Finally, Some Sleep

We were finally able to get some uninterrupted sleep last night. The previous 2 nights we were awakened by window-rattling thunderstorm between 2am and 3am. While I enjoy a good storm, it was literally tiresome to wake up and wonder if the tree in the front yard was going to topple over on the house. Woke up this morning to glorious weather - cloudless 60 degrees, north breeze and NO HUMIDITY. TOYH has been trying to paint The Madster's room, and the dampness in the air has slowed the process way down. It's supposed to be nice through the long weekend, so hopefully we'll be able to get work done around the house and garden.

The cool, dry mornings are indescribably nice for biking. I felt chilled at the beginning of my commute wearing just a tee-shirt and shorts, but after a few minutes of riding, it felt great. I was able to play good Samaritan this morning on my ride. I try to make it a point to ask any biker who is pulled over if he/she needs any help. Today, I asked a fellow on the Greenway if he needed anything, and he said, "Do you have a pump?" Sure enough I did. We aired up his tire and we were on our way. I thought for sure I heard hissing from his tire, but he said he would be o.k. And he was. He didn't flat out again. I fell in behind him for the rest of the ride on the Greenway and then across the Lake St. Marshall Ave bridge. On the flats, he was booking along at about 20mph and I was able to keep up with him. When we got to the hill on Marshall up from the river bridge he slowed way down. Weird. I probably out weighed him by 50 pounds plus I had a 15 pound pannier on my rack. He was on a stripped down road bike all decked out in racing garb. Being that I was filled with so much goodwill after lending him my pump, I decided not to humiliate him by flying past him up the hill. If he had been a jerk, I would have absolutely no problem moving my old, fat body up a hill faster than a weenie, roadie poseur.

Tonight is the open house for The Madster and 'Nika's school. TOYH and I are very keen on meeting The Madster's new teachers since the exodus of 3 (at least) of the Gang of Four from last spring. I hope they'll be able to pull it together. 7th and 8th grade were so important for KyKy, and we don't want the other two to miss out.

Why I Don't Like The State Fair

1) I have to change my very convenient bike ride to work because of all the traffic. Plus my in-laws live in Roseville 2 miles from the Fairgrounds. Getting to Roseville and back is very annoying this time of year, even moreso with a missing bridge.

2) I am tired of hearing about all the different kinds of food one can "get on a stick." It's not funny or cute anymore.

3) I am tired of turning on the local news and having to watch a bunch of Gomers mugging for the camera in the background so they can go home and say, "Hey maw, I gots myself into that there moving picture box in your living room. Didja see me?"

That is all.

17 Years Plus One Day

We had a lovely time down in Southeastern Minnesota this weekend. We stayed at the Wenneson Inn in Peterson, MN which is between Rushford and Lanesboro. Peterson and Lanesboro were untouched by the floods of last weekend, Rushford was pretty much decimated. Peterson is smack dab in the middle of bluff country. It is very pretty down there. It is also very different down there. Peterson is a town of 269 souls that does not have a convenience store/gas station. It does have a bar, a liquor store (Chiggy Liquors), one restaurant, a feed mill, two B&B's, a combination carwash laundromat, and of course a Lutheran Church. Before you settle into where you're staying in Peterson, make sure you are prepared. If you don't have what you need, you can't get it in town, unless it is alcohol. The go to town for any sundries would be Rushford, but that town will be shut down for a while. The biggest town close by is Winona, which is about 25 miles to the north. The Twin Cities hardly qualify as a 24 hour city, but we've got 24 hour groceries and convenience stores. I have no idea where the closest all night store to Peterson is.

I noticed on the county roads leading to Peterson were filled with friendly drivers. I don't know how many times some stranger in an oncoming vehicle waved to us as we passed them. Either these folks are really friendly or else the most popular people in the county drive a car identical to our Crapmobile. I'm thinking they're just nice. Popular people wouldn't drive a Crapmobile. Or maybe they were being nice because they felt sorry for us.

We arrived at about 8 on Friday night, ate a quick meal and settled in. Saturday we got up and had breakfast with two retirement age couples from Wisconsin, although one of the couples had just relocated to Michigan. For some odd reason, the conversation turned to taxes, and one of the men complained how high the taxes were in Wisconsin, thus they moved to Michigan. He then went on to say that the taxes are so much lower in Minnesota than they are in Wisconsin. Sound familiar Minnesotans? This is the same crap the anti-tax crowd in Minnesota spouts about Wisconsin. Oh! Oh! all our businesses are moving to Wisconsin because the taxes are so much lower. Then he went on to complain about where all the tax money was going. Well in Wisconsin it's going toward keeping the tuition at UW much lower than at the UofM. In Minnesota it's going toward the hundreds of miles of bicycle trails that can be used by anyone for free. (In Wisc. the trails aren't paved and I guess you have to pay to use them.) If you want low tuition, bike trails, bridges not falling down, and help cleaning up after a flood, pay you damn taxes. If you don't want to pay them, shut up and don't expect any help. You can just friggin' lump it. Fortunately, I held my tongue and didn't start spouting off about this stuff.

