In the Midst of Tragedy, New Life

Albeit my own, minor, personal "tragedy" of the past week. Just wanted to mention something about Riley Connell Gallagher.

For those that don't know the saga of Shawn & Helen, they have (for a multitude of reasons) been unable to conceive. Through years (and possibly tens of thousands of dollars), these two potentially amazing parents have had to suffer the ordeals of surgeries, efforts at invetro-fertilization, and seemingly countless other failed procedures before finally electing to go the adoption route. The ordeal was cruelly ironic in that Helen's career is based upon counseling unfit mothers, but Helen & her admirable devotion to her various callings could easily be a topic for another post.

Anyway, in the first break they have gotten in the whole ordeal (and a major break it was), a child became available to them almost immediately. I never realized that the whole adoption wait wasn't a list so much as having an expectant mother choose the prospective parents. But so it is; and, though her sister, Helen got hooked up with this 7-8 month pregnant woman. Not much time to get ready, but many details were worked out and Shawn & Helen headed out to nowhere else but Terre Haute (get that baby outta there!!!) to be present for the birth and work out final details.

The birth was about a week ago, so of course it's been really tough for us to make much contact; though Sharon had a really good talk with Helen last night. They've been staying alternately with Helen's sister who lives there (in a small house with six kids), and out of a suitcase in a hotel. Not exactly the post-3 or 4 bridal showers-, getting the nursery ready for 9 months-situation that many of our peers have the advantage of; but then again, Helen isn't having to care for a newborn after having just lost 800 ml of blood and having not slept for 40 hours.

Anyway, when they make it back to the Twin Cities, there will be a major shopping spree in the Hylton attic and Lucy will have an exciting meeting with her newest "cousin." We are so happy for the Gallaghers we could just about backflip.

Day 8

Without electricy. Quite a challenge for a blogger and recording artist with 3 email accounts and a tendency to stay up till after midnight.

We've been hanging in there, but I'd like to cock-punch about 50 people at Xcel Energy, from the original guy that told us last Friday there was no damage to our incoming lines (thus preventing us from getting it repaired before the crew made it out on the "final" day of their repairs), to the people responsible for putting North Minneapolis at the end of the list of repairs (and, for media and P.R. purposes, on no list whatsoever), to the phone reps that told us we'd have a crew out yesterday.

The Dangers of Being Technology "Early Adopters"

Well, we're in the midst of the "I-Pod" craze. I thought I'd get a step ahead of everyone else and get a "Bi-Pod." Things were going great until it raised itself up on its skinny legs and ran off.

Ethical Zingers and Brain Stingers Vol. 1

I'm trying to answer these specifically for myself-and I can't, totally. But feel free to broaden out the philosophy in any responses.

1. Why do I not attend an exclusive John Mellencamp performance being staged for my company's corporate employees right outside the window of my office? Why was there never a doubt in my mind that I would not go? And I even kind of like John Mellencamp. I sort of am on the cusp of the answer to this one, but I'm not sure I could articulate it very well.

2. Why would embezzeling funds or ripping off a cash drawer (even for a paltry amount, like 50 cents) seem wrong, wrong, wrong, yet taking silverware home from the cafeteria or extra office paper is totally fine? This is actually the much tougher one to answer.

Mississippi Heritage Festival: The Much-Awaited Follow UP Post

It was pretty cool-if sitting on haybales and watching re-enactors tell tales about the Mississippi River's History is cool. With the Hylton household being pretty much out of action last week, it was really difficult for me to spend time working on my riff. So difficult, in fact, that I never had the chance to do a successful runthrough for timing (supposed to be right around 15 minutes) prior to coming on. But it worked about as well as I could have hoped. The Native American speaker finished and I emerged from the trees by the riverbank (wearing my period costume I was borrowing from Historic Murphy's Landing).

The set was similarly cool-we had a firepit going and a haybale backdrop throughout the succession of storytellers, which went from dusk to dark. For the most part, I made Zebulon Pike out to be a nincompoop, and it raised an ethical question with me. Most characters in history can be viewed in many different ways, depending upon your interpretation of events. Even among the histories I read, there were those who thought he was an ass, and an incompetent one at that; and those who thought he was a great explorer. I personally believe he had almost superhuman endurance, was a great and loyal soldier, a good spy, a questionable explorer (if you could consider him an explorer at all), and an ass. I played up the questionable explorer and ass parts, as they made good theater, but it did get me wondering:

who was I to paint the audience's view of the man based upon my interpretation (or worse, based upon what I thought would help the performance)?

A question better left, perhaps, to the next generation of historians.

The Most Challenging Role of My Career?

Tomorrow, I will be performing for the second time since my re-entry into the field of acting. Camden Civic Theatre was brought in by Three Rivers Park District and Lind-Bohanon neighborhood to have storytellers portray historical Mississippi River figures during a Heritage Festival tomorrow:

http://www.geocities.com/hylton44/heritagedays.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/hylton44/HeritageStorytelling.doc

I will be assuming the role of Zebulon Montgomery Pike. I will emerge from the trees and speak to an audience (hopefully) gathered around a fire about my exploits in securing the land upon which now stands Fort Snelling (where I "negotiated" with Native Americans that had no concept of land ownership) and my attempt to determine the source of the river (which I incorrectly identified as Leech Lake).

The performances will be aired on community television, I think...

Just Dyin Over Here

Everyone in our house is sick. While Sharon & I were trying to get a little sleep last night, Lucy was waking up in tears, complaints, and/or screams every 10-15 minutes. Sharon & I deemed it the most difficult night since Lucy's birth.

Laying the political establishment bare

This started out as a comment sort of in response to T-Clog on my most recent post, but got so long and off the original track that I feel it warrants its own post.

I may have sent out confusing messages in the past concerning my political leanings. Having voted nearly straight Green Party in 2000, I have come back to the fold of the Democrats, based largely on a couple conclusions I have made:
1. Seeing the damage that a spoiler can play (e.g. Nader in 2000). Understand, if we move to an instant runoff election system, I'm probably back in there voting Green and other "third party" or independent candidates very often in the first round. THAT should be what Nader should be pushing for-the fact that he is focusing more efforts at being on the actual ticket, rather than reforming the election process itself has got me thinking he most be either certifiably insane, or simply not the same man he used to be.
2. A recent philisophical realization (based on a position taken by a reformist Priest, Matthew Fox, that you can affect change on an organization more effectively from within, rather than if you quit). And I think it is a very, very powerful idea. Kind of what I was saying recently to T-Clog concerning his religion. It may well be that his calling is to be a credit to his religion-to challenge, where necessary, and reform. Stuff he would not be able to do as effectively if he renounced it over things he found irreconcilable with his personal beliefs.

Anyway, in response to comments in my last post (and this is also directed to Independent Aaron) I will absolutely agree that any political party is prone to corruption and human failings to which any organization is prone when it gets large and/or powerful enough. I think there was a lot of less-than-desirable crap going on in the Democratic party when they were the dominant party in Congress in the early 90s.

That said, I don't buy the "both parties are the same" thing purported by many independents and the Green Party folks. A quote from a "conservative" website going after liberalism in public education pretty such sums up the stance of the Republican party at large these days:

"...(sustainability) assumes we're burning too much fossil fuel, we're not eating healthy foods, we're not respecting workers' rights, we're wasteful, and we're spoiling the environment. Those are serious and controversial charges against our culture."

Anyone who considers those charges controversial is either in denial or a total bastard or both. And that is the reality of the Republican party in 2005. It is the party of instant gratification, judgment of others, and selfishness. Whether or not you always like the cast of characters and machinations of the establishment, the DFL is the party of the little guy and of freedom. I honestly don't see how a thinking man cannot see this.

Fool me once....(way to go, residents of St. Paul!)

For anyone who care about Twin Cities politics, or believes that the ways certain political scenarios play out are universal...

From today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly could be in for the fight of his political life after receiving barely half as many votes as former City Council Member Chris Coleman in Tuesday's primary.
Coleman outdistanced Kelly by 52 percent to 27 percent, with Kelly coming perilously close to dropping behind Green Party candidate Elizabeth Dickinson, who received 19 percent.

A little background. Gladhanding, creepy, Bush-lapdog US Senator Norm Coleman was once the Mayor of St. Paul. After being elected on the DFL ticket, however, he switched parties-something that is considered a bit of a betrayal when 87% of your city's precincts vote Democrat. People in St. Paul still feel burned and pissed, so last fall when out of the blue, current "Democrat" mayor Randy Kelly endorsed George Bush for President, his constituency was up-in-arms. What seemed to him to be the perfect opportunistic move, to follow the move of his successful predecessor footsteps, ended up being political suicide, apparently. Lovely to watch him go down in flames. While I still don't fancy spending a lot of time in St. Paul, I certainly am on more amicable terms with Minneapolis' sister city these days. We urbanites need to stick together in these times.

On the Minneapolis side of things-our Mayor Rybak has been in a bit of a fight in the DFL primary. Things have been tough the last few years, but I honestly think that he's been in about as much of a no-win situation as the city has seen for the last 25 years or so. On top of the recession, our city incurred millions of dollars in Lcoal Government Aid-part of the all-out suburbanite Republican assault on core cities, that is only now beginning to be restored a bit. Not a career politician (one of his most attractive qualities), Rybak is also amazingly socially progressive, accessible to the people (as far as I know), and has made some tough decisions, fiscally, that have lost him a lot of supporters, but gained a measure of my respect. He's been in a primary fight against a guy, Peter McLaughlan, who is firey and pushes all the right buttons a lot like Howard Dean, but who has been attacking Rybak relentlessly sometimes without substance-more like a Karl Rove-orchestrated campaign. Rybak (for whom I just voted yesterday) ended up winning the primary by about 10%-and here's a funny quote by him:

"The sitting mayor is thrilled to have won by a decisive margin after an unprecedented wave of negative attacks, and I'd sure rather be up by 10 percent. Delmonico (a Police Federation president hired by McLaughlan to attack Rybak in radio ads) and his swift boat full of special interest attack dogs has sunk."

