Say What?

Life is a Good Thing!

2012-01-30T23:06:00.001-06:00

'Back in the Ridges ER, you don't know how lucky you are boy, back in the Ridges, back in the Ridges, back in the Ridges Er!'

I couldn't get that little song I'd put to Beatles music out of my head as I lay on the stretcher/bed at Ridges to begin this day way too early. This morning had us back in the ER with more of the chest/rib pain that brought me there ten days earlier. To find myself succumbing to the pain again was such a disappointment because of the progress I'd made. I had been off all my pain meds since Tuesday morning and over the preceding days I was working out on the elliptical, rower and treadmill and holding nothing back. People would ask me how I felt and I'd reply "great!"

I wasn't feeling so great last night. I took some pain meds but once they'd worn off the pain came back even stronger. It was 3:15 in the morning when Tammy placed a call to a doctor at the ER. He quickly phoned us back and after listening to me haltingly tell him my symptoms through winces of pain he urged us to come back in right away. He acknowledged my concern that there wasn't much they could do that they weren't already doing but he wanted to rule out an additional mass in my lung. So did I.

Two things they typically notice before they start jabbing needles into me; a fatty cyst near where they like to place the IV in my right arm and my heartbeat in the low 40s referred to as brachycardia. I had an FAA physical once where the nurse taking my vitals couldn't believe my heartbeat of 38. "You're trying to do that" she joked. I smiled knowing my many miles of running and biking were to thank. I usually beat them to the low heartbeat comment and tell them that it's normal for me but I've yet to say anything of the lump in my forearm before they do.

Chest X-rays and a CT yielded no new embolisms (or would they be called emboli?) but they did show a reduction in what was already there. That was good news. But why the pain? I was honestly just a little concerned that maybe they thought I was there looking to top off my pain meds for a high but they could see the grimace on my face and hear the pain in my voice. Not that they'd have anyway of knowing but I'm no actor. The doctor gave me a diagnosis of Pleurisy, an irritation in the lining of the lungs. By 7:30 we were on our way home with orders to do a follow-up with my regular doctor in the next day or two. I'm not sure what good that will do but I'll follow through nonetheless.

I can sense that I'm in a mild depression from all of this; not just the distraction from my normal life and the discomfort I'm feeling but more-so the limitations I now have on me that weren't there before; namely my riding. Before I get too involved in a great big buhu though I'm quick to remind myself of all I still have and to not let this discourage me too much.

But the main thing this whole health interruption has done for me is that it's caused me to for the first time in my life get honest with myself about my mortality. I like to say that when I'm on my bike I'm back in my 20s; I'm just a kid again and I think I've been able to carry that feeling of invincibility over to the rest of my life. Whoever would've imagined just a month ago that my mother could outlive me? There are no guarantees and that's what I'm coming to terms with.

I'll be off work for the rest of this week and then it's anybody's guess after that. I've lost my medical certificate to work traffic so I'm content to stay home on paid leave (banked sick-time) until this is resolved and I'm given the green light to return to working traffic.

I managed to get out of the house a little the last few days to try and break up the monotony of being home so much. I surprised the Wednesday night crowd from work at Ole Piper. A few bingo cards were thrown my way and I did my best to try and keep up but my head was still in a bit of a fog I'm afraid.

I made it out to the St Paul Winter Carnival on Sunday to view the ice sculpture contest. Tammy was stuck in the office so I went on my own. I would like to have stayed later to get photos of the finished work but after nearly 3 hours downtown I was ready to head for home. The plan was to return today and get those photos but life got in the way.

Life is a good thing!

Be Careful Not to Hit Your Head

2012-01-24T17:45:00.000-06:00

This is a continuation to a post I wrote last night about being admitted to the hospital over the weekend.

I finally drifted off sometime after 5:30 Saturday morning to be awoken a little more than an hour later and wheeled through the catacomb of hallways that make up Ridges Hospital for an appointment with an ultrasound technician. She spent twenty minutes going over every inch of my legs in search of more clots. I asked her if she could tell me if she found anything but she said she couldn't discuss the results with me. I was taken back to my room and under a haze of Oxycodone and Morphine, unwilling or unable to sleep I sat up in bed pretty much numb to the world around me.

Well-wishes by the dozens were coming in on my Facebook wall and they did a lot to brighten my day. I wanted to respond to them but I didn't have the strength.

It's so easy to become self-centered in a crisis such as this but I was trying to remember that I wasn't going through it alone. Tammy was by my side every step of the way and I knew Rachel was concerned. She saw my Facebook update and texted both of us: "Id like to be in the loop about this whole hospital business. So someone call me when u can."

The doctor assigned to the floor stopped by our room Saturday afternoon and spent at least 45 minutes with us explaining in detail all that had happened and what to expect going forward. He also told us of a clot the ultrasound technician had found in the upper thigh of my right leg. It was more disturbing news that I would have to try and figure out a way to accept. 'We're not talking terminal cancer...this is not that bad' was all I could think.

The main focus it seemed was in getting my pain under control. No matter what they tried, the sharp stabbing pains typical of those associated with PE were ever present and made it nearly impossible to sleep. I finally managed to drift off sometime around midnight until the pain returned at 4:00 AM. Little did I know that I was done sleeping for the night as the nursing staff did all they could to provide me with relief but nothing seemed to help. I was a complete mess!

We anticipated that I'd be going home late Sunday but the doctor came by Sunday afternoon and said he was keeping me there until Monday or until my pain was better under control. I had no argument for him and was content to remain where I was. Mainlining morphine when it's needed was key and I didn't want to lose access to that supply.

Tammy and I had been discussing the issue of riding my bike once I'd made a recovery. My assumption was that I'd be able to but she wasn't so sure so we asked the doctor and he was very clear. He felt that my time on the bike was very beneficial for me and he wanted to see me resume my riding (not the falling) but that it would have to wait until I was done with my coumadin therapy; anywhere from 3 to 9 months. I simply can't afford to have an incident where I suffer a blow to my head because of increase risk of an uncontrollable brain hemorrhage. Biking is out of the question. I assumed that I could ride my rollers but even those aren't acceptable because they pose the same risk. I'll have to be content with a stationary trainer and other forms of exercise.

I have to take a few lines to say that the staff at Ridges Hospital were amazing! Both the ER and the hospital staff. They couldn't have made our stay more comfortable and we're so thankful for the warmth they showed us. You could tell that they genuinely care about the wellbeing of their patients. To them it was more than just a job. I thought about my own work and felt a little guilty for not having anywhere near the passion for my profession as they show for theirs. We were so impressed. Oh, and the food was much better than I anticipated it being!

I woke up Monday morning feeling like a new person. My pain was under control and I'd been able to sleep through the night. I was happy to be going home but I was also very grateful for my stay at Ridges and the care I'd received. In my debriefing with the doctor he said I was free to carry on life as I had been before this episode but he cautioned me to "be careful not to hit your head." They were simple but important words of wisdom. We said goodbye to the staff sometime late morning and they let me walk out under my own power guided along by Tammy.

I just had a follow-up visit with my regular doctor as I write this and I have just a little more bad news to add to all I've written. I was told by the doctor who discharged me yesterday that there was a good chance I'd be on coumadin therapy for only 3 months meaning I'd miss very little of this year's riding season. To my disappointment today my doctor said no; that when he's treating for PE, (clots in the lung) coumadin therapy must be for 12 months, no less.

Things could always be worse, I get that.

It Must Be the Bike

2012-01-23T22:08:00.000-06:00

I hardly know where to begin but from what I gather I'm very blessed, lucky, call it what you will, to be around. Maybe that's overstating it. I don't know.

I woke up two Saturday mornings ago with a tightness in my ribs on my left side. I dismissed it as a pulled muscle from some firewood I'd lifted the previous night. A few days later the pain was still there and it wasn't getting better. I mentioned it to Tammy and she suggested I go in to be seen. Tammy is a telephone triage nurse and this is the sort of thing she deals with all the time. I knew she was right but I wanted to believe that whatever it was it would go away on its own.

I should've listened to her.

We went out to Mall of America Friday night to kick around for a while; the usual...grab some coffees, walk a couple of laps and find a restaurant for dinner. Throughout the night I was finding myself taking deeper than normal breaths trying to ease the discomfort I was feeling on the left side of my chest, being careful not to let Tammy notice. I was also trying to stretch the tightness away but none of my attempts were helping. By the time we left for our car I knew something was wrong. We stopped at the liquor store on the way home for a bottle of wine and while Tammy went inside I moved over to the passenger seat to let her drive. I was no longer in any condition to be behind the wheel. She suggested we go to urgent care and followed that up by stating that if I was calling the nurse-line she'd be instructing me to go to the emergency room. "Let's go there" I said putting a stop to my stupidness of the last several days.

When we arrived in the ER they wasted no time in attending to me. After listening to a brief synopsis of what I'd been experiencing the doctor ordered a blood draw to perform a D-dimer test that would detect evidence of a blood clot. He told us that he didn't expect those results to be positive considering my age and my vital signs but he wanted to be able to rule it out.

Positive they were.

The next step and one that would exacerbate my pain greatly was the CT. Laying in a prone position with my arms above my head while trying to hold my breath waiting for the image to be captured was so difficult. The pain was intense.

I know pain. I deal with Cluster headaches yearly.

I was diagnosed with two pulmonary embolisms, one in each lung. The doctor referred to them as large. I wasn't sure what to think and it was getting late. We'd arrived at the ER around 8:30 and it was now after 2:00 in the morning. My body was tired but my mind was racing. It had been a long day for Tammy and she needed to go home to let the pups out. She kissed me goodnight and closed the door behind her as I sat on the edge of the bed.

I tried making light of my condition and posted to my Facebook wall updating my status with a pain-masked-by-morphine smiling photo from the ER. Alone with my thoughts for the first time I recognized that all I knew about clots was that they sometimes caused sudden death. Could that be me? With the charge in my cellphone running low I did a quick search online and what I read about pulmonary embolisms didn't do anything to allay my fears. I texted Tammy "I'm a little scared honey...should I be?" She responded "What's going on?" I told her "Nothing...I'm just worried" "Call me, ok?"

She drove back to my room at the Ridges and we spent the night together. I needed her reassuring presence.

The next morning an ultrasound revealed that there was an additional clot in my upper right thigh. What's the reason for all of this I wondered? The doctor assured me that for someone in my physical condition the cause was one of two things: I either have a predisposition for developing clots or my body suffered some recent trauma that resulted in the clotting. The only thing I could point to was my Mukluk. I've taken so many falls on it in the month that I've had it that surely it must be the reason. More tests are being done as I write this that will help to determine if I am in fact prone to clotting. If not, then it must be the bike.

To be continued...

We're Being Scammed!

2012-01-15T14:48:00.000-06:00

Tammy got a phone call a few months ago from a company calling themselves Yellow Pages saying that they had a refund for us. Before she could ask any questions they informed her that I had signed up for advertising services (we're sitting on a domain name for a possible side business when we're retired) from them but that I was canceling the remainder of the services and that they needed to know where to send the $500. They asked her a series of questions and recorded her answers before transfering her to another telemarketer who began to explain the contract she'd just entered into. Say what? Tammy made it clear to them that she didn't sign up for anything and called them on the scam they were engaged in.

Tammy documented everything that had occurred and sent it off to the Minnesota Attorney General's office wanting to have a record in case they should later come after us. And now they have.

We got a call a couple weeks ago asking for a payment of $500 for services that had been provided in the name of Grapevine Art Glass. They played a recording for Tammy of her agreeing to a series of questions about the contract she had supposedly agreed to. She explained that the questions she answered were different than the questions they had paired up with her answers in the recording. She handed the phone to me and they explained that if we didn't pay they would be turning our account over to a collection agency. I asked the guy if times were so difficult that he couldn't find an honest way to make a living. He hung up on me.

Tammy did some digging based on the phone number they'd given and found that they were located in Canada but were using a drop box in New York. She wrote the Attorney General's office in New York detailing the scam and to go on record with them. She also went online and found that these same people target all sorts of businesses and that often times the victims will attempt to settle rather than spend time defending themselves.

We received our first invoice in yesterday's mail.

My concern has been that they actually do have a team of legal experts working for them who could somehow attach themselves to our assets unless we pay. I think it's a pretty safe bet that they've got nothing of the kind. We'll be hanging up on them and trashing any further correspondence they may send.

Besides...who the heck is Pamela Gilmore?

I made it out to the Red Bull Crashed Ice event in St Paul on Friday night curious to see what this bobsled-meets-roller-derby-on-ice-skates competition was about. I'd hoped to get some cool photos but all I could really manage was some video. It was too cold to take off my gloves and manipulate my Lumix LX5 the way I'd need to get the shots I was hoping for. I walked back to my truck thinking that this was one of those events much better appreciated from a comfortable chair in the warmth of my home.

I was out on my Mukluk several times this week in temps that ran the gamut from unseasonably warm 50s to more normal single digit temps that had my toes crying uncle after two hours even with my Lake winter cycling boots protecting them. I'm curious to see how my road bikes feel once I hit the streets this spring after having spent most of the winter on what amounts to a tank in comparison.

Each trip out on the roads and trails results in lots of mud caked on my bike that I'm careful to hose off after each adventure especially from the drive-train. I went to turn on the outside faucet after yesterday's ride but it was frozen. Hmm...that's a dilemma, but not to fret. I loaded my bike into the back of my truck this morning and brought it to the car wash and gave it a quick once-over before turning the spray on my truck of nearly 11 years.

Here's some video from yesterday's ride. Not so interesting to most, I get that but very nice to have for me years from now when this thing I do is only a memory.

Pedaling Back Time

2012-01-08T21:00:00.000-06:00

We have a lot less blown glass in our home than we did just a few weeks ago. Much of what we didn't give away as Christmas gifts was brought home by Rachel's friends. Tammy and I joke that these are what will be referred to as 'early Gilmores' years from now after we've made a name for ourselves.

Just kidding of course.

Friday's three hours in the studio were more of a humbling experience than anything for me but there are lessons to be learned from all those failed pieces. And actually, this is sort of what Steve was talking to me about last month. Rather than playing it cautiously because I'm so intent on having a piece to show for my efforts I should push the limits of my abilities with the understanding that the piece will more likely than not be a failure in the sense that it won't make it into the 'box'. I can't honestly say that that was my mindset on Friday but pretending it was helps to ease my frustration.

Our Blown Glass set on Flickr continues to grow.

Tammy set up a blog last week. I'd intended to pimp it here but I think I'll wait and see if it actually gets off the ground first. It's still just taxiing. I do hope she decides to log into it occasionally and put down some thoughts.

We went out to dinner with our small-group from church last night. We've been taking a break from our meetings during the holiday season so it was nice to get together with everyone at Chianti Grill in Burnsville. We kicked around ideas for this next phase of our bible study and Rob Bell's name came up. His most recent book, Love Wins caused quite a stir among fundamentalist Christians. Anything that rattles the cages among those that are so sure of themselves (because I'm not) I find appealing. Sign me up.

I made it out on my bike several times this past week in what continues to be one of the milder winters I can recall. Just beautiful weather we're enjoying and I'm so happy to be out of the house experiencing it. I was able to spend some time getting familiar with my GoPro video camera that I have mounted on the bars of my bike. I'm pleased with the handlebar mount and I do think it goes a long way toward diminishing the geek-factor as opposed to using the helmet mount. The best part is that now I'll be able to capture many more of my falls such as the one from my first outing with my GoPro. No mountain bikers were harmed during the filming of this short video.

Another plus of no longer holding my Bionic in my hand to shoot video is that I've got both hands on the bars which allows me to ride more aggressively. I like to say that when I'm on my bike I'm back in my mid 20s. My friends at work like to remind me that my bones would beg to differ. Hmmm.

From My Notes...

2011-12-31T19:15:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here, New Years Eve, relaxing by the crackling fireplace with a glass of wine (oops...it's empty...brb) and my laptop. I don't know that life gets any more relaxing. Tammy has been in the office all afternoon and evening taking calls from people in search of medical assistance, sussing out their needs and coordinating any required help. Our most mild and brown winter is going to have a new look when we wake up in the morning as snow is falling heavily. I'm ok with that. I've got a new snowblower that is itching to show me what it can do as well as my Mukluk. They both thrive on snow. I'm becoming more accepting of it.

It's been a full week for us. Aren't they all? I'll typically make notes on my Bionic throughout the week of things I'd like to touch on in my blog and this week there's a long list. I won't get to them all. I've become more aware in recent years that less is more. It'll be difficult to hold true to that but I'll try.

Rachel took advantage of her Christmas break to have her wisdom teeth taken out on Wednesday...oh no...did she take a shot at my blog while speaking her mind coming off the anesthesia? The razzing she received afterward seems somewhat of a rite-of-passage for people her age. It was all I could do the day after to look at her and not laugh; her cheeks were so big and swollen. She had friends Skyping with her all day Thursday to have a look and a laugh. She's a good sport! The photo to the left was from this afternoon after most of the swelling had gone down.

Rachel showed me a bizarre video she took in Rochester a couple weeks ago. She and friends were driving back to their home when thousands of crows descended on the city. Almost like something out of the movie The Birds except these seemed maybe a little friendlier.

I took advantage of our unseasonably mild weather this week to begin taking down our outdoor Christmas lights. I finished the work this afternoon. I typically wait until after the first of the year but I wanted the job done and didn't want it looming over me until April as it did last spring. In case I never again hang as many lights as I've done in years past (a serious consideration) I thought I'd capture a little video of what our display usually looks like. It's all about the reminiscing.

I was back out on my Mukluk yesterday for what I'd hoped would be maybe 35+ miles on the trails. I only managed just a little over 18 and not because I didn't want to be out there but because I took a fall on my left knee that had me pedaling in pain for the remainder of the ride. In a stupid attempt to capture more video of my rides I failed to see a patch of ice that caught my front tire and brought me down before I realized what had happened. I knew right then that the GoPro camera I've had my eye on was a must-have if I'm going to continue to take video of my rides...and I intend to.

My GoPro should be in Wednesday's mail.

These cameras do a great job and have 5 star ratings but I've always had trouble getting beyond their geek factor. I just couldn't ever see myself with one mounted on my helmet. Not to worry. I came across a guy on a cycling forum I post to who takes some really nice video with the same camera but he uses a handlebar mount rather than the helmet mount. This I can do.

We went to a smaller venue last night in Burnsville (Burnsville Performing Arts Center) to see the BoDeans. Tammy realized a month after tickets had gone on sale that they would playing but she still managed to get us some not-so-bad seats in the front row of the balcony. I was somewhat disappointed to learn when they took the stage that Sammy Llanas is no longer with them. I had no idea. The band revolves around two main performers, Kurt Neumann and Sammy. It was hard to imagine the band without either of them. Still, Kurt did a nice job of playing mostly some of the band's older tunes but with a couple of more recent ones as well. I've seen them many times in concert and while it was a good show it just simply wasn't the same without Sammy. Hopefully he'll find his way back some day.

We finished out the night at Mainstreet After Hours in downtown Lakeville; a coffee shop/wine bar that I've wanted check out. We've been there a few times for coffees but never for a glass of wine. We took some seats next to a table by the gas fireplace and settled in. It was a little discouraging to see such a small crowd on a Friday night but the woman behind the bar assured us that they're usually quite busy but that this has been an off week. That's good to know. We really liked it and intend to go back there regularly. There's an atmosphere within that can't be found at some of the more generic stamped-out-franchise places that we typically frequent. Plus, I always enjoy supporting a local business!

Oh, I almost forgot...Happy New Year!

Christmas, 2011 and the Call of a Mukluk

2011-12-25T17:39:00.000-06:00

Quite a contrast between last year and this year...

I love a brown Christmas...well, maybe an inch of snow would be acceptable but no more! Oh, wait a minute...I have a snow-bike now. Strike that!

I had some use-or-lose vacation time to burn through before the end of the year so I took Wednesday off and spent it getting familiar with my Mukluk on the trails along the Minnesota River bottom. I actually had a difficult time falling asleep Tuesday night in anticipation of my ride. I was excited to get out there and that excitement was for a good reason. It was one of the more fun rides I've had in a very long time. I've never experienced anything like that on a bike. More about this later.

Christmas, 2011 is nearly gone as I sit down to add to my blog. I can't think of another year where I felt so detached from the celebration. I'm not sure why. I just never got caught up in much of the hype this year aside from putting up outdoor lights. I'm actually fine with it and to be honest, I'm thinking God would approve because I'm quite sure He's not too keen about what's become of Christmas. I like that we set aside a day where we acknowledge the birth of our savior but the important message of the celebration is so ridiculously overshadowed by the frenzied shopping for just the right gifts and the parties.

Tammy, Rachel and I left for Tammy's mother's home around noon Thursday after I'd had a chance to sleep a little after my all-night shift. We drove both vehicles so I could come back earlier as Tammy and Rachel weren't leaving until this afternoon. We couldn't have picked a better weekend for travel considering the weather we typically have to contend with this time of year.

I woke up Friday morning and took a walk around the city of Babbitt to take some photos. The plan was for Rachel to come with me but she was catching up on some much needed sleep so I didn't disturb her. Babbitt is a small mining town which saw its heyday in the '60s and '70s. Sadly, it's a dying town that never found any identity other than mining even though it's located within a stone's throw of the Boundary Waters which attracts 250,000 hikers/campers each year. Ely, just to the north appears to have done a much better job of appealing to those headed into the wilderness preserve.

Some photos from my walk plus a few others...

Tammy's mother made us a great dinner as she always does and we devoured it too quickly just as we always do. We spent some time opening gifts before I got back on the road to head for home a little earlier than I'd originally intended. I was going to leave the next morning but the forecast back home was calling for temps in the mid 30s under sunny skies.

What sound does a Mukluk make when it's calling to you? I have no idea but I heard it.

Toby watched patiently as I gathered my things by the side door to leave before giving me a penetrating look that was pleading with me to take him. How could I resist? I brought him along to keep me company and to give us some time together, just the two of us as I know he loves that. He snuggled into my lap for a while before making a bed out of my jacket in the passenger seat then drifted off into a contented sleep for the 4+ hour drive home. I love that little guy so much.

I was back on the trails by mid-morning yesterday exploring some routes that I didn't have time for on Wednesday. I'm still attempting to find my footing with these two huge wheels I'm riding atop of and trying not to look too much like a Fred in the process. That's not always easy. I found myself more than once for a split second wondering if I was going to remain upright coming off a hill or negotiating something more technical than the straight lines I'm used to on the road. I'm sure I'll soon look back on some of what I find more challenging now and laugh at my tentativeness.