We (well at least I was) were glad to get away from the table and that conversation. We loaded up the bikes and headed to Lanesboro. The Root River Trail had washed out between Peterson and Lanesboro, so if we wanted to do any kind of riding on the trail, we'd have to drive a bit. On the way out of town we stopped by the town museum. Closed. TOYH got out of the car and crossed the street to see if hours were posted. There was a note saying, "Leave a note," if you want to see the museum. As she was crossing back to get into the car, a local man struck up a conversation about the museum. They got to talking. Turns out the director of the museum has family in Rushford and was understandably busy over there. Don, the man who TOYH was talking to, was spending time at his gas station. "But," I hear you protest, "You said there are no gas stations in Peterson." I will clarify. There are no working gas stations in Peterson. Don had bought this old Mobil Oil station in town, and it was his vacation home. "Some people have a cabin on the lake," he said, "I have this old gas station." He invited us in and showed us his collection of old timey gas pumps and other oil industry memorabilia. He had made it a comfortable space, and was cleaning cobwebs from the basement/grease pit. He showed us the office where the previous owners literally wore half inch divots in the floor with their office chairs. The grease pit had been covered up so he had more living (and less dangerous) space. There was a little stairway leading down to the basement/grease pit. The man who runs the town museum gave Don some pictures. One was of the original owner at the station. Another was of the original owner's son who took over the business. There also was a picture of the owner with his daughter when she was very young, and who is now in her 80's and still lives across the street. Utterly charming. Being in the station took me back to Roger Peterson's Phillips 66 station in Cambridge, and going there with Opa to get gas on Saturdays.

We got to Lanesboro, hopped on our bikes, rode to Preston, had a lemonaide, didn't see Neil on his Preston Century, and biked back to Lanesboro.

After our ride we had a nice lunch and then walked around the town. We ended up at a store that sells wine from the local winery. Mmmm sounds interesting. The vinters there are making wine with different fruits and I was eager to sample some. I am so glad they gave out samples. I was all excited about the rhubarb wine. A man with a bulbous nose passing out the samples (and imbibing quite often himself) showed us the list of wines and said from top to bottom on the list the wines went from dry to sweet. Rhubarb was one notch above the middle, so I'm thinking maybe kind of a sweet dessert wine. Nope. Tasted like the dregs of a pitcher of Kool-Aid that had not been stirred at all. We ended up with a cranberry wine which was supposedly "dry" but is still a sweet dessert wine, and some sort of grape varietal. We stopped at the Lanesboro museum and looked around for about 45 minutes. I find these small town museums fascinating. Every small town has a story to tell, a story it wants others to know about, a story for it's townspeople to hold on to. It is very easy to be engrossed by these stories.

Back to Peterson we drive, taking the indirect route, getting waved at by the locals. When we got back to the B&B I hopped back on my bike for another ride. I took the Root River Trail as far West and as far East as I could go before being turned back by closures. I averaged 4mph faster without TOYH dragging me down. When I got back to the B&B, I found TOYH out on the deck chatting with a couple from Edina, Ron and Margaret. They both grew up in Rushford (met in 7th grade now married 45 years, I think) and were back to help Ron's brother dung out his house in Rushford. We talked and laughed for at least two and a half hours. It was great fun, because we didn't talk about taxes, politics or religion. We retired to our room with some food we picked up at the market in Lanesboro. We skipped eating at the local establishment, Judy's Country Kitchen, because we ate there on Friday night and were getting tired of restaurant food.

When we got up Sunday morning, Pam the proprieter let us in for breakfast early, and we got to chatting. She and her husband Barry have put the Wenneson up for sale, and I was curious about life in such a small town. She ended up telling us about one of the neighbor boys in the town. He's about 14 years old and a hard worker according to Pam. One night Barry was getting home at about 9pm when he noticed that there were 3 teenager types trying to break into Judy's Country Kitchen. Barry thought that one of them was the neigbhor boy, who happens to work at Judy's. Barry chased them away, but wasn't certain that they really were the local boys. So what do you do when you see an attempted burglary in Peterson? You call the Mayor of course. Barry explains the situation to him, and the Mayor takes care of it, apparently giving the neighbor boy a stern talking to. The whole story had a Mayberry-esqueness to it. Local boy (maybe) attempts to break into his place of employment at a very early hour, is seen and most likely recognized by a neighbor who quickly calls the Mayor to straighten the wayward kid out. If it truly was the neighbor boy trying to break in, the Mayor kept it pretty hush-hush. The kid still has his job at Judy's.

The Big Meet

KyKy had her first meet as a Southwest Laker swimmer last night. The Madster, 'Nika and I trekked out to Edina to see the Hornets beat up on Southwest. The Edina coach is an old teammate of mine from St. Cloud State, and I talked to him for a while. I haven't seen Jeff in more than 20 years. He was saying that the team was down this year. For Edina that means they won't be vying for a State Championship. The last time they won state was 2004. Last year they finished (gasp!) 8th. Art Downey is still helping out with the Edina team. I think he has been coaching since our ancestors stopped swimming and crawled out of the primordial soup eons ago. Probably what makes him a good coach.