Mouse Pillows and Big Noculars (and other camping observations from a two-year old)

Mouse pillows being marshmallows and big noculars being binoculars, of course.

It was a very enjoyable trip up North. We had a cart-in site pretty much right on the shore of Lake Superior and, after an initial three hour thunderstorm which began moments after our tent was set up (it really wouldn't be a Hylton camping trip without some precipitation at some point), the weather was beautiful.

Outdoor-guru Cliff Jacobson speaks about how it can be difficult to hike with small children or the elderly if you're in the prime of your life. Not so much because of differences in physical abilities, but because people of this blogger's age tend to think of hikes in terms of goals and destinations, whereas young children and the elderly live almost entirely for the moment. And I suspect I am at the far end of that spectrum, in terms of goal-fixation; so overcoming that "tension" (all tension totally within my own brain) is the biggest challenge for me on a trip like this-especially in arguably the most scenic park in the state. There would be no hike to Shovel Point; no hike to The Cascades. Of the park's 26-some odd miles of trail, I would guess we covered about one to one-and-a-half.

We did make it down to the main outlet of the Baptism River into Lake Superior, which was beautiful, and spent a few hours wading around, looking at rocks, and so on. We were also able to park at a trailhead a little farther into the park and make it to the High Falls (the highest waterfall contained entirely within Minnesota). But all-encompassing vistas are not what float Lucy's boat the most. She like rock climbing (as in, climbing individual rocks), finding caterpillars-two of which we were unable to identify even with a field guide, and telling Momma & Daddy where to stop & when to go all the way along the hike. There are moments of frustration & the inability to truly unwind due to having to be constantly vigilant, but the reality is that we're really pretty spoiled about Lucy when it comes to camping. She now understands pretty much everything that goes into setting up camp & making things happen and at least attempts to help with various tasks. And she just plain loves being outside.

A few highlights from the trip:
- Piecing together bits of information she'd been given, Lucy explaining to me that a bear is going to come into our camp and get toothpaste out of the fire pit and put it on their toothbrush.
- My opportunity for an early a.m. hike (before the women got up Sunday morning). In future camping trips, I think I want to begin bringing running shoes. If we're not going to cover a lot of ground as a family for a few years, I'd love to get in a trail run and get some of that energy out of my system. Plus, with my love of trail running, it would be a shame to not take advantage of doing it in some of the neater places we go.
- Saw the Aurora Borealis for only the 2nd time in my life (other time, oddly enough, was at Johnson Street). Not a particularly dazzling display-mostly greenish-white, but a display nevertheless.
- View from Palisade Head (2 miles south of the park-we drove up there on our way back)
- A new type of bread that Sharon introduced. Forget what it's called, but you make it like I guess pioneers used to (except we used powdered milk)-mix the ingredients, then cook it on a stick over the fire. AMAZING. Sure to be a part of nearly every future camping trip in which there is a camp fire.
- Sights of the beautiful mountain ash-a tree that grows in the park with amazingly red berries that contrast beautifully with the grey rocks.
- Going down at dusk-Sharon had already retired with Lucy-to a rocky area down below our camp by the water. Watching the moon come out and begin to shine on the water while the water rolled up all along the shore.
- The time we spent at that Baptism River/Lake Superior confluence.
One other thing about the trip-it got me hungering for a good ol' backpack trip along the Superior hiking trail. Yellow River State Forest is well & good, but it just doesn't compare.

I Gaze Beyond the Rain-Drenched Streets

To the North Shore, Where My Heart Lies...

I'm off-site tomorrow, and then Friday we're heading up to Tettegouche State Park, considered by many to be the scenic crown jewel of the Minnesota State Park system. Right on the rugged, near-mountainous coast of Lake Superior, with wilderness lakes, towering pines, and cascading streams; it was a possible destination for Pat M, Pat G, & Dan the two years ago when we ended up heading down Yellow River State Forest way.

I've been through it, once (during a backpacking trip), but have never camped there. In this particular adventure, we will camp for two days. Actually, although Lucy has camped more times in the past two years than I have, this will be her first trip of over one night. We are very much looking forward to this trip-if weather cooperates, it will be just about the perfect time of the year up there (we reserved the site about four months ago).

I Would be Remiss...(plus, a call for PCF)

...if I didn't make mention of the Hurricane Katrina Aftermath. Echoing Pat's sentiment, I am glued to reports of the tragedy, and the individual personal stories of lives affected. It is mind-blowing, simply mind-blowing; and I thank God for NPR as a source of information.

My personal choices for donation this time around: The Red Cross and the Humane Society.

Also, a personal grief I feel compelled to bring into the light...I think I made a post on this sometime shortly following last Nov.'s election, but could not locate it in a quick check of the archives. So many people of such wonderful character and generous spirit donated far more money than they ever could have imagined in an attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. Then followed a bit of cruel irony that would be tough to top even in imagination. Those individuals, with depleted charity pockets, were then neeeded more than ever to contribute to various organizations attempting to fend off assaults by the president on all they hold dear: environment, the poor, worker rights, etc. But the issue is certainly not limited to one from a liberal perspective. From both sides of the political aisle, consider how much money is spent (new records with each election) in an attempt to outspend the other side, trying to buy the election in an an act of almost purest non-democracy, and largely with these large sums of money mostly canceling each other out. Imagine if the $500-some-odd million contributed to the presidential election alone could instead be used to fund tsunami or hurricane relief efforts (not to mention aid to Africa, school funding, etc. etc. etc.). Seems win-win (in terms of money better spent AND cleaning up the election process a bit); but of course a very few people with far too much money would stand to lose a bit of their influence on the process; and that in itself is the cause of the majority of our problems these days.

Daniel in the Lion's Den

So, in the earliest days of this journal, I said one of my goals was to use it as a forum to discuss controversial and weighty topics-and there is one which, at this time, is weighing down on us like a Packer Tailgate Party on Jupiter.

It gets bandied about & touched on from time to time-including currently in a flurry of comments to Mixdorf's last post, but never truly resolved; and it is this: Cory, it must seem at times like we're out to get you on this whole religious thing.

Every time you offer up something from your Christian perspective, it must seem like we have a cynical, angry, or snide response. I think where the whole thing originates is that you have definitely been going down a road, religion-wise, that has taken you far, far from where you were a number of years back. I'm not saying you didn't have similar beliefs then, but it's the regular day-to-day influence of your church & religion on you that puts a lot of things in a slightly to very different context.

Your response to much of what you encounter & experience has become a religious one, which is very different than the humanistic response of PMix & me. We have been going down a different road these last few years and, from our perspective, much of the trouble in the world; from terrorism to domestic intolerance to people voting in elections against their best interests (which results in worldwide harm on a scale it is tough to comprehend) is as a direct result of people's religious beliefs. Not religion itself, mind you: it's similar to the "guns don't hurt people but people do" argument. It's the failings of people (accidental and otherwise) in interpretation of texts and teachings that causes the problems. In addition, the practice of attributing complex or difficult things to the supernatural dimininishes our society's ability and willingness to find human solutions to our problems.

The final puzzle piece of Mixdorf's & my concern over seeing a friend become ever more deeply involved with (it seems) evangelical activities is the witness we bore to the effect it had on my brother (now known as "The Fall of Kick Ass)." He was always a square, but it turned him into a square stick in the mud.

Please understand that I have known a few people (and known of a lot more) that are true credits to the Christian faith. And I do believe that more positive change can occur within the church than from without. But we need warriors for this battle, good and true. I simply ask you to proceed through sermons and Bible studies and other such experiences with a questioning, logical, and ecological heart. You will encounter many, many people in that journey who will (though they say otherwise) act like they have the answers. They don't. Truly ask "What Would Jesus Do?" And not the flaxen-haired abstinence-rally-attending Jesus, the real one. We love you, and we just want to make sure that, as we continue down our road of intellectual curiosity & exploration, we don't lose our traveling partner.

Good Gracious!

Whoever said that Moss Eisley was the most rotten hive of scum and villany in the galaxy hasn't peeked in on a Yahoo! news story discussion board lately.

www.yourmusic.com

Well, I went back and forth on this, and finally took the plunge. The inventory is not as large or diverse as I would like, but as there is a complete an exhaustive discography for some artists (Paul Simon, Led Zepplin) and an absolute dearth for others (Donovan, Bob Dylan), I believe they are in the process of building up the service.

Think of it like Netflix, but instead of DVDs it's music CDs. And instead of renting, you're buying. You create a queue, and they automatically send you a disc once a month for-get this-$5.99 including shipping. It's nuts. Like I said, the selection does not afford you the opportunity to experiment with truly independent artists and other such obscure fare, but as long as there are albums in the mainstream realm you still want, it's a deal that seems to be absolutely unbeatable. The way I'm going to work it (using my one new album-per-paycheck system) is to let them ship me the next album in my queue each month, and experiment with artists not available through yourmusic on the off-week cycle.

My current queue:

Paul Simon Hearts And Bones (Expanded & Remastered)
This album is being prepared for shipment. ( In-stock items usually ship within 72 hours of Your Music Date. )

The Who Tommy (Remastered)
09/29/05

Willie Nelson Yesterday's Wine (Remastered)
10/29/05

Beck Odelay
11/29/05

Led Zeppelin Houses Of The Holy (Remastered)
12/29/05

Paul Simon One Trick Pony (Expanded & Remastered)
01/29/06

Willie Nelson Shotgun Willie

Anyway, happy to make a recommendation on what seems to be a great deal. Check it out.

