60's but the wind was blowing so hard that I had to put on my jacket to stay warm. I should have worn tights but I thought that I could get away with not wearing them. The wind was against us on the way out and was especially brutal on Belle Isle. By the time we got it to our backs, it was too late to do us any good: we were already tired. This was not the case Saturday. It was in the 70's. I wore shorts and a jersey for the first time this year. I even put on sunscreen, just like it was summer. I rode on Hines Drive. There were plenty of bikers, just like summer. I could even hear frogs croaking in the ponds. I could get to like this.

I picked up my cold weather plants from Earthworks Garden and the Garden Resource Program on Saturday. I got 6 packs of Collards, Kale, Broccoli, and two kinds of lettuce. I have to harden these plants off before I can plant them. In the meantime I finally dug up my garden beds and even planted radishes. See what a day in the 70's (and the prospects of three days of rain coming up) will do. I'm trying to move my garden over to get it away from a tree in my backyard. Last year the tree really leafed out and shaded part of my garden. I could see how available sunlight affected the growth of plants, especially the ones with large leaves. I also need to draw up a garden plan so that I don't plant the greens in the same place as last year to make it harder for the bugs to find them. Something else for me to do while it rains.

April is the Cruelest Month

I like the way Michigan flip flops months. March was mild. All the snow melted and we had several days where we could ride. Of course, since March is winter, any day you could ride stands out. But the ground was bare and I don't remember any snow. April has been different. Even though it was spring we had a major snow storm and then snow flurries on Easter. While the Tigers have been trying to play baseball, the weather hasn't made it out of the 40's. Decidedly not biking weather.

The Metro Grand is on May 3. It's going to be a scramble to be in shape to ride 45 miles and forget about 62 miles. There is going to be a new route for this year's Metro Grand. We'll be going west instead of east. This will mean that we won't be seeing Lake Erie, but it also means that we won't be riding on the potholes of Huron Valley Drive and I've been promised that there will be fewer railroad tracks on the route. Maybe this year we will have a tail wind on the second half of the route.

I'm going to try to ride tomorrow. I'm getting a crown put in but it is supposed to reach 60 and be sunny. Hope springs eternal. If worse comes to worse, at least I can pick up my cold crop plants that I'm getting from the Garden Resource Program for my garden. I still haven't done anything with my plot yet, but then again the plants haven't been harden off either.

PALM Meals and Bus Rides

When the applications were sent out, I made a point of telling everyone that you didn't have to order the meals and bus rides right away, all you had to pay was the registration to get on PALM. We've received a lot of applications without meals or bus rides. Now we're beginning to get applications adding meals and bus rides. It's now April. If you want PALM meals or bus rides, now is the time to order them. Officially you have until May 15 to order additional meals and bus rides, but do us a favor and order them now or as early as you can. The site people have to know how many meals to have on hand well in advance. We have to get the proper number of buses and trucks well in advance. May 15 is pushing it, especially if there is a last minute rush.

To order meals and bus rides, download the application from the web site, fill in at least your name(s) and, if you can, your rider number(s). Select the meals and bus rides you want, include a stamped self addressed envelope, a check for the right amount and mail it to the PALM address (PALM; PO Box 7161; Ann Arbor, MI 48107). You don't have to reenter the rest of the information nor sign the waiver again. You will receive a new confirmation letter that will now include your meals and bus rides when we process the request. Remember you can pick and choose just the meals you want.

Speaking of April, it's time that I got my garden in shape. I haven't done anything yet. I put the garden to bed before winter and the leaves that I cover it with as a mulch are still there. I have seeds already and I'm going to get cold weather plants at the end of next week. No May 15 deadline here, I better get started. Well, after Easter anyway. I'm going to my brother-in-law's place on Harsen's Island for Easter.

Snow

It has to be ironic that we get hit by our first snow in over a month on Opening Day of the baseball season. We were supposed to get 7 inches but the temperatures were so warm that we had only 3 or 4 inches of very wet snow. It was very heavy to shovel. It was good to remind the North Carolina fans who were here for the Final Four what they are missing by not living here. No hurricanes though.

We had a PALM meeting on Palm Sunday. I got more applications from Vickie who is back from Florida. We now have 696 people registered. She informed me that the final number will be about 825 people. Now you are probably asking yourself how a ride with a 700 rider cutoff can register 825 people. One reason is that we don't count staff. Last year we had 71 staff people including the SAGs (18 of them), truck drivers, and site people. In the last 3 years when the ride closed early, we've had about 50 or so cancellations. We already have 4. If that happens this year, we will be a little over 700 riders, where we want to be. Do you see why we don't have a mailing list?

As Monday's snow reminds us, April is a month when we have to bike when we can, not when we want. I hope that you have gotten your bike out of mothballs by now and had it tuned up. If you've waited until now to have a mechanic check it out, that's another reason you can't bike when you want. If you are like me, you have to get used to sitting on a bike every year. Don't wait for consistent weather, start to bike now for PALM. There will be good days even in April.

Spring?