KyKy did a great job. Mercifully, the coach put her in the 50 free and the 200 free relay for her first swims. She's only been practicing for a week, and she hasn't been swimming seriously for a couple of years so they didn't stick her in the 500 or 100 fly. I think she swam about a 34 second 50 free and took 2nd in the J.V. race. She forgot to hit the touchpad at the end of the race, so her time didn't register on the scoreboard. She anchored a J.V. 200 free relay and her split was 33.2. It'll be a big day when she breaks that 30 second barrier.

Tonight TOYH and I leave for the thriving metropolis of Peterson, MN for our 17th Anniversary weekend. I feel like I want to just sleep for 36 hours.

Bleh

I've been inexplicably tired this past week and I don't know why. The weather has been dreary, so maybe that's part of it. Because of all the family obligations, I haven't been able to bike to work much, and even when I did, it didn't get me out of the doldrums.

The Madster was pretty happy with the birthday haul yesterday. A couple of stuffed animals, and then some techy stuff. We got her a cell phone. Sigh. I suppose we could do without them, but with our crazy schedules, we want to have at least one of our kids per school to have one. Obviously the kids don't carry them around in class, but it sure is nice to be able to leave text messages for them when plans change (which they always do). There are now 4 cell phones in the family, but you'd never know it. None of us are sitting around gabbing in public places or at home for that matter. Because of work, TOYH gets the most calls by far, but she rarely picks up calls when they come to her phone. It's more of a messaging service for her. This will all change when 'Nika, aka "The Phone Vulture," gets a cell phone. She loves to answer the phone and she loves to talk with friends and family on the phone. I will give you all advanced notice when she gets one so you can buy your Verizon stock, or whatever carrier we will be using in the future.

We also got The Madster Sims 2 Pets for the computer. We had gone back and forth about getting her what she really wanted - plain old Sims 2. They seemed to have ratcheted up the hanky-panky quotient from Sims 1, so TOYH picked up Sims 2 Pets instead. All was well until I read on the Sims 2 Pets box that the Sims 2 game was required to use Pets. Crimeny. Now we've got to decide what to do again. Anyone familiar with Sims 2? It's rated Teen, so The Madster will probably....Wait, this just in. The Madster called me from her new cell phone saying they made the exchange for Sims 2 and she's having trouble installing it. I guess I know what I'm doing this evening. BTW, what ever happened to Sim City? Francis? Anyone?

This Is Why I Am An Idiot

Last night TOYH and I went to a booster meeting for the Minneapolis Southwest Swim Team. I must say that this crowd of parents is different from the parents we encounter at Emerson. We were probably the only folks there last night that shop at thrift stores because we want to, not because we like the "shabby chic" look. All the parents last night spoke English as their first language and none of the moms had shaved heads. The coach made it sound like the team could be pretty good this year, yet this group of folks didn't seem like it was filled with "hockey parents" who were going to demand that their daughter swim varsity or else.

I had forgotten what kind of commitment it takes to be a high school athlete. KyKy is coming home exhausted, mostly because she hasn't swum that much in the past few years. But there are morning practices, weight lifting, Saturday practices, practices before meets. The coach mentioned that the varsity would be swimming up to 8000 yards a day. I'm thinking that has got to be accomplished in 2 practices. I don't remember swimming 8000 yards in one practice in H.S. I probably did it in college, but that seems like a pretty tall order for a two hour H.S. practice. Coach Pam allows for very few absences from practice - injury/illness, religious (KyKy might convert to Judaism so she can get Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippor off) or freshman orientation. I suppose there might be a couple of other reasons, but you get the point.

I don't recall ever skipping any practices in my freshman through senior years in H.S. I wonder how many thousands of hours I spent in the pool or on the field in those years. I was totally dedicated to sport in H.S., and my grades reflected that. If I had been as dedicated to school work as I had been to sport, I probably would have done better than "above average" in school. I don't think KyKy will slough off school like I did, but she might burn out, which I never did. I didn't care about school as much as I should have.

That being said, I'm so pleased she's on the team. She's going to make friends, have fun and accomplish things with them that she'll look back on fondly later. Being on a team, whether you are a successful athlete or not is simply a good thing. There might be times when you want to quit because of all the hard work, but because you have friends on the team, you stick it out. I'm hoping the team gets her in their clutches.

The team captains pick out the design of the suits the girls will wear in the meets. The suits don't have any purple in them partly because the team is combined with Washburn H.S., so finding a purple and white, blue and orange suit off the shelf is probably impossible. What's cool about the suits is that they have 612 emblazoned on them. Why? That's the area code for Minneapolis (and Richfield too I think) and there are only a few H.S. swim teams left in 612, so when Soutwest goes to regions with all the 952 suburban powerhouses, they're goin' to represent.

Word.

I Know You're All Waiting With Baited Breath....