Movie Recommendation: The Shootist

John Wayne (in his final film)
Lauren Bacall
Ron Howard
James Stewart
Harry Morgan
Hugh O'Brian

A character study, actually. John Wayne plays an aging gunfighter (a term, you learn in a special feature, which was actually not used in "the day;" hence, The Shootist) who learns he is terminally ill and seeks a quiet place to live out his days. Trouble follows him there, of course.

Anyway, some really good performances and a nice twist on the classic Western. I rented the movie thinking it would be one Sharon wouldn't particularly care to see and which I could watch after she went to bed. She was in & out of the room and taking care of some things before hitting the sack, but slowly got kind of sucked in. Though she knows who John Wayne is, she didn't really understand his status in the pantheon of American cinema. I was sort of trying to explain that; and also trying to explain how the genre of Western, which on the surface is essentially different variations of the same movie, warrants its own status as a uniquely American art form. Then it struck me-The Aristocrats. That movie, if you know or recall, is about two hours of every comedian under the sun telling the same vulgar joke, but with each one doing it in their own style, adding their own art and just going with it. I have not seen that movie but I defniitely plan to. It's all about admiration of the craft. and is very analagous to the craft of The Western (that of the directors such as George Siegel & John Ford, and the delivery of actors such as Wayne, Gary Cooper, or Randolph Scott).

Caution: Harry Potter Spoiler!

So, I pulled a "Mixdorf." I read the 700+ page Half-Blood Prince, starting on Sunday and finishing last night. While I have said that I like the series a lot, I have claimed to maybe be not quite the fan that some of my closest friends & associates are. But, man, I sure do get glued to those suckers when I read through them.

My random ruminations, following the HBP:
- What an amazing, amazing kid Harry is (in a non-magical sense, that is)
- I think one of the things that makes me think I like the series a little less than some people is that I really do get annoyed at some of the lack of depth of some characters and the repeating themes (OK, do we really believe that Hermione's going to still raise her hand first in every class and that Ron's going to still pester her about it, etc.).
- Good Lord, these last couple of books have been dark & heavy. Not sure I would want Lucy reading this before she's at least 10 or so, unless I really, really get the sense she's ready to handle the weight of some of the seriously bad shit that goes on in there.
- Related to the last couple of items-seems like Rowling can't really decide whether she wants this to be children's literature or not. Sometimes obvious & somewhat shallow humour, as well as the shallow characters can be attributed as being very enjoyable for kids (especialy with respect to how lots of them view adults), but with the adult sort of themes that I spoke to in my last point-I just don't know. Seems like a little bit of trying to have it both ways. * Sigh * maybe I'm just out of touch with respect to how desensitized most kids are these days. But I had a distinctly similar feeling while reading various books of the Redwall series (of which only the first I would truly, truly recommend). Cute little anthropomorphic animal characters making mincemeat of each other in bloody battles, throughout.
- Really interesting buildup in the book. To date, neither Harry nor Dumbledore had ever been wrong in their suspicions, and it was interesting reading to know that ultimately someone would be wrong on Snape.
- God DAMN Snape! God DAMN him to Hell! He's definitely not going to survive this series, and I think it's probably You-Know-Who who's going to do him in in a final act of treachery (ala the Teacher killing that servant guy in DaVinci Code). He reminds me of a terrorist-he had what looks to be a miserable childhood with lots of things working against him, but that's no excuse for going bad.
- Why does Harry have to break up with Ginny, if he's at least that close with Ron & Hermione. Not sure that's made clear. I would think Ginny could hook up with them and make it a four person team, going forward.
- Hard to believe that Snape got away from Buckbeak.
- Would like to see Firenze & maybe some of the other centaurs get involved. Though I realize they generally despize the wizarding world, it would be a little like, "The eagles are coming!"
- Not sure I'd want to be a Death Eater that runs into Harry next book.
- Kind of interesting the turn on Malfoy at the end. There's no reason to believe, up to that point, that there's a shred of good in him. Wonder if she (Rowling) has grand plans for him in the future, is just using him as an example of Voldemort's villany, or if she just wanted to sort of diminish him as a major player in the series.
- It's gonna be quite different, knowing what we know about Snape, reading through the books again someday. Holy shit. And, as much as we hate him-you gotta think he's one of the most powerful wizards around.
- How many Aurors are there? In the teens, in the hundreds, or what? Likewise, how many Death Eaters? They don't give you much of an idea of the scope of this war, but you definitely see the same characters, particularly on the good side, appearing over and over.
- Sirius & Dumbledore are gone, gone, gone, right?
- Any theories on who R.A.B. is?

A Simple Desultory Philharmonic (Or How I Have Robert McNamara'd Sharon & Lucy into Omission)

Yesterday was Sharon's & my eighth anniversary. With all the talk of politics, potential moves from my home, and artistic preferences, Sharon and Lucy definitely both get under-represented in this forum, relative to their actual importance in my day-to-day life.

I was thinking about that recently, too. I could have an entire blog devoted purely to the my observations of Lucy-both her development and also just the funny things she does & says every day. To read my blog, it would be easy to get the impression that I'm quite an uninvolved father, when in fact there is not almost never a waking moment she spends at home (with the exception of her bedtime ritual with Sharon every other night), when her influence is not pervasive in all that I do. It can be a little frustrating when I can't accomplish an agenda, but for the most part there is joy, love, and laughs.

As for Sharon, what can I say? Over the past 8 years of marriage (and-what-12 years since I've know her? Jesus...) she has been a better partner than I ever could have ever hoped for. As I have continued down a road of trying to find my place and simple preferences in this world, she has been by my side, curious and similarly questing for that which life has to teach us, endlessly supportive in my endeavors, rejoicing my (relatively few) differences with her, and diving with me headlong into exploring that for which we share a common interest. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, sharing a simple, common vision of what is good and right in the world. Thanks, my wife! I love you!!!!!!

On a side note, our celebration was improvised last night. Helen watched Lucy while we just headed to Uptown to see what was going. Our evening pretty much consisted of eating at a new Indian restaurant, then having tea and playing cribbage. We laughed about how our evening was the perfect model for the "5 Blind Men and the Elephant" tale. Depending on who you asked, here's what they could have said about our evening.

1. They ate foreign food in Uptown then hung out in Tea Room listening to trance & trip-hop music.
2. They went out for dinner at this expensive restaurant and then drank tea.
3. After dinner they drank tea and played cribbage, and were home before 10.
4. They drove their Kerry-Edwards bumper stickered Corolla to Uptown, ate Indian food, and drank English tea.
5. They drove their car to this trendy part of town, had dinner and drinks, and then drove home.
6. Before and after dinner, they walked at least a mile, pausing at one point to look in a runnin-apparel store.
and so on and so on...

There and Back Again (and I'm not talking Terre Haute)

In these troubled times, I turned to an old friend-The Hobbit. I read it in within the last week and, as a rumination, here are three lines (among many, many more, of course) that really struck me-perhaps made better within context, but I will only provide very brief excerpts:

1. (Bilbo, when lost in the dark depths of the Misty Mountains)
After a time, he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he feld for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more.
(just a very small bit of excellent writing-how, in a world with an immense scale of events, he can draw out examples of how these quaint Hobbit folk really go for the simple pleasures. I love the image.)

2. (sung by the elves in Rivendell-actually, the entire song-many verses-really resonated with me, and I choose this particular one rather arbitrarily)
...Here grass is still growing,
And leaves are yet swinging,
The white water flowing,
The elves are yet singing
Come! Tra-la-la-lally!
Come back to the valley!
(what can I say, but "Zephyr?")

3. (spoken by Thorin on his death bed)
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
(pretty much sums up, in 19 words, everything that's wrong with that world, and our world)

Damn, Just a Few Months Too Late!

Boy, ever since the presidential election, GW & Co have just made one political misstep after another. I do believe that they are losing the hearts and minds of America. The various conservative mouthpieces are no longer putting a palatable spin on their adjenda. To middle-America, the concert of attacks launched against anyone who does not support the Republican administration now just seems radical & mean. The shift in power is neither a question of if nor when. There will be a massive upheaval in '06. The only thing I regret is that it does not co-incide with the next presidential election. Well, that & the fact that it will be our country's referendum on the current state of affairs, rather than a true populist revolution.

Haute Couteur

Well, I'm back, and the Juggernaut was a great host.

A lot can be misconstrued and misinterpreted through emails & phone conversation, so it was really nice to be able to see him in his current environment and get his life-vibe. I must say, I was really happy and somewhat surprised to see the contentment & peace he seems to have found with the city of Terre Haute. The work they've had done on the home is extraordinary and, while perhaps they don't have the financial power of equity they might have had before moving in, the man is living in what could easily be described (by someone like me, anyway) as a "dream house." Backed up against a woodsy area with an almost deafening (yet pleasingly so) sound of birds & cicadas, and with comfortable furnishings & amenities (including a Bathtub of the Gods, gas fireplace, tocatta(?) stone breakfast table, and TLOR-friendly HDTV), he has really managed to secure himself a homey, comfortable, and peaceful place in which to read, write, sing, dance, feast, or do any combination of the above.

Extraordinary were the number of hours during which I was cornered in various areas of the dwelling, having the specifics of the remodeling process explained. But it was all good, and there was drinking (of both local and English brews), watching ST, talking, breakfasting, supping, frisbee golfing (one round of which was entirely "Rohan-run"), hiking, playing with Molly (who was great), and studying Geography. Also, in a surprise, a little filming; of which I will say no more at this time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Waterloo is not the bleak, amenity-free town we remember of our youth. City planners there (as well as in most other similarly-sized towns in this country) have discovered the necessity of biking paths; small pockets of the culturally-starved have created a need for a local funky coffee shop or two; and various other pieces of what people like us consider necessary for "quality of life" have come about in varying degrees, however small. It's just a matter of finding your little niches and exploiting them. Terre Haute was no exception. We got coffee at the "Java Haute," we explored the Dobbs Park Nature Center, I tasted a 6-draft-beer sampler at the historical restaurant, Maugers(sp?). Gibbs, I am happy to say, seems to have been exploiting them more than we might have guessed. Again, I was a little surprised to see how, in the time since working at the Tribune-Star, our friend is actually feeling a lot better about where he is, the decision he made in moving, and the future than we might have expected. Made a great weekend all the better.