Well, it is spring. Cold, but spring. Generally 50 degrees is about the coldest that I will bike. The sun makes a big difference, of course. So far the temperatures have been just about 5 degrees too cold to ride and enjoy it. It was a little too cold (and a little too windy) to ride the two Tuesdays after St. Patrick's Day. I did get to ride last Saturday though. There was a peek-a-boo sun and wind. I was able to ride against the wind going out (averaging a sprightly 9.9 mph) and with the wind coming back (total ride average: 11.7). I'm revisiting my old routes one at a time. There is still a lot of debris left over from the snow melt here. There is supposed to be a cleanup for the Final Four but it hasn't reached my neighborhood yet.

I'm up to rider 625 as far as processing PALM applications. We've hit a snag though. Vickie, who does the intial processing (correcting all the errors, filling out all the sheets for the accountant, etc.), tripped and broke a bone in her right hand. Her job entails writing. She and the applications were down in Florida then, but she's back in Michigan now. At first she was going to let Ellie take over, but she thinks that she can still do it, cast and all. I won't get any more applications until the PALM meeting on Sunday (Palm Sunday!) In the meantime, Vickie's sent emails to everyone whose application she has (and who gave us an email address) to calm people's jitters.

The Garden Resource program's seed distribution took place on Monday. I got 13 packets of seeds, more than I can possibly plant. It seems a little early to think about actually planting. I just got the seeds as an act of faith. I haven't even thought about raking up the leaves that I'm using as mulch and clearing out the dead flowers that I left for the birds in the garden, let alone preparing it for planting. I'm supposed to get plants in two weeks. We'll have to see about that. But I'm starting to see rabbits so we must be closer than I think.

St. Patrick's Day

Although you may not be able to tell it, I am plodding thru the applications. I'm up to 515, about 2/3 of the way thru. We still are getting applications from all over: Washington, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma in this last batch. More families are registering and a few more people who weren't on the PALM mailing list (and so didn't get an application mailed to them). But there are people who I know have registered that I have not seen yet.

Tuesday was in the 50's and, since we have daylight savings time in effect and have plenty of daylight, we did our normal Tuesday night bike ride downtown. It was St Patrick's Day so we were a little worried about biking after work. We did go by Nancy Whiskey's by Tiger Stadium. It's on the other side of I-94 as far as Corktown is concerned, but it must be an Irish bar: there were 3 buses there and the parking was so dense we could hardly get our bikes thru. We pass goats on our route and they are still there. They have been joined by a pig. I wonder how that's going to work out.

The most surprising thing was the traffic on Belle Isle: there were two full lanes of traffic going over the bridge to Belle Isle and they were moving. Generally if your going to Belle Isle at 5:30 you're there to see and be seen. You're not going fast and you're stopping a lot. If you are on Belle Isle, you're not going anywhere. Not so on St. Patrick's Day. It was like rush hour.

One thing I learned on Tuesday: don't expect to do the same rides that you did at the end of the summer when you are first starting out in the spring. Like I said, we did our normal 24 mile ride at an easy pace. We started out well, but we were crawling at the end and biking wasn't fun. Even if you are in shape, you use different muscles biking. My back was hurting by the end. I should have done a shorter route so that we could have finished comfortably and felt good about our ride. Don't make my mistake. But if you do (or did), don't be discouraged. It's not spring yet.

Badger suggestions

Toe Clips

For those less experienced riders, hybrid riders, and mountain bike riders there is a strapless toe clip.  I found four different brands that could be ordered through Emery's where I work and I am sure these and probably others are available through any good bike shop.  These clips position your foot properly on the pedal, give you a little bit of pull up ability and do not trap your foot at all.  See if you can find these at your local bike shop or at least have them look in their catalogs so you can see what they look like.

Prices are approximate.

1. Zefal half toe clips, sizes S, M, L, XL $12.These are probably the best because they match to the shoe size of the rider and result in the best foot position on the pedal.
2. Delta strapless $8
3. Cyclist mini toe clip $6
4. Winwood mini-clips $6
   

Anybody riding with platform pedals would benefit from using this type of toe clip.


Towels

Here is a trick we have found and use whenever we travel or camp out to save space and we never have to dry a towel from day to day or pack a damp towel in with our dry clothes.  All riders could use this idea.

Go to Ace Hardware in the auto department and buy an absorber towel for about $14.  It comes in a plastic storage tube.  Get it soaking wet, fold, roll and wring it out and it is ready for use.  At the end of my shower I get it wet, just before I turn off the water.  I do the fold, roll and wring routine and the towel will dry my whole body better than any cotton towel around.  When I am dry, I do the fold, roll, and wring routine and put the towel in the storage tube until my next shower.  After a trip we wash our absorbers with our regular clothes but do not dry them, we just fold, roll and put them in their tubes.  If a long time passes between uses and they dry out, we soak the towel in water for about 10 minutes and they are just like new and ready to go.  They are very durable as well, ours are in about their 5th year.

See, something good does come out of Wisconsin.