But no, I did not win the All City Championship. I did have a blast doing though. Kirk and a friend of Kirk's, Peter, and I did the race as a threesome. We didn't take it too seriously, mostly because we are pretty much noobs at this and we just wanted to get as many stops done as we could in the 3 hour time limit. We made 12 of the 20 stops which ranged from Univ and Snelling in St Paul, to the Lake Harriet Bandshell, to W. Broadway in North Minneapolis, to Grumpy's Bar in Nordeast. We skipped the St Paul stop cuz we didn't have time. It rained pretty much the whole 3 hours and poured on us for about 15 minutes. They had prizes at some of the stops and I picked up a patch, pair of biking socks and a derailleur cable set. The rain slowed everyone down, but it also helped in a way because the paths around the Lakes area were not filled with dog-walkers or in-line skaters. Only one person finished all the stops, how I'll never know. It was probably a combination of him being an experienced bike courier who knew how to set up the route efficiently, being very fast on his bike, and not stopping to chat with workers at certain stops. Or drinking a beer at his last stop like we did. Kirk, Peter and I competed in the Masters category since we are over 36 years old. The guy who won the Masters had 15 stops, so he pretty much whupped us. I don't know what place we finished exactly, they haven't posted that yet.

The family made it to all the appointments on Saturday morning, plus the piano was delivered. The Madster and 'Nika have practiced more in the last 48 hours than in the past 2 weeks. We'll see how long that lasts.

TOYH and I may be spending our Anniversary cleaning up flood debris. The B&B we have reservations at is in Peterson, MN which is about 3 miles from Rushford, MN which was hit pretty hard by the floods this weekend. See how the weather always works against me?

The Madster gets to celebrate her birthday one day early this year. Wednesday nights are usually booked pretty solid at the Massage Parlour, so we are going to Annie's Parlor (a restaurant, not a competing massage shop) for dinner again on Tuesday. I can feel my arteries clogging up already.

Untitled - Because I Couldn't Think Of One

Here's some bits and pieces for you faithful reader(s).

Tomorrow we get a piano. Our erstwhile next door neighbors Sue and Sherry are giving us a piano for free, and it's only going to cost $90, proving the old saying that there's no such thing as a free lunch. S & S are giving it to us, no strings attached, but I am of the age and lacking in the motivation to move it from the second floor of their duplex, across a very small yard into the front room our house. I will gladly pay $90 to have the piano movers move it 70 feet to the south and 20 feet total ascent and descent. A dollar a foot, I guess. Mark, (you know who you are) be glad that I am sticking a crowbar into my wallet and not calling in the favor from 20 years ago when you and Lance and I moved that ancient, ginormous upright down a flight and a half of stairs. That was truly painful.

The piano movers are coming between 9 and 10 tomorrow morning. I agreed to that time not thinking about the concequences. TOYH has a massage at 8. KyKy has swim practice at 8 (the 2nd generation of swimmers has come of age, thanks alot Terr-Bear). The Madster and 'Nika have karate at 9:45. (Side note: KyKy just told me, "I'm going to take a shower, I'm all itchy." Teeheehee, welcome to the word of chlorine.) I think we've got it all worked out and everyone will be where they need to be at the right time, probably early.

The depressing news from this week is that one of the two remaining Middle School teachers at Emerson has transfered to South High, and the last teacher is trying to get out. Thank you very much, and bravo Minneapolis Public Schools for dismantling arguably the best team of Middle School teacher in the city. Clap....Clap.....Clap..... If the schools in Minneapolis are failing, you jerks in administration shall be accorded ALL the responsibility in my book. The decisions you have made in the past few years are killing the schools. Since this is a family blog (mostly) I am going to refrain from using the four letter words I would really like to use.

The weather of late is making me question my belief in a benevolent God. My planned trip to Mt. Carmel was cancelled. Yesterday, headwind on my commmute to work, and then the wind changed direction during the day and I had a headwind on the way home. Tomorrow - rain, possibly all day. Tomorrow I was planning on doing the first bike race I've done in 23 years when I did a time trial in a pair of cut off jeans. I was hoping to take part in the All City Championship, an alleycat race. Alleycats were invented by bike messengers, you know those insane people dodging traffic in busy downtowns on their bikes. The races consist of getting a manifest of stops (many times bars), planning a route, executing the route and then partying after the race is done. Whoever gets the most stops done in the appointed amount of time wins. In many races there are prizes for the person who drinks the most alcohol at the stops or there is the poker "race" where you are given a playing card at certain stops and who ever has the best hand at the end of the night wins. My friend and old roommate Kirk and I were planning to do the race without all the drinking, well at least without most of it. We were hoping to meet more people from the bike forum we inhabit in the flesh. I was planning on doing it on my fixed gear bike along with Kirk, the fixed gear evangelist, which would be true to the messenger origins of the race. Maybe the weather will clear and restore my faith.

We've got big week coming up. The 22nd is The Madster's 12th birthday, and the 25th is our 17th anniversary. TOYH and I have planned to get out of town and go down to Lanesboro with our bikes. Neil, quit hyperventilating and don't get your undies in a bundle. I'm going to bring my fixie and TOYH is probably only good for 30 to 40 miles, so there is NO WAY we will be doing the Preston Century with you. I'll do century with you another week, I promise. It'll probably rain though.

I'll Huff and I'll Puff, and I'll Make a Bunch of Unsubstantiated Claims: Paul Douglas.