I survived my first fall yesterday. I was negotiating the small gully pictured here, traversing it from left to right not carrying enough speed to carry me over the top and in too high of a gear to pedal my way out of it. I needed at least one revolution of my cranks to get into the needed lower gear but I couldn't do it. I fell over and slid a few feet back down the hill smiling the whole time. I quickly got up and took a look around to see if anybody saw me before dusting myself off.

Whew! ...nobody saw me...this is too fun!

Bring it On!

2011-12-17T23:22:00.000-06:00

We've been experiencing some unusually nice weather here in the Midwest! I believe they're talking 40s for Sunday and I love it!

It appears we're in for our first brown Christmas since 2006 and I for one am very happy about that. Or am I? Hmm...I'm actually somewhat conflicted now because I have an altogether new reason for wanting snow. No, it's not because of my new snowblower and no, I didn't buy a snowmobile. I suppose the photo to the left is a bit of a giveaway. I bought myself a new toy; a Salsa Mukluk! I'm joining the ranks of the fat-bikes! ...or however you say that.

My original intent was to purchase a Pugsley Surly (something I've had my eye on for a little more than a year) but after comparing the two over at Freewheel Bike in minneapolis I opted for the Mukluk with its aluminum frame, slightly larger size and better components and wheels. Thanks to Steve at Freewheel for his guidance in helping me sort through the options.

The fat tires will allow me to take this where other mountain bikes can't go due to snow say nothing of my road bikes. We've got hundreds of miles of trails in Minnesota and now I'll be able to access them with my bike.

I'm really psyched to get out on it but I have to wait as I haven't brought it home yet; hopefully this coming week. I'm waiting on some things to complete the package and once they've arrived I'll go pick it up.

In an effort to realize some of the investment we've made over this past year in our glassblowing endeavors, if you receive a gift from us for Christmas it's likely going to come from somewhere on the table in this photo. Rachel is free to give whatever remains to her friends as we're running out of places to put it.

Coldplay tickets went on pre-sale last Monday for their Xylo Myloto tour. Rachel and I were on the phone together in front of our laptops the moment they went on sale seeing if at least one of us could score something decent. I did...on the floor in the 40th row. Rachel was excited as was I but it was a short-lived excitement. When I went to enter my creditcard data I found that it would only take American Express. My Mastercard was useless to me. I had to let the tickets go. I tried once more days later when they went on sale again but without the previous creditcard restrictions. The seats I got were less than desirable but were just as expensive as the floor seats. I took a pass much to Rachel's disappointment I'm sure. Sorry, kiddo.

I've upped my score in Air Control to 467 attaining the rank of Air Traffic Controller...haha. I was reasonably happy about that until a friend of mine topped it with a score of 609 (12th in Sweden). It puts me in the top 1% of players worldwide but I know I can do better. The only problem is that to score so many points (or landings) it's easily a 25 minute investment of time and that's not always easy to come by. But it's winter in Minnesota and what else is there to do? Oh yeah...ride in the snow!

Bring it on!

Celebrating a Birthday and I'm Easy to Please

2011-12-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy week and weekend. Normally I'd say that it's nice to come to work to relax but I'm just not feeling it lately. I'm grateful for my job but this strong urge I have to be retired often nudges out those more rational feelings about staying around a few more years to better secure our financial future. It's a good problem to have and I get that.

Tammy and I both took off work last Monday to spend time together celebrating her birthday. We got an early morning start with breakfast at Perkins followed by a 9:00 slot time at Foci. I had a good day there and left feeling satisfied with my progress. That good feeling would vanish come Friday. More about that later.

We left Foci and headed home to clean up before venturing 50 minutes north to Stillwater for the afternoon. It had been a couple years since we'd visited the picturesque city on the St Croix river and we were both looking forward to going back. I'd forgotten how busy with traffic it could be. It's nonstop!

We bummed around in and out of shops that line the main drag in search of maybe a Christmas gift or two in addition to a couple of smaller end-tables for our basement. I nearly pulled the trigger on this Jesus action-figure but felt a quick upload to my Facebook wall would suffice. We made it to Northern Vineyards with just enough time for what would be the last wine tasting of the night before they closed their doors at 6:00. With the exception of one west coast grown grape, they produce wine only from locally grown grapes. It's not the type of California red wine that we typically buy but in an effort to support them we left with 3 bottles. *wink wink*

The woman conducting our wine taste was full of knowledge about the different restaurants in town and gave us a lot to consider. We absorbed what we could from her then headed to the south end of town where we decided on Luna Rossa for dinner. We were seated in a quiet area of the restaurant that would slowly begin to populate as we enjoyed our dinner. The menu had just the right amount to choose from. We split an order of Penne Siciliana which was not only really good but also just the right amount.

Leaving the restaurant I programmed my Bionic's GPS to see if we had enough time to make it to Costo in Burnsville before they closed. We'd have enough time to give it a once-over. I needed to see what all the buzz surrounding this place was about as a few co-workers swear by it. Neither of us were very impressed. I honestly couldn't see any difference between it and Sam's Club...even the layout. I'm not much for Sam's Club.

Thursday night found us in Northfield to take in their Winter Walk festivities. The shops along the main street (Division Street) are open later than usual and the city is alive with people milling about from store to store. I made my way toward the rear of the Scandinavian shop, Paper Petalum where an older man sitting in front of a Krumkake iron offered me a sample. He introduced himself as Al Croon and we began to chat while I waited for Tammy to have a look around. He told me that his father came to America from Småland, Sweden in 1862 seeking opportunity. He settled in Stillwater. He mentioned how he's been to Sweden several times and what always struck him was how similar the landscape is between where he's lived his life here in Minnesota and what he saw in Sweden. I suppose that's why so many Swedes settled in this part of the country; for the familiarity. Tammy came by and joined in our conversation. Our time with him was the highlight of the night...just a very interesting and down-to-earth guy.

We were back at Foci on Friday where I struggled unlike any other time in the last few months to find my rhythm. It was a difficult three hours for me but I came away with some knowledge about what not to do so all was not lost. I would love to say that my poor performance was because I was pushing the limits of my abilities but that simply wasn't so. I had a frustratingly off day but one that only causes me to be even more determined to improve.

We were assembling our Christmas cards Saturday afternoon when Rachel called to ask if I'd heard that pre-sale tickets for Coldplay go on sale Monday morning for an August show. I wasn't aware of that. The best seats aren't available for pre-sale but we'll take whatever we can get seeing as how our chance to score any at all is so small to begin with. Regular tickets go on sale this Friday so we'll try again then too.

We met friends Joni and Rob at Chanhassen Dinner Theater last night to see Hairspray. The dinner there typically leaves a bit to be desired but it was okay. The show made up for whatever the meal lacked. And what a fun show it was! It moves along at a high-energy and fun pace. We've seen two musicals there in the last year (Jesus Christ Superstar being the other) and have loved them both. I think we'll keep the theater on our to-do list from now on.

I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit at all this year. I'm not sure why but it's just not there and I'm not one to pretend it is. I was down in the shop cleaning up when Tammy asked me if I had any requests for Christmas gifts. I honestly couldn't think of one. Nothing. After she went upstairs I was trying to shred some bank statements in the shredder but it wouldn't work. I tried everything I knew to fix it but in the end I gave up. On the way to take it to the trash in the garage I mentioned to Tammy that I actually did have a request for one gift this Christmas. I'm easy to please.

A Practice Retirement Day

2011-12-04T13:40:00.001-06:00

Toby is becoming finicky about his drinking water needs. I've noticed for a while that he appears to appreciate fresh drawn tap water over a half bowl of stale water left over from the previous day when neither Allie nor Charlie could care less. I came into the laundry room where their water bowl is kept and he was standing in front of it looking at me then back at the bowl. The other night during our small-group meeting for church I could hear his distinct bark coming from the laundry room. I went to check on him and he was standing in front of his nearly full bowl of water. Apparently it wasn't fresh enough. I refilled it and he proceeded to drink to his heart's content.

We were back in the studio Friday for a few hours in the morning. We found Steve back in the cold shop working on some pieces. It was good to see him again as an illness has had him sidelined for a few weeks. He came out later and sat at our bench to chat, observe and give us some pointers. We're so thankful when he does that. It's always intimidating having him watch us but the trade-off is more than worth it for the wisdom he imparts. I honestly don't know that we'd be as involved at Foci as we are had it not been for Steve coming along side us and shepherding us along. He's been a major inspiration and support for us.

We went to Outback Steakhouse Friday night without a reservation. I'll have to remember to phone ahead next time. We had a 50 minute wait but we didn't really mind as we found seats right away in the waiting area in front and we had our smart-phones and conversation to occupy our time. (I managed to improve on my high score in Air Control to 320 and I'm now a certified Flight Director! ...if they only knew) We were seated in a nice quiet booth toward the back and apparently our order of steaks took longer than it should have. The manager came by our table, kneeled down and began to apologize for the delay explaining that our food order ticket got lost behind whatever machine prints it out on the line in back. She asked us if we'd like refills on our glasses of wine and a desert at no charge to make up for the inconvenience. I didn't feel it was necessary but I could tell Tammy was happy to have a refill so I agreed. We considered sharing a desert but took a pass instead. It's still one of our favorite places for dinner.

We woke up to our first shovelable snowfall of the year this morning (4 inches) and I was actually somewhat glad to see it as it gave me a chance to try out my new Ariens snowblower. I went out last night and got it gassed up and ready to roll this morning. Yeah, I was looking forward to getting out there. I love it! The one thing I noticed most was how quiet it is for an 11 hp engine. As I said in my last entry; it'll be the last snowblower I'll ever need to buy.

I'm taking tomorrow off from work to celebrate Tammy's birthday. We've got a busy day planned with an early morning breakfast followed by a few hours of bench time at Foci and then an afternoon of bumming around in either Excelsior or Stillwater. Getting out of bed early enough to do all we have planned should be the only challenging part to our day. I'm looking at it as a 'practice retirement day!'

Thanksgiving Weekend, 2011

2011-11-27T18:28:00.000-06:00

We had a really nice get-together at Jackie and Jerry's home for Thanksgiving. I can't recall better weather for the holiday than what we enjoyed; sunny skies and temps pushing into the 60s with very little wind. Short-sleeve weather. My only regret was not bringing the pups with us to play with Tucker and Gracie in their fenced-in backyard. They would've loved it.

In typical Jerry and Jackie style the dinner was great. What more is there to say?

Video and photos from the day.

My 24" Simplicity snowblower has served me well over the years since purchasing it new in the fall of 1986 but I decided it was time to replace it with what will likely be the last snowblower I'll need to buy in this lifetime. When we're due for another new one I'm guessing we'll be living the maintenance free townhome lifestyle.

I've had my eye on an Ariens blower for a couple years but I just couldn't ever find it in me to pull the trigger until Friday. I decided I may as well do it now while I'm still fully employed rather than wait until we're retired. Not much buyer's remorse here either. With 11 hp and 30" wide it's more machine than I'll need but that will only serve to raise the stakes for the other guys in the neighborhood. Oh, and did I mention it has hand-warmers? I may leave that little bit of advertisement just as it is for a while so there can be no doubt.

I confessed on Facebook Saturday to having become an addict of The Housewives of Beverly Hills, if only for the afternoon. I began watching it for a couple hours while working-out on the treadmill but it didn't end there. I kept watching for several more episodes while waiting for Tammy and Rachel to return home so we could put up Christmas decorations together. It's said that money can't buy happiness. This show appears to prove that claim.

We got a good start on our decorations but there's still much to do. As is tradition Rachel and I worked on the tree while Tammy tended to the other displays. Charlie found that the bottom row of branches on our artificial tree make a good back-scratcher. We watched him do several laps around the base confirming for us that he is indeed the nuttiest dog we've ever had.

Tammy and I cut out early to go kick around the mall for a couple hours. It's a nice diversion on a Minnesota winter night.

Each year for the past few we've included a family photo in our Christmas cards. A recap:

2007 saw us all wearing glasses

2008 we were our Wii characters

We missed 2009

2010 found us about as awkward as we get in our snuggies.

So what to do for this year? We were sipping on some coffees from Starbucks while tossing around some ideas on the way home from church this morning when Rachel came up with the perfect plan. A photo of each of us in our own self-absorbed way portraying the typical American family plugged into a virtual world, mostly oblivious to the real one around us. I like it!

And so I present to you our Christmas 2011 family photo!

A Sunday Evening with Rachel and Mat

2011-11-21T22:59:00.000-06:00

I relented to Rachel's pleadings and spent much of Friday putting up our Christmas lights. The task included a couple trips to Fleet Farm for lights and several trips up the ladder to the roof which really doesn't bother me much at all. It's the section along the front of the house where I have to fully extend the ladder and stand on a rung beyond where I should and reach further than I like to secure the lights that gives me the creeps. I always hate that part and am glad when it's done for another year. I was somewhat amused at Rachel's logic though in that I "have never fallen off the roof before!" Haha...tell me that when I'm laying broken on the ground below. The job is nearly done with the exception of some shrubs and our flowering crab tree.

And just in time.

We had our first snowfall of the season Saturday afternoon. What a mess. I don't think I've ever seen an inch of snow cause so much havoc out on the roads. But truth be told, it was more a combination of warm roads and falling temps working to create an icy layer with no residual salt to help melt it away. An inch of snow is usually a non-event but not this time. I ventured out for a trip to Burnsville Center but altered my route to avoid a backlog of traffic. What a mistake. I found myself on County Road 42 in gridlock. I finally made my way via some back roads to where I was going. It was stupid to even be out there but I never imagined it could be so bad and so I pressed on. It was nice to be home in one piece.

Tammy has been working on Christmas tree ornaments at the studio. I may have to have her teach me so I can try my hand at them as well.

I took off work early last night to go on a father/daughter date with Rachel. I always enjoy those times with her. Our main purpose for going out was the Mat Kearney concert at First Avenue in Minneapolis but as usual we worked a nice dinner into the evening. She chose Fuji Ya on Lake Street in Minneapolis. I'll have to take Tammy there because I know she would love it as much as we did. Once we made our way beyond the bar area filled with '70s disco music we were seated in a nice, quiet booth toward the back.

The menu offered much to choose from but we eventually settled on a Rainbow roll and a Caterpillar roll with an appetizer of deep-fried soft-shell crab. It was all so good. Where has this sushi been all my life?

We contemplated another item off the menu but decided to find a coffee shop instead for some hot drinks and pastry while we killed time out of the cold before the doors opened at First Avenue. It was a fine idea but we spent a considerable amount of time in the 14f weather trying to find an open Starbucks. Rachel used the GPS on her Bionic to guide us and we learned a valuable lesson in the process. That lesson being that when and if we finally make it on the Amazing Race (there's never been a step-father/step-daughter team) I'll be in charge of navigation. She's a good driver, I'll leave that to her. She agreed.

We stood in line out in the cold for 20 minutes when we got to the venue before being let inside. There were quite a few people ahead of us but we still managed to position ourselves in the 2nd row of people behind the railing in front of the stage. A spot we'd occupy for nearly the next four hours.

This place hasn't changed in the 30 years it's been since this used to be a regular stop of mine on the weekends with Gary Sink busting moves out on the dance floor that I'm quite sure would leave the guys in my dads' dance group nodding with their approval.

The show was sold out to a mostly college age crowd. Rachel pointed out what looked like one other dad among the sea of heads and for a moment I considered waving to him.

We'd never heard of the opening act, Leagues, but they actually had a couple of songs that I easily warmed up to. Mat took the stage at 9:45 and proceeded to play a 90 minute set of a lot of songs from his newest release but also a smattering of older stuff as well. It was such a good show!

We hung around for 25 minutes after they cleared the stage to see if we could get a photo of Rachel with Mat and have him autograph her CD sleeve but he never made another appearance. Still, it was a great night. Rachel enjoyed herself and that to me was all that mattered. A text from her tonight confirmed that. "My voice is shot. I have a feeling this won't go away for a while".

The Gini Coefficient and More

2011-11-13T13:57:00.001-06:00

We've been enjoying the new Coldplay CD that came out a couple weeks ago; Mylo Xyloto. The one song on the disc that I can't seem to get enough of is Major Minus. I can't wait to hear when it comes around on my iPod Nano while on my bike. I have an extra gear for songs such as this!

We were in the studio for four hours Friday morning. When we got there we went straight to the cold shop as we always do to check out our work from the previous week. I was especially pleased with two vases Tammy did, here and the vase to the left. She's beginning to expand more in the shapes she's doing and it's fun to watch. I had one piece I was happy with.

Tammy spent her studio time Friday working on Christmas tree ornaments; something she's been wanting to do for a while. Out of a half dozen she did I think there will maybe be at least a couple keepers. She suffered her first nasty burn from the annealer door. Those things are bound to occasionally happen. I spent my time trying to perfect some smaller, purple tea-light candle holders for our friend, Marielle. Out of six I did I'm hoping to have two of a similar shape and size; that was my goal.

We kicked around Mall of America Friday night. I love that place, especially when the weather turns cool and we're just looking for an excuse to get out of the house. It appears they've got most but not all of their Christmas decorations hung. Yeah, it's early.

We were open to ideas for where to eat when we stumbled onto Johnny Rockets. My grilled chicken club was perfect but the fries were just so-so. Tammy had a burger and we both agreed that one meal split between us would've been the way to go.

I think my war-on-leaves may be over for the season. There's still more to fall but I'm willing to call a truce. My mowers have never been dirtier and I couldn't wait any longer to clean them up and put them away for the season. Dirty mowers...clean (and happy) mowers.

I know...I'm a bit geeky.

I've been avoiding politics on my blog for a while because I find it more depressing than I care to think about and I'm sure people get more than enough of it in their daily lives, they don't need it here too. But I do need to make mention from time to time of where my head is at for my own recollection years from now. Indulge me for just a bit.

I'd like to think I'm an independent voter but lately I'm much more inclined to vote for democrat candidates. I believe they understand best that a vital component to the economic recovery we seek as a nation is a strong middle-class; something that's been taking a beating in recent years. Corporate greed has reached truly sickening levels and I've had enough. Right-wing pundits are quick to point out that the top 5% of income earners pay nearly 58% of the taxes. What they fail to point out is that those top 5% also earn the vast majority of income. What conservatives also won't mention is the fact that 43% of our country's wealth is in the hands of the top 1%. That's a number that should disturb you. And I have to add...these frustrations of mine aren't born out of envy...I'm blessed to be in the upper few percent of income earners.

The Gini coefficient is a measure of income/wealth inequality as measured among a population. The lower the score the more equality there is. The values range from a low score of 0.23 for Sweden (the best) to a high of 0.70 for Namibia (the worst). Look at the rankings in the link and see where the U.S. falls. It's not good. Keep in mind when reading the rankings that those ranked first are the worst. Out of 140 countries listed, 100 of them show a better distribution of wealth among the people than the U.S.

In case you haven't noticed...Sweden is a remarkable country with a strong economy which leaves many of our thriving metropolises here in the the United States wanting. I'll take whatever brand of socialism they're embracing any day over our capitalistic greed. Hearing how we're the best country on the face of the earth or that the world has ever known is getting very tiring because we're not. We're not even close.

How do we improve on those numbers? We certainly don't do it by refusing to even consider tax increases on the wealthy. But that's the hard-line position republicans have been taking. They claim that raising taxes on the wealthy will only stifle job creation. Really? The Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) have been in place for nearly ten years but there's been no resulting job creation from them. Where's the proof? That's all I'm asking.

Okay...I'm done talking politics or whatever that was.

I didn't put out any Halloween decorations this year, not even our cute Dracula display from last year and I'm giving serious consideration to taking a pass on our typical Christmas light display. It takes me the better part of a day to string them all and last year they got buried under our first snowfall and barely made an appearance the rest of the holiday season. I've heard it mentioned a couple times that we're supposed to have an even snowier winter than last year. Hmm. I know that Rachel will want them up and it always gives me a lot of satisfaction knowing she appreciates them as she does but I'm not sure what to do.

A friend from work fell off his roof Saturday breaking his wrist and shattering an ankle while hanging Christmas lights. There's all the excuse I need I suppose.

But I'm a sucker for Christmas lights...

Happy 83rd, Mom!

2011-11-06T18:47:00.000-06:00

I first came across this little brain-teaser several years ago. I'd like to think that I tend to give up on these things too quickly but more accurately I think I'm just not smart enough to figure them out.

Notice how the picture shifts from 12 people to 13 people. Where does the extra person come from or disappear to? The answer is obviously right before my eyes and yours; so tell me.

Tammy's bonsai plant is not only surviving; it's thriving with plenty of new growth! She's got many skills but botany has never been among them so I'm pleasantly surprised. She's been talking about getting another bonsai plant but there's just one thing that concerns me; they need to be watered daily. That means not only do we have to find somebody to watch our pups when we leave town for a few days but we also have to find someone to water her bonsai plants.

I've been enjoying my new Droid Bionic and have experienced few problems if any in the month or more that I've had it. The one feature it has that I I'm liking more and more is something called Swype. It's been around for a couple years but is new to me. Check it out. I do my share of texting and find Swype so much quicker than what I'm used to. Your results may vary.

Mom turned 83 last Thursday. I and most others in my family held out little hope last spring that she would live to celebrate the day. We're happy to have been wrong. She continues to plug away at life and although she's been slowed considerably by her weak heart she's by no means being kept down. She still drives herself around to her appointments and volunteer commitments while picking up friends along the way.

Happy 83rd, Mom!

Rachel posted this to my Facebook wall last night...too funny! ...especially the last two brothers but the boy at 2:25 concerns me...

She's Not Normal

2011-10-31T18:35:00.000-05:00

Rachel mentioned to us a few weeks ago a desire she has to travel to India this summer and volunteer with a medical team there. I admire so much her ambition to follow her heart and seek out that which is often only found on the road less traveled. She's not normal. Can I say that? Tammy made a brief mention of Rachel's budding plans for India in the video I posted to my previous blog entry which prompted a couple of responses from family and friends. Rob from work commented on how his daughter did much the same thing by traveling to India a few years ago as a college student to study and the life experience that it was for her. He gave me his daughter's contact information to pass along to Rachel. I'm hoping she seeks her out for any and all advice she has to offer.

Speaking of Rachel; for all the many times I mention her here I was surprised to find that when I did a wordle on the content of my blog, Rachel's name barely registered. I don't understand that. I would've thought her name would be in huge screaming letters obvious to even the most cursory glance, but it's not. She's there but you have to look closely.

