Written from Edmonton, Canada. Saturday evening. Some of our partners have arrived, some remain in transit due to delays at Heathrow. Not unusual. My fourth week in Canada, one full week ahead.

I thought about bringing my bike, and decided not. I would only have had 5 or 6 days of riding, and Edmonton does not represent my idea of a good bike town. It has paved bike paths along the river and through the campus, but no serious hills.

I did bring my running shoes, but without real confidence about how much I could run on a very sore right heel. With some rest and with some yoga / stretching (may I recommend the book 'The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga' by Sage Roundtree), combined with nice weather and very nice soft running paths on the route mapped above, I have had two good weeks of running.

I have run 10 days of the past 15, with 30 km one week and 41 km this past week. I can't claim perfect smooth pain-free running, or a lack of pain afterwards, but I have done a lot more than I thought possible. I should get another longish easy run, 10k or more, tomorrow. On paths like the one above.

Weather predicted to turn colder, and from tomorrow evening I have three very full days, morning to evening every day. Perhaps a run or two at the end of the week, then on my way home.

Le Tour, my tour and a tour

Le Tour ended as expected, Contador well ahead. As expected at least by those not within the LA cult. I think he showed amazing strength and endurance in this tour, for any age. Chapeau, as they say. But I think the American reporters and American fans gave him a ridiculous amount of attention - every day, every performance, every comment. For this group, Lance could and should win any day, time trial or climb, and if Contador did not cooperate, either passively by losing, or actively by riding LA's race rather than his own, then blame and condemn Contador for a lack of team cooperation. Contador put time on LA in every stage that mattered, and put time on everyone else almost easily, whenever he wanted. He earned this win. Many very strong young riders showed their strength - Contador, Schleck, Nibali, Martin, Wiggins.

My tour - a nice bike ride this morning. Rode easily yesterday, planned a longish ride in the Cambridge hills today, multiple loops to get maximum amount of climbing - really the Cambridge hills need a gentler verb than 'climb' - per ride. But when I saw the low wind speeds early, unusual for East Anglia, I knew I had to try a fast loop. Glad I did.

A tour - here, I use the word in the sense of a trip, a visit. We would like to have our summer options settled, so that we could, perhaps, plan a trip (tour) to see the boys. But we need to resolve the Oregon option, one way or another, first. With that option, we would try to arrange a trip, quickly, for resettlement reasons and to see Gus and Sam. Without that option, we realized this week, we probably can't afford trips in either direction this summer; we might plan smaller tours locally. I thought, after all the fussing about video conferences and board meetings at the weekend, that we would know something by now. Soon, I hope. Soon.

Only the shoes

Bicycles again. Madingley loop again today, on the ride home from work. My 6th or 7th time on that route, sometimes with more than one loop, in the last ten days. Convenient in unsettled weather. But at the weekend I took the Black Sheep on two longer rides, other routes. Good rides, on a completely silent bike - finally no squeaks! Now, in the rare moments of smooth pavement and light wind, I can hear the noise of my shoes, a gentle quiet creak of leather on leather. Sounds olde. And slow.

We went to London yesterday, to join friends from Boulder for dinner - they have come to England for a few weeks of scientific visits. Mary Lou and I went early to visit the Royal Mews. About as close to the royalty and palaces as I want to get. Only a few (four) horses, but we did enjoy the audio tour.

What a colossal waste of funds, I think, all those fancy cars and carriages and clothes and harnesses. And who needs, really, a Master of the Horse? On the other hand, the royal support continues a tradition and craft that goes back 600 years. How, without royal support, could one imagine keeping fine carriages and fine horses? We did learn that The Queen personally selects which carriage for which event. Oh, well done. If we could only have the craft traditions without the royalty traditions.

We walked to a park along the Thames, unusual for its grass and trees (plane trees, of course) immediately at the river's edge. Most of the Thames through London has concrete and pavement. I call the little park we visited Parliament park, as it lies just up-river of the Parliament buildings. On the map it might have the label Millbank Park. From there we walked to meet our friends at their hotel, and then through James Park to dinner just off Trafalgar Square. We caught a distant glimpse of the fourth plinth; we will have to return for a more careful look.