No our house did not blow down in the storm last night. I did call Opa to find out what happened up in Springvale. Power went out at the old place, but nothing terrible. So anyway, Paul Douglas, a local weather god, interrupts Letterman to tell us how apocalyptic this storm is, and how we need to build an ark, or move into waterproof concrete bunkers yada, yada, yada. I stayed up to monitor what was happening, just in case we needed to head to the basement. No doubt the storm was severe, but come on. He kept spouting off about how there were "radar indicated" winds of 100mph in the north metro. 100. Miles. Per. Hour. What a load of crap. You would think that the next day we would see widespread damage from these incredible winds. Nope. I saw a report of a tree down on Arcade St in St. Paul, but nothing in the north metro. Not only was he wrong about the winds, there was "radar indicated" hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter covering South Minneapolis. I walked over to the window just to see if there was 1.5 inch diameter hail falling on my house since I live in S Mpls. Nope. No hail at all. Just rain. Why oh why would Paul report these "radar indicated" events without corroboration? Hmmm. I don't know. Could it be that he has made millions of dollars selling weather related computer software to teevee stations as a side business, so computers are always right? Could be. What gets me is that weather dorks complain how people do not take them seriously when there is a severe weather outbreak. What do you expect you morons, you tell me it's hailing on my house and I look out my window and see nothing but rain, yeah I'm not going to take you seriously.

In any case, it was a pretty impressive storm. If you've ever been within a few miles of an airport and heard the rumble of a jet as it takes off, this is what we heard for about 5 minutes straight at one point. There was so much lightning that the thunder was a low grade rumble that literally did not stop for 5 minutes. It was a very impressive lightning show too. Hail, no. 100mph winds, no. Severe storm, yes. Was I more apprehensive about this storm than I should have been, yes. Did it keep me from enjoying it more than I could have, yes. Thank you Paul and all of your cohort.

This was the second outbreak of severe weather the metro has experienced since we came back from vacation. Over the weekend there were storms that ripped through St. Paul and toppled hundreds of large trees on the State Fairgrounds and around Como Park. On my bike commute, I ride through the storm damaged area, and along Wheelock Parkway there are dozens and dozens of trees and branches down. I saw a bunch of 6 inch diameter trees snapped in two. There were branches on top of houses, car windows smashed, and one house had a porch roof destroyed by a fallen tree.

On a non-weather related note, our next door neighbors, Sue and Sherry have sold their house and are moving out. Totally bums me out. They are very dear to us, and we shared a lot of laughs. Unfortunately, they were just not able to manage home ownership and they had to sell out. Although they bought their house after we bought ours, they've been living on the block longer than we have been here. They rented from Crazy Carol, who lives down the block, for years before they bought the house next door to us. Who knows if the new buyer is going to be a good neighbor or not. We'll see. I get sad looking at their house knowing that S&S aren't there anymore. Sigh.

Of Birthdays And Centuries

It's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday, I did my second 100 mile bike ride (101.7 to be exact). I did it with some folks from from the bike forum that I keep up on. The people who post on the forum generally skew to the young, drunk, fixed-gear, anarchist crowd. It was only because my old rommate Kirk was going on this ride that I participated. Kirk has become a fixed gear convert without becoming an anarchist. We had a lot of fun with a few of the younger kids, and we didn't stop at one bar the whole way through. Interestingly enough, the big rest stop was at Marine on the St Croix, the same place where Neil and I stopped on my first century. We had a lot of fun, and this one was a bit easier than the first one because our average speed was about 1 mph slower. Kirk snapped this https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8t8_sOEGK2I4Azf9bjFHFc2xExS1OXS3DBwCT8oaV1gUmb69Kdfb_HRBreGkVNMQDEA9IJ5VtjyH_eFArv5qS4j_zI_RXs-lCQwIZeM3xsDyJqQGui19hKnYLsYab3TZT4Af6JO3wHpUx/s1600-h/Scott.jpg If you want to look at it, you'll have to cut and paste the address into your browser cuz I don't know how to create cool links.

This morning I met John-Boy for breakfast. He really hasn't changed at all. I went up to his hotel room and the first thing he did was give me some of his food. He opened up a box of granola bars and started handing them over to me. He is genetically predisposed to be generous. He can't help it. We had a nice breakfast at Al's, and for those of you who have never been to that legendary Dinkytown establishment, I'm sorry. The food is as good as ever and the staff is just as smart-alecky.

As much as I like vacations, I dislike coming back to the crapload of work that awaits me. It was there. We sold a bunch of stuff, Jon bought a couple of things when he got back, and lots-o-emails to go through. Had to harrass non-paying eBayers. Had to track down shipments. Had to ship some stuff. Blah, blah, blah.

After work it was PARTY TIME. 'Nika turned 10 today. TOYH took the kids to that new animated Rat movie, the one where the rat is a chef or something. Afterwards, they picked me up and it was off to Annie's Parlor for my second greasy meal in Dinkytown today. 'Nika got one jaw-dropping present, a Nintendo DS or some such thing. She opened it up and her mouth opened and her tongue hung out. It's a tiny little video game player. She got the electronic dog game. Named the dog Linus and proceded to teach him to respond to his name and sit on command, all on the first day!

I gotta sign off. We're going to get clobbered by a big thunderstorm I guess. I'll report on that tomorrow.

If You'll Allow Me To Ramble. . . .