--the Big Kahuna

Spring is Closer

It's getting close to biking weather. The temperatures are popping above 50 every once in a while and, at least in SE Michigan, there is no snow. After this week's heavy rains there is ice, but no snow cover. With the time change, it's still light when I leave work. I could bike after work, not for long, but I could bike. I try to ride every month. So far I've gotten rides in January and February (and in Michigan), now I need to check March off the list. Our bikes are tuned up and ready to go. Any day now.

I got a new batch of applications to enter and my application was among them: 396 and 397. Not a very low number for somebody who is actually working on registration. The bike shops that travel with us, D&K bikes and Diane Ruggles, have registered and some SAGs. Out of 47 riders, I only had to add the full address for one. The rest of the people were already on the mailing list (and so I could enter them quicker). That should change as I get to the later applications. I'm beginning to see people who emailed us asking if we've gotten their applications. And we've gotten our first 90 year old rider.

PALM is for everyone. It's one of the things that I like about PALM. The daily mileages are such that you don't have to be an athlete to ride PALM, just be in shape. You don't have to worry that you'll stand out if you are older. There are lots of us on the ride. You don't have to worry if you're a woman: it's about 50/50, men and women. You don't have to worry about bringing your kids. There are plenty of kids. You don't have to worry that you'll be too slow: we have people who ride with one kid on a tagalong towing another kid in a bugger. You don't have to worry that you've never done this before: about 1/3 of our riders have never ridden PALM and most of them have never done a week long bike trip before. And you should see the assortment of bikes that people ride! Everything from 30 year old Schwinns to tandems where the riders are facing different directions. We do offer longer optional routes each day but the last and I suppose you could go fast, but what's the point? Why miss your chance to see the things that you go by? If something looks interesting, why not stop?

Bike Feast

We had a weather pattern here: start off the week with mornings in the single digits and end it on Friday with a day in the 50's. (Last Friday it set a record for the date at 67.) But now it's decided that rain is the new pattern. We've gotten inches of rain. If it freezes, we are in trouble.

Saturday I got my bike back from shop already for the summer. It was a day late: the rain had already started. But Saturday night was the Bike Feast. This event was started 23 years ago by the Downriver Cycle Club and three other local bike clubs. It takes place about a month before biking season starts (and after about 3 months of winter) and gives a chance for bicyclists who haven't been able to bike for months to talk about biking. This year it was sponsored by LMB. In past years you had to bring a dish to pass. This year we ate off china and used real silverware. I don't remember ever using real silverware as a bicyclist. There was a drawing for free registations to upcoming rides and I won one for the Farm Lakes tour. A woman presented a slide show of a tour of Utah. The views were spectacular, but I noticed that she always took pictures at the top of the climbs. There were lots of signs warning of 6%, 10% grades. She said that the climbs were gradual but the descents were steep. She zoomed by any pictures of herself: helmet hair.

Since LMB sponsored the dinner, they passed out copies of the 2009 ride calendar and the current LMB Quarterly magazine. And who was featured in a long article: Kevin Degen who was with us at the Feast. It was great spending a couple of hours talking about biking. Afterwards we had to go home in a cold, hard rain. But did I mention that I saw the first robins in my neighborhood yesterday?

PALM Meeting

We had a PALM meeting last Sunday. I was hoping that we would have almost all the applications entered except maybe for some late staff by the meeting, but such no luck. We have completely processed 389 riders so far, about half. As I've mentioned before, all applications that didn't make the cutoff date of Feb 3 were mailed back on Feb 13. If you mailed in your application before Feb 3 and didn't receive your application back, you are on the ride. Until Vickie processes your application she won't cash your check, so don't be worried if your check hasn't been cashed. If you're still worried, email us. Vickie has alphabetized all the applications that she is processing so she can check to see if you're there.

We got a report on all the sites at the meeting. Things there are going well. Meal menus are pretty set. Entertainment has been arranged. The Stanton site co-ordinator said that the only food outlets in town are McDonalds and Subway. The downturn in the auto industry has caused the three downtown restaurants to close. Monday night might be a good night to pay for a PALM dinner. We got a look at this year's t shirt. If you thought last year's shirt was bright, wait until you see this year's shirt. The staff wanted to be sure that if you wore the PALM shirt while biking that you would be seen. They succeeded. I can't wait until this year's PALM parade. All the spectators will be squinting.

I've taken a look at the breakdown at the PALM riders so far. I would expect that the first applications received would be from former PALM riders. I remember adding only a handful of complete addresses when I was entering the applications. From this perspective, there should be only a handful of new riders. In fact 103 of the 389 riders that I've registered so far are first timers: 26%. Since I only entered a few addresses, this means that the first time riders were all on the mailing list. This shows that if you want to ride PALM and you've never ridden PALM before, you've got to get on the mailing list. (Former PALM riders are automatically on the mailing list.)

We already have 32 riders in their 70's and 7 riders in their 80's registered. Typically the 10 thru 19 year old age bracket is one of the two top age brackets. So far there are 49 riders in this age bracket as compared to 93 riders in their 50's and 101 riders in their 60's. This is low. I've found that families register later than individuals. With this year's Feb 3 cutoff date, I hope that they had enough time.