We've been taking advantage of the cooler weather to spend more time with the pups at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville just a few miles from home. Toby is so cute. No matter where we go walking he always has to pause somewhere along the way, make eye contact with me then jump up to give me a big lick on my face. I've always taken this to be his little way of thanking me for taking him on the walk. The last time we were at Ritter I got three separate kisses from him. I love that little guy so much!

I stitched together a panoramic view from the park last week. Click here for much greater detail but do give it a little time to load as it's 12 mb large but (I think) worth the view.

More views from the park.

I was very happy with a couple of vases I did last week. The steel blue color is a little different than what I've been working with and it's quickly becoming a favorite. I hope to play around with it in combination with other colors over the next few weeks. I'm so glad we didn't wait until we're retired to begin this adventure like we'd originally planned several years ago. There's so much to learn here and we're both happy for the head-start!

We took part in the Lights Out Halloween party at Foci Friday night. I resurrected my Austin Powers identity for the night while Tammy stitched something together more in the spirit of the occasion. We had fun watching as the too few people we actually knew had to do double-takes to recognize us. It was a much larger crowd than I think either of us anticipated.

Sidelined and She No Longer Lives Here

2011-10-22T21:19:00.000-05:00

I had to take some forced time off my bike this week and given the mild weather we've been enjoying it left me champing-at-the-bit to be out there. A sharp pain in my right calf had me hobbling around for most of the weekend. When an ultrasound was negative for a blood-clot (my main concern) the radiologist suggested it was possibly a muscle tear deep in the tissue and undetectable. A muscle tear? The only thing I could come up with was when I was hauling my 24 bags of leaves out to the curb Monday night after work. I was trying to hurry the job along so I'd run between each trip. Oddly enough the pain which began abruptly didn't show up until 36 hours later which had me discounting it as the reason but I can think of no other.

Too many times this weekend I was tempted to try and sneak in a short ride to see how it felt but Tammy's admonishment to rest it because I'd only aggravate it won out. She's a telephone triage nurse so I have little choice but to heed her advice.

I came home to a voice-mail yesterday. It was a collection agency looking for my former wife whom I've had no contact with for several years. Tammy returned the call and assured them that she no longer lives here.

End of story.

Not quite.

I received another call this afternoon again asking for Noy. I got a little pissed because I could sense that they weren't going to believe whatever I told them and that I was going to continue to get their harassing phone calls for who knows how long. They told me that because I'm listed as her spouse on whatever it is she's delinquent on they will be attaching whatever claim they have to my social security number. The caller insisted that I needed to send them a copy of our divorce decree. Hmm...I wasn't sure what to think. Tammy suggested that the divorce is public record and they can find it for themselves. I like the way she thinks. I emailed them the docket number and date of our divorce and left it at that. I'm not all that secretive about my personal life as my blog will attest to but this seemed a bit much to divulge to some anonymous party even for me.

I hope she's not gotten herself into too much trouble.

We both had a very good day of glassblowing Thursday afternoon. I felt that Tammy really pushed herself and reached a new level of accomplishment. I was happy for her. We're excited to go in next week to see how our pieces turned out. We're comfortable with just one 4 hour session each week now that we've reached a level of proficiency we can sustain and build on rather than the one to three times a week we had been going as we tried to find our footing.

Tammy took some video of me making a vase last week; a little something for our archives and to show our family and friends what it is we're doing that we've both become quite passionate about. It's not great but it's where we're at in our evolution as glassblowing artists.

What Will They Think of Next?

2011-10-16T20:16:00.000-05:00

I had an extended weekend having taken the last two days off from my work-week. I don't have plans for anymore vacation days this year and likely won't take any until next June. It's times like this when I catch myself daydreaming about retirement and the ultimate days off, Monday through Sunday. If I had to guess when I may finally pull the plug on my career I'd guess December, 2013. That's the tentative plan anyway but it's definitely subject to change. I'm not even sure I've shared this date with Tammy yet.

I spent Wednesday being totally lazy. It was a rainy, stormy day and that made it all that much easier to ignore any yard-work that may have been taunting me. Tammy and I traded Wordfeud moves with one another throughout the day then spent a couple hours in the evening, coffees in hand, kicking around Mall of America. I love that place!

Speaking of Wordfeud.

I've uploaded nearly my entire music library to Google Music. This is an amazing program/service and one that begs the question; what next? I don't think I could've imagined this just a few years ago. I used it Thursday while driving down to pick up Rachel in Rochester to bring her home for the night (she and Tammy were attending the So You Think You Can Dance tour at Target Center). Rather than shuffle through the 6 discs in my truck's CD player, I tapped into my music library on the 'cloud' and pressed shuffle. How cool was that? All of my music, right there!

I had a lot of fun blowing glass on Friday. All four pieces I worked on, three vases and a bowl survived the process and made it into the annealer where they'd spend the next day or two ramping down from nearly 1000f / 537c to room temperature. Tammy shot some video for the archives of me making a vase and I hope to add it to next week's blog.

At Rob's request (a fellow air traffic controller) here's a link to a Flickr set where I've been uploading photos of most of our pieces.

I'm up to 177 planes landed in the Air Control game on my Bionic (see previous blog entry) before I pranged two together. I used to dream about air traffic situations during my days as a trainee but not since; until Thursday afternoon. In my dream I was in the sector at work but the airspace I was controlling was that of the Air Control game and it was crazy busy. I yelled out "I need a D-side! ...and a Tracker!" I was swamped but before help arrived I was awakened by Tammy when she came in the room.

My goal is to actually reach Air Traffic Controller status but I'm around 100 planes shy of that and really struggling to do any better.

Hmmm...Maybe I ought to be rethinking my retirement date.

I'm Declaring War!

2011-10-09T21:13:00.001-05:00

I mentioned Spotify in a recent post. I'm even more of a believer in this music program now than I was a couple weeks ago. I enjoy getting suggestions from friends which is one of the features of Spotify. Listening to a track that you like and want to share with a someone? Drag the track over their username located on the right side of the player and they'll receive the notification and a link to your suggestion. Just that simple...but they need to be a Spotify user as well.

We both struggled a little blowing glass this week. Some sessions are like that so you make the most of learning from your mistakes. There's never a lack of those. I had a three-gather vase take a dive off the punty onto the concrete floor but survive the landing. Together we were able to re-punty and salvage it. I tried to fire-polish out whatever scuff marks it picked up but I'm thinking it may be a candidate for my first attempt at a sandblasted finish to help hide any remaining marks. There's a sandblasting booth in the cold shop at Foci.

Tammy's focus has been on bowls lately and it's beginning to show. The photo to the left is of one of them. The blue is so beautiful in the sunlight.

It's that time of year again; I'm declaring war on leaves! I filled our two 65 gallon compost bins with leaves yesterday, even getting inside the bins to smash them down and make room for more. I then proceeded to fill another 20 leaf bags to go out with the trash on Tuesday. Before and after. And this is just the beginning as most of the leaves are still on our trees. Ten years ago Tammy talked me into buying a John Deere riding lawn mower. This is the time of year when I'm most glad I did as it makes pretty quick work of leaves. Still, I dread the work.

I was playing with my Droid Bionic a few nights ago and found an air traffic control game called Air Control. It's actually a lot of fun. In the hour I've spent playing it I've reached the rank of Captain with 111 planes landed in one session before suffering a mid-air collision which stops the game. I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that there are actually some similarities to the game and the actual job in that you've got to have a good scan as well as a plan to keep them separated. Check it out.

We've had some fantastic October weather for doing just about anything outdoors with temps in the 80s most of the week but it's been much dryer than I like. I managed a few nice rides even though the winds were at times so strong that it got a little dicey being out there. Still, it was nice to feel the heat of the sun on me in a big way so late in the season.

I'm not sure how many longish rides I have left in me this year but hopefully at least a few. I hadn't done the Henderson loop in a while so I was happy to be able to do that at least one last time before it's not practical due to cooler temps and less daylight. One of my favorite stretches of highway is county road 40 between Carver and Henderson following the Minnesota River a few miles west of 169. Not much traffic, a nice road surface and rolling terrain make it ideal for cycling. It's the sort of stuff I find myself daydreaming about in the dead of winter. And when my memory or imagination is lacking I've always got my videos to reminisce with and warm up to...

We're Now Happy Bionic Owners!

2011-10-02T22:26:00.001-05:00

We were back in the studio blowing glass Friday morning. Jackson, Joe and Kevin were bringing to life works of art on the bench next to ours that we can only dream about at this point.

I was excited to see how our pieces from the previous week turned out. Typically I'll remember whatever I place in the annealer as being much nicer than it actually is but not this week. I was pleasantly surprised when we walked back into the cold-shop to have a look at our work and find that I wasn't at all disappointed. Three-gather pieces now have me intrigued more than ever but I couldn't help but wonder if I should stay with the two-gathers we've been working with until I perfect a few more forms? I'll keep wondering because I did a couple more larger pieces again on Friday. Very fun stuff!

I boxed up some of our efforts and sent them off to Sweden Saturday morning to a friend of Tammy's and mine that we met last winter while playing WordFeud together on our phones. English is only a second language to Marielle but you'd never know it by the way she owns us in this game. We've become good friends over the many months we've been playing and I was happy to send her some of our work.

Rachel and I have been on the fence about whether to upgrade to the new iPhone 5 when it comes out any day now or to stay with the Droid family. She's been doing most of the research so far and for a while was reluctantly leaning toward the iPhone while I've been wanting to stay with a Droid. There's just something about that little green notification light you know. It's not necessary that we get the same phone but I think we both wanted to. She posted a one word message on my Facebook wall the other day, "woah" with a link to the new Droid Bionic. She then followed that up with a less hyped link offering much more information. Check out the 'videos' tab to see what I mean. A text a couple days later pretty much sealed-the-deal for me, "a girl in my class has the bionic. its so sick."

We're now happy Bionic owners!

The phone is nothing short of amazing! I could never have imagined just a few years ago a handheld device this size having so much capability. Who knows what the future holds for these addicting must-haves? And to think that I once boasted that I would be the last guy in Lakeville to go online. Haha.

Charlie turned 3 years old on Friday. He's always so happy and full of dickens. I'll come in the back door from the garage after being away and while Toby and Allie are busy jumping up on me, Charlie is off in search of a toy to bring me so we can play. It never fails. I've never had a pup as playful as this little guy. When we first got him Tammy and I thought he may have some alpha-male tendencies but that's not so at all. He just wants to play. You can't help but just laugh at this little guy and love him.

Tammy's 4 year old Dell laptop is the most frustratingly slow computer ever and it's been reformatted at least a couple times. She has patience that I simply can't understand to be able to still use it. We were out at Mall of America last night and I steered her into the Microsoft store as we walked by it. She asked what I was interested in and I told her "I just want to check out the laptops" and then I asked her if she wanted to pick out one for herself? "Really?" she said. "Yes, your Dell days are over" I replied. She decided on a smaller Toshiba that will be ideal for all she'll need it for with plenty of speed and hard-drive space. She's quite happy with it and I'm happy for her.

It's Indian Summer in the Midwest and we've still got temps pushing into the upper 70s. If you've got a day or two of sick-time left to burn now may be a good time to do it!

Are You Spotified?

2011-09-25T00:43:00.000-05:00

I have a love/hate relationship with the fall season. I love the cooler temps and the great riding and dog walking days they provide but more and more (as the trees in our yard and our neighbor's yards get larger and larger) I'm hating the leaf raking that goes with it. I got a head-start on our flowers and perennials today by cutting some of them back a little sooner than usual. Our trees are all still green yet but they will soon change and when they do I'll be owned by them as I try and keep up with their falling leaves. Wish me luck.

Tammy took a Bonsai plant class last Sunday at Como Park Conservatory. She had her interest piqued when we were at the State Fair a few weeks ago and observed a bonsai plant exhibit. I came home from work Sunday night and she couldn't wait to tell me all that she'd learned in her class from how to water and fertilize them to what to look for when trying to achieve the desired shape and what that should be. It was much more involved than my tired mind was able to absorb.

The next morning I woke her up by telling her that all the leaves on her bonsai plant had fallen off during the night (of course it wasn't true). I wish I'd had my camera to capture the look of shock on her face as she ran to go look. I'm so mean.

I had more fun blowing glass on Thursday than ever. Typically we've been doing two-gather pieces, meaning we gather glass from the furnace twice for each piece be it a tumbler, bowl or vase. But when we were in the studio on Thursday the glass level was low in the crucible causing my two-gather pieces to be a little smaller than usual. So I took a third gather. Wow...there was so much more glass to work with. It was fun because it challenged me in ways I hadn't yet been. The piece was putting off much more heat than I'm used to and it blew out considerably bigger than I'm accustomed to. Lots of fun! I managed to get a couple of vases 'in the box' (the annealer) and will get a chance to see them when we go back on Friday.

Are you using Spotify for your online music yet? Check it out if you're not. I'm still using the free version but I'm considering going premium. What I like most about Spotify is the ability to listen to an entire song at 360 kps rather than an abbreviated preview on iTunes. You can also make playlists to both save and share with others. Here's a video that explains many of the features and advantages Spotify has over iTunes: Spotify: The iTunes Killer.

I've been kicking around plans for a celebratory bike ride to the Black Hills in South Dakota when I retire. The idea being to spend a week riding there and having Tammy meet me in the car to take me home after spending a few days vacationing together. Hmmm...I just had a thought...is it still called a vacation if you're both retired?

Anyway, a friend from work (Paul Osika) retired last month and is now on a two month odyssey traversing the country with his wife and several others on a supported bike tour. Paul lived with me for several months when we were both going through our divorces in 1997. He didn't ride then but he'd watch as I'd head out on my bike and burn through whatever frustrations I had. I like to think I played a part in him developing such a passion for riding. He left San Diego with his group yesterday bound for Florida. I admit it, I'm totally envious. So much so that I suggested to Tammy that I want to do that too but not with a group. Solo. She suggested that she would love to come along and shadow me in the car, meeting up with me at the end of each day. That would be awesome but I wonder if she would get bored with a month long trip such as that? But I'd love to share the ride with her. We'll add her suggestion into the mix and see what develops.

Rachel sent me a video of the Tribal Warfare mud-pit event she participated in a few weeks ago with the youth group at the Assemblies of God church in Rochester where she's connected. She's not in the video the best I can tell but it's still fun to watch. It's definitely not like any youth group activity I ever experienced.

You've got to love their enthusiasm!

Arrr Bilge Rat, Hand Me My Grog and Pen

2011-09-18T12:15:00.001-05:00

We finally made it back to Foci last Thursday after more than three weeks away. We did alright at the bench but we could tell that some rust had begun to settle on our limited skills. The studio has their furnace issues behind them and is open for full use again so we should be able to get back to our weekly time-slots. We're both as eager as ever to continue to push ourselves and develop as glassblowers!

Tammy's mother spent a couple days with us this week and was able to watch us blow glass. Our concern with her in the studio with us was that she's so quick to move about so we had to be careful to keep her from getting hurt. It's typically not the 2200 degree glass that burns you but the tools that come in contact with it. An object doesn't begin to show that it's hot until it's over 1000 degrees.

Pat Robertson was in the news this week for a remark he made about one spouse leaving another when Alzheimers descends upon a marriage. I'm not much of a fan of Robertson and most everyone was quick to pounce on him for his remark but there's a part of me that agrees with the point of view he was trying to convey.

Here's the story and video.

I was talking with Tammy about us and what we would do if we ever found ourselves in a similar situation. She assured me that she would want me to move on with my life but at the same time not leave her behind. I totally get that. But she also said that she could never imagine finding somebody else. How sweet of her but I would absolutely want more for her. Me...what would I do? Hmmm...I'm not so sure. I'm only being honest. I'm not saying that either of us would be out there actively seeking somebody else, but sometimes those things have a way of happening. If I took up with anyone else they would have to know that I'm not fully theirs. I'm guessing I'm on the wrong side of this argument.

It's been a hot period we just came out of and our pups have seen a lot fewer walks than they'd like but now that cooler temps have returned we're back to our daily routine of either a trip to the park or 45 minutes walking the neighborhood streets. They're happy little guys; see for yourself!

I stumbled onto a fun color-hue test online last night. Check this out. I scored a 4; much better than I thought I would. Maybe it's the graphics of my MacBook Pro. Give it a try. The colors at the end of each row are stationary and can't be moved. Work inward from each of them while trying to align the tiles in the correct color sequence as they fade from one color to the next.

My years seem to be measured by different happenings that Tammy and I routinely do. Fall brings the Renaissance Fair in Shakopee. We don't always make it to this event each year but when we do we never fail to enjoy ourselves. There's really nothing about the period of time depicted here that I embrace or would want to have lived in but still I find it an interesting few hours.

I don't think the somewhat-slightly-metro-sexual-me would fit in very well in this period but then I probably shouldn't sell myself short. I'm sure I'd have adopted some gruff exterior...possibly a beard and I'd learn to cuss a lot but when I got home to my wife I'd abandon all of that and sip my wine while writing in my diary...er, journal (as we guys called them in the days before blogs).

Photos from the day...

And a video...

color hue test renaissance fair

In Need of a Fix

2011-09-12T09:35:00.003-05:00

It seemed I couldn't click on a page online yesterday without being reminded of the events of 9/11. I have little to add other than to say that even the strongest military in the world is helpless against people who are determined to blend in with society until they decide to act on their rage. We can spend every last dollar we have trying to protect ourselves but it still won't be enough. 19 individuals with box-cutters slipped onto our shores unnoticed, then proceded to kill nearly 3000 innocent people and help bring our economy to a grinding hault. What does that say about the strongest military the world has ever seen? I'll say no more.

Rachel is having a blast in Rochester...or at least I assume she is. I thought I saw a recent photo of her on Facebook but I can't be sure. I haven't heard much from you, kiddo...are you out there?

We haven't blown glass in over two weeks. A new furnace was installed at Foci where we blow and because of the install and complications with it our slot times had to be cancelled the past two Thursdays. We're itching to get back. This is the longest we've been away since we returned to the studio in full force last February. I hope it's similar to riding a bike and that we haven't lost too much of our hard earned skills. I'm in need of a fix!

To tide us over we've been watching a series of videos (The Art of Fire by James McKelvey) that Tammy bought me for my birthday. They're so good. I told her that this may possibly be the best gift she's ever given me. They're so helpful, especially considering the foundation we've built to this point. She also purchased the companion book which goes much more in depth than the DVDs. It's very good reading.

I finally took some time to dabble in fused glass over the weekend. Tammy bought a kiln several years ago when she took a class in fused glass but for the most part it's sat idle the last couple years until recently when she began using it again. I decided it was time for me to try my hand at it as well. She gave me a few pointers then sent me on my way.

A couple of kiln-firing days later and I had my finished product. I'm not thrilled with it but I think it will do for a first attempt. I hope to get into some more complex layers and designs with my next efforts.

I've been battling a cold for the last three weeks. The kind of cold that begins in the head but settles in the chest and doesn't want to leave. It's had me off my bike for the most part but Saturday I decided it had taken enough of what few good warm weather riding days I have left this year. I topped off my iPod Nano and Garmin 705 then headed out late Saturday morning for a longish ride into western Wisconsin.

I've been wanting to do my Wisconsin loop for a while but the winds were never where I needed them to be to head that way until Saturday when there was only a light breeze from the east. I like to venture out into a headwind so I have a tailwind on the return home. It's especially important when your legs are fried and that was my concern with the sporadic riding I've done lately.

I noticed too few other cyclists out there but I saw more motorcycles on the road that day than I've ever seen before. Many in packs of a dozen or more looking like they were really enjoying themselves.

I've had a couple of motorcycles in my life but I don't miss them. I much more prefer the burn in my legs and the feeling of my heart beating inside my chest reassuring me that I'm alive as I work a climb or settle into a rhythm on the flats. I derive a lot of satisfaction from that and no ride I ever took on a motorcycle comes anywhere close to providing that kind of experience.

But to each their own...

Thoughts of Retirement and A Fair Time

2011-09-04T17:58:00.000-05:00

Last week was a difficult week for me. Having just finished nearly all of my scheduled vacation time for the year the previous week it was a little depressing knowing that another summer of fun was in the rear-view mirror. Thoughts of the long slog that lay ahead as we work our way toward and through another winter hasn't helped. Please don't let it be a winter like the one we had last year!

My mind couldn't help but wonder what retirement must feel like. It's anybody's guess when that day may finally arrive for me. I think the soonest I'd consider going is 18 months from now but a more realistic guess would be at least 28 months away, at the end of 2013. 18 months gets us out from under our mortgage and a home equity loan we took out when we finished our basement. We can comfortably retire then but there's a part of me that wants to continue working to pay for some large projects around home that are out on the horizon in addition to Rachel's college tuition. We could probably do it all on our retirement pay but we'd have to take out loans and I'd rather pay as we go. But I do think that once I get to the point where I no longer have to work and can walk away (in 18 months) it will actually make coming to work considerably easier; one month at a time until the day when I quietly tell them that I'm done. The plan is for Tammy to leave her job before I do. She does so much volunteer work and this would free her up to do even more.

Yeah, I'll miss summer but for now I'm enjoying the cooler air that arrived a couple days ago. It's refreshing to walk outside with the pups in the morning and feel the chill again. For as much as I love the heat of summer and being outdoors I think I like fall even more. I know that Toby, Allie and Charlie appreciate the cooler temps for walking.

Rachel isn't wasting any time picking up where she left off back in Rochester. She's considering a work/study position at the college rather than a nursing assistant job where she would have little to no chance of accomplishing any homework while at work. Still, it's nice that she has her CNA license. I would guess she'll be able to use it next summer.

She's involved with an Assembly of God church in Rochester where they hosted a mud-pit and an event called Tribal Warfare a few days ago (much thanks to Becky Miller for the photograph). She's enjoyed some solid church connections over the last many years and the group of young adults she's involved with now appears to be a really good fit as well. I can't remember if I mentioned this last year but when she first attended the church she found out that she already knew some of the youth there from previous summer Bible camps. I don't believe in coincidences.

She had a short appearance on the local news this past week. Here's a link (with a crazy camera angle).

Tammy and I spent Friday cruising the grounds at the Minnesota State Fair. We caught a bus from the Burnsville transit station and paid $5 for round trip tickets for us each. We planned to be back around 6 or 7 that night but we were having too nice of a time to pack it in so soon. I called my neighbor Mark to see if he could possibly let the pups out for us and he was kind enough to do that and would accept payment in the form of a pale of Sweet Martha's Cookies. He was only joking but I thought it made for a nice trade-off.

It was a long day but a really nice time.

I woke up Saturday morning and asked Tammy if she wanted to go back and do it again. For a brief moment she looked like she was all-in but then the rush of so many things she needed to do brought her back to her senses.

