Well yes, it can get much, much worse, but there are a few things piling up that just make life a little less enjoyable.
First, I went to church last night (uhh, that didn't come out right - please don't misunderstand me, church does not make my life less enjoyable) for the first time in quite a while. Sunday nights have been hectic lately, and I just haven't had the gumption to get up and go. When I got there, I looked through the bulletin and found out that the Music Director's position will be cut because of lack of funds. This really, truly bums me out. I should back up a bit. The church I've been attending for nearly 2 years is Mercy Seat Lutheran Church in NE Minneapolis. We meet on Sunday nights because we're using a different congregation's space. Two of the pastors were in school with me when I was at Luther Seminary, an they are really cool people although one of them has since left Mercy Seat on a medical leave. The church is kind of artsy, which normally doesn't do anything for me. What really attracted me to the church was their creation of a jazz liturgy. The soon-to-be-ex-music-director Jon Pemberton is well connected in the local jazz community. Every week he would assemble a remarkable group of musicians that would play anything from Dixieland to Free Jazz. I'll admit that hearing jazz in church was a bit jarring at first, but I've really grown to love the liturgies he wrote. I'm really going to miss the music. There are other great things about the church. Kae and Mark's preaching is consistently thoughtful, poetic, funny, and true to the Lutheran tradition, it always has the euangelion at its center. They claim to be "critically orthodox," which I appreciate very much. This is not a namby-pamby, feel good about yourself church. Nor is it a church that reduces the Gospel to a left wing political agenda. Jesus is not just a nice teacher and example, but the Word Incarnate come to save us from ourselves. I always leave church humbled but feeling well fed and taken care of.
Second, I just discovered that one of my favorite local bloggers, Smithers Minneapolis, is giving up blogging. He wrote about cycling, politics, family and the pumpkin loaf at Starbucks. Very smart and funny. Even the commentators on his posts made me laugh out loud. Sigh, no more. I suppose I'll keep doing it as long as I'm working here and have all this time on my hands, but there is no guarantee that I'll be either smart or funny like Smithers.
Third, on the way to work this morning I noticed that the City of Maplewood has done an utterly craptastic job of plowing the streets. Even worse than Minneapolis. This is the last mile of my commute to work, and the sides of the streets look unridable. It may be a long time before I bike to work again.
In other news, The Madster went to her first karate session with the big folks, 13 years and up. She was the youngest one there, obviously, and the only female. She was quite intimidated and didn't want to mix it up with these guys. I insisted. It was quite an intense workout and there was some practice sparring. She was pooped when she was finished, but she had a big smile on her face.
TOYH has scheduled her nursing boards test and is now busy studying for that. Not much movement on the job front. There is one promising lead right now.
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Not to downplay your pity party, but I have to comment on an entirely unrelated, but seasonally appropriate item (at least for those of you who live or have lived in the cold Northland). Yesterday when I was at Target I saw a man wearing a snowmobile suit. Now THAT is something you don't see around Woodbury much, and it brought back many fond memories.
I had (note the word "had" and not "have") a long love affair with snowmobile suits, starting in first grade. I BEGGED Nana to get me a snowmobile suit for my birthday. But what did I get? A cute, green, embroidered winter jacket and snowpants. I was soooo disappointed, and I think it showed, because the next year M & D gave me a light blue, striped snowmobile suit (for my birthday? I don't remember). I wore that thing faithfully until I grew out of it, and grew big enough to wear either mom's or Terri's old ones. Didn't we have an orange snowmobile suit? I remember wearing the dark gold one that used to be Mom's, and eventually, even wore Dad's (olive green?) one. That was the infamous snowmobile suit I carried Wimpy in, as a puppy. We had gone for a walk, and when he got too cold, I unzipped that snowmobile suit and tucked him inside. For awhile the belt kept him up, but eventually he started to slip down. Although I tried to hold on to him from the outside, he slowly slipped all the way down my leg to where the snowmobile suit was tucked into my boot. I don't think I made it home before I finally unzipped the whole thing and pulled him out.
When I saw that guy at Target, though, my first thoughts went to my snowmobile suit dream... still vivid!! In it I wore a snowmobile suit with the Cub Foods logo on it. When I had that dream, I must have still been in junior high and we had only shopped at Cub a few times down in the cities. That was when Cub still operated under the system where they placed all those markers around the store and you wrote down the price on the item yourself. I was always fascinated with that whole set up, because one, how could they be sure people were writing down the right price, and two, we'd take the pens and write on the packing boxes, changing product names from "Mop and Glo" to "Mop and Glop." That fascination must have been pretty deep if it inspired a dream of a snowmobile suit with the store logo on it...
So, now I'm wondering: I know the immediate family members have some type of experience with snowmobile suits, but what about all those spouses (or other reader(s))? Was this just a rural Minnesota thing?
Tracy you need your own blog! I will read it!
Scott, try snow cross! You can do it in your own yard with your kids!
check it out at nerdybike!
I never had a snowmobile suit but I might have wanted one once.
First snowmobile suit: stiff dark blue nylon with a goofy looking patch depicting a deer jumping over a log or something. I think it was a sans-a-belt version, which I thought was pretty dorky.
Second snowmobile suit: dark blue version of Tracy's, this time with a belt. Pretty cool even if it came from Wards or Sears or whatever.
I suppose in the interest of continuing the sibling squabbles over all things irrelevant, I should talk about my dream where I'm wearing a snowmobile suit emblazoned with "SuperValu." But that would be a lie.
Neil. Dude. Seriously. My yard is the size of a postage stamp and is currently filled with dog crap.
A squabble over SuperValu vs. Cub would be particularly irrelevant because SuperValu is the parent company of Cub.