More Applications

Now this is winter in Michigan. When I ran on Friday it was 52 degrees, today it is 10 degrees, and last Tuesday it was 8 degrees. This is what I expect, not 6 weeks where it doesn't get above freezing. Even though it is cold, all the snow and ice are gone in SE Michigan. You can see the debris that's gathered over 2 months but you can't do anything about it: it's all frozen in the ground. I once tripped on a piece of cloth on a sidewalk that was frozen solid. At least there is baseball being played in Florida and articles on the Tigers in the paper. I followed my own advice and took the bikes in to have them tuned up for the summer. I may not have to pick them up for a while though.

I got more applications to process. We are now up to 389 riders registered so we are about half way. There were a lot of the staff in this batch, but not mine. If you got a email/call from Vickie about a mistake/omission you made on your application, you are not alone. I made a mistake in the money and had to send her a new check. My number could be in the 500's. PALM riders do come from all over. In this last batch we had riders from North Carolina, Colorado, New York, and Kansas. The great majority of the riders are from Michigan but from all over Michigan. Lots of small towns.

Paczki Day

More applications today. Now we are up to 332 riders. I'm even beginning to see applications from the PALM staff. Not mine though. I mailed mine in on Jan 25, two days after I got it. This year that meant that I was mailing it in late. I wrote a check for the wrong amount, which meant that Vickie had to call me up and tell me to mail her the right amount. It looks like I'm part of the problem as well as part of the solution. It will be a while before I see my application.

One of the nice things about living close to Hamtramck is paczkis. (I even know how pronounce the word.) It's one last indulgence before Lent, made from more butter, eggs, and sugar then you could belive possible. Each paczki is 450 calories. It's a Polish tradition but I buy them from the Danish bakery by my house. (All the Polish bakeries in Hamtramck are owned now by people from the Balkans as is my Danish bakery.) I'm originally from Flint and I didn't know about paczkis until I moved here. It was an easy transition to make: the Poles have it all over the Irish here.

When I run in the morning I turn down the same street that I bike. I'm very used to seeing this part of the road. When I run now, I can picture what the road looks like under the ice and snow. And when I do this, it's easy to imagine that I'm on my bike instead of running. Winter is losing its hold. Now is a good time to take your bike in to get it tuned up for PALM. If you do it now, you won't miss any days biking. Your bike shop isn't busy and they will be glad to see you. My bike shop is even having a sale, so I'll be taking mine in this weekend.

Am I on PALM?

We are getting this question a lot lately. On February 13 Ellie sent back all the applications with regrets that didn't make the cutoff. There were 170 of them. If you were too late to get on PALM, you should have received your returned application by now and know that you are not on PALM. If you mailed in your application before Feb 3 and haven't heard from us, then the odds are very good that you are on PALM.

PALM does not have a waiting list. What we do is register 750 riders by accepting everybody that we get on the cutoff date, this year Feb 3. Then we count on 50 riders having to cancel to bring us down to the 700 rider limit. This has worked pretty well the last 2 years: the extra riders we accept act as waiting list, but they don't have to wait. Why do we have a 700 rider limit? We stay at schools and use their facilities. Schools are not hotels and some of them are small, especially in the northern part of the state. 700 riders is about what they (and our volunteer staff) can handle.

I got another packet of applications to process. With these, we are up to 283 applications processed. I'm the one who mails out the confirmation letters. I figure I'm working on applications that were mailed about Jan 23. I'll mail these out tomorrow so some of you will start receiving them on Monday, but, as you can tell, we are way behind. So far only a couple of riders have had to be added to the database from scratch. Everybody else I've processed are people who were on the mailing list, either at their request or because they have ridden PALM before. This shows that if you want to be on PALM, it is very important to be on the mailing list.

To stay in shape over the winter I run outside. I've decided that the hard part about running in winter is the snow, not the cold. Running on ruts of worn down snow and watching for patches of ice is tiring. The cold you can dress for, at least down to 5 degrees. When I got back from Florida all the snow had melted but it was still cold. I was able to run as well here as I did when I was on vacation. But, no use. There's more snow on the way this weekend.

Back From Florida

I came back from Florida last night about 9:30. There was already a packet of applications waiting for me to process. This will bring the number of riders up to 203 when I enter them tonight. I checked the day's emails and Vickie wrote me that she sent another packet of applications yesterday. I've got to hurry.

Vickie emailed me later last night to tell me that I messed up my application and that I needed to send her a corrected check. I mailed my application on January 25. She is just now getting to my application. If you mailed your application on January 25 or later, don't worry if you haven't gotten a confirmation or had your check cashed. This is proof that we haven't gotten to your application yet.

We stayed in Jacksonville Beach. Since we were on the east coast and we stayed on the beach, I got to watch sunrise starting when it was still dark and the moon cast shadows to when the sun rises out of the sea to cast a different shadow and all the steps in between. There were two days when there were no clouds (unlike Michigan). Of course, it did rain one day and, since we were in northern Florida, the temperature only got up to 65. Enough for short sleeve shirts, but not enough for shorts. I guess you need Tampa or Orlando for shorts.