I came to my senses too. I went for a ride.

Scenes from the Fair...

Adele, Thanks to Al

2011-08-25T23:55:00.015-05:00

My vacation days for the year are winding down as is my birthday. I've had some nice time off this summer but this past week has been just so-so. I picked up a head-cold on Monday and have been fighting it since. I can't recall the last time I was sick like this in August.

We had four hours of bench time scheduled at Foci this morning that we had to cancel. I didn't feel right about going in there and spreading germs through the blowpipes. I don't know of anybody who sanitizes them and unless you've got your own (which we don't) you take your chances with the shop pipes. I suppose it's possible that it's where I picked up this bug in the first place.

We continue to make steady progress at Foci. We're still just scratching the surface as we acquire the basic skills but we can see improvements from month to month. I started a set on our Flickr page where I'm uploading photos of our work and sequencing them in order from newest to oldest so we'll be able to see the progression over time a little more easily. Most of the pieces in the set are from the last six weeks or so. Our early, primitive stuff isn't in there.

We brought Rachel back to Rochester Tuesday afternoon to begin her sophomore year at the University of Minnesota, Rochester (UMR). I think she's had a nice summer with us but she's been chomping at the bit to resume the life she'd put on hold last spring. We're happy for her but Tammy was still a little melancholy a few days later missing her presence. But unlike last year there were no tears during our goodbyes; in fact, I think she was anxious for us to leave. It's just a guess but there may have been some plans in the works for her to entertain a few of her friends in her new digs after we left. Who could fault her?

I was disappointed a few weeks ago when Adele tickets went on sale because even though I was online trying to purchase them the second they went on sale I was left without. I'd even tried to score a single ticket but that too was fruitless. I'd posted a status update to my Facebook the night before the concert expressing my disappointment that I wouldn't be attending. My friend Al saw my post and suggested that I try again to see if tickets had become available. That wasn't something I'd considered. I wasn't interested in going through a second party and paying an inflated price. Al said that "Tickets are often held for the performers, promoters, etc. and if they don't all get used, they are put back on sale." What did I have to lose? I called around 10:00 the day of the show but there was still nothing. I tried again around 2:00 and got a nice surprise! I snagged two tickets on the left side of the stage 3 rows up from the floor. They were actually very nice seats.

Tammy isn't as much a fan as I am of Adele but she was excited to go. We went for dinner at Cossetta's and stood in line for a half hour before getting our food and finding seats. Cossetta's is worth the wait and that's the reason for the line.

The opening act was Wanda Jackson who I'm embarrassed to say I knew nothing of. The woman seated next to me told me that she's a legend; the first woman to make it big in rock music; rockabilly specifically. I did not know that. She was entertaining I suppose but her music didn't do much for either of us.

Adele took the stage at 8:50 and played for around 90 minutes. She was so good and lived up to even my highest expectations. She was very personable with the crowd which was fun to see. She's so poised for 23. I could go on and on about her but rather than that I'll simply include a link to some video I took. Please excuse the few times where I cut off Adele's head with my camera. I was more focused on the show than the video I was capturing. I promise to do better next time!

Saturday in the 'Burbs

2011-08-23T12:57:00.005-05:00

Rachel drove to Rochester last week for an appointment at Mayo Clinic where she'll be doing volunteer work this school year. She called me to ask why there were so many police out on highway 52. I hadn't a clue I told her. A few hours later I got to work and noticed there was a temporary flight restriction in place over the Rochester area because President Obama and his bus tour were traveling through. She would learn soon enough what was happening when she got into the city. I shared a couple of quick texts with her as she tried to maneuver herself to where she could maybe see him. And she did; well, she saw his bus anyway.

That wasn't the first time she got close to a president. In 2004 we took her to see President Bush speak at Target Center in Minneapolis; a time when I was still owned by the republican party. Within a couple years of that experience I would have my eyes opened wide. My metamorphosis away from conservatism is detailed in my blog for those curious to see how a person can possibly change parties. Here's a pivotal post in that process but to get to the real reason type 'faa' into the search box of my blog.

Tammy isn't much for jazz music but she knows I enjoy it some; mostly when I'm working down in the shop on a stained glass project. She suggested that we head into Burnsville Saturday afternoon to take in the sights and sounds of the Burnsville Art and All That Jazz Festival. Great idea! What I didn't realize until talking to Mom early Saturday afternoon was that the Shakopee Mdewakanton were hosting their annual Pow Wow. Tammy has a fascination and love for Native American people. This would have to come first.

We drove 20 minutes west to Shakopee, found parking and took advantage of a dusty golf-cart ride from our car to the site. We found the Pow Wow to be in full swing when we arrived. I wondered how my brother Bryan (had he been with us) would've captured this event with his camera. He's got such an eye for photography. I did my best and also took some video.

The dancers were fun to watch but I think the vendors who lined the perimeter added a chincy commercialism element that the organizers could have done without.

From there we made our way to Burnsville to check out the art and jazz festival. It couldn't have been a better day! Just a beautiful weekend of weather, really. Yeah, I could've been out riding but I was fine at this slower pace.

We walked around looking at the craft exhibits and saw one of our friends from Foci. Steve had been there since early morning but wasn't all that happy with sales. He said the good money this day was in women's jewelry. The booth next to his was evidence that he was right as there was no lack of people looking over the merchandise.

The sun was getting low and the air was beginning to chill as we donned our jackets and found some seats to take in the show.

It was a nice Saturday in the 'burbs.

I did manage to get out late Sunday afternoon for a ride. I've got a 10 mile loop I do around Orchard Lake and the surrounding area. It's nice for working on strength as there are several hills that amount to a little over 500 feet of climbing each loop. Plus, I usually find myself pushing the pace trying to stay above a set minimum. Six loops left me with that unique feeling of being both refreshed and tired.

And another one of those videos for my archives for reminiscing with sometime in the distant future...

It's Not About the Bike

2011-08-14T00:59:00.007-05:00

All of my hard work between the houses last year (before and after) was being swallowed up by a grapevine of some sort. I thought it made for a nice ground cover when it quietly began to work its way though the area but then I began to wonder; it was definitely taking over. I mentioned to Tammy that I was going to remove it but before I could get out there to take some before and after photos she had already made a nice dent in it. A couple hours later and we had reclaimed most of the area with the exception of some stragglers that I'll have to keep my eye on.

I was off from the salt mine this past week and made pretty good use of my time and by that I don't mean some ridiculous amounts of miles on my bike. I actually relaxed some. I spent time doing absolutely nothing which is totally out of character for me. It was nice. It's difficult for me to believe but I spent two weeks away from my bike. That's pretty much unheard of in the summer for this obsessed cyclist. Somebody check my temperature.

We managed another trip to Rochester to deliver and set up a bed for Rachel. She's now mostly moved in with the exception of some odds and ends. That's three trips to Rochester in one week for us. I actually enjoy the 75 mile drive.

We were in the studio three days this past week. I could get used to spending lots of time there if I had unlimited amounts of both that and money. We'll settle for what we can at this point. I felt like I was pushing the limits of my abilities this week by blowing a little bigger and a different shape than I'm used to. I just feel it's time to begin exploring my abilities more. It was fun. But I'm a little concerned about the last piece I made. I struggled to release it from the punty once it was finished, allowing it to cool down quite a bit before I finally got it in the annealer. Steve was watching me (I didn't realize it at the time and I really appreciate his watchful, experienced eye) and gave me a little advice. He said that the next time that happens, stop what I'm doing and take a quick flash in the nearest glory hole then begin the process again. It makes total sense. Keep the piece hot! He pointed out that it was really cool going in the annealer which causes me to wonder if the next time I see it it'll be in more than the one piece it had been. I hope not.

Rachel finished her Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) class at Inver Hills Community College and just completed the 2nd of 3 days of clinicals where she shadows another CNA. She came home last night and told us all about her day. It was so evident that she has a heart for not only this work but any work that involves helping others. None of the more squeamish tasks seem to bother her at all. I actually had to laugh just a little as I listened to her and her mother talk shop. This little girl of mine is no longer that. As much as I would've loved to have kept her 13 years old forever there's a world out there that needs her.

We made our traditional visit to the Dakota County Fair in Farmington Wednesday night, not so much for the fair and its numerous exhibits but for the demolition derby. We brought a couple of inexperienced friends with us and they loved it! I couldn't help but wonder if Job was the only black man in the lilly-white crowd? He had fun and that's all that mattered.

Here's some video from the night. Don't give up too soon as there's some pretty humorous stuff in there midway through.

My love for Adele hasn't faded in the few months I've been listening to her. I came across a video this week of someone covering one of her songs. It takes a special talent to try and do that. This woman has it!

Fairs, Furniture and a New 'Do

2011-08-09T01:54:00.001-05:00

We headed back to Rochester Thursday afternoon after Rachel finished for the day with a class she's been taking at Inver Hills Community College. It was nice to get away together. Tammy was finally able to look around inside the home Rachel will be renting this school year and to size up her room for a bed and some other furnishings.

The city of Rochester helps promote a weekly celebration called Thursday's on First and 3rd where there are dozens of vendors pedaling all sorts of art, crafts and food along a few city blocks. It's really a nice time. We ate at Newt's outdoor grill then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening kicking around the city taking in the sights. Tammy and I love Rochester but more importantly Rachel does too. She really feels at home there. It's been a good fit for her.

Video from our time there.

We were back in the glassblowing studio on Friday where we both had a pretty good day; not great but better than our previous session. We continue to get our share of encouragement from other artists there and that helps us to realize that we actually are making progress. It's incredibly challenging, often times frustrating but so rewarding. It's also eating into my time on the bike but so far I'm not being bothered by that in the least. Surprising!

I made a couple of tea-light candle holders that I was pleased with. I'm thinking these may make nice Christmas gifts.

Tammy and I made it out to both the Uptown and Powderhorn Park Art Fairs in Minneapolis Saturday. We'd hoped to get an early start but opted for sleeping in and battling the crowds later instead. Parking can be difficult to find but this seemed a bit extreme to me.

As we made our way from our car to the Uptown fair we came across a woman out in front of her home selling a bedroom set of dressers. Tammy doubled back to have a closer look. It was perfect for Rachel she remarked. We gave her $20 to hold it then continued on toward the fair with me wishing we'd driven the truck instead. We'd have to hurry just a little to make it back by 5:00 with the extra trip back home to swap out vehicles.

The fair was nice, it always is and Foci was well represented by several artists we've gotten to know there the past few months.

Uptown Art Fair photos.

From Uptown we headed east a few miles to Powderhorn Park's fair to see a couple more artists from Foci. Powderhorn's fair isn't quite the draw that Uptown is but I like the atmosphere there; less crowded and more laid back.

Photos from Powderhorn Park Art Fair.

Video from both fairs.

We returned for the bedroom furniture right at 5:00 and managed to fit it all in the bed of our truck. On the drive home I asked Tammy if she was up for another trip to Rochester that night to set it up in Rachel's room. She was. Rachel had nothing planned and offered to come along and drive Tammy's car loaded down with more things for the move. I let Rachel lead the way.

It was nice to accomplish all we had considering we had no plans whatsoever of finding her a bedroom set when we started out earlier in the day. It's a perfect fit for her room and Rachel's really happy with it. Now all that's left is to get her bed set up and that's on our to-do list for Thursday. She plans on being back in Rochester on the 23rd to get settled in before school begins. It's all coming together nicely.

We finished out the night at Baker's Square in Apple Valley. It had been years since we were last there; 2003 to be precise and I'm not sure why it had been that long because we all were really happy with our food. It must be the all-too-many-other-choices that win out instead. I'm quite certain it won't be another 8 years before we make it back. On a side note: I learned that lemon juice on french fries is awesome! Taught to me by none other than the member of our family who puts her potato chips inside her sandwich. Also, not a bad combination!

Did I mention that Tammy has a new 'do? She likes to cut her own hair and usually she does just fine. Usually. Not always. I encouraged her (there's a very tactful way to do this...trust me) to find a stylist and pay them to do the work for her. She did and she's glad she did. So am I.

Rachel Time and Fallen Angels

2011-08-01T22:29:00.006-05:00

I had a very full week last week. I skipped out of work on Tuesday to go with Rachel to Rochester where she had some things to take care of. During our time there we spent several hours walking around the city together chatting the day away. I absolutely love spending time with her. There's a part of Rachel that's still very much young-adult-like but there's another side of her that is so mature beyond her years. I like the mix. Add to that her faith, humor, creativeness and kindness and it's not hard to see why I sometimes go on and on about her here or in conversation with whomever. She's been such a blessing in my life.

When it comes to spending time with her I don't hesitate to clear my schedule.

She's in for a change this school year. She'll no longer be living in her fancy digs at BridgeStreet with its room-service and made to order breakfasts, instead, she'll be renting a home with 4 other women from college just a few blocks from the campus. It's what she wanted and I don't think she could be more excited for the school year to begin.

Tammy and I both struggled in the studio on Thursday. I'm blaming the humidity. I think I managed to get only one decent piece in the annealer; Tammy may have done a little better. But that's okay because it only makes us more determined to show up again for our next session at the bench and try even harder.

I got out Friday afternoon for a longish ride southwest to St Peter and back home through Chaska. (ride video) Time on my bike is unlike any other alone-time for me in terms of working through my thoughts and I've usually got many. There are no distractions and I can literally go for hours without any interruption from the outside world other than passing cars and the occasional text message. My blog often helps me organize those thoughts.

Why are there fallen angels?

That was the question I was pondering Friday as I worked my way north on highway 169 out of St Peter. It's not the first time I've wondered this. I can't imagine how an angel, a being that I would guess has a vastly more intimate understanding of God than any of us here on earth, would ever go to the dark side. I don't get it. I have a friend who suggested it may be the desire for power. That makes as much sense to me as anything I can think of. But then I have to wonder if there will be choices for us in heaven? More of our free will to get us into trouble? Lust for money or sex seems to be the biggest downfalls for many here in this life. Without those obstacles in the afterlife to cause sin maybe it won't be so bad. I've never been one who was desirous of power (other than on my bike) so I should be good-to-go.

We celebrated our 12th anniversary on Saturday. Actually that's not quite right; Rachel and I celebrated it because Tammy had to work. (In a few years when we're both retired, Tammy and I can look forward to never having to worry about work getting in the way of our special days and every day will be Saturday!)

Rachel made all the arrangements. We headed into St Paul for sushi at Sakura Restaurant and Bar then took in the Owl City concert at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St Paul. Unwed Sailor and Mat Kearney were the two opening bands. I was there to see Mat but left with a new-found appreciation for Unwed Sailor. Just an excellent sound...no vocals, only instruments. Video I shot of Owl City.

We called Tammy between shows and Rachel apologized to her for stealing me on our anniversary night. I thought that was cute. But as Tammy had said earlier in the day, I didn't just marry her; I brought someone else into my life too...someone I wouldn't trade for the world.

Have I ever told you about my daughter?

Photos from our wedding day

I'm the One Who Doesn't

2011-07-24T00:49:00.006-05:00

It's been a relaxing week off from work for me but not necessarily by choice. The weather was so hot and humid that it made being outside a little much at times so I cooled my heels inside for much of the week and practiced life as a retired air traffic controller. I did real well too.

Speaking of heat, we actually did make it to the studio two days this week but found very few others willing to stand in front of 2200 degree glory holes. Tammy is quite the trooper I have to say. I don't think most hot-flash-experiencing-menopausal-women would put up with that kind of heat in an un-airconditioned space. It gets a little warm.

Michael, the founder of Foci stopped by our bench and asked us if we'd be willing to consider putting in some time at the Renaissance Festival this fall at the glassblowing exhibit Foci will be hosting. Seriously...us? I told him that the only way we could consider something like that would maybe be in a supporting role but not as the actual people doing the glassblowing. I'm sure that's what he had in mind. Tammy and I both agree we're not ready for prime-time. He understood our concerns but seemed to imply that it's a good thing for people to see varying skill levels. The idea certainly intrigues me. Tammy is already thinking up ideas for our costumes. Dressing up in tights is no problem for me as that's usual attire 5-6 months out of the year on my bike anyway.

Rachel spent some time this summer studying to be a Certified Nursing Assistant and will soon have that qualification to add to her resume'. She hopes to find work at one of the hospitals in Rochester when she goes back to begin her sophomore year there in a few weeks. It will benefit her to have the experience when she ultimately decides which path she will follow toward either a degree as a Physician's Assistant or some other yet to be determined profession.

She wears her scrubs well don't you think?

Al, a friend from high school, hosted a small 36 year high school reunion at his home in Bloomington Friday night. I was never very outgoing in high school. I've written here before how I did just the minimum to get by as far as academics were concerned (finishing in the bottom 15% of my class I believe) and I never even attended my graduation ceremony. Sad, really. I simply never applied myself for whatever reason(s). When it came to reunions I hadn't even attended one until our 25th and that was only because my neighbor was on the organizing committee and convinced me that I should go. So, even all these years later for me to attend one of these functions I'm stepping well out of my comfort zone.

I think that for many of us those feelings we left high school with, inadequacy in my case, aren't very deep beneath the surface but hopefully we're able to ignore them and just go and be ourselves. That's what I did. It was a nice time with my only regret being that I didn't get to talk to more people, people I didn't ever talk to back in the day but would like to have now. I look at my daughter and see how she's the polar opposite of me and wish I'd have come away with the experiences she has from those years. One of us has much to reminisce about and one of us doesn't.

I'm the one who doesn't.

A Solo Double and Then Some

2011-07-18T12:28:00.004-05:00

We spent a few hours at Foci Thursday afternoon working with some larger diameter pipes than we're used to. The biggest difference other than the size of the gathers is the amount of heat radiating off the glass onto your arm. Kevlar arm sleeves for protection become a must at this point.

My focus is still on bowls and tumblers with the occasional vase that results from a tumbler gone bad. I could easily spend the next couple months working on just these forms striving for consistency but I suspect Steve will encourage me to push myself and try other stuff. I'm thankful for his promptings.

A couple days of heavy rain recently have left us with some nearly unbearable humidity levels the likes of which fog up your glasses when leaving the comfort of whatever airconditioned space you've sought shelter in. I was running an errand Friday afternoon and had to double back to catch this video of some rain runoff.

It never seems to fail that the week of Sonshine Music Festival in Willmar is plagued with hot, humid, stormy weather. Rachel and her friends met there Tuesday afternoon to set up camp for the concerts that would run from Wednesday through Saturday night. It didn't take long for the storms to find them.

She had loads of fun but with the bugs, the rain, the heat and humidity, by Sunday she was ready for home. She texted me yesterday morning..."On our way home. Been on the road for about 45 minutes." I replied, "Cool...we have no hot water or air conditioning...both broke...so hot and miserable here...mom is so mad...sitting with ice packs :( " To which she responded "that sucks". I let her mull it over for a couple minutes before texting her back, "yeah, if it were true! ;-) " Her reply isn't suitable for this G rated blog. I couldn't resist.

I got an early start to my ride Saturday morning, not really sure how far I'd go. I've been putting in some longer efforts with intentions of doing a double century ride (200 miles) in the next few weeks. I felt there was an outside chance that I'd go for it on this ride but with temps forecast to be near 90f (30c) and dewpoints in the upper 70s I was trying not to be overly optimistic. But still, there's that determined side of me that tends to take over and throws caution to the wind. And that's pretty much what I did. I headed south and didn't look back until I got to the Iowa border.

Typically on a long ride like this I'll try and remain within 50-60 miles of home knowing that if things go wrong it's much easier to bale-out on the ride from that distance rather than putting myself 100 miles or more away from home where I've got no choice but to either finish or call for help. Did I say "call for help"? Sorry, that's not an option.

Within the first ten miles I knew I was going for it and that if I kept home within reach (considering the heat and humidity) there was a good chance I'd pack it in early and I needed to remove that option; so I got busy.

I was 104 miles into the ride before turning back north but I was feeling fine. It wasn't until somewhere just west of Owatonna on the return that I found myself really having to dig deep, out of water in 90 degree heat. I'd actually been doing a good job of staying hydrated but I skipped a chance to refill in Waseca and paid the price. But I recovered nicely once I got to Owatonna.

Tammy was able to follow my progress on Google Latitude. I'd told her before I left (while she was mostly asleep) that I may be gone a while but I gave her no idea just how long. This way I could ease her into it. I don't like her to worry.

I finished with just over 208 miles/335 kilometers and managed 17 mph for the distance which given the conditions and the fact that I was out there solo (not drafting) was alright by me. I'm sure I could've improved on that speed had it been cooler and less humid.

Sometimes a lack of common sense and good dose of determination are what's needed but I can't discount the prayers said along the way either. There were many.

End of an Era?

2011-07-12T12:54:00.005-05:00

Rachel's Facebook status recently was "Tragus time. Ahhhhhhh...." I had no idea what she was referring to until I got a text from her with a photo saying "LOOK AT MY EAR!!!!!!!" I liked it but Tammy didn't appear to share in her excitement. I think it was simply her motherly default mode kicking in as she poo-pooed Rachel for having it done. But truth be told, I think she was actually suppressing thoughts of liking it.

She'll be 20 next month so there isn't much we can say about these sort of things. Plus, she used her own money from her job at the flower shop. Had it been a piercing that left a gaping hole in her earlobe I'm quite sure I'd have had more to say.

Lakeville's Pan-o-Prog (Panorama of Progress) is over for another year. As usual we made it into town Friday night for Cruse Night. It's always a good time. The show kicked off with a fly-over by Miss Mitchell, a WW2 B25 bomber. (That experience seems very tempting to me and although the $400 price won't get you a round-trip ticket to either coast it still seems reasonable)

It's impossible to spend any amount of time at Cruise Night and not run into neighbors or people from work. We bumped into Mark and Becky (from across the street and also from work) and spent most of our time chatting with them. It became apparent early on that Mark knows a whole lot more about vintage cars that I ever will.

Cruise Night video

I was online yesterday morning trying to score some tickets to see Adele later next month. They went on sale at 10:00 so I was signed in several minutes ahead of time with hopes of actually getting something decent. My best guess is that it was a sold-out show by 10:00:01. I was too slow.

I figured demand would be high but I had no idea it was this high. Good for her but bad for me and I'm guessing a whole lot of others.

The space shuttle program is in its final run now as the last of its shuttles orbits the earth. Space exploration has been going on my entire life but it's not the same as it once was. It used to be that I and most everyone else would stop what we were doing to observe a liftoff or reentry. I remember being in elementary and junior high school during the Apollo missions and how we'd all gather in the auditorium with eyes riveted to the too small TV monitors set up in front. I don't think anybody had to tell us to be quiet; we were all so fascinated by it.