I'm writing this sitting on the porch after a perfectly lovely thunderstorm. This is the second one we've had in the past 24 hours, and I'm sure that we've received more than an inch of rain total. The problem is, who cares if it rains in the city? The only thing it does is keep the lawns pretty, which if you remind me, I'll rant about some other time. On the way up to Alex, I can't tell you how depressing it was to see mile after mile of curled up, dried out, worthless corn. People's work for this year down the drain, and therefore yet another year of borrowing to make up for the lost income. Ugh. I could never be a farmer. Aside from the fact that I inherited absolutely no skills from my farming mother and grandfather, I would worry myself into the grave in years like this. Forget the overall wearing, salt-of-the-earth, plain spoken crap of the popular imagination. Farmers are the smartest, most multi-talented, resilient, hard working people on the face of the planet. It's too bad that they're all being forced out by economies of scale and corporatization. We're eliminating a whole class of working heros.

So yes, the oars did make it home, as did all the kids (eventually) and the dogs. We have a routine when we go on vacation where we drop the canines off at Opa and Oma's for their doggy vacation. This year there was an added wrinkle in that our nephew Douglas stayed with us at Mt. Carmel. Added to that, on the way home, he, KyKy, and the Madster were to be dropped off in Roseville for a Saturday at the Evil Grandmother's for a photo safari involving the St. Paul Camera Club. We don't have enough room for six people plus all our junk, plus rowboat oars in the crapmobile, so we farmed things out. One neighbor took 'Nika home. Another neighbor took home some of the stuff we couldn't fit in the crapmobile. TOYH, KyKy, The Madster, Douglas and I, took the crapmobile back to hillbilly land (Springvale Township) where I had left the Taurus. When we got to Oma and Opa's, I took the mutts home in the Taurus and TOYH dropped the kids off at the EG's before finally making it back to our humble abode. Got that? Just be assured that everyone made it back in one piece.

I was the first one home Friday night, then 'Nika was dropped off, then TOYH showed up with the detritus from our vacation. When I got home, there were 13 new messages on the answering machine. Half of those messages were from an old college roommate of mine who is in town. His name is John Lulewicz. The only reason I am telling you his full name is that I lived with him for 4 years. And for 4 years I heard him spell his name to people over the phone, "L-U-L-E-W-I-C-Z." (pronounced lu-lev-ich). After having that drilled into my head, I have to take any opportunity I am given to repeat it. When I moved in with him I was 20 and he was 30 at the time. A 30 year old seemed like a grandparent to me. John proved me wrong. His nickname in the house we lived in was "John-Boy." Everyone, including his girlfriend at the time called him John-Boy. Why? Because he never acted his age. He was the most care-free 30 year old who has ever lived in the history of the planet. Don't get me wrong. He was not irresponsible. He was not wasting his life away, he was working on his Masters of Public Health. He is one of two people I have ever known in my life of whom I can say "In him there is no guile." (J & F, the other is Russ L.) What you see is what you get, and as an added bonus, he'll give you the shirt off his back. I could tell John-Boy stories all night, so when things are getting really dull on this blog, ask for a John-Boy story.

Unfortunately, John-Boy is in town because of the bridge collapse. He works for OSHA in Milwaukee and he is, as he told me, "Making sure nobody steps on any nails," during the recovery and clean-up. This is a step away from his Master's Degree research, which was lust. I guess I should say L.U.S.T. - Leaking Underground Storage Tanks - LUST. You know, tanks burried in the ground holding potentially toxic chemicals i.e. gas station tanks. You know, lust. In true John-Boy fashion, he volunteered to work the graveyard shift in this 24 hour a day operation. That means he is working midnight to 8am and probably sleeping only a few hours a day at his hotel. It just so happens that I reconnected with another former roommate of ours, Kirk, and when we got together a couple of weeks ago, we talked about John-Boy. Sadly, I don't think we'll all be able to get together because John-Boy's last shift ends at 8am on Monday. He and I are going out for breakfast (sorry Jon, I'll be late for work) and then I'm sure he'll get a couple of hours sleep and then head home to his family. It occurred to me that as an OSHA employee, JB should not be driving from Mpls to Milwaukee sleep deprived. I think I'll bring this up at breakfast. Oh, and Jan Marie, if TOYH and I come to visit in Chicago, we will be delayed cuz we're stopping in Milwaukee. Guaranteed.

Riding Makes Everything Better. Except When It Doesn't

I was feeling kinda crappy the past couple of days. Not enough sleep, probably eating too much. I forced myself to go into town to meet up for the group ride leaving from the bike shop. I am so glad I did it. Really fun ride, really nice people, really nice weather. It was only 31 miles, but we averaged 18mph. I felt so much better when I got done. Really.

Eventually there will be a few more vacation pics posted, but I don't want to take the time now.

All of you who've seen the crapmobile know that it is not the most spacious minivan on the road. Well today TOYH went into town with her sister-in-law Anne to look for antiquey items for The Madster's room re-decoration. You have to understand that whenever we leave for a week's vacation anywhere, the crapmobile is packed so full with our junk that it is not very comfortable travelling. So I get into the van so I can go into town for my bike ride, and there are oars in the van. Rowboat oars. And a lamp. And some other stuff. The Madster wants a northwoods theme to her bedroom, so we're carting this crap back from our vacation. I guess this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for decorations so they must come home. We might have to leave a kid behind.