I did bring back a cold from Florida. I'm glad that I have a day to transition back to winter here. (It's going to be 38 today before dropping to 25 tomorrow.) Maybe I'm lucky that it wasn't 75 or 80 there. Then 25 would have killed me.

Alternatives To PALM

As many of you know, PALM filled very quickly this year, and we have turned away a large number of potential riders. I think that PALM is a fairly unique ride in that we keep most of our daily distances to a maximum of about 50 miles, and we try to have a ride that appeals to a wide variety of ages, abilities, and biking experiences. However, there are other rides in Michigan and our surrounding states that you might decide to try as an alternative to or in addition to PALM. I will list some of them in this blog entry, and you can get details by checking out the web sites. As far as I can determine, these rides have not yet filled.

The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. www.goba.com. June 20-27, a 7 day loop ride. From what I have been told, this ride attracts the same variety of participants as PALM does. Like PALM, each year GOBA follows a different route, and this year's ride starts in Norwalk in northwest Ohio. The 7 days include 5 riding days of 45-60 miles each, with 2 layover days that include optional loop rides or alternate activities including a trip to Lake Erie or even Cedar Point. The ride limit is 3000, and the fee does not include meals. GOBA has an excellent web site, with lots of details about the ride and an excellent rider handbook.

Across Ohio Bicycle Adventure (XOBA). July 25 to August 1. www.outdoor-pursuits.org/xoba/ The ride is limited to 250 participants. This year's route will travel from Eaton to Youngstown, with some days relatively flat and others very hilly. The daily distances range from 52 to 74 miles, with a total of 405 miles. This year’s ride appears to have an ice cream emphasis.

TRIRI. Touring Ride Across Rural Indiana. June 21-27. www.triri.org. This year's route is in southwestern Indiana and includes 3 days of 65 miles, and 3 layover days with optional loops.

Rides sponsored by the League of Michigan Bicyclists. www.lmb.org. The League sponsors several rides, including the Sunrise Adventure June 19-21. Their other 2 rides all have longer days and challenging hills.

If you want even more options, you can go to www.nbtda.com, and search for rides all over the country.

We sincerely hope that all of you find a biking adventure that you can enjoy in 2009, and we hope that you will be able to join us on PALM in 2010.

Ellie, PALM Mail Granny

Feb 10: 58 degrees

58 degrees was a record for February 10 in Detroit. During the summer we do a Tuesday night ride around downtown. We start whenever the temperature gets above 50. By then the days are long enough to ride. Well, when it was Tuesday and it was above 50, I rode my bike downtown. I didn't do the official route. I rode from work to (and around) Elmwood Cemetary, to (and around) Belle Isle, to Earthworks Garden, and back to work. I rode at noon instead of after work. Since I rode in the middle of a school day, there wasn't much traffic and there was lots of sunlight. As I mentioned before, unlike my neighborhood, all the ice on the roads was gone downtown and most of the snow was melted on the grass. Elmwood was beautiful and riding around Belle Isle was great. There were puddles and there were still Canadian geese and swans. It convinced me that spring was a possibility and I think I know what it will look like. I know winter will be back soon and it will be bad, but I sure appreciated the break.

The next two days were also in the 50s. All 15 inches of ice covered snow melted in my yard. All the ice in my driveway melted. Even my compost heap thawed out. Of course, the rain helped. It makes me wonder why I'm going away to Florida this weekend. That will mean that I won't be processing applications again until next Wednesday, Feb 17. I got some today that I will do tonight, but that will only get us up to 153. I mailed my application on Jan 26 and I'm not in the 153. Unless you mailed your application before Jan 26 there is no way we could have processed it yet. Don't worry.

So far Ellie has mailed back 170 applications with regrets. We really hate doing this, Ellie especially. All of the staff are volunteers who have done this ride for years and really love it. (Ellie's done it 25 years.) To turn someone away from something you yourself love and that you know they would love too is very upsetting. If you mailed in your application after Jan 26, you don't want to hear from us until, say, next Thursday.

PALM Riders

I've entered the applications for 91 PALM riders so far. I shuffle through the applications before I enter them to see if I recognize anybody. I would have expected only familiar names and people from Michigan in first 100 riders, but I was wrong. We already have riders from 8 states, including Pennsylvania, Missouri, New York, and Virginia and I didn't recognize that many names . I would also expect that younger riders would be the earliest to sign up since the Internet is their friend. Wrong again: we have 21 riders in their 60's and 8 riders 70 and over signed up already. PALM riders continue to surprise me.

This is the weekend of the Winter Blast in Detroit. After a month of being in the 20's and 5 days of a temperature below zero, the temperature reached 50 yesterday. Everything is melting. I still can't see the grass, but now I can notice that my car is filthy. This will increase attendance at the Winter Blast, but now they'll have to make snow for the snow slide. Where is the justice?

Our friend Shelley threw a party Sunday for her Saturday bike ride crew at her apartment downtown. It was a beautiful day, not as warm as Saturday but bright sunlight. While the streets where I live have big puddles and the occasional chunk of polished ice, the streets downtown were dry: no puddles, no ice and pretty deserted. We were kicking ourselves: why didn't we bring our bikes? The party was great: lots of food and biking videos. Maybe spring and biking is a possibility after all.

