Big Dummy Ordered

G.O. at One on One Bicycle Studio was able to locate a frame for me...might come this Friday. I predict that 2008 will be the year of the utility bike. Look for continued excitement in the media, more long-tails showing up on the streets, and more positive trends for bikes as transportation and utilities. The image below is from surlybikes.com; visit the Frames section.

"...it hauls your groceries, tools, human and animal friends, surfboard, work duds, briefcase, vacuum cleaner, firewood, moonshine, camping gear, banjo, mulch, and anything else you can imagine, while providing the functionality, durability, and sweet ride characteristics that Surly bikes are known for. Use the Big Dummy for commuting to work, running errands, taking the kids to school, farm/yard work, touring, or just riding around cuz it’s fun."

P.S. I couldn't sleep today and woke up at 2:30 a.m. thinking about it. Guess it's time to ride to work....

The first photo is from the Surly blog. The next photo is not mine. Credit to Mountain Bike Review.

-14F & Still Biking Strong

My favorite biking season is winter. My favorite biking conditions are snow and ice. Have you ever ridden on freshly fallen snow? Sounds like squeaky marshmallows. How about packed snow at -14F? Sounds like pleasant but slightly unsettling alien metallic humming. Cracked ice at zero F = Rice Krispies on steroids. In the future I hope to prepare an audio file of these for your enjoyment. For now, here are some of my favorite winter images.

New House?

Current house (link)

New house? Slideshow below.

Give Me a Break...

...with THAT KIT KAT BAR! For the full commercial, visit this vintage video. For the full size image of what happens when you mix a Kit Kat with a Ghetto Mocha, click the delicious image. Photo credit: AQ.

P.S. Does mixing a Ghetto Mocha with a Kit Kat remind you of this?

My Next Bike?

Check it out at about 2 minutes:

When 9-Year-Olds Use Email

Click to expand. I laughed pretty hard seeing the apparent change in attitude after not getting responses fast enough. Funny to think of how kids new to email might not quite get the concept of asynchronous. The girl pretty well mastered attitude on email.

Can You Go a Year Without Buying New?

Check this out: http://www.startribune.com/business/13513951.html . I need to think about this.

I Like the Tall Bike

Winter Riding

Here are a few shots of Alex and I goofing around in the driveway.

Family Fun

Family fun, compliments of Susan Reid.

Mother Died

Here is the obituary for my mother. Pictured below are my mother and father taken at my wedding in March 1993. You can visit the family wiki for my mom.

Johnson, Lois M. (Beamer) age 77, of Green Valley, AZ (originally from Minnesota), passed away 11/29/07. Survived by loving husband, Logan Johnson, sister Shirley Beamer and brother Richard Beamer; and also 4 children, 9 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren: Daughter and son-in-law Karen and Keith Kersten and family; daughter and son-in-law Barbara and Greg Peppersack and family; son and daughter-in-law Bruce and Tricia Johnson and family; son and daughter-in-law Kirk and Lisa Johnson and family. Memorial service will be held Saturday, January 26th at 4:30 p.m. at Colonial Church in Edina (952-925-2711).

Cool Logo

Source

Paint the Pavement

News byte from Community Design Group: "Out in St. Paul, a project to calm traffic, increase pedestrian and bicycle safety, and connect neighborhood residents with each other. First two intersections are Englewood Avenue & Syndicate Avenue, and at Van Buren Avenue & Pascal Avenue" (pictured below).

You might also enjoy viewing 40+ images at this Flickr account I found thanks to Kevin Hendricks.

Fall Photos

Here are some things our family has been up to, including Uncle Slurpy.








Plus a photo taken a bit later at mom's memorial service:

Bike Plan Presentation

This is a message I sent to members of the Bike Edina Task Force. I'm posting it here because the accomplishments and possibilities truly represent what we can accomplish as citizens, as volunteers, as government officials, and as members of a society that better walking, biking, and transit options.

Hello friends, I have some great news to share with you about last night's Edina Transportation Commission (ETC) meeting. Also I have a recap of recent and next activities that are helping us make prpogress on our Bike Edina mission statement.