On a side not, our dog is still around, still wagging and responsive. She's getting injected with 500ml of fluid a day, and crapping/pissing all over the floor every night.

Not Yet

Well, the advice we got from our vet and a few people who were familiar with the scenario of having to let a pet go was, "You'll know when..."

We had just finished a last consultation with our vet where we had overcome some final indecisiveness and made plans for a home visit for euthanasia the next morning at 9:00. However, when we got home, Kuña'i was about as waggy, energetic, and responsive as she had been for at least a week. She must have responded really well to the fluids we've been giving her for the past few days. And if we were going by the "we'll know when it's time" theory, we had a sudden and definite feeling that she was telling us it wasn't time yet. For many pets, suffering through some sort of painful illness (and of sound mind), you hear that they sort of reach a point where they decide they need to go, and they just sort of shut down. But our dog is such a difficult read (how do you know if her indifference and listlessness is just her dementia or weakness and toxicity). Even so, though, I swear we can get no indication at all she is in any kind of discomfort. And we don't want it to get to that point-so we're definitely not going to do anything aggressive, invasive, or that can't be administered at home in terms of medication, but we're just going to go for a few more days till it seems that she is not responding to the fluids we are giving her. At a first sign of any suffering, or a couple of days in which she just is not responsive, we will be ready to put her down.

It was definitely a weird night-we've had a very thorough sort of process of having our "last" of everything and making sure we were giving her a proper send-off. The timing was all planned-I was taking the day off today and Sharon was going to be busy with various friends over the next few days while I visited Terre Haute. But "our girl" had different plans, I guess. I'm feeling so much better-I think I was (since the diagnosis was so sudden) being overwhelmed and stressed out to the point where I didn't know if I was making an objective decision (about the "when" part). And Sharon was worse off than me. But I have a really collected and good (as good as one can feel in this situation, of course) feeling about how we're proceeding now. A few more days for Kuña'i to experience the simple pleasures of this life before we can let her go in peace.

On a side note-Cory called yesterday with some words of comfort related to heaven and knowing that she'd be waiting there. I definitely don't tend to think of "heaven"-related things in very specific or cut & dry terms, but I did have this thought concerning the place:

There is really no question as to whether all dogs go to heaven; for it to fit the definition of the place, we must assume that dogs are somehow part of it.

Tagged!

Ugh-one that's all about books. Am I alone in the fact that I rarely (like really rarely) buy books? I'm a library or loan-from-friends guy.

Nevertheless, I will attempt to answer the best I can:

Number of books I own:
I'm with Aaron; this is kind of a ridiculous question. I own books from my childhood, some textbooks, some field guides, some travel guide books, some philosophy-oriented books, and just a few works of fiction (most of which were inhereted from my my mom, who is one of the most prolific readers I have ever known).

Last book I bought: Goodnight, Groundhog! (for Lucy) That reminds me, lame children's literature is one of my great annoyances. There's sooo many wonderful books out there, that there's really no excuse for having crap in your child's collection. Anyone interested in a few recommendations, I'd be more than happy to pass them along.

books I am reading: Currently: Prairy Erth, by William Least Heat Moon and (once again-I know, I'm nuts) There And Back Again, a Hobbit's Tale.

Last book I read (and have finished): Does McElligot's Pool by Dr. Suess count?

Five Books that mean a lot to me: Lord of the Rings, Prairy Erth, Walden, The Lorax, and Guess How Much I Love You?

I've no one left to tag. I could tag Cory, but he neither reads nor is currently posting.

Loki

I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with Kuña-i and keep her as comfortable as possible without demanding too much effort on her part and without letting myself slip into a spiral of moroseness and dispair. Last night, I got another MST3K episode and a 6-pack of Scapegoat Pale Ale (good, this) and situated her next to me on the couch for a couple of hours. It was nice; our best times, whether spooning in bed or me napping with her chin on my shoulder, have always been long periods of simple skin-to-fur contact. Mix that in with some intermittant petting & scratching in her favorite places and some occasional utterances of "my girl" and "sweetie," and you have some of the moments I'll most remember & cherish.

They injected an entire liter of fluid into her yesterday, which was absorbed almost immediately. She definitely looks and feels better after those treatments, but the rate at which she is going through the fluid is extraordinary. It means she's not taking in much fluid or nutrients through other, preferable, sources. And nothing's getting processed by her kidneys-so many of the nutrients (especially potassium) that she takes in are just getting peed out. Sharon will administer 500 ml of injections over each of the next couple of days, and we will be taking her in to be euthanized Thursday morning.

Sharon & I are each planning to have a talk with her & make sure things aren't left unsaid. Well, a few things were left unsaid last night, as she got up midway through my teary-eyed delivery and walked away. I'm hoping her reaction was as a result of her dementia and not so much a message about my long-windedness. Anyway, finishing that talk will remain my highest priority in the remaining time.

Still Working on Cracking the Tea Equation

Still doesn't make sense that I don't like tea. I'm trying again, this time focusing on more traditional teas (Green Tea, Earl Grey, etc.), rather than the non-caffeinated herbal variety.

Do I have British roots or not? It's time to step up to the plate.

Green tea, as it so happens, is my first foray. It is steeping as I type.

A Bittersweet Weekend

So, as you have probably heard (since there are only two of you), Kuña-i was diagnosed on Friday with chronic kidney failure. Left untreated, she would die within a week; and with expensive, intensive treatment we could slow her descent for a month or two. Unless we have a change of plans following a visit to the vet today, we will be giving her fluids intravenously and making her as comfortable as possible until Thursday morning, when we are planning to have her put to sleep.

Although there's a lot of second-guessing and feelings of guilt, I'm pretty sure that I don't want to extend a period of watching her grow more listless and less responsive, constantly wondering & worrying whether or not she is suffering. She's pretty subdued right now, but she can get up and get around, doesn't seem to give an indication she is in pain, and is somewhat interested in what's going on around her. I'd really like her to be as much like herself as possible at the end-and I think the likelihood of that being the case diminishes the longer we wait.

This weekend, we canceled a few plans we had (though we went out for coffee both mornings-we just needed to recharge) and spent a lot of time around the house. We gave her a lot of attention and put a lot of time into a project where we are scanning all our favorite pictures of her through the years for an eventual online slideshow tribute, the link of which we will probably be sending out Thursday sometime (Sharon & I are taking off that day after sending Lucy to school). But the bittersweet highlight of the weekend was a trip out to "Lazy Lump Hill"-an odd, flat-topped field/park about a block from the house in Crystal, where we lived when first married. We used to picnic there on occasion and let Kuña-i run off some energy (once upon a time a 30+ mph runner, she once caught & dispatched a rabbit there at a dead run). Saturday evening the weather was perfect and our family went out for a last picinc. We just let Kuña-i wander around & she seemed to really enjoy sniffing about (old familiar & interesting smells, I hope). It was there where I first lost it-but I'm a guy for whom these sorts of cathartic moments are necessary. I'll probably have another one or two before Thursday, and maybe be ready to move on by the end of the week, when I am expected to head to Terre Haute for a weekender.

"What Was I Thinking?" (alternately titled "That Was the Dumbest Thing Ever"

I thought I had made a post along these lines in the past, but looking back through the archives, I cannot find any such thing.

I came across a very funny picture, circa 1994, taken from the basement of Johnson Street. The picture was intended to be of 44, but it was framed horribly, with the band at the very bottom of the picture, and the lone basement lighting fixture dominating the upper half. What made the photo so funny was that the light fixture was one of those old 60s/70s models with a non-grounded outlet extension right above the bulb itself. And every piece of electrical equipment (including three amplifiers and an 800-watt PA system) the band owned was routed through a series of low-capacity extension cords and their respective multiple slots until eventually ending up, after a tangled mess, being routed through the single recepticle on that fixture. Wow. I even recall a couple of visits by a Service Plus technician to work on our washer or dryer during which comments were made to the effect of "I don't like that...I don't like that at all..."

What were we thinking? Looking back between the years of 1993-1995, I can definitely extract numerous candidates for a list of stupidist things I've ever done, but I will try to look back over an even greater breadth of time and limit the list to 5:

(as always, in no particular order)
The "What Was I (Were We) Thinking List
1. The Extension Cord Monstrosity (above)
2. Wading tree-to-tree with Mixdorf & Gibbons through 3-4 feet of fast-moving Black Hawk Creek floodwaters for no reason whatsoever.
3. In college, and with Gibbons (a recurring figure in this list), attempting to teach ourselves martial arts by fighting in slow motion.
4. In college, choosing to pursue boom box tape recordings of 'Time Did Yank Us' songs rather than women.
5. With Gibbons, "backpacking" in Suomi Hills with a 30-gallon cooler, two grocery sacks, and an 'Academy Broadway' tent for which there were explicit instructions not to expose to direct sunlight.

Boy-that was fun. Reminiscing about past buffoonery is surely the best of times.

I could definitely see expanding on that list in the future...

How about anyone else-what are some of your favorite "What Was I Thinking" events?

My Strength! It Wanes.

Whether by forces mystical and ancient, or simply due to the stresses and pressures of urban life, I have been exhausted lately. I have a history of being able to operate on <6 hours of sleep for pretty much the entire work week-and since Lucy has come on the scene, without much of an opportunity to even catch up on weekends. It runs in my family. My dad could do it. My brothers do it. I do it. That is, until the visit of The Statesman & The Validectorian.

Suddenly, I'm zapped.