First PALM Applications

I got my first 24 PALM applications to process for 2009 yesterday. I'm using these to check out the programs and the confirmation letters for the new year. As I expected most of the people were former PALM riders, but there were people who were added to the mailing list this year and a couple of people who have never been on PALM. I'm wondering how many first time riders we are going to have who aren't on the mailing list. Since we put the application on the web site a week after we mailed it out, these people would have had only one week to (maybe) find PALM, discover that the application was on the web site, download it, and mail it in. Not a lot of time.

I checked the applications, programs, and confirmation letters after I entered first 24. Sure enough, there was a bug in the confirmation letter if you got the bus to Whitehall after the ride and a small formatting problem. I fixed them and the first confirmations have been mailed. This leaves me with 700 to go. But the way I look at it, since we got our first applications two weeks ago Saturday, I'm only 2 weeks behind. This will work up to Wednesday. Two weeks ago Wednesday we got the applications for 181 riders. I'll be working on Wednesday's applications for a while.

I got another batch of 67 applications on Saturday. We've been helped by the rain in Florida. When the sun shines, Vickie rides her bike, otherwise what's the point of being in Florida? She's emailed me that she already sent me another batch after the Saturday applications. It looks like we have the registration machine stoked up.

PALM Is Filled!

Ellie picked up the mail today. There are over 700 riders that have signed up for PALM. We have reached our limit so, as of Feb 3, PALM is officially closed. Last year we filled in a little over 3 weeks on February 19. This year we filled in less than two weeks. This is really amazing, given the winter we're having. Who can believe in spring?

Vickie has hundreds of applications that she's working on. With the big rush to mail in the applications, there were a lot of errors: missing checks, signatures, names, etc. It's going to take time to contact each rider to get the errors corrected. I have the easy job: I enter the corrected applications into my PC and send out confirmation letters, but I have no applications. Tomorrow I will get the first small batch so I can test the program for this year. I'm looking forward to it but I'm 700 applications behind. It's going to be weeks before I catch up. Spring training and Lent will have started before I'm done. Please try to be patient.

There is no easy way for us to tell you whether you are on the ride or not. The applications are spread out between three people in different geographic locations. Any effort we make to determine whether an application made it in time takes away from the effort to enter it and mail out the confirmation. Even if we did compile a list of people who are on the ride, what would we do with it? Use it to send emails? Isn't that what the confirmation letters are for? Post it on the internet? Personally, I wouldn't be happy if my name was on the internet. I get enough spam as it is. Does anybody have any ideas?

I'm going to spend the last free night that I will have for a while packing vegetable seeds into envelopes for the Garden Resource Program. I've heard back from the Michigan Land Bank. I'm still on track for leasing a lot two blocks from my house for gardening. At least one neighbor there is all for it. And I have another meeting next week on a proposed community garden. I've taken pictures of one proposed site. It's completely covered in snow (surprise!) so it's hard to visualize a garden there and it's a long way from a source of water.

PALM Filling Fast

The applications are still coming in. Currently 571 riders have sent in their applications. Our limit is 700 riders. It looks like the ride will close Tuesday or Wednesday. If you mail your application today, you may or may not get on PALM depending on your geographic proximity to Ann Arbor. (The people we mailed applications to in England and Norway are in trouble.) Mail the application in anyway. We don't keep a waiting list. Instead we accept 50 or so riders over the 700 limit, generally by accepting all applications on the cutoff date. Then we count on cancellations to bring us down to the 700 limit. Since we started reaching the rider limit, about 50 riders cancel every year: things come up in June that you couldn't know in February/March. In the years where we didn't fill early, we had about 15 cancellations.

No January thaw this year, but February is starting out nicely: it's 33 degrees and the sun is shining. I don't remember the last time it was above freezing. The paper said that we've already gotten twice as much snow as an average winter but it seems a lot more since none of it has gone away. What we've gotten (42 inches of snow so far) in SE Michigan is nothing compared to west Michigan with their lake affect snow, but with the cold, our mobility has really been affected. We seem to be in a snow cave.

We did get out to see the Ann Arbor Folk Festival last night at a sold out Hill Auditorium. One of the headliners was Pete Segeer who is 80 years old. He was in a band with his grandson and Woody Guthrie's granddaughter. The highlight of the evening was Pete Segeer lining out Amazing Grace, doing the call, and the entire audience of 4000 doing the response. That was followed by all the performers and all of the audience singing This Land Is Your Land. It was amazing. I felt sorry for the performers that had to follow.

New Single Day Application Record

Yesterday we had 285 riders signed up for PALM. Yesterday's mail had 101 applications in it with 181 riders on them: a new one day record. Now we have 466 riders and, with a rider limit of 700, the ride is 2/3 full. It looks like PALM will fill before the middle of next week. If you sent in your application already, good. If there are people that you are hoping to see on PALM, call them and make sure they have sent in their application. If they haven't sent it in yet, tell them to do so immediately and then light a candle. (Click here for an application.) We've started to make our calls: the oldest rider from last year (90) has mailed his in. Gino has mailed his in. Others we reminded.