Black Sheep again

I rode my Black Sheep bicycle this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Hammered a bit, both days. I have not ridden it since mid-June, more than three weeks. It continues to squeak, from the seat or the seat post. I disassembled and lubricated the seat mount yesterday; I will clean and lube the seat post next. Despite that annoying squeak it rides beautifully, fast and smooth.

Why haven't I ridden it for three weeks? Weather - I tend to ride the Surly in wet conditions. Travel - we had the week in Oregon and then I had the next week in Svalbard. Tiredness - from all the travel, I feel no need to ride the good bike if I don't have the energy to ride hard. Road conditions - many of the roads I ride had fresh chip seal (rocks in fresh tar) in the past two or three weeks, a good reason, especially in warm weather, not to ride your best bike. Uncertainty - about the Oregon job, about the IPO funding, about our summer plans, all distract me from my exercise goals. Then, a little rest, a bit of good weather, a renewed intensity, and back on the good bike - what a pleasure!

I devoted most of my time this weekend to video processing. I uploaded all the remaining Svalbard summer school video clips from the camera and built a nice 10-minute composite; I think Liz and the students will like it. This afternoon I took fresh video of Mary Lou on Tetley, and by the end of evening we had watched it twice and processed an extract for Mary Lou's blog. We will see if Tetley fans around the country, no, the hemisphere (!) can view it.

Back to the IPO office in BAS tomorrow, after several weeks of working mostly from home. The interim admin assistant starts tomorrow, next phase in the IPO. Both of us, Mary Lou and I, deal with swine flu in our workplaces. We prefer to believe what we read about partial immunity for people our age.

A busy trip to Svalbard

In the picture, five undergraduate students and one old guy puzzle over oceanographic data from a Svalbard fjord. The students come from (counter-clockwise) Germany, Netherlands, USA (Fairbanks), USA (Seattle - you can just see her nose and her finger to her mouth), and Norway (with his hand to his head). Do those small pulses in the near-surface salinity data correspond to weather events?

I felt their enthusiasm and energy and saw video of many of their activities so I know they enjoyed three weeks of exploration, adventure and research in Svalbard. I enjoyed spending most of the third week with them, 24 students in total. And I enjoyed working with the staff of the summer school, all of whom I know and all of whom give me credit for supporting this idea more than a year ago when it first popped up during a meeting in Strasbourg.

While setting up my first presentation to this group (on how to give a good presentation!), I already had a request: could I also speak about IPY to another larger international summer school, for PhD students sponsored by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research. Sure, if by doing it I save a friend and partner some work. Then, afternoon of the second day, while helping another friend set up her presentation, I got a call from Oslo: "Dave, I missed my flight, I know you are in Longyearbyen, can you speak to a group of business leaders on the topic Arctic Change with Global and European Impacts". Well, sure, I can do that one as well, by recycling and refreshing a presentation I gave a few weeks ago to the Nordic prime ministers, for this group: Council of Directors of European Industrial Federations.

Add a morning of listening to presentations by 'our' students, an afternoon of discussing and evaluating their posters, a few interviews, a few hours of processing videos, and an IPY presentation to the full UNIS (University Centre in Svalbard) staff, and I had few minutes to spare during a four-day visit. Everything worked well, I got complements on all the presentations, and I saw the students pick up many of my suggestions in their presentations. Finally, after several previous unsuccessful attempts, I managed to get all the way from Longyearbyen back to Cambridge in a single day.

On our 'Vacation'

I hurry to use this image on my blog before Mary Lou uses it on hers. We took fresh horse pictures yesterday - perhaps those will distract her for a few days. In this image I see us enjoying time together in a beautiful location, amidst turbulence and uncertainty.