Reporting From Mt Carmel

Mom told me to blog about what we're doing this week, so here it goes. It's been a typical week up here. The days consist of a morning session where we listen to a speaker, afternoons of free time, and usually some type of activity in the evening. All of these things are optional, so we've been kind of in and out of the camp. The morning speaker's name is Paul Zahl, and he is very good. I won't go into detail about his talks, but in short, though he is an Episcopalian priest, he's very, very Lutheran in his outlook. The kids are having a great time here, as always. We have a bunch of friends who come up here and spend the week, so the kids are on vacation with friends and family. The camp sits on Lake Carlos, which is a fairly large lake. The Alexandria area has not become an overrun tourist town like Brainerd. There are a few resorts and golf courses around here but the lake is essentially devoid of boaters, even on the weekends. TOYH's brother Ross and his wife Anne are up in the area this week also. Anne's parents have a lake home on Carlos, so at least one day a week for the past couple of years, Ross comes over with the boat and we have an impromptu family gathering back at Anne's parents place. We did that on Tuesday afternoon. This year EG and DM were there along with Jon and Clary and their family. The kids went tubing and played on the beach all afternoon yesterday. We ended the day with smores around a beach campfire. Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. We all got together on Monday evening also. We met at a local winery, yes they grow grapes up here on the tundra, to sample some of their goods, and we ended up at a local resort for dinner.

I brought the SS Deathstar up here even though I didn't make the ride from St Joseph to Alex. Not riding on Saturday was a good decision. There were no violent thunderstorms on the way up, but it was rainy and quite windy. It would not have been fun. On Monday I went out for a ride, but had to cut it short because my rear wheel went all wobbly. I limped back to the camp where one of the staff had a repair stand and some tools. There were a lot of very loose spokes, so we tightend them up, but neither of us has the expertise to get the wheel back into true. I took it into the only shop in town and they fixed me up good. It's a very nice shop, and they said there was group ride leaving at 6pm on Thursday. Hmmmmm. I'm going to try and make that one I think. I'm going to get some of the pictures posted over on Picassa so just click on the link on the left side of the page. Ciao.

Vacation

Finally, a week off. Since it's just Jon and myself at Test Equipment World Domination Headquarters, we don't take too many whole weeks off. As a matter of fact, it's been more than a year since I've been gone from work for a whole week. I am ready. Right now it's all bridge collapse all the time, and I am truly weary of all of this. Don't get me wrong, this is, to quote our Governor "a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota," but fer cryin' out loud people, we're going to survive. This is not 9/11. This is not Katrina. Not even close, though I've seen them mentioned in the same breath already. Sure, there are many lives and families that are affected, but this is not something that changes a whole city forever, leaving massive physical damage or deep psychological scars. The media in particular seems hell bent on trying to convince us that we are so wounded as a community that we must reach deep within ourselves to find the strength to overcome this tragic event. Look at us! Look at us! Pity us! We are hurt! Pfffft. We need to take care of the true victims, and frankly that doesn't need to be done through the media. I've long had a problem with media making a public spectacle of people's personal grief. I wish that in an event like this when the teevee, radio or newspaper comes to interview families about their loss, the families would just tell the media to go to hell. Our grief is not to be used to make you money. Maybe the best plea I've heard in the past few days, other than the request to give blood, was Mayor Rybak stating that if you want show compassion and do something about this situation, turn to your co-workers or neighbors and figure out how to carpool to work. Brilliant. Seriously. For the next 2 to 3 years our biggest challenge will be to figure out how we're going to get along without this bridge. 140,000 vehicles a day crossed over it. Supposedly, downtown businesses are stepping up to the plate by staggering start times, deliveries and offering transit passes to employees. I hope that's true. Now can we reach deep within ourselves and find the strength to ride with another human being in a bus or car to work.

Enough of the rant already. I do want to say that I am extremely proud of this city's response to a disaster like this. By all accounts, the first responders, medical personnel and plain old citizens were stellar in their response. No chaos, triage set up on site, command centers set up and functioning, plenty of ambulances from around the metro, people running off the street to pull victims off the slabs and out of the river. My friend and old boss Matthew, who works in the Emergency Department at Fairview Southdale Hospital, was called back into work on that night and he said that when he got there, there were 25 people who came in on their day off or came down from other departments and were milling around, waiting to jump into action. Luckily, they weren't needed. County and University were able to handle all the injured.

Oh, yeah. Vacation. Once again, God is messing with me. Since March, I've been planning with my friend Matthew to ride from St. Joseph to Alexandria. Alex is where we are spending our vacation and I was going to meet the family up there where we stay at a family camp. If you've got nothing else to do, go to the National Weather Service web site and poke around till you find information on drought conditions. The Twin Cities and surrounding areas are in "Severe Drought." Weather forcast for tomorrow: 60% chance of thunderstorms. Not just rain, which I would ride in, but thunderstorms. To the south and west of where we would be riding, an increased risk of tornados. Figures. We've had 2 thunderstorms this summer and the 3rd will probably come on the day that I've been wanting nice weather. I called Matthew and cancelled. I just don't want to deal with the logistics of this with the added weather messiness. I'll just bring my bike up there and ride around during the week.