First of all, there was strong bike plan support expressed by the comissioners at the ETC meeting last night. Dwaine, Alice, Matthew, Antonio, and I attended on your behalf. Last night's presentation that Antonio gave included several core concepts and striking visuals depicting current roadways before and after bikeway treatments. Comments such as "this is a wonderful plan" and "this is one of the best plans I've read" were just a few that you can hear for yourself if you watch the meeting video. After the meeting, I actually got a high-five from one of the commissioners! What impressed me was that the questions reflected thoughtful considerations of what the possibilities are. I am truly optimistic that the Bike Edina community, the ETC, the City Council, and the Planning Commission are already demonstrating genuine interest in our new comprehensive bike plan. Tactically, Mr. Sullivan suggested a mid-December ETC workshop to go through the bike plan, and so this is one of the actionable items where we can make a positive difference as we partner together. More to come on that later.

Second, apart from our specific bike plan presentation: We observed considerations, questions, and comments about bicycling while talking about transportation in general. Specifically, during the other agenda topics, the Chair (Les W.), the other commissioners, and the other presenting consultants (we heard from the Northeast Edina Traffic Study Implementation, the Edina Gateway - Pentagon Redevelopment, and comments about the roundabouts) were doing things such as showing photos of bicyclists, talking about bicyling experiences, addressing bicycle safety at an initial level, reducing the carbon footprint, and other bicycle aspects. I believe this is a remarkable indication that our collective efforts are making a positive difference already. This will be reflected in the upcoming plans and decisions that our community will make regarding transportation options.

Our Transportation Commission is a hard-working, thoughtful group that is addressing a vast amount of issues and projects. Dwaine and I will continue to be your bike representatives to develop relationships with the ETC. We will partner together constructively, and we always welcome more particiaption when you can regarding our link with the ETC. Others in the bike group are doing the same thing with City Council and the Planning Commission.

Our collective efforts will increase the quality of life in Edina in health, safety, environmental, and social aspects--you have made a difference already! Thank you for your efforts to get us this far! I am so thankful to Steve for starting the BETF. I'm grateful for everyone's contributions during the past months, and CDG has been wonderfully supportive.

In closing I think that if you are not already very proud of our group's results, and proud of our City staff, commissions, councilmembers, Community Design Group, citizens, and others for what has been initiated...well gosh we can definitely feel that way. The proof is in the November 5th City Council meeting, this ETC meeting last night, and the various efforts underway. We still have a lot of work to do. I hope that this message offers some helpful information and will motivate you and your network to stay engaged.


--
Kirk (Logan) Johnson
Kirk.johnson@LoganLogic.com

When Road Diets Don't Consider Bike Vehicles

Here is a recent roadway change on Cornelia Drive in Edina that did not take into consideration how bicyclists might best navigate through the streets. Because bicycles have the same rights and duties as motorists on our roads (MN St. 169.222), it is important to consider biking when building and changing roads. Bikers have a risk index of injury that is 5 times greater when riding on sidewalks; additionally, it is against the law to ride a bike on some business district sidewalks and wherever posted.

Photo courtesy Barry Hans

Barb's Bike Bonanza

Today we (Alex, Artem, Barb, and I) had an AWESOME day biking along my bike commute route to downtown Minneapolis. From there, we explored on the Heritage trail while also visiting Mill City Ruins park, the Stone Arch Bridge, and the new Guthrie Theater. We then headed through Seven Corners then south along Hiawatha to the Midtown Greenway. Stopped at Ben & Jerry's. Encountered a refreshing rain and then enough wind to get mostly dry before returning home. Barb did great...muscle power! We covered 22.3 miles and here is the Bikely map.

Critical Mass Minneapolis

Some photos from the Strib's photo gallery. Here is one, photo credit to Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune:


This was a well-attended event. Reports say 600 but I am certain there were more than 1,000. Based on the interactions I experienced with people watching and participating, it was overall very positive. This is the first time I've ever seen residents come out on their balconies and front yards on Franklin and Lake to cheer and jump up and down. Lots of friendly comments and smiles from pedestrians and even motorists.

Below is a short clip from youtube:

Downtown Girl

Aliya and I took the morning to goof around downtown and at the U. Camera battery went out, so here are some other memories that didn't make it in the photos below...Walker Art Center invisible floor and long escalators, open market Honey Crisps, Bridge Number 9, 35W bridge view, Washington Avenue Bridge, Bell Science Museum (Bicycle Film Festival), Dinkytown.

GnomeTown

The kids have some gnomes and fairies in the backyard. Here is our garden project to make it a better place for imagining, playing, and being a kid again no matter what your age is.