For the entire visit of Sharon's friend, Jen, and on through to last night, I have fallen asleep alongside Lucy on my nights to put her down. And on my off-nights, I can't seem to stay up past 10:00 or 10:30. Last night, when I happened to wake up in the middle of the night, I forced myself to head downstairs to read for an hour before going back to bed, just to give myself some sense that I can have some time to myself during which I am actualy awake. Man, I feel like I'm turning into Sharon.

Danny's Choice

Anyone who knows poor Kuña-i's history knows that we are in for thousands of dollars over years of slipped disks, gastrointestinal oddities, kidney failure, glaucoma, & other ailments far too numerous to recall at this time. From the sweetest, most vibrant dog in the world; we have seen her descent to be a stumbling, blind, confused creature (if still sweet) of today that I am embarassed to say provides more annoyance than companionship.

Over the past few months, she has lost nearly 20 pounds and has a growing mass in her abdomen that we've recently begun having checked out. As is the norm with our dog diagosi, the $450 blood test & ultrasound combo was not entirely conclusive, but what we know are this: it is either cancerous or intestinal adhesions, and if something isn't done (surgery wise), she will starve to death. Of course, in classic Kuña-i tradition, we have no way of knowing if the surgery will be a success (again, they don't even know what it is). And Kuña-i is no spring chicken-nearly 12 years old, we figure.

Danny's choice.

Sharon & I have planned a discussion tonight, but in a sudden bout of conviction that surprised myself, I think I am on the road to deciding. We do the surgery. There's no way to perform a proper "cost-benefit analysis." It's a shot in the dark; a philosophical one and, for me, a moral one. What it comes down to for me is this: I do a lot of talk about integrity and sticking to my guns and honor. Talk is cheap, but what do you do for the ones you care about when the chips are down? As for me, I will refuse to put a dollar value on my loved ones, four-legged or otherwise, and I will march, true to my principles, down the road that ends in the parking lot of the Poor House.

I do want to still have a conversation with our vet and sort of talk about Kuña-i's overall health outlook, but I think my path is set. This is not to say my dog's quality of life could not, due to other circumstances, deteriorate to the point where we have to make a merciful and difficult decision to put her down-someday even maybe even the near future. But it will be a decision based on her best interests, not financial sense.

DanTag

1. It's Dan's theory that one only has time to devote to 10 outside-of-work pursuits. What makes your list? This can be an idealized version of your life (e.g. pursuits in which you are interested but just haven't found the time or ambition to start).
2. What are the last five albums you bought? Are you just kind of buying albums on a whim these days or following any kind of overarching plan-such as exploring a genre or working your way through a backlog of albums you've wanted to buy for some time?
3. Everyone has an issue (at least one)-political or philosophical-that is kind of their personal baby. One on which they feel they have an enlightened view in a greater world that just either doesn't get it or doesn't care. Tell us about it-and attempt to be brief.
4. Prairie, mountains, woods, desert, lake, the sea. Which calls to you the most? Where would you most choose to reside? RANK THEM!
5. Guilty pleasure TV. Is there a show that would be condemned by your peers, but yet you find yourself watching it on a regular basis? Let's hear it.

No limit or minimum of people to tag. Send this to whomever you choose.
I will send this to the only two bloggers with whom I have any regular contact:
Aaron (in this case, just trying to get the fucker posting again in our lifetime)
Pat

My answers:
1. Top ten pursuits (in no particular order):
1. Family time (if I can group daddy-daughter, husband-wife, and whole family all together)
2. Friend time.
3. Movie/DVD/video watching.
4. Music making (including recording & performing)
5. Acting
6. Camping/backpacking
7. Running & general fitness
8. Reading (both for pleasure & to learn)
9. Travel
10. Various computer things-blogging/surfing/etc. Probably the least productive of the list
but reality.
2. Last five albums (most recent first) & "album plan":
1. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme-S&G
2. Led Zepplin II-Led Zepplin
3. The Tide-Lucy Kaplanski
4. 12 Golden Country Greats-Ween
5. The Ox that Pulls the Cart-LJ Booth
I'm in a mixture of exploring some insurgent country & some "acoustic-y" artists who've caught my ear during MPR's morning show, while attempting to make headway on a 10-15 year-old backlog of classic artists, which include S&G, Led Zepplin (see above), Donovan, The Who, & Jimi Hendrix. I'm back on my "album every (two-week) paycheck" schedule.
3. My personal political/philosophical baby. I have so many, I have to touch on two, but I'll try to be brief. #1 Political: People who vote against their best interest (e.g. Republican). Really, really mind-blowing when it comes to putting the interests of corporations above the welfare of human beings. #2 Religious: People, whom I've come to refer to as "philosophical hacks," who interpret their religion in such a way as to make life way more complicated and way less fun for everybody. Boy, that's a diplomatic way to put that.
4. I love 'em all. But here's the ranking:
1. Mountains. (majestic and powerful, stirring the heart of any adventurer-how can you beat
that?)
2. Prairie. (near & dear to my heart, rare, and with a sky that doesn't end)
3. Woods. (varied, mysterious, & teeming with life)
4. Lake. (refreshing, inviting, and no neighbors across the way)
5. Desert. (beautiful, serene, & sublime)
6. The sea (timeless & grand, but a lot closer to others' hearts than my own-I suspect)
5. Guilty pleasure TV:
Actually, I would consider myself pretty prone to this type of behavior, but we really watch so little TV these days that I don't currently have a show that would fit into this category. Years ago (early 90's?), when "Saved by the Bell" was in its first go-round, I often found myself, inexplicably, sitting and watching it. I think it was a combination of my work schedule (getting home right about that time), being exhausted after a day in the warehouse, mixed with a little morbid-"I can't believe how bad this is" curiousity that eventually morphed into some level of genuine interest in the superficial, unbelievable characters, and their insipid goings-on. Again, inexplicable-but I think having a combination of factors like that, leading to similar shameful viewings, is hardly unique in our society.

A Special 'Thank You' to The Statesman and The Validectorian

Much like Gibbons' visit of a couple of weeks ago, this last few days was both relatively predictable and thoroughly enjoyable. As is often discovered in these get-togethers, not a whole helluva lot changes. We are more aided by technology, and some minor dynamics change (a kind of volatile stage Lucy is working through was taking its toll on momma and I felt a little less free than I expected I might), but the cast of characters remain the same.

To recap...
Things that change:
- Life circumstances of those involved (marriages, children, jobs, places we live, income)
- More history from which to draw obcure references
- We eat better
- We drink higher quality beer
- Technology (e.g. watching episodes on the computer, ordering pizza online, engaging those not there via 'conference call')
Things that remain timeless:
- Buffoonery
- Silliness
- Basketball
- Non-Stop Excitement
Highlights of the long weekend:
- A stellar day of 96 degree frisbee golf, followed by a swim in Silver Lake, followed by football by the lake, followed by another dip in the lake
- Long-awaited TT commentary, which may be actually funnier than we thought it was at the time.
- A way-cool bike ride touring the area from Wirth Parkway to St. Anthony Main.
- High-quality beer.
- Experiencing a wonderful variety of tasteful while still managing to return to pizza for every other meal.
- Having Lucy meet and dig my friends.
Many many other enjoyable things occurred, as they will in nonstop excitement, and I am sure they will be recounted at a later date.

As Only I Can Do It (alternately titled "What Was I Thinking?")

There I was, at the beginning of the week, thinking that I'd make sure to go to bed at a reasonable hour during the week, to make sure I have a bit of "sleep capital" accrued before the visit of two friends. Also, I'd make sure to do a pretty deep straightening of the house, & organization of finances prior to the weekend.

Somehow, I found myself with very little of the house cleaning done, sitting on the couch last night at 1:56 am, watching a PBS documentary on the life of Bob Newhart.

Christ.

Hanging on a Weather Vane with My Hand Cut Off

Good God, but when it rains in the world of my finances, it pours. It's an uncanny cycle: I work so hard for so long to gain some vague sense of financial stability, with some concept of a long-term plan to pay off my debts once and for all, when all of a sudden, I am hit from all sides with a string of sudden expenses that make me feel not unlike Luke Skywalker when Darth Vader is flinging all those toasters and iron rods into him in their first confrontation.

Kuña-i is back at her mysterious malady best. She'd inexplicably lost 10 or so pounds in the last couple of months-and we're about $500 into a series of tests and scans that are on the way to revealing something that may end up being a tumor (hard to say where expenses will go from this point). Now, just yesterday, I found out that the motherboard from my computer fried itself (a description from the Geek Squad folks that sounded more like something from "Back to the Future" than a real-life issue-something about capacitors leaking). So, had to invest in a new $500 CPU yesterday. There's been some other, sub-$100, things in the past week that have piled on and made it all worse.

Of course, my computer's been out of commission for about a week, so I've been unable to check Quicken-all these extra expenses have been getting shoveled onto a credit card, so as not to incur an overdraft charge from my bank. Making a lump payment from my bank account to cover a series of credit card expenses "when things get stabilized" is always a lot more difficult in practice than in theory, and I fear that my hopes of being all paid off once and for all my next year's tax return are in some jeopardy.

Oh well, I was planning on a bit of "spare no expense" in the upcoming non-stop excitement get together, and I don't plan to alter that approach. In the end, it is just money-easy come easy go. But God DAMN it, I'm in the midst of some fuckin' "easy go."

The Fever Breaks

Good God, it's been hot. We just finished a string of nine 90 degree+ days in a row, culminating in a 97 degree scorcher yesterday. It's rough for those of us without central air, and a below-average ability to find comfort in temperature extremes.

I had ambitious plans of getting some recording done, as well as some deep cleaning (or, failing that, simply some deep straightening & organizing) prior to the Mixdorf/Levendusky visit. Unfortunately, when the temperature raises to a certain level, all you (or me, as the case may be) are really are motivated to do is just sit around and sweat. I really think that is probably the primary reason behind the slower pace of traditional southern towns, as well as a good probable explaination of how the "fiesta" came to be.