Breaking news...after the weather report (confirming my not being able to ride tomorrow), the pompous ass Don Shelby came on camera, in his pin-stripe suit looking very important and full of gravitas, and told us that "Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan." Some person or people are responsible for this disaster and "I want to know who knew what, when." Yeah Don. A couple of people are responsible for this. String 'em up Don. It's not a procedural failure. It's not a lack of knowledge about what happens to materials in our extreme weather conditions. It's criminal. There is a cover-up. People were aware that this was about to happen and did nothing about it. Better yet, these awful people can see into the future and laugh maniacally as they foresee the bridge falling down. Wait, I know, it's probably a couple of penny-pinching bureaucrats who have no concern for public safety, hate their jobs and humanity, and are just working toward their gov'mint pension. They just don't care. Human life means nothing to them. Yeah, that's it. Again Don, shut up.

I've Been Across That Bridge Thousands Of Times

As you have probably seen in media reports (more on that later), a major bridge in Minneapolis collapsed yesterday. Many people are injured and the fatality count varies. When I worked at FedEx, I crossed that bridge every work day, twice a day. When we head up to Evil Grandmother & Dreadful Man's or Oma & Opa's, that's the bridge we cross. I found out about the collapse from Oma, who I'm sure spent a few anxious moments wondering about us, when she called us at home. Let me back up. After work, I went to EG & DM's to pick up the girls plus 2 of their cousins Jessie and Emma. I don't think that car has ever had so much estrogen in it. So I'm heading down 35W toward said bridge when the traffic starts to back up. They have been working on resurfacing the road and the bridge now for a few weeks. I took the Stinson exit and wind my way through the U of M campus and cross the river on the Washington Ave. We get home and Emma and Jessie's mom is waiting for them and KyKy, who was going to spend the night at their house. We send them off, TOYH shows up and we order Chinese, because it's been that kind of week. Oma called during dinner to confirm that we were all ok because she knows that we use that bridge frequently. I flipped the channel on the teevee and sure enough, there were pictures of the carnage. I figure if I had stayed on 35W, we would have crossed the bridge 10-15 minutes before it fell. After I hung up, it was our turn to be a little anxious. Ann had left with the girls, and we didn't know where they were going, couldn't remember what time they left etc. It was highly unlikely they would have been going that direction, but there is still that slightly panicked feeling when you can't reach Ann or KyKy by mobile phone. All the circuits were tied up and calls and texts were not going through. KyKy eventually got back to us and we were able to relax.

On my commute to work by bike, if I just look up while crossing the Stone Arch bridge downtown, I would be looking directly at the 35W bridge. It was nothing special. In fact, it was rather utilitarian and ugly. This morning I went up to the Stone Arch to cross the river, but they've temporarily closed it. I looked down river all the way to the 10th Ave bridge. There were no green trusses blocking my view. Very strange. As I continue on in my bike commute, I cross 35W on a pedestrian/bike bridge about 4 blocks north of the river bridge. When I cross that bridge, I want to sneer at the drivers stuck in their cars (ok I want to flip 'em the bird) but I don't because it would be terribly hypocritical, since I have to drive that highway myself sometimes. Today I crossed the bridge and it was quiet. No traffic. I looked south to see the one section of the river bridge slanted up like a ramp to nowhere, dotted with abandoned cars. Very strange. I can't imagine the horror or terror those people felt seeing the traffic in front of them disappear off the face of the earth.

Lately I've been annoyed on my bike commute because 10th Ave SE has been busier. The traffic increased because of the road construction on 35W, people were trying to avoid the tie-ups on the Interstate so they were taking the back roads. Yesterday there could have been people who avoided the collapse because they were avoiding the traffic. Just like me. Time to stop being annoyed. Someone pointed out that because there were two lanes closed on the bridge for resurfacing, it probably minimized the casualties since there was less traffic using the bridge. It occurred to me that the slow speeds on the bridge probably saved some lives too. Imagine if that school bus with 60 kids was hurtling along at 50mph when the bridge fell. I'd rather not think about it myself.

Local media coverage varied in quality. Channel 5 was the best that I saw. They were careful and they kept their speculation to a minimum. Channel 4 was ok, except for that pompous ass Don Shelby reading bridge inspection reports off the MDOT website on live teevee, trying to find a smoking gun. Ummm Don, your're not an engineer or a bridge inspector, so shut up until you find somebody who knows what they're talking, about preferrably someone who was involved in the inspection of the bridge itself. The Big Stupid Award goes to Channel 9 (Fox Newz!) of course. They had an eyewitness claim he/she saw explosions before the collapse. Oooooh parrot that back right on live teevee with no corroboration. Then we can play up the terrorism angle. Morons. Also heard on Channel 9, "We don't know how many pedestrians were on that bridge when it fell." Robyne honey, there were no pedestrians. It was an Interstate Highway. Construction workers yes. Pedestrians no. But hey that means they cans speculate about a higher body count. Stupid, stupid, stupid. This is what we get with live teevee running uninterrupted reports for hours at a time. Filling up the airwaves with stupid.