One of my earliest memories is of being a young boy and looking up into the night sky with my parents as we searched for and eventually saw the satellite Sputnik pass by. Not many years later on a July night in 1969 we would all gather around the TV set at my aunt and uncle's in Michigan's upper peninsula to watch as we put the first man on the moon. I remember peering through their living room window later that night looking at the moon and being lost in wonder at the thought of people actually being up there.

But somewhere along the way, and I'm ashamed to admit this, space exploration became somewhat ho-hum to I think most of us and it shouldn't have. Maybe it's because the missions became less about exploring and more about routine maintenance to the space station or Hubble telescope. Still, we were putting people into outer-space and there's never anything routine about that.

People will sometimes ask who your heros were when you were growing up and I'm always at a loss to think of any. I just never looked up to people that way. But in the short time I've spent writing this blog piece I realize that maybe I really did have some heros but just never knew it until now.

It's a Different Day

2011-07-10T00:28:00.003-05:00

I seldom mention politics in my blog because I don't like going negative here. There's enough of that out there already. I will admit to being a recovering conservative, vowing never to touch that stuff again! There was a time not long ago when the republican party owned me for my pro-life vote but I got tired of being a pawn for them and voted for Obama in 2008. I make no apologies. I know I turned a few heads in our neighborhood at the time. Has Obama been a disappoint to me? Yes, sometimes, like when he caved to republican pressure and sent an additional 30,000 troops into Afghanistan. But still, he was the only logical choice for me in 2008 and he looks to be again in 2012.

We've got some serious money problems here in the U.S. and we can no longer afford the role of head-cop for the world. It's way past time to reign in our military and focus on our own shores and the problems we face here and now. And that takes money.

I penned a letter to my congressman this morning and also left a voicemail for him. The district I live in is overflowing with like-minded, white, middle to upperclass people and I'm afraid John Kline doesn't hear enough dissenting opinion from the norm. I don't mind occasionally being that voice.

We've spoken before and I found him receptive to what I had to say or at least I hoped he was. I'm sure he's a good man but my concern is that he's so beholden to his party and ideology that any sort of compromise that involves a reduction in our country's defense to ease our budget burdens will simply be unacceptable to him. It seems it's difficult enough getting even President Obama to agree on that.

But it's a different day.

Mr Kline,

You've made mention time and again about your concern over earmarks. Certainly they play a role in our overall debt but they're the wrong focus at this time and I think you know that. There are much bigger fish to fry!

I'm curious to know how much you're willing to cut military spending in an effort to reduce our expenditures and help our country to become more fiscally sound? Or are you in favor of increasing military spending and at what rate and why?

I remember how the previous administration told us that the war in Iraq would be paid for with oil revenues from that country. How is that working out? How much is this ill conceived war costing us and how long will it continue? Imagine the good that could've been done here at home with that amount of money? How do our expenses in Iraq compare with the cost of earmarks?

How about Afghanistan?

What does the story of Gideon mean for you?

A passenger preflight briefing aboard an aircraft always includes mention of cabin depressurization and what to do if the oxygen masks deploy. You're instructed to put your mask on first before helping those around you. The oxygen masks of our economy have deployed! It seems to me it's time to take care of ourselves before spending more of my daughter's future on an impossible effort to rid the world of every person who wishes us harm.

Sadly, as long as there are no term limits for the Congress and the Senate little will change. It's no secret that bought-and-paid-for elected officials are at the heart of our nation's problems. Doing what's right for our country's benefit and doing what's most advantageous to being reelected are too often at odds and we know who loses.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Kevin Gilmore

Excuse Me, But...

2011-07-03T22:52:00.004-05:00

I went through the drive-thru at McDonald's on my way to work last week and ordered a couple cheeseburgers and a large light lemonade. I paid at the first window then proceded to the next window for my order. The woman there handed me a bag and wished me a good day. I asked her about the lemonade I'd ordered and she responded, "oh, we're out of lemonade". "Okay, then do I get a refund?" I asked. She replied, "Yes, I can do that." I drove away wondering why it was that I needed to say anything at all?

A few days ago Tammy, Rachel and I were at Mall of America kicking around. We settled on Ruby Tuesday's for dinner and placed our orders. When the food arrived Tammy mentioned that the order she and Rachel were sharing didn't come with the cheesy breadsticks it was supposed to. The waiter apologized and said that they were out of them but he made no offer of a discounted price or a substitution.

Okay...so what's changed? Am I expecting too much? It takes a lot for the wait staff not to get a 20% tip from us. It was all I could do to manage 5% for our waiter.

Our neighbors Bob and Karen are the best party hosts I know. They hosted our 2nd anual 4th of July party on Friday night at their home. Even an ominous shelf cloud (best viewed in full screen) and a torrential downpour that it preceded couldn't put a damper on the evening. Karen's Lemon-drop Martinis were a hit! ...at least with me.

The funniest story at the party had to be of Tim telling us (the abbreviated version here) about the time in 1965 as a 12 year old in Chicago and faced with the first big decision of his life. He had an option to see either the Monkees or the Beatles in concert. He chose the Monkees.

Photos from the party

I needed a long ride this weekend if I have any hopes of pulling off a double century (200 miles) ride in the next couple weeks. I got it done yesterday with a 151 mile loop out to Hutchinson under a gorgeous blue sky with temps in the mid 80s. My quads were a concern of mine as they showed signs of fatigue (due to a lack of serious riding this year) toward the end of last Sunday's 103 mile effort but they were just fine for this ride. I'm good to go for the 'double' if I can find the right day to do it.

Ride video from Saturday.

Google Latitude has been around a couple years and allows you to see where your friends are. It's a great program for Tammy to see where I'm at out on the road if she's ever curious about my progress or wondering where I'm at. It's the ultimate in an electronic leash! ...or for showing your friends how much you get around.

A Little of This and a Little of That

2011-07-01T17:47:00.000-05:00

I've been enjoying some much needed time off from work this week; always a somewhat dangerous thing for me to do at this stage of my career because I keep finding myself considering ways to actually retire and make this vacation permanent. But if I left now I'd likely have to restructure some debt and I'd rather not do that. In two years I can walk away and not have to worry so it would be foolish to quit now when the finish line is just around the corner.

I began the first few hours of my vacation on my bike working on a Lakeville to Fairbault to Kenyon loop with the possibility of a Wanamingo kicker depending on how I felt. There's something extra sweet about being on my bike during a time of the week when I'm normally at work. I allowed myself to imagine for just a brief moment what I was missing out on. I was back to focusing on the ride in less than 5 seconds.

It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid 70s and a manageable breeze. I had no worries and I was thinking to myself how blessed I was to be healthy and riding. At just that moment Vega 4 came around on my iPod Nano and it fit my mood perfectly. I thought...I need to upload the video I took of them to my blog. And so I am. We saw them at Fine Line Music Cafe a few years ago fronting for Augustana. Vega 4 was okay but I wasn't familiar with any of their music. Still, I decided to video one of their songs...their last. It turned out to be the hit of the night!

Video from my ride.

Tammy and I spent three mornings this week at Foci. A lot of what I've been patiently struggling to learn is finally beginning to come together. I was having a difficult time getting the glass papered into the shape I needed before blowing the piece out. Steve was continually telling me to work slower, which equates to smoother, but for whatever reason that bit of advice didn't seem to want to sink in. Now that I see the wisdom in his words I'm having much better success. Having the blob of molten glass in the correct shape for the piece you're attempting to make is an absolute must to the rest of the process.

We continued to make bowls our focus this week but we also made a few tumblers as well. I left there Wednesday on a high. There's a certain satisfaction you experience when you make some something with your own hands and for me it's never stronger with glassblowing than when I'm at the bench opening a piece up and giving it shape. It's so satisfying when it works the way you'd like it to.

Our routine each morning is to stop at Starbucks on the way to Foci for coffees for the drive. Two days this week we had people in front of us in the drive-thru pay for our order. We passed the favor back to the car behind us. The idea for doing this is promoted by a local Christian radio station but it's not unique to them or to the Twin Cities. It's a nice surprise when it happens to you but like anything else, it's always more fun to give than to receive.

The drive into Minneapolis can be hectic as we come in on the heels of morning traffic but being able to use the carpool lane is a huge help in getting us to the studio before our coffees run out. I can't imagine this commute inching along in one of the other lanes; I think I'd get there faster on my bike!

No Particular Place to Be

2011-06-28T23:32:00.001-05:00

Rachel is quickly learning the ropes of her job at the flower shop in Bloomington. She commented on a vase of Lillis Tammy had on our kitchen table and asked "Are those Stargazer Lilies?" She works two days a week doing odd jobs while taking orders in person and on the phone. It's a good summer gig which leaves her plenty of time to put her feet up and recharge her batteries before she begins her sophomore year of college. It sounds like the kind of job where they'll be able to use her whenever she's home on break so there's no need for her to have to beat the pavement looking for work while competing with the masses of kids all doing the same thing.

I'm fair skinned. I typically spend way too much time outdoors in the warmer months for my own good so I see a dermatologist a couple times each year to be checked for any suspicious spots on my body that may potentially develop into skin cancer. The spots are frozen and after a couple weeks they're healed over and gone.

In addition to the spot-treatment, my dermatologist prescribed a new procedure for me (I had it done last week) that could only be described as a chemical peel of sorts. It's called Levulan Photodynamic Therapy and its purpose is to remove developing problems before they take hold. For a couple days after the treatment you're left looking like you got a bad sunburn, then the peeling begins.

A few days after I had it done I asked Tammy if she thought I looked any younger and she thought I did; "Ten minutes younger...maybe" she replied. Hmmm...not what I wanted to hear.

When I was 9 years old my parents moved our family of 8 into a new home they'd had built in Bloomington, Minnesota. The area then was still very much undeveloped and for the first couple years there was so much untouched land for a kid to explore. I spent a lot of my time in search of frogs, snakes, turtles, pollywogs, skinks, mudpuppies and whatever other small creatures caught my eye. I once hatched a mosquito larva in a fishbowl on the nightstand in my bedroom. I remember seeing it fully emerged from the water and stretching its wings on the rim of the bowl. I let it go.

Very few weeks went by where I wasn't bitten at least once by a garter snake. It would only sting for a few seconds and they typically wouldn't bite more than once. Getting regularly bit went with the territory and I don't think I thought twice about it.

I cobbled together holding pens for some of my finds and tended to their needs. For my snakes that meant a diet of frogs. I not only had to find the frogs but I had to catch them too and that wasn't always so easy. Why I didn't have a net I have no idea but I had a bowl. I'd sneak up behind a frog and try to trap it under the bowl before it had a chance to jump away. It was a mostly unsuccessful method. Then one day I had a eureka moment. I wondered if it would be possible to deliver a knockout blow to a frog's head then pick it up as it lay unconscious? I proceeded to find a tree branch a few feet long that I could use to do the deed.

It worked beautifully!

One quick whack and the frog never knew what hit it. It was like shooting ducks in a barrel. A few minutes later the frog would spring back to life in the confines of whatever container I was using. I was so excited with my find that I had to tell my dad as soon as he got home from work that night. I remember him following me to the pond I'd been working just a few doors down from our home (and what would eventually become the site of Bloomington, Jefferson Senior High School) as I raced ahead to find my next victim. I showed him how easy it was and gave him my branch to give it a try.

Whack!

He splattered the frog's head wide open.

"Not so hard, Dad!" A couple more attempts and he had it down.

I can't say it was a bonding moment between my dad and me but for the first time in my life I was teaching him something rather than the other way around.

Before long my interest in hunting frogs and other reptiles would be replaced by a hunt of a different sort...that of golfballs along the 4th hole at Highland Greens a mile west from where we lived. Any right-handed golfer with a tendency to slice the ball brought the fenced off field into play and added to my potential bounty. I'd display my shiny finds in egg cartons with the name facing up at golfers as the perused my collection while waiting their turn to play. A ball in excellent shape could easily bring in .75c. $5.00 to $7.00 for an afternoon's work was good money to a 14 year old who never got an allowance.

What's become of that world I used to know?

Hmmm...it appears that I've gotten a little sidetracked here with no particular direction in mind for this blog post. But I'm on vacation this week and I think that's how vacations should be...no particular place to be but in that moment...at least some vacations anyway. And that's where I'm at now...no particular place to be except where my mind takes me. And so I'm reminiscing.

Thanks for joining me.

What Else is New?

2011-06-19T15:48:00.003-05:00

It was nice to take my Thursday and Friday off from work this week even though it caused me to not be able to keep my days straight. Thursday became Friday and Friday was Saturday. How will I ever manage when I'm retired? I'm sure I'll find a way. I'll be in the every-day-is-Saturday mode then so I don't suppose it will matter much.

I really struggled at Foci this week. Anybody who's been doing this any length of time will tell you that there will always be days like that. I felt tired and not all that focused. Definitely not the best mindset to have when trying to blow glass. Tammy did well so I was happy for her. We've decided to expand our knowledge base and shift our focus to making bowls. We're not going to bother with adding color until we've got a decent grasp of the steps for making them. Adding color adds considerably to the prep time which would be better spent just practicing the form. Besides, color costs extra and a good many of our early pieces will likely not make it into the annealer. I think our goal is to maybe each do one tumbler and three or four bowls per session.

The photo to the left is of some of my efforts from the last couple weeks.

Our neighborhood is on the move with three for-sale signs going up this week. Rick and Jene are looking to ease into townhome living. Greg and Mary are wanting to downsize now that they're empty-nesters and I'm not sure about the other family. These are all really good people so it's not good to see them go.

And speaking of moving; I spent a good part of Thursday helping Paul and Kate load up for their move to Montana. I got there just in time to help with Kate's piano. They've been residents at the Woods apartments in Burnsville for the past 28 years and we've been blessed to have them as a really nice addition to our small-group at church for the last two years. They're in for quite a change; from a large apartment complex to a home-on-the-range with mountains as a backdrop. But what a nice change for them it will be!

Tammy and I have been talking about driving out to see my brother Bryan and his wife Sue in Portland so we could easily make whatever slight diversion would be necessary along the way to visit with Paul and Kate as well.

Mom has been glued to the TV when she's at home watching the Casey Anthony trial. It was funny...I was talking with her on the phone the other day and she was going on and on about the trial. After 5 minutes I finally had to interrupt her to ask her "what else is new?". I remember how my dad was so engrossed by the O.J. Simpson murder trial. I'm sure he'd have been outraged had he lived long enough to see its conclusion but he died one month too soon for that.

The Decorah eagletes have 'branched', meaning they're out of the nest but they haven't flown off yet. They're expecting that to happen anytime now but most likely closer to the end of June. You can see the live feed here. Edit...at least one of the eagles has flown. Here's video, video one and video two.

I came home Thursday afternoon to an army of workers ripping up the street in front of our house. It's gotten so bad the last few years that I actually called the city last summer to see if they had any plans for resurfacing. I was glad to see them out there not just doing more patchwork. I was talking with a city inspector overseeing the operation and she said the money to pay for the work comes from a maintenance fund and not from assessments to individual owners. That's nice to know.

Rachel's is beginning to explore other career options as she prepares for her 2nd year of college. She's been talking about pursuing a degree as a physician but last night she texted me with concerns about doing that and having a family. Not that she can't do both but the additional schooling and residency requirements would cause her to put any of those desires on hold for much longer. With that in mind she's now thinking of Physician's Assistant (rated #2 on CNN Money, Best Jobs in America 2010) which would still be a 6 year degree. The career comes with exceptional job prospects and security but also with high stress levels.

I'm not all that worried about her ability to manage stress; I think she'll do fine. My main concern is that she's happy in life no matter what path she chooses and so far I like the direction she's headed and the choices she's making.

They're Back and Preparing for a Double

2011-06-13T00:40:00.004-05:00

My recurring dream is back. It's been a while since I last dreamed it and I would've been quite happy if it never revisited me. It's about as disturbing as any dream I can remember. I used to have a couple pet Cockatiels years ago and one of them was especially sweet and dear to me. In the dream I go down into a part of our basement that's secluded from the rest of our house, a place where I seldom go. When I open the door I find the bird cage with both Coocoo and Coconut inside. I'm shocked because I've totally forgotten that they were there and it's been months since I've fed them or given them fresh water. They're so neglected although they don't appear to be but I feel terrible and I'm profoundly sad. It ends about as quickly as it begins. It usually occurs to me the next morning that I had the dream again and it leaves me both disturbed and with a sense of relief that it was only a dream.

This is about as personal as I get in my blog lately. I'm not sure what the dream/night-scare means. I used to think it was possibly metaphoric of the relationship between myself and my former wife, Noy. When we parted it took longer than it should have to get over the fact that I was no longer responsible for any aspect of her life. It probably took Tammy's words to help me fully grasp that. Considering the dream, I thought that maybe the birds were symbolic of some leftover feelings of responsibility I subconsciously had for Noy. I really don't think they are but I have no way of knowing for certain. But I do feel the birds in the dream represent some sort of neglect. What that is exactly I can't say.

We were back at Foci both Thursday and Friday. I think I'm getting to a point where I'm ready to move on to forms other than the tumblers I've been making. I'd mentioned that I really wanted to understand the basics well before trying to confuse my limited knowledge with lots of other variables that are inherent to different forms. But I think I'm ready to begin pushing the process again. In fact, Steve mentioned to us on Thursday in so many words the same thing...that it's time. That didn't stop me however from experimenting with a couple more tumblers trying to make two of similar shape, size and coloring. They worked out well. I hope to post photos next week. I've always been a perfectionist so it takes some doing for me to accept that none of the stuff I'll be putting out for a long long time will be anywhere near perfect. We like to refer to our efforts as handmade because that's how they appear.

I came across this video on Foci's website. It's nicely done.

I took advantage of some cooler weather Saturday to spend the afternoon and early evening on my bike working on getting my legs accustomed to longer distances in preparation for possibly another 200 mile ride (referred to as a 'double' as in double century) in the next few weeks. There was a route in Wisconsin that I wanted to take as it's been a few years since I'd last done it and the winds were ideal to head that way. I got away in the early afternoon but I wasn't sure I had the determination I needed to do what I had my heart set on. Still, I pedaled off and hoped I'd find that resolve out on the road and possibly the sun as well. There's something freeing about having all my work done around home and no commitments to have to hurry back for. I settled into a comfortable pace and began to steadily tick off the miles, my Garmin Edge 705 beeping after each set of 10. I called Tammy at 40 miles to see if she was interested in dinner at Outback later. We had a date.

I stopped to refuel 52 miles into the ride at a Freedom gas station north of Hudson, Wisconsin. I chatted a little with another cyclist outside as we took in our calories. I told him I was heading toward Stillwater and he cautioned me about the hill leading to the bridge just east of the city. "It's a nasty hill" he said. I tucked the information away. It would be good information to have. I headed off again.

Seven miles later, making the turn off the main highway toward Stillwater I was finally able to turn the headwind I'd been working against most of the ride into a tailwind. I quickly found the "nasty hill". It was all I could do to get my bike stopped before the bottom where a steady stream of Saturday afternoon traffic on WI-64 had the right-of-way and I desperately needed to stop to avoid making the news. I was in serious jeopardy of losing it but managed to bale-out toward the shoulder of the oncoming lane. I definitely breathed a sigh of relief. The 1:50 point of the ride video catches the beginnings of the hill.
I pocketed my Droid as soon as I realized I had my hands full.

Leaving Stillwater I had 58 miles behind me but knew I likely had that many more miles to go. I was feeling fine and hoping that feeling wouldn't soon fade. I used our dinner-date at Outback for motivation. It worked.

Five miles from home I got a text from Rachel telling me to hurry because she was starving. "Good" I thought...not 'good' that she was starving but 'good' that she would be joining us. Her company is always welcome.

116 miles/187 kilometers

It's a Beautiful Day

2011-06-06T01:32:00.008-05:00

Four Seasons by Kurt Nilsen

My little blog that could keeps plugging along at over 7.5 years old. I have no idea how long I'll continue to write to it but hopefully for years to come. I sometimes see other bloggers posting apologies on their blogs for not writing more frequently and promising to do a better job. I see no need to do that, not just because I write here regularly (although not necessarily frequently) but because I do this primarily for me. That others find it interesting enough to follow along is a bonus and I'm grateful for that. Thank you.

I'm big into reminiscing and have been I suppose ever since I've been old enough to have something to reminisce about. So when you see (as you will toward the end of this piece) a video of a ride I did over the weekend it may seem like a boring video to anybody else but to me there's going to be some significance to it in 10 or 20 years. I imagine how cool it would be to have video from some of the rides I did when I first began seriously riding in San Diego, California while in the Navy. I can't recapture those moments but I can preserve some of what's happening in my life today.

That's the main thrust behind a lot of what I do in my blog. I want an archive of moments in my life that are preserved as best I can. So when you see something that seems meaningless, there's probably something in the details that I want to be able to recall sometime much later.

Rachel came with us to Foci on Thursday to observe our limited glassblowing skills. It was fun to have her there and explain the process. It didn't take long before she was mixing glass bits of color for us to use. She mentioned at one point that this was a hobby not many people do and that she thought that Mom and I are somewhat hippie-like in our interest in the art. I'll take that as a compliment.

I was really happy for Tammy as she had a good day in the studio and I think her confidence is better than ever. Confidence is key.

Tammy is still tuning in daily to the Decorah Eagles. She was sitting at her desk the other day with her piece-of-junk Dell laptop tuned to the eagle cam but not paying attention to it. I poked my head in the door to her office and said, "hey...one of the babies just flew out of the nest!" That caught her attention quicker than anything I can remember as she spun around in her chair to look. It was a good laugh! But it won't be long before they actually do leave the nest. I was talking to her tonight and she was so excited telling me that she was watching tonight as they were all testing their wings and momentarily getting airborne while hovering over the nest. The first of three eaglets was born 9 weeks ago and I read something somewhere that said they usually leave the nest between weeks 10 and 12.

Rachel has been putting in applications around Lakeville and neighboring cities in search of a summer job without any success. She came home from her dad's this morning and said a friend of her dad has a flower shop across the river in Bloomington and has offered her a job taking orders over the phone and doing whatever other miscellaneous jobs they may have for her. It sounds like a great summer gig and the job is hers if she wants it. She wanted to check with us first as she'd have to use one of our vehicles. That's no problem. She's worked in the past teaching dance the last couple years before college so it's not really her first job but it may seem like it to her simply because dance is something she loves.