If you've mailed in your application already, you're on the ride but your check won't be cashed nor will you get a confirmation for weeks. Let me outline the PALM registration process. First Ellie picks up the mail. She dates and opens the envelopes to count the number of people. Then she sends batches of applications to Vickie in Florida. Vickie checks the applications and assigns rider numbers: all the signatures there? emergency contact? dollars add up? 20% of the applications have errors. Then she has to call people up, get them to correct the errors, and send new checks, applications. When the application is correct, she gathers the info that the accountant uses and then sends the applications to me in Michigan. I enter the corrected applications into my home PC and generate confirmation letters that I mail to you in the self addressed, stamped envelope that you have provided. (Later I'll generate bus lists, meal lists, and the mailing list for next year's applications from what I've entered.) So where are we in the process? The applications have come in so fast that Vickie has yet to get the 1st one. So Vickie and I are 466 applications behind. You won't get your confirmation letter for weeks.

FAQs:

Why can't I register for PALM online? It costs money to do that (I pay $5 to register for races) and we work for free. It will take us a few weeks, but the ride isn't until June and we save riders money. Plus we have a lot of riders who are not friends with the internet.

Why isn't my check cashed? Vickie doesn't cash the checks until she verifies that the applications are correct and 20% of the applications have errors.

If I made a mistake on my application, will I miss PALM? No. Vickie assigns you a rider number and a place on PALM while you correct your application and/or send her the proper amount.

You have mail

Ellie picked up the PALM mail on January 27. We now have applications for 165 riders. This is what we experienced last year when the ride was filled by February 19. Ellie said that she got 8 Express mail applications so these 165 are probably the riders who were in line outside the store waiting for it to open, but still it looks like the economic times may not be affecting PALM too drastically.

In any case, our limit is 700 riders and we are 20% there. You might be saying to yourself: it's January, how do I know if I'll be ready for PALM in June? How do I know my family's schedule? Suppose you have to cancel. It will cost an individual $15 to cancel before May 15. If all of your family is on one application, it will cost your family $20 total to cancel by May 15. If you think you can do it or if you've always wanted to do something like this, sign up. It's not like an airline ticket. It won't cost you much if you change your mind.

It's been a week since the PALM applications have been mailed 1st class. If you are on the mailing list, you should have received your application by now. If you haven't then you are never going to get it. If you need an application, click here to download one. I'll be adding this link to the website tonight.

I Sent in My Application

I got my PALM application on Thursday, but I live 45 miles away from where they were mailed. I got an email from PALMsters in Arkansas and Nebraska. They just got their applications on Saturday. It looks like its taking a bit longer for the 1st class mail to be delivered. Give yourself a few more days before you panic. I'm mailing in my application tomorrow, but you'll be glad to know that the riders in Nebraska and Arkansas have already beaten me. It's the quick and the dead.


I talked to Ellie who picks up the PALM mail. Only 5 applications came in on Friday, about 20 on Saturday. Last year the applications started coming in with a bang. The real test will be at the start of the week. If we get a lot of applications then we could be in for a repeat of last year when we reached our 700 rider limit on February 19. We've had a lot of people asking to be added to the mailing list, but I've also had people telling me that they are going to be registering now, but paying for their meals later. We won't know anything more until Tuesday or Wednesday because Ellie is off cross country skiing in northern Michigan. At least she stayed in Michigan and didn't go to Florida.

Currently I'm working in downtown Detroit. I was by the downtown library at lunch and what did I see? A robin. It's 22 degrees and there is a foot of icy snow on the ground which has been there for weeks and I see a fat robin. A robin and a PALM application in the same week. This can't be a coincidence.

Inaugural Day

I live in Detroit. The last presidential election had a special resonance for people in Detroit. Election day was magical. I run before work and decided to run by the school where I vote. The lines were already outside the school and across the lawn almost to the street. This never happens. I decided to take a late lunch and vote in the middle of the afternoon. When I voted there was still a line. I'm generally voter 200. I was voter 577. I drove by the polls just before they closed. They were deserted: everybody had already voted. No one wanted to be left out.

Inauguration Day was another special day. My brother's wife is retired. She has a brother in DC, realized that it meant she had a place to stay, so she went to the inauguration. My neighbor across the street took her daughter out of school and got on a bus so that they could be at the inauguration. Our Community House had an almost impromptu pot luck to watch the inauguration on a big screen. It was a bitterly cold, festive day in Detroit.

It seems fitting that the first Garden Resource pot luck was held on inauguration day: new beginnings. Even though it was bitterly code and it was the night of the inauguration, the pot luck was packed. Last year the number of people in the Garden Resource Program increased by 45%. This year family gardens are going to get 32 packets of seeds and 138 plants for $10. These people are very serious about encouraging locally grown food. They have free classes on composting, gardening, canning, etc and have setup a program to help you sell any extra produce that you have at local farmer's markets. This is literally a grassroots organization.