Now, your wife may be interested in squabbling over Rainbow vs. Cub, as she's mentioned her shopping preferences in the past. But is she REALLY that loyal if she doesn't dream about wearing a snowmobile suit emblazoned with the Rainbow logo? (Of course, that Rainbow logo may confuse people about her, ummmm, gender preferences).
Neerdmans, I'm flattered! But if I wrote a blog, would you promise not to write about the "B" word in the comments section? You could just save those for your blog... and TOM's.
Tracy, this is just way too weird that you bring up these snowmobile suit memories. Yesterday, as I was driving to work in our negative 10-15 degrees or whatever the heck it was, I had a snowmobile suit flashback. At the corner of Dellwood and 95 where I turn to go to the hospital, there is very nice and friendly crossing guard (at least I assume she is because she is always smiling, waving and talking to kids). Yesterday, as I was making the turn, I was feeling very sorry for this nice woman because she had to stand out in this cold all by herself because there weren’t any kids walking to school because it was too freakin cold. And, I’m not kidding you, I thought to myself, I bet she would be warm if she had one of our old snowmobile suits on. So, the last few minutes of my “commute” were filled with snowmobile suit memories. I remember how much I loved the smell of the exhaust or fuel or whatever that engine-y odor was that lingered on the suits. I also remembered how I never felt cold or got wet when I wore a snowmobile suit outside. And, I always thought the zippered leg openings and the belts were so cool or stylish or something.
I also have very vivid memories of the Christmas that Dad gave Mom the gold suit. I knew she was getting it because I had wrapped the gifts Dad gave Mom that year. I remember being so excited about Mom getting that suit—I think I was more excited for Mom to open that gift than I was to open my own presents. When it was time for Mom to open her gifts, I blurted out “Open the snowmobile suit first.” I was so mortified. I couldn’t believe I’d spoiled the surprise. I also remember being somewhat worried about Dad’s reaction/response to my uncontrolled outburst.
I remember you telling us about your CUB FOODS emblazoned snowmobile suit dream, and I remember laughing pretty hard as you told us about the dream.
It is pretty amazing, when you think about it, how such a functional and seasonal piece of clothing can have so many vivid memories and strong feelings associated with it.
One more snowmobile suit anecdote. Today, I ran into WalMart to pick up a few things and I saw what looked to be a Norwegian bachelor farmer clumping around in a snowmobile suit and those old fashioned (visualize our childhood era) snowmobile boots. I thought it was just a Cambridge WalMart experience. It does my heart good to know that these throwbacks (hicks) exist outside Isanti County.
Finally, you need to know that you are not the only child whose heart broken by Nana. When I was pretty little, maybe 4 or 5, Nana asked me what I wanted for my birthday. All I really wanted was one of those really really big yellow Tonka dump trucks. Nana said No You Don’t Really Want A Dump Truck and I said Yes I Really Did. So, for my birthday I got a Really big doll and a Really little Tonka dump truck. And I was Really disappointed. Really.
BTW
Are those stylin pieces of history still sitting in the closet at mom and dad's??
I do believe those snowmobile suits are still there in the closet in the bathroom. I think I'm going to ask Mom and Dad to leave one of them to me in their will. I remember an old pair of snowmobile boots being there too... with the thick wool liner and white and blue stripes along the side.
Seriously, it is too bad these things went out of style. Snowpants just don't do the same job - the snow and cold air are always getting up under the jacket.
And I'm very glad to hear I'm not the only one who enjoys the smell of the snowmobile exhaust. A whiff of that distinctive aroma today always brings back happy memories. Of course, maybe it's the hallucinogenic properties of the stuff that makes us so fond of it...
I thought everyone in the Holm family was banned from evert Wal-Mart in the universe forever.
Huh. These musings on snowmobile suits make me think a couple of things:
--I don't recall begging Nana for much of anything for Christmas or my birthday. She probably didn't even ask me what I wanted...I think she must have given up on trying to honor crazy grandchildren requests by the time I came into the picture. So, uh, thanks A LOT, sibs.
--I also don't recall getting my own snowmobile suit (I may be wrong-- perhaps in your snowmobile suit reverie you can remember me getting one??). I'm pretty certain I was stuck with the hand-me-downs. As usual. Thus, I have no fond memories of snowmobile suits to share.
What's funny to me is that just the other week, I was somewhere where I got a big blast of exhaust in my face that smelled kind of like snowmobile exhaust. I *loved* it! That's what brings back the memories for me.
To go along with the snowmobiling memories, I was telling John Francis over Christmas break about how we had an actual red *sleigh* that we rode in the winter, and how we towed it around Paul's Lake with the snowmobile. I don't think he knew what to make of that story, being a boy born & raised in the South where lakes don't freeze over and people don't own recreational sleighs.
I feel I need to clarify a few things here
1. I didn't beg Nana for a really big yellow Tonka truck--she ASKED me what I wanted for my Bday.
2. I never had a snowmobile suit to call my own. I had to wear mom or dad's.
3. This one is important. DANIEL is banned from WalMart. Let's be clear on this. DANIEL. But just to be on the safe side you need to know that I "ran into WalMart" but I neglected to write that I also "ran out". One doesn't want to take too many chances those redheadded (or is it red necked?, mulleted, tatooed employees.
Mall-Wart allows tattooed people to work for them? Shocking.
Wow. I wasn't going to comment on this one because I never had any desire for a snowmobile suit in dreams or reality.
No, I'm here in the comments to ask: Why is Daniel banned from WalMart? And: Shouldn't you all be shopping from local merchants like Target and Best Buy?
Wow, I'm just amazed at the length of some of these comments.
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