Summer has arrived in a real nice way to our part of the world with temps regularly in the 80s. It's more than welcome. I got out Saturday afternoon for a long ride trying to get some much needed miles in my legs. I'm so far behind in my cycling fitness for where I usually am for this time of year and it showed but I still managed 113 miles (182 kilometers).

Boring ride video done for my benefit but feel free to have a look.

I'm not much for country music but a very good friend of mine recently turned me on to an artist from Norway, Kurt Nilsen who sings country. This country music I like...a lot! Click on the link at the beginning of this post if you haven't already to see what I'm referring to. Kurt was a plumber before becoming winner of Idol Norway. He then went on to win World Idol in 2004 beating out competitors from ten other nations including favorite Kelly Clarkson from the US.

Yeah, he's got a gap probably unlike any other you've seen...so what? Listen to him sing!

Bring on Summer!

2011-05-29T20:09:00.005-05:00

It was 19 years ago yesterday that I moved into our home. That sentence sounds a little odd in that the 'I' is not a 'we' but it refers to a time when I was still back in my former life with my former wife. Tammy and Rachel wouldn't come and bless my presence for another 7 years. (There's a whole other life of mine that I've written very little about if at all or for that matter, discussed much and I'm guessing it will probably remain that way)

Our home has seen many transitions over the years with Tammy being the inspiration behind the majority of them. We've still got two large projects waiting in the wings and they'll remain on hold until Rachel's education is paid for.

Mom stopped by Thursday morning to check out our gardens. I had her take my arm and walked her to the backyard much more slowly than she would've made that walk even just one year ago. It's been a difficult year for her but she's a determined woman and not one to sit back and allow her age to keep her down. But one thing is certain; without my brother Tim living with her, her life would be considerably more difficult. I know I'm not alone in feeling very glad and appreciative that he's there for her. Thanks, Tim.

We had a barbecue at our house Thursday night for our small-group from church. It may be the last time we'll get to all be together as Paul and Kate are moving to Montana in a couple weeks. Paul drove his DeLorean. I apologized to the other guys for not taking any pics of their cars. They understood.

We did't get a chance to blow glass this week. Between some troubles at the studio with one of the furnaces and a workshop being put on by Tony Cray, an artist from St. Louis, Missouri we couldn't manage to find a time slot that would work for us. But rather than be without our weekly fix of glassblowing we decided to spend a few hours there Friday observing the workshop from the cheap seats. What he was teaching was well beyond where we're at but it's always helpful to see what can be done. Here's some video I took.

I had to laugh yesterday. I came home from a ride and Tammy told me that Rachel had some friends over and that they loved the glasses we've been making. They were really happy when Tammy told them to take some for themselves. I can't think of a better compliment for where we're at in our early stages of learning this art.

Speaking of my ride. It's been a while since I've had to dodge as many thunderstorms as I did yesterday. I went out with a forecast in hand for only a 10% chance of rain but in the first few miles I found myself questioning that. I was thankful for my Droid and its Weather Channel app which helped me plan a route the best I could to avoid them. But the problem was in how fast they were developing and at one point I had to bailout for the shelter of a convenience store before continuing on. But still, it was nice to be out especially when considering that this is my worst start to a cycling year since 2002. Okay...so I'm not going to be setting any distance records this year. I get that.

Even the pups aren't in the shape they should be for this time of year. We took Toby and Charlie out for a walk yesterday morning with a temp in the mid 60s (Allie is recovering from surgery so she stayed behind) and after a mile Charlie was looking for a lift. He wouldn't budge. I picked him up and carried him for a block before putting him back down. Toby did okay but I could tell that he too was tired so we pulled over and sat with the pups while waiting for Rachel to come get us.

We had a laugh on the way home. I asked Rachel if she remembered the time when she was learning to drive when she asked me if my leg ever got tired when I drove. I can't remember how that conversation from a few years ago went exactly but at some point it became apparent that she wasn't resting her foot on the floor but instead had it elevated so it was totally over the gas pedal. Yeah, I can see how my leg would get tired too. I showed her a better way and it was no doubt a "Doh!" moment for her. Tammy especially enjoyed the story as she'd never heard it.

Thanks for the ride, Rachel and the laugh!

Say it Ain't So

2011-05-22T15:21:00.008-05:00

I was disappointed to see all the press given to the supposed prophet and his ramblings about an impending rapture. Sadly, many will see him as somebody who speaks for Christians everywhere. He doesn't speak for me or any other Christian I know. Hopefully his legacy will be for the goofball he is and not as some seer acting on direct communications from God or a special ability at divining scripture. My niece Melody's post to her Facebook said for me what I believe:

"This "rapture" thing makes me sad:1.Because of the frenzy, you can tell that people are searching for something, and it makes me sad when people don't take the Bible seriously. 2.Tons of money was given to this organization that claimed a lie as the truth. That money could be better spent helping those in need, which is what Jesus made clear to do, until the day He does return."

I did have to laugh at something somebody posted to our union's message board, wondering if the FAA should have a mix of both good and evil people staffing our shifts in case the good ones are taken from us. We'd hate to be left short-staffed.

But still, the guy who organized this is of such a fringe element that it's a wonder he got anywhere near the media attention he did. Hopefully people saw it for what it was and don't look to him as any sort of spokesperson for Christianity.

We managed to get our flower gardens planted this week between rainstorms. It's been a very wet stretch and as I write this we're in the middle of a thunderstorm with a real nasty line of weather approaching from the south. Rachel left for church but turned around when it began to hail and that's my concern at the moment. Hail.

Getting the gardens planted is always a much bigger undertaking than it seems it should be but in the end it's always worth the effort. A typical transformation of one of our flower beds looks like this: phase 1; phase 2 and the finished product. We've got another somewhat large flower bed in front and several other areas in and around some rock islands in the yard where we plant flowers. We do have some perennials but for the most we do annuals.

Here's a nice contrast to look at from a few months ago to now...

Tonight, 60 Minutes is going to have an interview with Tyler Hamilton, a former professional cyclist who raced with Lance Armstrong during his first Tour de France wins in 1999-2001. He'll allege that he observed Lance inject EPO; a claim now made by several from his former inner circle and a claim Lance steadfastly denies. It should be an interesting segment to watch for anybody who follows this sort of thing. My DVR is ready. Here are some links if you missed it; part 1 and part 2.

Lance is fond of saying that he's been the most tested athlete ever and while that's true it's also true that there are proven ways to beat the tests and only those who are careless get caught up in the deceit. That was never Lance. As someone wrote a while back, we're to believe that Lance competed cleanly against a field of juiced racers and he beat them all. That's a tough one to accept.

Cycling isn't alone in its problems with people using performance enhancing drugs. Baseball and football come to mind. But with all the focus being placed on cycling I'm afraid it may one day be marginalized and thrown onto the scrap heap of fake sports such as professional wrestling. Yes, you heard me...pro wrestling is fake!

The Most Ridiculous Wrestling Video You Will Ever See - Watch more Sports

Lots to Find

2011-05-17T21:21:00.007-05:00

I've been a Mac user since last summer. I have no regrets about making the decision to leave my Toshiba laptop and its frustrating slowness behind. However, I have a few PC based programs that I continue to run on my Mac through the use of VMware Fusion. Macs have a program called Bootcamp that allows you to run PC based programs by dedicating a portion your hard-drive for that purpose but the only downside is that the Mac and PC platforms can't be run simultaneously. VMware Fusion fixes all that.

One such program that can't be used on my MacBook Pro without VMware is a lava lamp that I like to have on my desktop. It's soothing as a lava lamp should be but best of all it's very realistic. Here's a link for those of you with PC platform capabilities. Check out this screen-capture. When you get it installed, right click and go to configure to adjust the size and color. I use 3x and random.

Rachel is back home from college for the summer. Tammy and I took both of our vehicles on the 75 mile drive in the rain Saturday afternoon to get her.

We parked in front of her apartment building (see the campus straight ahead in the photo) and were met by several of her friends all carrying armfuls of her stuff for the move home.

From her class of around 100 students, about 20 won't be continuing on in the school next year which they say is typical.

It's been a full year for her as she's been involved in so many things in addition to the basic requirements of school. From Rochester Student Affairs representative where she sits in on faculty meetings, to ballroom dancing and now having recently been elected as a school ambassador, she keeps a very full schedule. A few days ago she posted on her Facebook wall "You know its been a good year when no one wants to leave!"

Click on the photo if you have't already. It's a poster-board drawing Rachel did during the course of the school year using mostly Crayola markers. There's lots to find. Things to look for: Her roommates' names; her room number, 602; flowers which represent Organic Chemistry; Apples which signify Stats; a tree for Psychology; Jenna's frying pan which got burned; a hookah pipe one of the boys had; Thingamajig dolls; their transsexual beta fish, Scooter; mascaraed party masks; Easter eggs; former roommate; Rochester Raptor mascot and a bunch more other stuff, all of it having some meaning and not just a random doodle. I think it's really well done. She said to comment here if you have any questions about anything in particular that you see and are curious about.

On the way out of town we stopped by the house (4 blocks from school) she'll be renting with 4 other girls next year. It won't be as nice as the digs they've been accustomed to during their year in Rochester but they wanted to make the break from the campus and find a place of their own. And it'll be cheaper.

Rachel and I drove together following Tammy. I offered to ride solo and let them chat along the way but Tammy said she was getting into her music and that Rachel could ride with me. There was no argument as I love that sort of time with her. I don't think there was more than a 5 second period of quiet between us the entire way home with so much to catch up on.

We stopped at the DQ in Cannon Falls for dinner and I noticed that Tammy's voice was hoarse. I asked her what was wrong. She smiled and said she'd been singing too loudly on the drive. Neil Young if I'm not mistaken.

Goodbye, Marilyn

2011-05-05T23:18:00.001-05:00

Since my blog is by-and-large a time capsule (that never gets buried) for me to look back on, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the death/killing of Osama bin Laden last Sunday. Tammy said that she doesn't take any satisfaction or glee in his death but that she does find happiness in knowing that he will never do terror again. That's well said. Me? I admit to welcoming the news with an inappropriate Facebook status update which I later removed and replaced with one exclaiming my happiness that sleeping air traffic controllers were no longer going to be front page news, at least for a while.

We lost a dear member of our small-group last Thursday afternoon when Marilyn finally lost her battle with cancer. It's difficult to come to terms with this as she was just at our home maybe a month ago and was always such an active member in our group. She seemed to be holding steady in her fight and for a while appeared to be making progress toward recovery but the last time she was with us she mentioned some new pains she was having. I had the feeling then that she wanted to share with us some dire news from her doctor that she'd alluded to but in her typical fashion she remained very private in her struggle.

Marilyn was reluctant to have visitors but Tammy felt a prompting to go see her the night before she died. Tammy said that Marilyn was having a very difficult time but she managed to smile when Tammy came into the room. They spent a short time together in prayer before saying goodbye. She will be very missed by many.

Rachel's first year of college comes to a close this week with finals. She wasn't sure what to expect going onto a new campus (in its 2nd year) but I had no doubts that she would thrive there, and she has. She was telling me today how they're having a lot of fun establishing their own traditions such as this week when they organized a (hopefully annual) students vs faculty kickball game. They purchased a $200 trophy that will be updated each year to reflect bragging-rights which the students now claim.

She's also been tapped a number of times to be included in photos for some various brochures and campus advertisements. She called me a couple days ago to see if I had a particular UMR brochure handy because she wanted to know what shirt she'd worn in that photo. She was being asked to participate in a billboard advertisement for the school and she didn't want to be photographed twice in the same shirt. Understandable.

I joked with her that it was only her minority status that they were interested in and had nothing to do with her pretty smile.

Tammy and I are both becoming more and more addicted to glassblowing as we progress in our abilities. We have to give special thanks to both Steve and Jackson for expressing an interest in how we're doing and taking time to give us pointers and demos along the way. Their helpfulness means everything to us. Steve showed us a new color application technique this week that has us both excited to go back and work with it some more.

I surprised Tammy with a trip to the Verizon store where we upgraded her Envy to an iPhone 4. She's been feeling a little left out as both Rachel and I have Droid smartphones. When we got them she wasn't interested in anything more than a regular cellphone but after seeing how much use we get from ours she wanted in. I was hoping to have another WordFeud partner and she is to a small degree but she's pretty much stuck on Angry Birds for the most part.

I got out for my first long ride of the season Friday afternoon. 105 miles (169 kilometers) under sunny skies, light winds and temps in the mid to upper 60s. It's been a lousy spring for riding and I could've used a few more miles in my legs before biting off this one but I managed okay. I was ready to pack it in after 80 miles but with 25 miles to go I had no choice but to put my head down and press on as I was also in a race with sundown. I knew it would be close and it was. I lost the race by 2 minutes.

Video from the ride

Amazing Talent

2011-04-29T22:42:00.000-05:00

I don't get it; was the Royal Wedding really that big of a deal? If it was, the importance of it was lost on me, but I can't speak for Tammy. She, like I would guess the vast majority of females on the planet was captivated by it. Even Rachel had a Royal Wedding all-night party at her apartment to watch both the build-up and the ceremony. I suppose I have no room to talk. I watch bicycle racing.

We were in the glassblowing studio both Thursday and Friday this week. I'd like to say that we continued to raise the bar on our abilities but we didn't, at least not that I could tell. We both found ourselves struggling more than anything but through our trials we're finding more and more determination to learn this art. We've all got our talents and I hope that someday I can say that glassblowing is one of mine. Someday. But for now I find it every bit as challenging as learning air traffic control...maybe even more-so. I was mentioning to Tammy last week how I'm glad that this isn't easy. I'm glad it isn't something that can be mastered without a whole lot of time, sweat and mistakes. It will be that much more rewarding when we do finally arrive at a place where we're reasonably proficient. We're nowhere near there yet but we're both determined to get there.

We were watching glassblowing videos on the net tonight and came across this one. The best I've seen so far. Amazing talent...

And speaking of amazing talent, here's another video from Adele...

Easter Sunday, 2011

2011-04-24T14:23:00.020-05:00

We had our final small-group meeting for church last Thursday night. We've been getting together since last fall going through the book of Acts as have been the other small-groups at church. I hadn't realized we'd been meeting for that long. We took a group photo but we're two people shy as Marilyn and Phil couldn't be with us. It's been one of the better small-groups we've been involved with. Tammy led our group and did a nice job developing discussion questions each week along with occasional input from Tom and me.

We'll throw our hat in the ring again next year when they put out the call to organize. It's a nice way to make some more personal connections in a church so large.

Tammy had what I would consider a breakthrough day glassblowing this week. She'd been discouraged because she felt she was stagnating and not keeping up with whatever small successes I was having. I disagreed with her but it was how she felt. Steve worked with us and showed us another method of color application before doing a demonstration for us. Tammy followed Steve and did a really nice job of incorporating many of his suggestions. I couldn't have been happier for her while I took a short video...

We're both excited to get back in the studio on Thursday.

We went over to Mom's Friday night and spent a couple hours with her. Rachel came into town and met us there. Mom made for us the best turkey sandwiches I've had in a long, long time. She had a scare at her hairdresser's a couple days earlier when she was left under the dryer too long. It was very hot and her stylist apologized for forgetting about her. Later when she got home she became very confused and had a difficult time forming a sentence while talking with Tim. She didn't feel right until the next day. For the most part she's maintaining her health from where she was a few months ago. The improvements we were all praying for that would have her out walking regularly again with improved stamina really haven't come about but she seems content so I suppose I have no choice but to be ok with that.

I spent a few hours this weekend drawing a self portrait. I kept putting off sitting down to do it and my reason's weren't entirely for a lack of time. I think I've been stalling because I've been away from drawing for so long that I'm afraid to try again for fear that my new efforts will be lacking. But I did take some time to try. So-far-so-good but I've got several more hours of work to do on it before it's done. It's possible I'll have a scanned image of it for my next blog...maybe. No promises.

We woke up today to a beautiful spring morning. Being it's Easter Sunday it couldn't have been a more appropriate day for spring to show itself again. I hope it's a long time before we face another winter/spring combination like the one we've just come through.

The three of us went to the early service at Hosanna. It was quite a choreography of parking lot attendants as they worked to expedite traffic between the hourly services which began at 8:00. Lakeville police were stationed at each entrance/exit to help. I refer to it as fast-food-church because the service is abbreviated from the norm to accomodate the additional people but it was very well done. They finished the service with cardboard testimonials (similar to these I found online) which are always powerful.

My riding has been so sporadic lately and although I'm feeling a little anxious about that I've been staying active indoors so I haven't been a total sloth. I'm enjoying not being so one dimensional in my workouts for a change. But I did manage to get out yesterday afternoon under overcast skies and a steady northwest wind with temps in the mid 40s for 67 miles. All that was lacking was sun and heat but at least I was dry.

I'm liking very much the new fork, stem and handlebar configuration on my red Serotta.

Video from yesterday's ride.

I'm also still liking very much the music of Adele. My new favorite of hers...

Caught Napping

2011-04-17T21:21:00.007-05:00

Tammy continues her daily watch of the Decorah Eagles. She was concerned for them this past weekend when some nasty weather rolled in. She was continually checking to see how they were managing. I have to laugh. I can't think of anything online that has captivated her more than these little guys have. Well, possibly me when we first met online 12 years ago. (insert smiley face here)

Yes, winter made another appearance this past weekend with a few inches of snow along with some cold, blustery winds. I had to wonder what the pups were thinking when I let them out Saturday morning. I know what I was thinking. I'm sick of this! But, thankfully this time of year any snow we get is usually very short-lived as was this. Tammy and I were on a walk this morning under a bright blue sky with the snow all but gone.

Hosanna is gearing up for between 15,000-18,000 guests this coming Easter weekend. It places a huge demand on the church as well as the main roads which lead there. I went solo to Palm Sunday services last night as Tammy was busy. She went this morning instead but turned back because it was gridlock trying to get into the parking lot. That sounds like a good problem for the church to have.

It's been a while since air traffic controllers have been so prominent in the national news. Unfortunately it's for all the wrong reasons this time. A few have been caught napping. It's one thing to close your eyes while on break; that sort of thing happens all the time and isn't an issue. But falling asleep while on position is a whole other matter and it's happened several times in the last few weeks. I've been doing this job for 29 years and have never heard of sleeping on position being an issue. Why now?

I can't speak for other facilities where these incidents are occurring but my guess is they've been left understaffed by a mass exodus of controllers during the 'imposed work-rule' days of a few years ago where we lacked a contract. Except for that, I don't see anything in the makeup of the job that has changed recently that would account for the increase in the number of instances of controllers asleep while planes circle overhead waiting for clearance to land. Apparently the schedules we've been working are not conducive to being well rested and I get that.

The schedule I work is exactly what they're referring to when they speak of schedules that tax a person's body. Apparently it's called a 'rattler' because it will come back to bite you. I'd never heard it described that way in all my years. I begin my week with two afternoon shifts followed by two day shifts with the last day of the week being a double-shift day where after working the day shift I return again at night to work the all-night shift. It gives me a longer stretch of time off during my weekend and I prefer that. Nobody is forcing me to work these hours; they're what works for me but I do have to be careful to manage my time so I'll be able to sleep when I need to. I really don't consider it a big issue but maybe that's because I've been doing it for so long that I've forgotten how normal people live.

But now it appears we're going to see some changes to our schedules to allow for more time between shifts. I suppose this may help but if a person isn't responsible enough or for whatever reason unable to sleep prior to returning there isn't much that can be done. It's the nature of the beast and what we all signed up for.

My Enemies Are Men Like Me

2011-04-12T22:19:00.008-05:00

I got a book in the mail today. A book that I'd read 30 years ago which opened my eyes about how to better visualize things to be able to draw them.The lasting impression it left on me was how to view negative space and focus on it in order to bring out the positive. I'd never considered that before. It's not available on Amazon for my Kindle so I ordered the hardcopy and it was in today's mail. I've been spending some time tonight reacquainting myself with it. It may take a miracle given the time of year and the beautifully warm weather we're experiencing for me to actually find time to put pencil to sketch pad but I'm sure going to try.

It's Tuesday night so what am I doing here? It seems my posts have either been on Saturday or Sunday nights for so long now that it's unusual for me to color outside those lines. But here I am. And why is that?

Derek Webb.

I was listening to his music tonight while I read. One of his songs really hit me. I'd mentioned him in a recent blog post and I felt it was time to mention him just once more. You see, there was a time when I cheered our military as they waged war on all that we as a nation disagree with. I was a patriotic American. I not only listened to the hate speech of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, I embraced it. I thank God for opening my eyes.

It's late and I have to be up 3:45. There's really not much else for me to say. I'll let Derek to that for me.

Derek Webb, My Enemies Are Men Like Me

I have come to give you life
And to show you how to live it
I have come to make things right
To heal their ears and show you how to forgive them

Because I would rather die
I would rather die
I would rather die
Than to take your life

How can I kill the ones I'm supposed to love
My enemies are men like me
I will protest the sword if it's not wielded well
My enemies are men like me

Peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication
It's like telling someone murder is wrong
And then showing them by way of execution

When justice is bought and sold just like weapons of war
The ones who always pay are the poorest of the poor

Glasses for Rachel and The Catch

2011-04-09T23:39:00.007-05:00

Have you seen the Eagle-cam? Tammy has been watching this a lot over the last few days while she's at work in the office. The eggs were laid in late February and hatched in the last week or so. It's especially fascinating watching them feed. There are a lot of people tuning in.

Just one day at Foci this week for us. I can't recall offhand what or how many of my attempts made it into the annealer but I do know it was a better week for me than last week. We're both feeling more comfortable each day we rent time there and are hoping that our increasing comfort soon allows us to step up our results.

We're still doing glasses for the most part just trying to get those right as no two seem to be the same yet. We've been hesitant to try other things but Steve and Jackson have both given us demos on bowls so we finally gave those a shot on Thursday. We each managed to get one in the annealer.

We were laughing about how Rachel will have quite a collection of glasses for her dorm next year at school. Glasses for Rachel. That's what we're calling this phase of our glassblowing.

I kept my bike stabled this weekend until I got a ton of work done outside. Our Christmas lights were still up and needed to come down. This weekend was the first chance I had to get up on the roof because of all of the snow we'd had. This was easily the longest into the new year it's taken me to get them down.

Speaking of snow...it's nearly all gone. All that's left in our yard is one small patch in front that will probably be no more by morning. Before and after. I don't know that I've ever complained about a winter more than this one. Good riddance!