I come from a long line of prodigous sweaters. Sharon can not/will not ever truly understand, as we begin our annual "should the window unit air conditioner be on and, if so, how high should it be set" battles. She asks how I can be so cold in the winter (turn the heat up!) and so hot in the summer. I simply tell her that her body temperature is regulated by her womb, but she doesn't seem to accept that explanation.

We did manage to get out of the house a lot this weekend, though in each case into scorching hot outdoor activities. Among those activities, we made it out to the Minneapolis Log Boom event at the Mississippi River near our house on both days. It was the World Championships for Logrolling and potentially a really cool set of events, but it was spread out along a long stretch of unshaded riverfront land, with nary a cloud in the sky. Nasty, NASTY hot.

Sunday morning I also ran in the "Otter Trotter," a 5-kilometer race along that same stetch of unshaded land. It was at 8:30 am, but it must have already been in the mid-80s by that time. The hottest race I'd ever run, I'd guess. My time was NOT that hot. Unless I do a drastic change in training (and, perhaps diet), my best 5k times may be way behind me. Although I run distances twice what I ever would have dreamed doing back in college, my times in a short race like this are about a minute-a-mile slower. Just a totally different type of training-combined with the fact that I'm carrying about 15-17 extra pounds. Both make a big difference. 1996 Dan would have finished about third or fourth in the event out of 106 runners. 2005 Dan finished 27th.

PrairyErth: The Recommendation

So, I'd been intending to finish the book I'm reading, PrairyErth, before officially recommending it to my closest friends, but I can wait no longer. Truth is, I'm still a little under half-through; it is a slooow read-one I'm tackling almost exlusively on my bus-ride in & back (an event in which I have probably been averaging less than three times a week for the past month). But if slow, to say it is engaging and delicious is to undersell it. I say this now: this is clearly the best work of non-fiction I have ever read, and it's not even close.

I've never read a book quite like it-it is some sort of combination of historical study, geographical study, ethnography, and philosophical exploration. William Least-Heat Moon, the author essentially spends three years exploring every inch of Chase County, Kansas-the county to the south of Council Grove's Morris County. Though many images and characters in the book evoke certain personal feelings, I swear-my personal connection to that part of the country does not play into my opinion of the quality of this book. I dearly wish there were more books of this sort, exploring other counties in the country. But in Chase County (total population probably under 3,000), a place that many people would assume is relative void of anything of interest, Least-Heat Moon explores all these different aspects of place and makes fantastic, mind-blowing connections, telling very human and compelling stories, with a writing that is of as fine a quality as I have ever seen.

I wish for there to be more WLHM's in the world, and I guarantee one of the most enlightening, philisophically and intellectually stimulating reads in which you will ever embark. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK. I don't want to ever finish this book, and probably won't until mid-September, but I beg and plead for you to begin it. (with your psycho reading style, Mixdorf, you might just finish it in consecutive weekends).

Trying to give much more detail about the book would fall short: please read the editorial reviews from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/039592569X/ref=dp_nav_1/002-8421614-8365666?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=507846&s=books

Afternoon of N.S.E

Gibbsy Knickerbock is in town for a couple of days and will swing by to pick me up from work at 1:00.

We plan an afternoon of basketball or some other sweaty endeavor (it's been in the 90s and humid for about a week), and then the tossing back of a few & some kind of supper.

Good times are almost ensured.

News

Actually, about the news. Just some ruminations a few days following a trip down to Iowa this last weekend. I am always brought up to & beyond speed with respect to the current state of broadcasting after spending a day or two at my parents. The TV, which is perpetually on, is usually tuned to cable news (a type of network which came about more or less, mercifully, after my upbringing in a "cable house") during the majority of the daytime hours, and those vapid, sugar-coated suburbs to the cities of programming: the morning shows (e.g. Good Morning America, the Today Show). Haven't sat and actually watched more than a minute of them for years, but I trust that if there is still a particle of cheese to be extracted from any headline happening worldwide, Katie Couric is still there to interview someone willing to dole it out, the morning after.

Again, the whole phenomenon of the cable news network has pretty much grown to the point it has generally outside the scope of my day to day experience. I am only aware of it through its influence on other areas of our society, including talking points for political discussion. And the growth of the format has seemed to parallel a couple of disturbing trends in journalism. The less disturbing of the two is sensationalism. It is only less disturbing in that the root of the problem is so obvious-quest for ratings and appeal to the least common denominator. It has, nevertheless, convinced me that the amount of cable news (or really, any news) an individual watches is in direct proportion to the amount of skew that person in judging the relative importance of issues in the world. To "Joe Woodbury," where does "shark attacks" fall within the list of the top 10 issues facing society today?

The other, far more insidious, trend is that of either lazy journalism or (worse) advocacy journalism presented as a traditional news broadcast. Indeed, we seem to be moving in a direction where many "journalists" themselves knowingly or otherwise perpetuate a stream of bias and propaganda into their broadcasts. Disappearing fast, it sadly seems, is the purity and sanctity of The 4th Estate.

RoJ Comments Part Deux

1. Luke: What do you remember of your mother?
Leia: Not much, she died when I was very young (YEAH, LIKE 30 SECONDS AFTER
I WAS BORN)
2. So, they got rid of the "jub jub" song from the Ewoks, which was never particularly popular. But did they have to replace it with a something that sounds like some long-haired dude using an acoustic guitar & a series of synthesizer pedals to have a New Age performance in a mall?
3. The Ewoks: not as annoying as I remember.
4. Darth Vader: Remove my mask.
Luke: But you'll die. (WHAT? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?)
5. Luke built himself a lightsaber? What the fuck? Perhaps "Jedi training" includes a number of technical courses.
6. Strange, the Ewoks were going to EAT the landing party until they were awed byThreepio floating. In the midst of all the revelry at the end, let's not forget that the rebels are celebrating with a bunch of beastly little cannibalistic savages.
7. Actual conversation last night:
Sharon: It would be weird to grow up never really knowing who your father is or that you had
a sister.
Dan: Particuarly so, if your father was Darth Vader.
8. I love the co-pilot alongside Lando-the alien with the groovy orange 70's shirt and vest and the funky laugh.
9. Funny...FUNNY during the Vader-Luke confrontation. The whole scene alternates multiple times between Luke saying, "I won't fight you, father," then fighting him for about 30 seconds. Again and again, "I won't fight you father," then "hack, hack hack, slice." I have a theory that he actually defeats Vader because he blows his mind. His brain, which is perhaps more machine than man at this point, starts just steaming-I'm surprised we don't see white smoke coming out of the side of his helmet as he continues to get these confusing and conflicting messages from his son.
10. How can Vader, who surely has heard once or twice that "there are always two Sith, never more never less" not put two and two together and conceive of the idea that the Emperor is wanting to replace him with Luke? Especially when the confrontation is so similar to the Anakin-Dooku battle he himself was involved in years prior.
11. Likewise-moments ago, the Emperor asked Luke to put an end to the defeated Vader. Considering the Sith are evil and known to usurp one another from time to time, is it really wise for him to take his eyes off Vader as he attacks Vader's son?
12. It would be funny if, after the death of the Emperor, Vader & Luke became the two Sith.
13. I see they replaced the ghost image of the older, bald guy who was supposed to be Anakin with Hayden Christensen in the final scene. I wonder if the bald guy got pissed. Anyway, when did they do that? These movies were re-released long before Revenge of the Sith came out-that was quite a sneak preview into Anakin in his prime.
14. And finally, with respect to the ghost images; why does Anakin get to appear as his 27-year old self, but Obi-Wan has to come back at Alec Guinness' age? Hardly seems fair. Would have been interesting, too, to see Yoda in his prime. Perhaps he once was, like, 5'8" but just shrunk and shrunk over his last 800 years or so.

RoJ

So, in our viewing of the full 6 episodes in chronological order, we are currently up to Return of the Jedi-and at a point about halfway through. So far, I would have to say that it is the worst of all six in terms of everything from plot & development to amount of cheese. That said, I realize that we have yet to see what I consider to be a wonderful piece of cinematic work, which is the rag-tag fugitive fleet's attack on the 2nd Death Star (the whole-"it's a trap" sequence).

A few ruminations from what we saw last night:
1. Sharon noticed a few places where it seemed like there was CG animation on some of the added scenes for the latest release. I thought that all the added scenes were originally made and just offered now as sort of a "director's cut." One that comes to mind now is that extended (and very lame) musical performance in Jabba's palace by that pot-bellied thing with the lips on the end of its snout. It just screamed "Pixar."
2. What purpose did it possibly serve for Leia to bring Chewbacca in as a fake prisoner? If the whole point was about gaining admittance to the facility, why doesn't she just do what Lando did. Somehow, inexplicably, he got in and is just lurking around in the background for the first few scenes. Following that exchange, she then had two rescues to perform, rather than one. That requires a lot of explanation, unless we are to assume it was the most boneheaded plan in the history of the Republic.
3. Not paving any new ground here, but what an incredibly underwhelming end to Boba Fett. No veneange for that supposedly monumental scene where, as a child, he sees his father killed by a Jedi. No successful use of all his gadgets. Just "whump" and down in the pit (unless we are to believe that he activated his rocket from the pit and escaped when we weren't looking).
4. Many things that seem to require some sort of explanation in Luke's visit to the palace. First, why did he not devise a plan with Leia ahead of time? Second, why did he send R2-D2 into the palace with his lightsaber and enter it himself, later, unarmed? Everything we see from the Jedis in episodes I-III give you every reason to believe he could have gone in there with his lightsaber, defeated everyone within the place with one hand tied behind his back, and walked out with Han. This should be no problem at all for the Son of the Chosen One!
5. When C-3PO says, "Master, you're standing on..." wouldn't a person of reasonable intelligence assume the intent of the phrase was to warn him. Perhaps even to warn him that he was standing on something away from which he should move? Not so easy a piece logic, it appears, for the Son of the Chosen One.
6. Why not use a mind-trick on the Rancor?
7. For that matter, why not use a mind trick (or Jedi reflexes and some hand-to-hand combat-or some telekinisis, for God's sake!) on any one of the guards coming to get him out of the Rancor pit. Or on any of the guards that are with him out on the execution skiff.
8. Not to be undone in the stupidity department, they leave Luke's arms free during the attempted execution, so that he can conveniently do his diving-board trick. They leave his arms free! A Jedi knight! Sheesh!
9. Again, probably not paving any new ground here, but Good Lord, Luke doesn't look nearly as coordinated, limber, or artistic as all the other Jedis we see in his use of the elegant light saber. He's just hacking around like a blindfolded 5-year old going after a Star Wars pinata. They're not clean kills at all. Everyone he slices is still alive enough to scream as they fall off the skiff.
10. What the hell happened to the whole Jedi ethic thing? His friends are safely aboard the skiff. Jabba is dead. Escape is theirs, but as a final "fuck you," he finds it necessary to instruct Leia to fire a cannon onto Jabba's yaht, causing it to explode and destroy any who might have happened to survive the earlier hoopla.