As we departed Eden St for the rail station, the taxi driver gave us a fresh and friendly send-off, inquiring about our journey and interested in our plans. At the station we met, to our surprise, N.O., dressed, to our further surprise, for Ascot: top hat, tails, grey waistcoat, pressed shirt and pink tie, special Ascot trousers, polished plain-toe black oxford shoes. On the train he explained this mandatory apparel with good humour before we launched into an enjoyable discussion of the the periodic table and IPY chart. What will you do in Oregon?, he asked. I dissembled: friends, our kids born there, chance for some time together. But hadn't we already told the taxi driver about our job interview?

We flew Heathrow to Chicago, and then on to Portland. We had nice views of Greenland, but the flights, especially the second leg, seemed endless. We did have good leg room thanks to preferential seating on United. The immigration agent in Chicago also asked about our plans. Oregon, he asked? Middle of nowhere. Rather, we agreed, edge of nowhere. (Edge visible in the picture above.) Helpful driver to the car agency, drove the rental car to a hotel in central Portland, sleep. End of a long day.

Awake, exhaustion not withstanding, by 3 am. We opened the laptop, checked emails (particularly to find information about our accommodations in Newport, which we had not, until that point, received), and then explored. We identified the nearest Whole Food grocery and noted its opening time. We used our browsers and Google Earth to find the locations of horse boarding stables from a list sent to us, and we searched for additional equestrian centers. Planned our day's activities. I worked on my presentation. Arrived at Whole Foods as the doors opened for business. Should we eat breakfast first, or buy food supplies first? Too tired and hungry to make a decision, I think we did both.

We drove through quiet Sunday-morning Portland, noting of course the bicyclists, into the rich farmland and varied crops of the Willamette and Yamhill valleys, across the forested coast range, and finally down to the coast. We stopped for a view (picture above), a stretch, and a deep inhalation of the fresh fresh air. We continued through Newport south toward Waldport, to explore one possible horse boarding location, all the time enjoying the views, the trees, the hills, and the smooth roads. We toured the Aquarium together (as paying customers), picked up our access card for the guest condo, bought some food at the local coop, and arrived, finally, at our destination.

For the next three days we explored, primarily by car but occasionally on foot, Newport and its surroundings, assessing bike routes, bike stores, libraries (as we have not had one in Cambridge for nearly 3 years!), horse boarding possibilities, housing possibilities, and the beach and coast range environments. Oh, and I did two days of interviews, including a very positive (I felt) presentation to Aquarium staff. We felt welcomed and well-treated, and we enjoyed very nice weather. We visited friends in Corvallis and reminded ourselves of the long drive back to Portland. A couple tens of hours of travel and back to Cambridge.

What did you do on your 'vacation'?, people may ask. Enjoyed some time together in a beautiful location, rediscovered a part of Oregon that we knew only casually, and, perhaps, got a job.

A lowly sign

We had substantial rain during the morning, as forecast.  Mary Lou, developing the radar skills of a nowcaster - someone who predicts weather within the next 30 minutes to 2 hours, tracked the storm movement carefully, watched the trailing echos edge past Cambridge, and predicted the end of the rain and sufficient clearing for an afternoon at the barn.

So on our bikes we went, but following the paved route through the city rather than the gravel path along the river.  At about the fourth or fifth substantial turn, near the end of Izaak Walton Lane, I saw it.  A sign, an omen.  A slug, yellowish-green, on the wet pavement.

To the casual eye, unnoticeable amidst the abundant debris and garbage.  Even to the observant, just a slimy invertebrate.  But I, consumed with hopes and speculations while trying desperately to avoid too high hopes and wild speculations, saw the portent and meaning immediately.  Answer D: It is written.  You can tell which movie we enjoyed last evening.   

We did get to the barn un-dampened, although we crossed through some big puddles along the curbs and in the underpasses.   It rained briefly as we unpacked, donned boots, and set out the horse gear.  And we heard thunder often during the afternoon.  But overall, as Mary Lou predicted, we had a dry and pleasant afternoon.  It is written.