But with that thought in mind one might think that I would be spending time indoors only when necessary during the coming warm months...not so fast. I was telling Tammy last night that I may be doing less riding this year because I want for us to keep our focus on glassblowing and not allow it to get lost to our other activities like it did last summer. She was fine with that. We've got a fair amount of time and money invested to get us to where we are and I don't want to have to begin anew again. Plus, I'm seriously thinking of getting back into my drawing. I went out the other night and got a bunch of supplies to begin doing some more sketching. We've got a photo of Rachel hanging in our family room that I'd like to draw. The lure of my bikes is awful strong though.

Speaking of riding, I did eventually make it out this afternoon for the Hampton Loop. A 41 mile/66 km ride into a southeast wind in mid 50s temps. I felt so good that even two flats couldn't discourage me. Yes...two of them. I fixed the first one then surprisingly got another just a few miles later. That left no doubt in my mind that my best effort to find the offending debris in the tire on the initial flat came up short. I pulled over and after looking more closely found a white piece of something that looked like glass lodged in the tire. I felt the inside of the tire to see if I could feel it there but I couldn't. I pried it out and was certain it was the culprit. Back on the road I began to wonder if I had my patch kit with me or was it in the saddle bag of my blue Serotta? I was out of spare tubes and I hoped I didn't have to find out. I wouldn't have to.

I picked up the tailwind at county road 46 and made some nice tracks for home managing anywhere from 24-30 mph. It wasn't long before I noticed another rider well ahead of me and the chase was on. It's a game we roadies play. You're either the hunter or the hunted out there. Get used to it. I'm still able to say that I'm much more often the hunter but I expect that will gradually change over the next few years.

I look back in my minds-eye and think of the rides I've done over the years. Wouldn't it be cool to have video from those days to look at now I think to myself. Yeah, it would be. So, with that thought in mind I'm going to be occasionally taking some video of my rides and uploading them to the net to archive them there.

Today's ride.

Did I mention that I'm still hopelessly stuck on Adele? But I'm fine with that.

A Secret No More and Lotsa Curves, You Bet

2011-04-03T16:03:00.007-05:00

The cat is out of the bag at work. I learned about two years ago that the FAA's requirement for mandatory retirement at age 56 doesn't apply to me because of the time I spent working in the Flight Service option back in the early '80s. I have no idea why such a rule would exist but a friend at worked tipped me off to the little known loophole. He respected my wish that he not tell anybody about my situation. My plan has always been to work until forced to retire but with this new option available to me I've been considering staying at least another year to age 57. I thought it would be good fun to show up after my 56th birthday to see what sort of reaction I'd get from the guys I work with. But this past week I had someone come up to me and ask if it was true that I qualified to keep working beyond the mandatory retirement age. I knew it would be futile to try and deny it so I confirmed it for him. I really don't have any idea how much longer I'll hang around but I'm quite sure retirement will be in a window of from two to four years with very little heads-up given from me when I do decide to pull the plug.

I've mentioned here before how terrible a student I was in school, especially high-school. I learned to type there but little else. Seriously. I always gravitated toward the easy grades in art class but that really seemed to be where at least some of my talents were. That all changed when I got to college after the Navy and I actually applied myself but still, I couldn't help but take one drawing class while at Inver Hills. That was nearly 30 years ago. I've been hanging on to the drawings from that course and a few others I did around that time ever since. They've sat tucked away in a closet in our den and even Tammy hadn't ever seen them until this week when I brought them out to look at them. They're all pencil drawings and unfortunately they've faded over the years. I photographed them and did my best to resurrect them in Photoshop. Some rendered better than others.

I think maybe it's time I try and get back to my drawing but not just yet. Biking season is here and I'm pretty much owned by my rides for the foreseeable future. Especially after this past winter. I think I'd like to resume sketching again next winter.

No April Fools jokes from me but as usual Rachel had something up her sleeve. She changed her birthday in he Facebook profile to April 1st then sat back and watched as more than 100 friends wished her a happy one. I used to love how she'd try and come up with something to fool Tammy and I with when she was much younger. From toothpaste on doorknobs to covering the toilet with cellophane to making it so the spray attachment for the kitchen sink would spray one of us when the water was turned on, it was all good fun. I'm glad to see she's still at it.

Tammy and I were on our way into Minneapolis recently when I asked her if she used to watch Petticoat Junction when she was younger. "Sure" she replied. I then asked her if she ever gave much thought to the name of the town, Hooterville. She hadn't. I told her that it dawned on me a couple years ago that the town's name was a little adult humor that went right over our heads at the time. She was certain I was wrong. I said, "think about it...3 busty young women that the show is centered around?" She still disagreed. Then I began to recite the lyrics the best I could from over 40 years ago. When I came to the part about "lotsa curves you bet and even more when you get to the junction" she finally agreed. "Alright already...how come you guys always think like that?" I could only smile. Chalk up another one for me.

In Need of Redemption

2011-03-27T17:25:00.007-05:00

If you've caught much of the news this week you've no doubt heard about the air traffic control supervisor who fell asleep in the control tower at Reagan National Airport in Washington DC. I first learned of it when my cousin Deborah posted this article to my Facebook. I was certain that the article was wrong when they stated that the lone controller involved was a supervisor. Since when do they work a midnight shift on their own I wondered. I've never heard of that. But sure enough, the article had it right. I would not want to be that person. I'm curious to see what sort of broad brush the FAA responds with to ensure that this scenario never repeats itself. Strike that...I don't really mean what I just wrote.

I don't typically watch Fox News very often because to me it's much less about news than it is about propaganda and a right-wing agenda, but I do occasionally check in as I did a couple days ago. The host was talking about the sleeping controller and how in any other field a person with similar responsibility would be fired and not just suspended. He went on to say that the controllers' union was going to try and prevent that from happening. Say what? Natca (our union) has no reason to involve itself in management issues of this sort but I guess the folks at Faux News couldn't resist a chance to discredit labor.

Speaking of the FAA. It was 29 years ago this weekend that my brother Keith drove with me to Oklahoma City in my 1970 Pinto station wagon for a reporting date of March 28th at the academy. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I was wide eyed and anxious to begin. It maybe feels like 15 years ago but certainly not 29. I've returned to the state-of-mind where I'm in no hurry for this phase of my life and my career to be over. A contract can have a way of doing that.

Eight weeks of being off my bike came to an enjoyable end yesterday afternoon as I worked through a 49 mile ride with a temp in the upper 20s. It's been a nice break from my bike but I'm once again looking forward to doing some miles.

I don't know what it is about this time of year but if I'm going to have issues with drivers it typically isn't during the summer; it's much more likely to happen during the colder months. The only thing I can figure is that there are a few angry people out there who feel I should limit my cycling to warmer months. I was riding along this section of county road 47 yesterday when a gray pickup truck traveling in my direction crossed over the white line of the shoulder and threw a drink at me. It startled me because there was no other traffic out there and I was well within the confines of the shoulder. But you know what? I didn't flip him off...not that I could have if I wanted to because of the lobster mitts I was wearing but still, it's been years since I've reacted like that. I waved and wished him a good day all the while wondering how it is a person lives in that state of mind? (shhh...don't tell Tammy)

I need to get back in the glassblowing studio again and make right what I couldn't on Thursday when we were last there. All I can say is that I really sucked when I blew. We'll be back there both Thursday and Friday this week where I'll be looking for a little redemption and I intend to find it.

I still can't get enough of Adele. If I've got to be stuck on somebody I'm fine with it being her.

Run Lena, Run!

2011-03-17T19:25:00.011-05:00

Tammy and I came back from church this morning to the sound of a robin singing in a tree in our front yard. I recognized its song and paused long enough to find the source. It's reassuring to know that this especially long winter is nearly over. Today is officially the first day of spring but it still looks a lot like winter out there.

I never made it out on my bike this week like I figured I would but I'm fine with that. I'll be riding regularly soon enough. I did a tough 30 minutes on our Concept 2 rower Wednesday; maybe a little too tough. I was trying to beat my previous best of 7136 meters but came up 7 meters short. With my heart rate steady between 165-170 for the last 15 minutes it's a punishing machine.

We were back in the studio again on Thursday and Friday. We were both glad to have two days because neither of us was happy with our Thursday effort but that's the way this sort of thing can be. I was talking with a woman there who has been doing this for a long time and she mentioned that she had a particularly difficult day recently where 5 out of 5 attempts ended up in shattered pieces on the floor. I think I learn more from my attempts that end up in the scrap pile than from those that make it successfully to the annealer.

You can find us there again next Thursday.

I've been playing more Scrabble this past month than ever. Between Tammy and our Facebook Scrabble games and a friend from Sweden on WordFeud on my Droid I'm actually beginning to get better but still usually coming out on the losing end. These games probably require more thought than I sometimes have time for but they're a lot of fun.

I got an email request from the folks at Animal Planet this week inquiring if I'd be interested in submitting one of our videos from several years ago for their show:

Animal Planet is interested in your video
To:onekgguy

Hello, my name is David Yourgrau and I work for the Animal Planets television show "America's Cutest Pets". We are currently searching for the cutest animal videos to air on our special. I came across your "Lena Running!" video during my search and absolutely loved it! Do you own the rights to this video?

If so, I wanted to reach out and see if you would be interested in submitting your video and/or any other cute clips you may have for our show. Submitting is easy, and can be done online in just a few minutes. Our show will feature the best videos of dogs and puppies doing the most amazing, hilarious and just plain adorable things.

If interested, please email me at dogsvscats@powcasting.com with the information below:
1. Subject: America's Cutest Pets - Attention Minna & David
2. Your Name, email address and phone number
3. The name of the video(s) with the link(s) below
4. Your dogs name, gender and breed
5. Whether you own the rights to the video

Once I receive your contact information I will reply to your email with instructions on how to upload your video (it takes less than 3 minutes) as well as our Animal Planet Release (which states you own the video and are allowing us to use it).

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email or give me a ring at 617.908.4899. Videos must be submitted by March 28th, 2011.

Thank you for your time. I hope to hear from you soon.

David Yourgrau
Powderhouse Productions & Animal Planet
212 Elm Street Somerville, MA 02144 USA
339-221-0474 cell
dyourgrau@powderhouse.net email

Hmmm...maybe I'll give it a shot.

We went out for dinner at Jensen's with Mom, Keith and Tracee Friday night. It was a really nice time. We were there nearly three hours. Can that be right? Anyway, we were there quite a while and I enjoyed my 2nd ever martini, a Bombay Sapphire with Gin and blue-cheese stuffed olives. I'd order it again but I think I'll need Tracee's help once more. Lots of verbiage I didn't understand but which resulted in a very nice drink. Lots of good food too! Mom was looking so nice.

Rachel came back from her service trip with the University of Minnesota kids. After stops in Indianola, Iowa and Kansas City, Missouri they continued on to Tulsa, Oklahoma where they cleaned a Christian camp. From Tulsa they went to Dallas, Texas and put on a carnival for learning-disabled children. Little Rock, Arkansas was their next stop where they cut out invasive plant life in a park. Their final destination before heading for home was Memphis, Tennesse. She was on the trip with 42 other students for a little over a week and 2600 miles.

The highlight of the trip for her was Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas where a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling forced the integration of public schools and defiant whites tried to deny access to 9 black students in the first public test of the ruling. Rachel said it was emotional to walk the same sidewalk those 9 walked and imagine the hatred they must've felt.

She also saw the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

Tammy and I were trying to think of all the places Rachel has been in the last 5 years. The list is quite impressive for somebody so young. Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Las Vegas, Colorado, twice to Guatemala and now this trip. We'd like to take a trip to Europe when she's out of college and we've got those bills covered but the question we're kicking around is do we take her along with us or will this maybe just be a getaway for Tammy and I knowing Rachel has done her share of traveling? I have a feeling I know what Rachel will say to that. Rachel?

Just Wow!

2011-03-13T17:35:00.013-05:00

It's been over six weeks since I've been on my bike, either indoors or out. I got busy with a bunch of other things of no less importance that had taken a back seat to it for too long. But now I'm all caught up and ready to consider hitting the roads again this week. The break from my riding has been nice but I'm feeling the need.

Rachel came home Thursday night. Just like old times she occupied a place in front of the entertainment center in the basement while Tammy and I sat on the couch and listened to her tell about all that's going on in her life. I miss that. The funniest story was about a dollar party she'd attended. Everyone was required to bring something they could sell for a dollar (at least I think that was the deal). Anyway, she and her friends made jello-shots but without the alcohol. She said most of the kids were too drunk to notice that she and her friends were getting one over on them. Too funny...at least I thought it was.

I drove her to the University of Minnesota campus Friday at noon so she could catch a bus for a trip to Memphis with a bunch of other students. They'll participate in a leadership conference with some volunteer work on the side. They spent Thursday night in Indianola, Iowa where they volunteered at a nursing home. They were in Kansas City, Missouri last night where they worked at a boys' home sorting through donated clothes. She was hoping to take in some sights. I was texting with her earlier today asking her where they were at. She said she had no idea but added "I'm basing it off of the wizard of oz it looks a bit like kansas." "I body surfed on the bus." That's my daughter. They'll be spending tonight in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She's the only one from UMR on the trip and that works well for her. She's all about meeting new people and I admire that.

We were back in the studio Thursday doing our usual footwork...two steps forward, one step back. We continue to make progress and that's all that matters. We'll be there again both Thursday and Friday this week. Our work so far is worthy of the sort of stuff you bring home to your mother but then my work with stained glass began the same way. I'm hopeful we'll be able to one day look back on these days and know that we eventually got beyond them. Regardless...we're having a blast even making these most simplest of forms. We both love the learning part of this and there's plenty of that.

Now that I've got our most recent stained glass project off the table in the shop I'm feeling like I have a lot more time to do whatever I want. I spent a good part of yesterday working on a gift for a friend. I used the same design I did for our entertainment center but changed up the colors.

I had to swing by Target on the way into work today to pick up Adele's new CD. Tammy and I were driving to dinner last night listening to her on Cities 97. Just wow! Tammy wasn't familiar with her but I'd seen her on one of the morning shows recently and immediately liked her. I think I'm on my third listening of her CD as I write this. Good stuff!

3926

2011-03-06T22:10:00.009-06:00

David Baerwald, Why

I have to give a quick mention to my brother Bryan (the oldest of us six siblings) for taking a photo of mine and turning it into something more. He uploaded it to Facebook where I immediately knew I had to have it for my new profile pic both there and here on my blog. A more real depiction of me I don't think exists.

Back to my brother for a moment. I would love to have just a smidgen of his photography knowledge and ability. He's able to find a photo opportunity where most simply can't and he's also very good at enhancing photos to create a work of art beyond what was originally there. Have a look.

Rachel had no problems at all during her exposure to human cadavers at Mayo despite having had a greasy BBQ sandwich just prior to the viewing. She wrote an essay for her class about the experience and gave me the okay to post it here.

The stained glass project for our basement entertainment center is now complete. It was a little over two years ago when I finalized a design after kicking around a few ideas for the better part of a year. I spent most of yesterday putting the finishing touches on the remaining panel and took a few photos of the final phases of the process. A close-up of the detail before soldering; applying patina after it's been soldered to give it a darkened finish; setting in the frame; white plexiglass backing for an even distribution of the backlights; ready to hang; two 20W halogen backlights for each panel; and the completed project!

Here's a short video of them.

I have no idea how many hours I have into these windows (many hundreds for sure) but I do know how many pieces: 3926. I hope we'll be in our home for many more years to enjoy them because I'm quite sure that when we leave there's no way the new owners will be able to appreciate them the way we do.

Tammy and I were in the studio at Foci both Thursday and Friday. If it weren't for Steve and his incredibly helpful guidance I'm not sure where we'd be. He's been a God-send for us. I was telling Steve that a part of me wants to just stick to basics and continue to practice only what we've learned until I've got it down but there's another prompting I have and that's to push the limits of my abilities and learn from whatever mistakes I make while going beyond what we've been taught. Tammy feels the same. Steve offered a good compromise. He suggested using the first couple hours of our studio time to work on the basics and then using our final hour to experiment. I like that. We played around with adding color to our pieces this week. It adds a whole other dimension that I'll write about later. I hope to have some photos of our finished pieces in my next post. We're happy with them for where we're at with our limited experience.

Tammy was perusing glassblowing videos Friday night and came across one filmed at Foci. Foci is where we're taking instruction and being so challenged. I'd settle for half the talent of Michael and Andy someday but even that may be asking too much.

Working to Slow Down

2011-02-27T20:33:00.009-06:00

We got 15" of snow out of last Sunday's storm. This winter is reminding me of how I recall the winters from my youth in the mid '60s. Apparently we're close to setting a record for total winter snowfall. We may as well at this point but once we've reached it I really hope this stops abruptly. I'm past ready. In the 18+ years I've been in our home we've never had snowbanks like this at the bottom of our driveway.

Tammy and I spent Thursday afternoon at Foci working on the glassblowing fundamentals we've learned. We were greeted by Roxanne at the back step as we arrived and fortunately for her we had a bag of sunflower seeds, suet and dried corn-on-the-cob. She's a sweet little girl.

We'll be back in the studio both Thursday and Friday this coming week.

With a family history of chipped and cracked teeth I suppose I should consider myself fortunate to have gone this long without the need for a crown but my luck has finally run out. I was in the dentist's chair last Friday morning for over two and half hours having a back tooth fitted for a temporary crown. The procedure could've gone better. They shot me up with Novocain then let me sit for nearly 45 minutes while the lone dentist worked on an emergency walk-in patient. It gave me plenty of time to mess with my Droid and photo myself in various poses and change my Facebook profile pic. My last ten minutes of the procedure were the ten most difficult minutes I've ever spent in a dentist's chair. It had nothing to do with pain. I simply couldn't lay in that position any longer and wanted out. I've never experienced that.

We're in the book of Acts in our small-group at Hosanna. I've only been in one other small-group and never in one where we took a book from the bible and dissected it as we are with this one. There's simply no comparison between reading scripture on your own and reading it with others while asking questions that delve toward a deeper understanding. Tammy is the lead for our studies for the most part but I'll occasionally step up.

Speaking of dissection, I got a text from Rachel a couple nights ago: "Guess where I'm gonna be next monday". "where" I replied. "Cadaver lab at Mayo :)))". "I'm so excited! It'll be an experience I won't forget." I'm curious to see how it goes for her. I think she said once that a person never knows for sure ahead of time how they'll react to that experience. I think she'll do fine.

When Rachel had her dance recital this past spring with the studio she'd been with for years we assumed it would be the last time we'd watch her dance in that sort of setting. I remember how sad it left Tammy (I was too pumped from the Dads' Dance to be sad...shameless plug). But we were mistaken. Because UMR is such a young campus, they lack the many activities of a more established campus; no team sports or even a campus newspaper, but they do have ballroom dancing. I remember how excited she was to see this article in the StarTribune last year around the time she'd settled on UMR as her choice of college.

This weekend her ballroom dance team competed in the Star of the North DanceSport Classic in Minneapolis. It included dancers from all over the region, as far away as Illinois. Rachel took two 1st place finishes. She and Nick won in the Cha Cha which consisted of three or four separate elimination dances to pair down the field of 23 couples to determine the winners. This was their opening dance from that category. Her other 1st place came from dancing with her group's instructor/leader Jeremy but they were only competing against two other couples. Here's that performance.

It was a long day for everyone with the competition beginning at 8:30 in the morning and not finishing until nearly 11:30 at night. Rachel thoroughly enjoyed herself and although Tammy had to be in the office most of the day she was able to see a few hours of the evening performance.

Here's a link to an album I created on my Vimeo account of the dances I recorded.

I'd really hoped to have our final panel done this weekend but I simply ran out of time with all we had going on. I put in close to 15 hours on it but still came up short. It was one of those weekends where going back to the salt mine today was the only way to slow down. The story of my days off but I don't think I'd change a thing.

On Second Thought

2011-02-20T18:22:00.005-06:00

I was driving into work last Sunday afternoon to begin my week with a much welcomed snow-melt underway. A couple days in the upper 40s during the week made a nice dent in our accumulated snow, so much so that our sump-pumps began running later in the week. But this is Minnesota. We've got a major winter storm bearing down on us with snow totals of 10-16" expected by sometime Monday. Today's drive into work wasn't nearly as nice as last week.

Normally I'd have been out on my bike taking advantage of the mild weather but my focus was on glass for the better part of my weekend. Both blown and stained. Tammy and I had two separate sessions at Foci on Thursday and Friday which helped us a lot in becoming more comfortable about being back in the glassblowing studio again. Steve spent three hours with us on Thursday bringing us back up to speed and helping to rewire in our brains some of the necessary skills to the art. We're so thankful for his interest in seeing us learn.

Steve has been blowing glass for five years and does some beautiful work. We especially like the pet memorials he creates for holding the ashes of cremated pets. Such a great idea.

I spent a fair amount of the rest of my weekend down in the shop continuing work on the 6th of 6 panels for our entertainment center. It's possible I'll have it done next weekend. That would be nice.

Tammy is on the Sunshine committee where she works and is the go-to person when a card needs to be sent to one of the team members. But rather than buy a card, she chooses instead to personalize each one by making them herself. She's getting more creative all the time...

My Valentines Day card from Tammy...photo 1 and photo 2

I'm enjoying my time away from my laptop more and more as I continue to break free from the shackles of the net. I do think the internet is a powerful tool and one that I don't want to be without but I'm finding that for me, less is more. My online time is now down to less than 15 minutes on a typical day. So to anybody who thinks I'm maybe ignoring them on Facebook you'll understand that's not the case at all. I'm simply finding other things to do with my time. My Kindle being one of those 'other things'.

Speaking of which, I just finished reading an excellent book by Nicholas Sparks called Three Weeks With My Brother. It's a nonfiction story about an around-the-world trip he took with his older brother. The trip itself is mostly just a backdrop for him to reminisce and tell of his life. A compelling story of both dysfunction and relationships. It left me with a clearer understanding of just how lacking the relationships within my own family have been; not just myself but each and every one of us.

I remember years ago when Tammy and I bought Derek Webb's album Mockingbird. I was put off by it because for a Christian artist he seemed to not be in support of our efforts in the Middle East. How could a 'good' Christian person not be for war and stuff? I shelved it. I rediscovered it last summer while uploading music to my MacBook.

On second thought, Derek had it right all along.

Derek Webb, King and a Kingdom

who's your brother, who's your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we're all migrating to the place where our father lives
'cause we married in to a family of immigrants

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king and a kingdom

there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think

Rachel!

2011-02-13T15:35:00.018-06:00

Tammy signed us up for AARP memberships a couple years ago. With our membership we get their monthly magazine which occasionally has an interesting piece that catches my eye. I noticed this month's issue sitting on our coffee table earlier in the week with a yellow post-it note marking an article titled Rekindling the Flame, It's true: Sex can get better after the kids move out. The bulk of my reading this week has been on my Kindle so I hadn't taken the time to peruse it but I figured Tammy must've bookmarked it for me to see. Hmmm...I kept meaning to ask her about it.