Ah, The Cramps, My Old Friend. We Meet Again.

Well, I planned to run like a combination of 50% Roger Bannister and 50% Louis Pasteur, but I finished it like 100% Juggernaut.

I elected not to make a bannana holster (not like it sounds or otherwise), and moments before beginning the race I ditched both my water belt and shirt. I decided to run like I used to in the good old days, stripped down & free. I think it was the right choice and, regardless of how this post may look a little farther down, I'm really happy with how I ran. I sort of had some minor goals of beating my 2003 time, beating three hours, and finishing running strong; none of which I achieved, but I think my underlying hope was just that my "in-shapeness" was in the same universe as it was in my previous 25Ks and that I could finish the race and not embarass myself. Both of those goals were achieved, and I feel that my insane <4 week training theory was more or less validated.

Of all my theories, the ones I did employ were walking up the big hills and eating a section of bannana at each of the aid stations-both of which were aimed primarily as a means by which to stave off my old friend, The Cramps. It's something I'd really like to talk to a doctor about someday-is it possible I'm just a really easy cramper? I have had runs in which I feel like I have an awful lot of leg strength left (namely, the marathon, and my three 25Ks), but I end up cramping. It is immensely frustrating. Perhaps in this case I could attribute it to not having a long enough conditioning program-and maybe I am a bit chronically dehydrated, but I'd like to find out for sure. Cause it took my theory from being New England Journal of Medicine-worthy to merely being "maybe on to something." I was actually quite pleased at how relatively comfortable the run was through the first couple of hours. The miles just rolled away-and (perhaps as a result of beginning the race with the "walk-the-insane-hills theory") I have to say it was much, much easier than the first time I ran the race, two years ago. It was somewhere between miles 11 and 12, having just summited a particularly long & steep climb, when I felt the first little *ping* in my calf. Oof-that wasn't going to begin now, was it? I adjusted my stride a little, to have my feet come more straight down, and to not push off so hard at the top of little minor hills, and actually managed to not feel anything of that sort again until well over mile 13. It was at that point when I was struck again-big cramps this time, one in each calf on two successive steps (quite a co-incidence, in retrospect)-*PING!, PING* Argh! It actually made me stumble and almost fall. From that point on, I was back in a familiar savage ballet, constantly adjusting my stride and speed much like Data adjusting resonant shield frequency in order to ward off a series of random frequency phaser blasts. I found that I had no problem running downhill so, with the amazing amount of energy I actually still had, I would just fly down the hills, trying to make up for lost time I was currently losing during the uphill walks and would be eventually losing on straightaway walks. The cramps got more frequent and more serious-often striking me when I had a little stumble and was forced to land in a way I had not intended (a frequent occurrence, as you're running through thigh-high grass during a pretty big stretch near the end, plus with all the roots & rocks & such). I (predictably) eventually lost the ability to run along even flat surfaces without seizing up, and when I eventually crossed the finish line, I fear I was the very pitiful sight I had hoped I would not be.

Again, though, it was all about the cramps. I've had many, many much shorter runs where I just wanted to collapse at the end. Here, I picked up my medal, walked on over to my car, and drove on home. I was even able to mow the lawn later in the day.

My time? 3:01 and something. I did have a great time during most of the run, and I do love trail running, and I'll do it again.

LIke a Cross Between Louis Pasteur and Roger Bannister

So will I approach my race tomorrow with equal parts science and training.

I'll put the condensed, intense training schedule to the test, of course-but I'm also going to be really working hard to incorporate some planning & science into my performance:
- The concept of "negative splits" (in a nutshell, starting out more slowly than my body tells me I should with the idea I will more than make up for it with more energy later on).
- Actual prescribed (not specifically for me, but for millions in an issue of "Runner's World") pre-race-day and race-day menus.
- Walking the biggest, steepest climbs to ward off cramps.
- Taking smaller steps when climbing hills (which I've always done), but also in going down hills, which I've recently read zaps your energy more than you realize. Sounds kind of obvious, but when you're out there running, you really want to fly down those hills.
- Better pre-race hydrating.
- Actually creating a "bannana holster" out of duct tape and affixing it to my water bottle belt. I will keep a fresh bannana there and, God willing, it will still be in condition to eat at around mile 10.

In the end-it will be a lot about guts and the work I've put into up to this point, but I'm interested to see if any of these other "edges" translate to any discernable benefit out on the trail. I'm excited, a little nervous, and also hoping that following the race, I'm in condition to care for my daughter for the remainder of the weekend (Sharon's working all three days).

Mark My Words...

But you know that story that's come out about this new Iranian President potentially being a former captor during the Iran hostage crisis?

There's something real fishy about the emergence of it.

Pretty funny timing, pretty darn coincidental, and a pretty good darn way to get the US populace, with flagging support for anti-Arab military action, all whipped up again.

There is more to this story than meets the eye.

Back on the Wagon

Upon further consideration of the rapid improvement of my per-mile time (decreasing by 30 seconds per mile on a seven-mile run over each of the first three weeks of the training), coupled with consideration of how much hard work I've put in during this intense (albeit brief) training stint, I have decided to give it a shot. The race, that is.

It was last Thursday, right before my most recent sevent-miler, when I discovered that Sharon & Lucy would not be able to attend the race. I think that took a lot of wind out of my sails-I really like it when they can be there. I understand the whole concept of running for yourself, but that's what training is all about. Besides, I had my fill of that angle when I did the marathon while Sharon was in South America. These days, it's really nice to have support during the run.

Nevertheless, I'll lace 'em up next Saturday. I got a taste of things to come this last weekend, as I tried to put myself through as grueling a preparation day as possible, while not destroying myself a week before the actual event. On a humid day with temperatures between 90 and 95 I took to the trails at French Regional Park, and ran for just over two hours. Running on any trails as preparation for trail running is better than nothing; you are constantly going up and down hills (often without even being aware of it), you are conditioning your arches, and you're working thigh muscles by high-stepping it over grasses. It is no Afton, but French does have some hills-in particular one actually named "Challenge Hill." It is a monster, and by the time my run was done I had taken it four times; the last time very slowly with my body soaked in sweat, my tongue lolling out, and my arms hanging nearly useless at my side like those of a T-Rex.

The totally running time was nearly an hour less than it will be Saturday, but I ran the entire course (where on Saturday I will walk the biggest hills), and the temps were insane (where on Saturday I will be running at 7:00 am). Knock on wood-perhaps the experiment will prove to be a success, after all...

Experiment Complete and Insane Heat

Well-my experiment was to see if I could squeeze 12 weeks of training into slightly less than four weeks and the results are in: I can't. My 7-mile run times went from 1:11 to 1:08 to 1:04 in consecutive weeks, which is nothing to sneeze at, but which is also slightly worse than the per-mile time I ran in my last (13.1 mile) half marathon. That was two years ago, a week before my last Afton Trail Run, during which I had major cramp problems. It just doesn't seem like I'm on track to being able to do this race the way it needs to be done. Not totally closing the door yet-if I knocked another 3-4 minutes off that 7-mile pace in the next week...who knows...

Yesterday I took the day off and worked hard pretty much the whole day. It was 95 degrees, and I took on two of the hottest possible jobs I possibly could have. The first was lining the insulated interior walls of my attic with plastic sheeting. Later, I started a fire and burned all the extra woody plants, sticks, and old removed brush remnants that can't be composted. It burned huge & hot. It was so hot, in fact, that this morning when I removed the lid, there were still orange embers (about 16 hours after the snuffer had gone on).

Normally, we use sticks & stuff that fall from our trees as kindling in our patio fireplace, but we really had an excess of material here. Our two options were either to bundle it and have it out for trash day or to burn it. Here's a good question for the assembled: which is the more environmentally responsible alternative, burning sticks or having them go to a landfill?

A Switcheroo in the Works?

I have been leaning Zephyr and Sharon has been leaning Minneapolis (actually, to be more accurate, she's been leaning only towards not rushing into anything).

With all the energy focused on cracking to code on this issue, one of the primary ways for me to process my observations & experiences these days has been to view them in light of "things I love/things I hate" about my neighborhood & my city. With the exception of the amazing trails and the coffee shop (and, to some extent, the diversity) things to hate about my neighborhood have been piling on like a defensive front line on 39-year old Dan Marino. But things to love about the city, and my city in particular, continue to accrue like pictures of Orlando Bloom in teen magazines. Perhaps the only thing I know for sure is that I'm done, done, done with my neighborhood. From unidentified teens cutting through our yard in the middle of the night and leaving our gates open to roaring/booming/speeding cars, to the neverending chain of loud, annoying ice cream trucks that parade through our neighborhood to prey upon families that neither understand nor care about nutrional basics, I feel I've had it.