And the next day I got my Johnny's Seed Catalog. Even though there is 18 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is in the single digits, I'm excited.

And They're Off

The PALM applications were mailed off on Wednesday Jan 21. We got our application in the mail today, but we are only 45 miles from where they were mailed. We mail applications 1st class, so, if you are on our mailing list, you should your application tomorrow. If you haven't gotten an application by Monday, the chances are you are not going to get an application by mail. The application is not on the web site yet. I'll put it there Tuesday so you'll be able to download it. This is important because last year we filled up by Febuary19, 3 weeks after we mailed them out. If this year is like last year (and we've been getting a lot of inquiries about our ride), time is of the essence.

The latest PALM meeting was last Sunday. Last Saturday the weather was horrible, even for winter. It was below zero in the morining, then it snowed 6-8 inches during the day with wind. I was on the expressway on Saturday night (fool) and you couldn't see the lanes. You could drive 30 mph, but at 35 you would start losing contol. So I was really looking forward to driving to Lansing. But once I got past Novi on I-96, it wasn't a problem. When I got to the meeting in Lansing, there were staff from all over the state there: Muskegon, Columbiaville, Three Rivers, Coldwater, etc. Hardy people. We were able to distribute applications to everyone to take back to their bike shops, bike clubs, and friends. (That's another way to get an application.) So I was able to mail off applications to all the Canadians on the mailing list on Monday. They may get all the low rider numbers.

We all know times are tough. You may have enough for the registration, but not have enough money to pay for meals and bus rides just yet. You may want to wait until you have all the money before you submit your application. You don't have to. You can send in the registration fee now ($110 for riders 18 and over, $65 for riders 11 thru 17, and $55 for riders 10 and under) and reserve your spot on PALM and send in money for meals and buses later (before May 15 though). Even though every bit of green is under 18 inches of snow and the roads are not fit for cars, never mind bikes, watch for that PALM application. Summer starts when you mail it in.

Deep Freeze

This is not the week to consider going biking. It was 6 degrees below zero this morning in Detroit, the coldest that it's been in years. Tomorrow its supposed have a wind chill of 20 below and on top of that snow 3 to 5 inches. I'm still trying to figure out how that's going to happen. (It was actually closer to 6 to 8 inches of snow.) I've had to run inside that last couple of days, something I never do. I'm back working downtown and I can tell you that when its below zero, there are no ice skaters at Campus Martius. We have so much snow now I wonder what they are going to do for the Winter Blast. I think all the cars at the Auto Show are going to have chains on their tires. I went to a meeting on Wednesday night at 7:00 PM to start organizing a community garden in my neighborhood. There must have been 25-30 people there, all of them desparate to see even a single blade of grass. And its only the beginning of January!

Right in the middle of this, what do I get? A link from Amanda August to her pictures of PALM. Just in time. The sun is out. People are smiling and wearing t shirts. There are about 100 pictures of the PALM parade at the end of the ride. (Her mom was trying to get pictures of as many different people as possible.) Thank you, Amanda.

Snow Day

I was able to get home Friday evening but it started snowing overnight and didn't stop until 5:00 PM on Saturday. We got about 8 inches which is a lot for us. This gave me time to work on PALM. I had my annual battle with Mail Merge and completed the confirmation letter that I will be sending out after I process the applications (and which I will mail to you in the self addressed, stamped envelope that you will remember to send to me). Is there any decent tutorial on Word's Mail Merge anywhere that covers things like optional text and how to make Mail Merge fields appear in the Word document? Forget Word Help. It tells you how to create labels, but nothing deeper. The best I've been able to find by searching with Google is company/university instructions to their employees/students on how to use Mail Merge . There's got to be something more organized than that. (The label part works well. It was very easy to create the mailing labels I needed for the Canadians on our mailing list from scratch. And I found out that Scar, ON is really Scarborough, Ontario if you're Canadian.)

Once again Andy Vast Binder plotted the PALM proposed daily routes in MapMyRide. You can find them by using the Key Words PALM 28 in Advanced Search on the MapMyRide site. I added links to the maps to the PALM website. You'll notice that the Miles on the PALM 2009 Route table are hyperlinks. Click these links to get to Andy's MapMyRide routes.

What else to do on a snow day? The Free Press had an article about seed catalogs on Saturday, so as the snow was coming down, I was ordering my free Johnny's Seed Catalog on the web. I found out that you can lease a lot for a garden from the Michigan Land Bank for $50 a year. I went to their website and found a vacant lot that I can lease two blocks from my house.

Do you see a problem with what I've been writing about? It's winter and it will be winter for 3 months and everything that I've been writing about and doing is about spring and summer. Obviously this is a guy who hasn't embraced winter. It's not that I don't go outside. For instance, I had to take a picture of the vacant lot for my garden to send in with my application. (All you see is snow in the picture. I could send a blank sheet of paper with the application and it be the same thing.) And I do get the paper from off the front porch. But the best I can come up with for a winter activity is going to Florida, which is pretty bad for someone who's lived all his life in Michigan.