But, in continuing my background work surrounding the whole relocation issue, I've started to identify a couple (and believe me, there's only a couple) of neighborhoods in the city that might be somewhere we could be happy, that still have a few properties within our price range. You see, in our search for a place to live among peers, this sad reality has become evident: Our peers all have far more money than us. It's one of those great mysteries of life: How the "liberal elite" got so damned wealthy. They should all be working as teachers, social workers, and coordinators at nonprofit organizations. Instead, they must be Head of Acquisitions for the Walker Museum or on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Zoo. The one eqaulizer of sorts is that we will have around $90,000 of equity to put into any purchase-but we're still on the outside looking in with respect to those "No War in Iraq" sorts of neighborhoods with coops, coffeeshops, active neighborhood organizations, and surrounded by green space. A lot to ask for-but we're still looking for our next move to be our last. One place I'm sort of looking right now: Bryn Mawr. Just west of Downtown, at the northern end of the chain of lakes (though across 394), nearly surrounded by greenspace with Bryn Mawr Meadows, Basset Creek, the Cedar Lake Trail, and Theodore Wirth Park, as well as a really progressive, sort of artistic demographic makeup. http://www.bmna.org

Pilseners & Such

As every one (with emphasis on the "one") of my readers may be aware, I am a Pilsener guy. I'll drink anything, and enjoy most of it, but at the end of the day, I'll take a good ol' golden that goes down smooth. Much of the low-quality macro-brew variety fit into this category, and I actually find them more enjoyable than one would expect, but I am just starting to try and delve into some more upscale brews of this variety.

An interesting website: www.beeradvocate.com. The creators are two guys from Massachussets who've reviewed an enormous amount of beers. The membership of the forum are generally superserious drinkers, and quite harsh critics of beers from the most common to the most rare. It is rare for any beer to end with a consensus of > four on a five-point scale for ratings (and the site even gives you standard deviations from the norm as part of the rating rollup). I had registered, once upon a time (I thought), and logged a few reviews, but my registry seems to have disappeared. I registered again and have thought that it might be a good way for me to preserve my "research" for some posterity, and for some painless method of being able to look back and reference what I thought about different beers, if I forget down the line.

For Father's Day, Sharon bought me Pilsener Urquell, which touts itself as the "world's first pilsener," invented in Czechoslovakia (sp?). According to some reviews of the beer (which were solid but not outstanding), it is "the best non-Belgian pils," which would seem to direct me towards NW Europe for my future direction of exploration in this realm. For my part, I like the Urquell, though I do not have an experienced-enough pallette to break the beer down into a review like "Lively nose, pretty, floral, lightly spicy dandy, with a dash of honey. Neat hops on the tongue, with a long, welcome stay on the palate. Light bodied, dry, hoppy finish. Satisfying sweet hop taste that ends in a soft and silky dry bitter aftertaste." Not sure if those reviews are something I will be capable of someday, or if they're total bullshit.

Anyway, BeerAdvocate is an interesting site-one to which I would recommend a membership. Perhaps we can compare notes down the line. Favorite beers (both style and specific beer), anyone?

Action-Packed Weekend, As Always

Saturday was a daddy-daughter day, as Sharon was working "Carp-Fest" up at the Coon Rapids Dam. Lucy & I had a leisurely stop at the coffeeshop, then headed on up to check out the fest. It went well, until she saw momma there and realized that she was only going to get to see her for a few minutes. There was a major flip-out which put an immediate damper on our experience and pretty much facilitated a trip to the parking lot. The blowout was of such intensity and length that Lucy fell asleep in the car within five minutes of leaving the lot. Once we got home, the rest of the day was fun & joyous. There was some watching of the WNBA over a burrito lunch, a hike, a monkey bath (kitchen sink bath), some housecleaning, and a sleepless hour of "down-time" upstairs with much laughing & hugging. Lucy is starting to get a lot more physical (in a good way) in her interactions-climbing on me, bouncing on me, etc., which brings me no end of joy.

Sunday, Father's Day, was a good day, as well. We started with an Old Country Breakfast-although I ate well and much, my days of patronizing that place may be nearing the end. Partly because the converging lines on the graph of my quantity-quality food index may have just crossed one another, but also because (as a vegetarian), I can only eat so much yellow food in one sitting. When I walk out the front door of that place, I feel like I could shit cubes of starch. Also-I have begun to feel just a bit out of place-when I look around the establishment when we're there (once or twice a year), I realize that you could cram about six of me in the ass of any other given patron of the place. I'm reminded of the thing that foreign tourists remark as the most notable thing about Americans after visits to our country, and I guess I've just started to get a little sensitive to issues of overconsumption in any form. For me, the food was good fuel, though, as our plan for the day involved going up to the 5,000+ acre Elm Creek Park Preserve (where Sharon normally works) and having Sharon & Lucy play on the playground and at the beach while I ran myself silly on the trails. It was a hot day-87 degrees, with not a cloud in the sky-and I started out at 12:30 pm-for some running in the hottest part of the day. A sort of necessary masochistic training day for my upcoming race at Afton. No matter what I do, I cannot adequately prepare for that insane day in the time I have before me, but yesterday was about as good as I can do. Running on dirt or wood chips is not all that different than running on asphalt. Running through sporadically mowed grass or other vegetation, especially over the course of many miles, is an entirely different experience. Muscles I call the "high-steppers" get a unique, burning workout, and you realize why it is that after all your training it is still possible to get cramps on race day. I think there was actually more of that type of running yesterday than I will see at Afton but, of course, far fewer and less steep hills. It was a hot, exhausting, and brutally fun workout, nevertheless. I have no idea how far it was, but it was nearly two hours long. I'm thinking (due to the heat and my numerous stops to check my small, sweaty, disintegrating map) I covered not more than 11 miles before treatign myself to a plunge into the swimming pond.

Prior to that run, I had only just recovered from my bike/run day on Thursday, and I seem to be perpetually exhausted. Perhaps that is the price for my condensed, intense training schedule. Due to only having a total of four weeks of training, it's going to be a fine, fine line between the traditional multi-day pre-race "taper" and getting in the maximum amount of workout days. Still not sure how that will work-but it would be nice to actually feel rested and recouperated for the race itself.

Weird, though, that I've been feeling sleep-deprived, also, although my sleeping schedule is no worse than usual, and probably better. I've been so exhausted the last number of nights that I've not had the energy to record, do Quicken, or even take care of simple tasks past 8 pm. I've only had the energy to pop in Fellowship of the Ring and watch in segments before nodding off. I made it to just before Frodo left Hobbiton Friday night, to Amon Sul the next night, and to "Legolas, get them up" last night. Just plain exhausted. Connexion between that & my running? That would be weird...

O Beautiful Day, Haute Couture, Redd Foxx, and Wiped!

Had the latest in the Dan Hylton Summer Thursday Series (burning through some of the tons of vacation time I accrued over the last number of months on consecutive Thursdays) yesterday. Sharon's mom watched Lucy while we biked into downtown to explore St. Anthony Main and the Riverfront District.

Clouds and rain, or at least skies that threaten rain, have dominated the past two months in Minnesota. Yesterday, however, was the first in what looks like about week's worth of cloudless, sunny skies that we are in for. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for a bike ride. We've hardly been on our bikes at all in the past couple years, since Lucy isn't totally sold on the idea of riding in the bike trailer. As one who is accustomed to plodding along at a runner's pace, it was a really nice change of pace to cruise along at about three times that speed. We took the parkway south from our house, through the northern portion of Theodore Wirth (many of the trails of which have been redone in the past year-so it was really smooth sailing), and then onto the new "Bassett's Creek Cutoff;" a diagonal connector from the Grand Rounds to the Cedar Lake Trail-the nation's only "Bicycle Freeway" into downtown Minneapolis. Wonderful, wonderful, and again wonderful, the ride.

Our goal was to bike into downtown (around an hour's ride), then spend a few hours exploring St. Anothony Main. Mixdorf, if you are not aware of that area, you should be. It really seems like just your style. The "Haute Couture" in the title isn't really all that accurate, though I suppose compared to my normal lifestyle it might be considered such. But it is a really pleasant, vibrant mixture of scenery, greenery, and eateries; right along the banks of the Mississippi. It's been part of a huge HUGE revitalization of northeast Minneapolis (it's come a long way since my first week in the Twin Cities when all the riders of a bus I was on suddenly ducked following gunshots over by the Red Owl grocery). There's a lot of upscale urban condos, cool riverside restaurants & bars, and a 1.5-mile heritage trail celebrating the early history of the city that extends along both banks and across the Stone Arch and Hennepin Bridges. After our coffee stop on the way in and meal downtown, we actually didn't have time to explore the Heritage Trail (or the various parks interspersed along the way) in depth at all. I'd love to get back there-throw in a tour of the Mill City Museum along the trail on the downtown side, and you've got yourself a nice-long day of engagement. Anyway, in my time there it was really striking me that it was very Mixdorfian. Seems like if you were living in the Twin Cities, you might just choose to live here. In any event, consider this added to the list of possible activities for you & me during your visit. Potentially for you me & Cory-I think he'd get a kick out of hanging out in that area, as well. During our day we had (as planned) much discussion on Zephyr, and a little on the prospect of another child. Nothing necessarily resolved, but good discussion and good company, as always when we hang out.

Well, considering that was 20+ miles of biking on a hot, sunny day, it is no wonder that I did not feel all that much like running my seven-mile route last night. Nevertheless, I am committed to "stay on target." I ran and it was TOUGH, and I got WIPED. I did make it, and felt really good about myself and was treated to my best metropolitan wildlife sightings ever (one of my best wildlife sightings ever, period). Nearly three miles north of my house, along Shingle Creek, I saw it; a red fox, who paused just long enough to convey a sense of "I can't believe I just let that happen," before bolting off into the woods. About 50 or 60 feet away, there can be no doubt of what it was, and it was awesome.