Mom had to go back to Southdale Fairview for another procedure on her pacemaker/defibrillator Tuesday afternoon. The 3rd lead that attaches to the defibrillator portion of her pacemaker had once again come undone and needed to be reattached. While I sat and waited I occupied my time by reading Dear John (I know...a total chick-flick-book) on my Kindle. What should have been a 45 minute operation lasted nearly 3 hours and was ultimately unsuccessful. Doctor Eskos spoke with me post-op and told me she can get by without the defibrillator but eventually there's going to come a time when her heart will need it and it won't be there for her. I could sense his frustration. He took his time detailing for me on the white-board in a private waiting room all the varying attempts he and his team had made. He said the only other option for her is one that's much more invasive which would require them to collapse one of her lungs and thread the lead over the exterior of the heart rather than through a vein as they've been attempting. Dr Eskos said she could expect a 20% increase in her heart's efficiency with the procedure but at this point she's too weak to be considered for it. Mom is disappointed. She was saying repeatedly before the surgery, "the third time's a charm". Still, she's taking this all in stride and recovering nicely once again.

Tammy and I had a full day on Thursday. We finally got ourselves back to Foci for glassblowing and instruction with Steve. Heavy emphasis on instruction. It had been late last August when we were last there and it showed. Steve was very patient as he walked us through a few pieces before turning us loose to flail away on our own. There are so many things to consider when working with the glass but this much I know for certain: you always need to be thinking 3 steps ahead of what you're currently doing. If I learned nothing else on Thursday I at least learned this.

It felt right to be there and I know without any doubt that this is something I absolutely want to master. Tammy feels the same. We scheduled ourselves for some blocks of hours in the studio over the next two weeks. We're both committed to finally making this more of a priority.

We hurried home from Foci to let the pups out then cleaned up for an evening at Chanhassen Dinner Theater to see Jesus Christ Superstar. What a great show! I commented a couple times how it would've been even better to have Rachel with us as I have no doubt she would've enjoyed it too. Don't go there expecting a terrific meal...it's okay...nothing more. The show made up for what the meal lacked. Tammy had been there once before but it was my first time. We'll most definitely be going back.

When Charlie first came to live with us two years ago we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Within the first five minutes of being with us he'd found Toby and Allie's (mostly Toby's) stash of toys (the 2 minute mark of this video). It hasn't been an easy transition for Toby but he's grown to accept his obnoxious little half-brother; not nearly as quickly as Allie did but he's managing. Toby's playing with Charlie is limited to a match of tug-o-war over one of their toys but it's a start. I had to laugh Friday morning. Tammy was cleaning her office as she got ready to begin her day of work as a telephone triage nurse. She collected all the toys Charlie had brought in there over the previous day; she counted 9 in all. He's a busy guy.

I spent Saturday working on panel 6 of 6 and made considerable progress. I can't think of many more relaxing endeavors I have than spending time down in the shop working on a project. There's a very peaceful component to doing the art that I crave. I hope to have this final piece for our entertainment center completed in the next couple weeks.

But as much as I enjoy working with glass there are several other projects I'd like to work on including some non-stained-glass stuff such as model car building. It's been years since I've built a model car but the closer I get to completing this two year project the more I find myself dreaming of other distractions to fill my time. Those are welcome thoughts.

I snuck (my spellcheck doesn't like that word but I do) away early Saturday morning with Toby to do some errands (it's part of our routine...he loves the one-on-one time with me...or is it the treat he knows he'll get at the Starbucks drive-up window?). I came home from Target with errands completed and walked into the kitchen with a couple bags of groceries. Tammy was making herself a cup of coffee and commented to me about the article I'd bookmarked in the AARP magazine. "I didn't do that...I thought you did" I told her. Grins worked their across both of our faces as we came to the realization who had. Rachel!

32 Year Reunion, Foci and Catching up at Kami

2011-02-05T11:13:00.010-06:00

It occurred to me that I forgot to mention in my last update a reunion I had a week ago last Monday night with a friend from my Navy days aboard the USS Fresno; Mike Milner. I'd just gotten home from work and was online checking out the day's postings on Facebook when I got an instant message from Mike. (I need to pause here for just a moment to say that I can't think of any other resource that comes anywhere near to doing what Facebook does with respect to helping people reestablish connections from their past) Mike was in town on a layover and was at Barnes and Noble at Mall of America, stuck in town because Homeland Security had yanked him from his flight back to the Philippines just as he was boarding...a whole other story that I won't go into here. It was just after 7:00pm and I told him to hang tight and that I'd be there in less than a half hour.

It had been more than 32 years since I'd last seen Mike. He got his discharge papers while we were in the Philippines on our WestPac deployment. He remained in the P.I. several more weeks before heading for the States and home but today the Philippines is his home as he's semi-retired there.

The one odd thing about seeing someone again after so much time is finding out that not much has really changed. You both look about the same (at least to one another) and you sort of pick up where you left off. Mike has much more hair than when I remembered him but that was about it. The smile was still there as was the voice and mannerisms. Sort of like when I recounted reunions with both Paul and Mike. It was a nice few hours we spent together.

Between my truck and my body, life is becoming more expensive the older we both get. I've had a few issues with my truck lately (ball joints, fuel regulator, tires and rear axles totaling well over $2000) that have had me wondering if I maybe should've sold it last year and found something much newer. It'll be 10 years old in a few months but still I suppose it's cheaper than a new vehicle payment, plus I've vowed to keep driving it while Rachel is in college...at least her first 4 years. As for my health I'm in for some dental work in the next few weeks in the form of my first crown. I've been steadily chipping parts off one of my molars and it's time to cap it. We took out dental insurance last year knowing we'd both need it for work we'll soon be having and our year waiting period is now over. Is there any worse shot than that of Novocain?

Tammy and I finally made it back to Foci yesterday afternoon and were greeted by Roxanne as we came up the back steps. We learned that Danielle (she recently moved to the Pacific Northwest) tamed and named her. We'll be bringing her a bunch of treats (sunflower seeds and suet) when we return next week. It's been months since we've been back and that fact had been weighing on me. We sat and watched Steve and Liz do a couple pieces to help remind ourselves of the processes involved. We enjoy watching Steve because he's all about explaining exactly what he's doing and why. So much of the technique behind the art is very subtle and easily missed by novices like us.

We made arrangements with Steve to get together with him later next week for a few hours so he can help get us back up to where we're both comfortable practicing our few skills on our own and continuing our progression.

Rachel came back into town this afternoon and spent time on the couch studying with the pups by her side before catching what looked like a much needed nap. We took her out to dinner to Kami in Apple Valley where we each ordered the all-you-can-eat sushi. It was nice to be able to sit down with her and have her fill us in on school and friends. Her favorite class is Ethics. She's signed up for a spring trip to Memphis as part of a leadership group she's involved with. She was hoping to be the only one from UMR attending but she just learned that a friend of hers will also be going. She wanted to use the trip to meet new people and doesn't want to feel obligated to spend time with her friend rather than mingling. I have no doubt she'll have a ton of new friends when the trip is done.

Speaking of college; we've got one year paid for. How many more remain we're not really sure but we feel blessed to be able to take this burden off her for now.

Today is a stained-glass day to be spent down in the shop making progress on panel 6 of 6 with 107.9 to keep me company and the occasional visits by the pups.

This winter has been one ripe with major snowstorms that have been crippling much of the country including even the southern-most states. it was quite dead at work toward the middle of the week as a snowstorm effectively shut down Chicago, O'hare and much of the east coast causing thousands of flights to be cancelled. Rather than being at work taking advantage of that easy money I was on the DL having had my 2nd colonoscopy in the last 3 years. It looks like I'll be going back again in another 3 years if not sooner thanks to a couple of polyps that are no more.

The snowbank at the bottom of our driveway continues to grow and we've got our snowiest months yet remaining. If I was a kid I can guarantee you that I'd have that mound hollowed out and turned into a killer snow-fort but I'm afraid my tunneling days are a few years behind me.

Dumbfounded and Pop-up Professionals

2011-01-30T16:53:00.014-06:00

Finally! I was able to get outdoors on my bike a couple times over the weekend. Our temperature climbed out of the single digits (and considerably more) long enough to thaw out our frozen, snow covered shoulders giving me ample room to do my thing. It also gave me a chance to get my 1998 red Serotta out on the road after having a bunch of work done to it over the winter. New fork, bars, stem and saddle. I'm very pleased with the upgrades and the help from Adrian at Flanders Bros.

Thursday's route took me south to Castlerock then west toward Webster. There were a few icy patches to negotiate but traffic was light enough that I never had an issue taking the lane when I needed to ensure I had good footing. It was close to 30 degrees for most of the ride. That may seem cool to some but from the perspective of anybody who has endured our winter it's nearly short-sleeve weather. It was a 44 mile day.

I got out again yesterday for 49 miles in 22 degree weather. I'd only planned a 30-something mile ride but as is common I had no good reason not to stay out longer. Tammy was in the office and my stained glass project could wait. Here's some random video from my day.

Speaking of video...I was back at Flanders having a little more work done Friday morning when I had to circle the block before finding a spot to park. I took a one-way street to work my way south before making another attempt to find something in front of the shop when I noticed a couple cars coming toward me going the wrong way. The reason was soon obvious. There was a truck up ahead trying to negotiate an icy driveway and it was blocking the way. I watched for a few seconds before finding myself dumbfounded at what I was seeing. The video speaks for itself. I thought about getting out to help but as I shut off the video to do that another guy came along but they appeared to decline his offer to help. I filmed a few more seconds before putting it in reverse and continuing on. Thinking back I should've gotten out and offered to help if for no other reason than to snap pics of both license plates involved to give to the police so the owner of the car would know what happened. No, my confidence in my fellow man to do the right thing is not so great. I may still go back on Friday and see if I can find the car and follow up.

Mom is going back in for more surgery in the next week or two to re-affix the 3rd lead to her pacemaker/defibrillator which has once again become disconnected. Surprisingly though she's feeling okay for now.

I got a text from Rachel Friday night telling me "My dogs are barking hard core. Wooo!" She's found a group of dancers in Rochester that she's spending time with. This night they were doing the Foxtrot and preparing for an upcoming competition. It's different than any other style of dance she's done so she's finding it fun and challenging. Plus, there are some very talented dancers in the group she says.

She also sent me a text with a picture of a makeshift ping-pong table they've set up in their apartment. "I keep up with the boys" she wrote. I'm not surprised because we used to play a lot together when we had a table of our own before finishing our basement. It was years later before I confessed to her that I used to play her left-handed to make it more fair. Funny thing though (and I told her this too) is that I probably got as equally good left-handed (we played a lot) as I am right-handed, which isn't necessarily saying much. Still, she's got a pretty good game...for a girl.

She's enjoying herself at UMR and we're really happy for her.

I don't suppose I could make this blog entry without making mention of the uprising in Egypt that is grabbing all the attention. I don't know what to make of it nor does it appear that our government has any more of a clue. This is such a precarious world we live in. A short primer on Egypt.

Paul and Kate are part of our small-group at church. We meet every Thursday night (a group of 11 of us) for a few hours. Together they make the most amazing Christmas cards and we're now blessed to be on their list. These are so much better than any other Christmas card you could imagine or that I have ever seen. Life got in the way and they were a little late in getting them out this year but they're very much worth the wait. Here's a short video to show how the card unfolds followed by some closeup photos...

Front view, overhead view, left side, center and right side. Kate is a graphic artist and the calligraphy is her handiwork. I told them that they went through a lot of trouble for something that's going to end up in our trash at week's end. No, I don't think so.

I have a confession to make: we let our pups on the furniture; in fact, they sleep with us. If you come to our home you're likely to notice the smell of our dogs. I really don't know this to be true because if the scent is there I've grown so used to it that I can't tell. We (me anyway) make no apology for that because to us they're family. See what I mean?

American Idols and Saturday Sightseeing

2011-01-23T21:17:00.003-06:00

Today's sermon at Hosanna was about idols in our lives and what sort of things are competing for our attention. It came at a good time for me.

I never thought it would happen but I'm becoming bored with the internet. In the last few weeks I've cut my online time down considerably and I'm seriously liking this trend. Something I wouldn't expect to happen to me in the dead of a Minnesota winter. I still check my email daily in addition to Facebook and a couple forums I participate in but aside from those interests and my weekly blog updates I don't have a whole lot drawing me back. If this trend continues (and I want it to) I'll also be pulling back from the forums which will leave me with just Facebook and my blog as regular stops. My blog will no doubt be the last man standing as I'm growing weary with Facebook as well.

As Tammy and I were walking to our truck at the far end of the parking lot after church we were exchanging thoughts about idols in our lives. I told her of my lack of interest in being online (certainly an idol of mine) and wondered if that was something God had been putting on my heart? She confided in me her main idol but then turned the focus back to me with encouragement for me to keep writing in my blog if nothing else. I'm glad for her support in that pastime of mine because I think 20 years from now I'd regret having given up on this. It's quite possible though that I'll be placing less emphasis on it.

I've been spending some of my extra time in our workout room and am really enjoying the diversion that it provides. I want to get out and ride but the weather and roads haven't been cooperating at all. It's been bitterly cold so much so that the sun is having very little effect on the thin layer of snow along the shoulders. Usually we can get a foot of snow and the shoulders will be fine for riding within a day or two but not this year. Speaking of cold; I left work after the all night shift a couple mornings ago and walked to my car in -27f air. That's seriously cold. Fortunately there was little wind.

I got up early Saturday morning intent on putting in a long effort on my rollers; 50 miles for sure and possibly something much more depending on how I felt. I even had everything set up the night before so I could get the most from my morning. I was on them by 6:02 with 5 water bottles at the ready in case I went real long. And I did. I climbed off after 100 miles and 4 hours and 37 minutes later. I was spent but glad to have finally put some serious extended time on them. Rather than watching Tour de France videos I spent my time watching episodes of Build it Bigger on Science Channel. Fascinating stuff, especially the episode about the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

Tammy was meeting a friend at the capitol in St Paul for the annual March for Life rally which commemorates the 1973 US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. I met up with her later with some friends from our small-group at church. We were touring the James J. Hill House together on Summit Avenue. The sun was getting low in the afternoon sky by the time our tour began and the house was only lit with period lighting minus the gas lamps used back in the day to supplement the undependable supply of electricity making it quite dark for photos. Still, I managed a couple.

It was an interesting tour and one I'd recommend but probably better seen in the summer with better daylight and when you can tour the grounds. From there we went across the street to the St Paul Cathedral to tour it. Tammy was there earlier in the day for a prayer service with 3000 other people. She was telling me how spectacular the stained glass was but by the time we got there the sun had just set leaving little backlighting for photos but still doable.

We finished out the night with dinner at the world famous (isn't it?) Mickey's Diner. I'd been there once before but it'd been 20 years or more. Not a place to go if you're on any sort of weight loss program. The malts and burgers were just as they should be...tasty and filling.

Mickey's only seats 40 but we were all fortunate to find places to sit within minutes of getting in the door and out of the below zero weather. We sat in front of the grill and I never noticed the cook pause for even a few seconds as he kept the orders moving. I've always thought that short-order cooks have all the makings of what's needed to be an air traffic controller but why it is that I can't cook I have no idea.

Who Am I? What Am I?

2011-01-16T21:03:00.012-06:00

Rachel is heading back to college in the morning after having been home for the last month on Christmas break. It doesn't seem like we got to spend much quality time with her. Between our jobs and her being off with friends the time came and went too fast. She's had a busy break from school and I'm sure it's been nice for her but I have a sense that she's ready to go back. Her Facebook status from a few days ago read: "k im bored of lakeville." I think a record number of jigsaw puzzles have been assembled in the short period of time she's been home; 5, maybe more. We did manage to go out to dinner together Friday night at Mongolian Grill.

Tammy was going to drop her off near the Mall of America tomorrow so she could catch an early morning bus for the 75 mile ride back to Rochester but she's going to take her back herself. The drive down will give them some time together and I know Tammy is looking forward to that. Plus, the bus trip with Scooter on her lap would maybe be a bit of a hassle. I wish I was going with them.

Rather than paying ridiculous prices for her books at the bookstore on campus this coming semester we've resorted to buying them online. Rachel's idea. I think we saved $250 by getting them used at half.com, maybe more.

I'm especially concerned about how much our driveway has lifted this winter where it meets the garage. It looks to be easily a half inch higher than either of the previous two winters since having it poured. I know that pretty much all concrete driveways eventually crack but I was hoping to go a few more years without that happening. It must be the more than normal amount of moisture in the ground we had when the hard freeze set in that's to blame. Not that it matters but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Between the snow and the cold this has been a tough winter in the Midwest. The snowbank at the bottom of our driveway is higher than it's ever been. We're due for a January thaw but I'm afraid that's not happening.

It's nice having a heated garage but it comes at a price and I'm not just referring to the additional electricity to heat it. Each morning I have to vacuum up all the water that's melted off our vehicles overnight. Floor drains were against code when I had our home built in 1992. It's more of a problem this year than last year with all the snow we've been getting.

The Farmers' Almanac appears to have nailed it with respect to their forecast for the Midwest with their prediction for cold temps and abundant snow.

Speaking of predictions; when I was much younger I'd occasionally glance at my daily horoscope. I can't recall ever seeing a correlation between the daily readings and my life but I suppose I found something amusing in reading it. One thing I will say though is that the overall description of a Virgo fit me in almost every aspect. Here are a few:

The Virgo man is known for being a perfectionist and is punctual, and expects the same from others. He is also fond of cleanliness and hygiene. He likes to see everything in its right place and keep the surroundings clean.

The Virgo man is blessed with sharp memory and tends to pay close attention to details. You don't have to remind him about birthdays, anniversaries or other important events.

The Virgo man is reliable and dependable in his personal and professional life. He carries out his responsibilities in a perfect way at home and at office. He can be an ideal employee or a good business partner.

The Virgo man has some weaknesses such as he is very critical, fussy and harsh, and often finds faults in others. He is also interfering, inflexible and somewhat conservative in nature.

In a nutshell, the loving and honest Virgo man is perfect for a long lasting relationship, as he can be a devoted and romantic partner, careful father, efficient employee and a loyal, reliable business partner.

But so much for all that because I'm now a Leo and I see nothing in common with the characteristics of a Leo and myself:

If you want to find a Leo, go to the most dazzling places in the town. You will find him there, surrounded by people and playing his role in the limelight beautifully.

There are hardly any introvert Leos, only those who pretend to be introverts.

It is difficult to ignore the lion for too long, he will be the center of attraction sooner or later. The best way to tame him is to flatter him; he will turn into a purring kitten. Praising the intellect will work as much as admiring the appearance will.

When he's partying, he will put the dance floor on fire.

They at least got the last line right!

Junk Food for the Mind

2011-01-09T18:30:00.010-06:00

Until a few years ago I used to listen to a good amount of talk-radio going back to the early '80s. Names like Dick Pomerantz, Bruce Williams, Bob Yates, Michael Jackson and Sally Jessy Raphael were regulars on KSTP 1500's lineup. I enjoyed them all but Bruce Williams' nightly program where he discussed money matters was my favorite. As much as anything, talk-radio was a regular part of my week.

I remember when Rush Limbaugh first came on the air nationally in the summer of '88 and how even though I didn't find his show all that interesting initially, I kept getting drawn back to it. Nobody else was saying the things he was with the exception of maybe Morton Downey Jr on TV although in a much more abrasive way. I'd take Snickers on our daily hour long walk and use that time to get my dose of Rush from the yellow Sony Sports AM/FM/TV/cassette player I'd clip to my waist. I came to question little of what he said and my devotion to his show continued for years. I even remained loyal when he told of his seemingly unexplainable hearing loss and how he was determined to overcome it only to soon find out that his problems stemmed from drug abuse. His denials of illegal activity never squared with his 'man-up and accept responsibility for your actions' message he was fond of preaching but I was willing to give him a pass.

It would be another couple years but I'd eventually open my eyes to another truth other than the one Limbaugh was offering. I'll still occasionally listen to him but it's very seldom now and with a skepticism that gives him no benefit of the doubt.

I was driving home from work last Wednesday afternoon when I tuned into his program to see what sort of divisive talk he was bellowing. John Boehner was in the middle of his acceptance speech after taking control of the House Majority Leader position. It was difficult to focus on what Boehner was saying because Rush was talking over him and interjecting his take on what Boehner's words really meant which were 180 degrees out from my interpretation. I could only wonder why he wouldn't allow his listeners to come to their own conclusions about the man's words and why he felt the need to tell them what to think. But I knew the answer; Boehner's words weren't divisive enough for Rush. I actually swore at my radio in frustration as I listened to him.

In the news today was the tragedy that unfolded in Arizona where a crazed 22 year old shot up a gathering of people attending an open public forum for Congresswoman Giffords, seriously wounding her and killing 6 others including a 9 year old girl. It's a stretch to say that hate-radio or talk-radio pushed this person over the edge because it appears the man has problems enough but it's not a stretch to conclude that the sort of divisive talk many are routinely absorbing through people such as Limbaugh, Hannity and others isn't helping matters in the least. It's also not a stretch to imagine that there are some among us who only need a little prompting to act out in violence.

Free speech is something we as a people put a lot of importance in as we should. But just as you don't yell 'fire!' in a crowded theater neither should it be acceptable to work people up through a constant pounding of the drum of half-truths. If nothing else I would hope we would all be a little more aware of some of the messages we're receiving. I found this clip online to be especially interesting given the person being interviewed...

Maybe it's time we reevaluate what we're feeding our minds, that's all I'm saying.

My breaks from the sector at work give me ample time to read or surf the net. My usual choice is to surf but since getting my Kindle from Tammy for Christmas I'm finding that I'm leaving my computer at home more often than not when I leave for work. It's a nice alternative, not that the option to read a book hasn't always been there, I just like it better in a digital format. I'm not sure what that says about me other than I truly have geek tendencies.

Tammy and I made it out to Lake Harriet yesterday for the annual Winter Kite Festival. The sun was out giving us a beautiful day for photography but that also made it nearly impossible to see the viewing screen on our cameras. I wonder if that had something to do with the glare from the snow? The temp never made it out of the single digits nor did the wind speed which made for challenging kite flying conditions but it was still a nice diversion from a Minnesota winter day. Here's some video I shot with my Panasonic Lumix LX5. I'm quite pleased with the results it's giving me.

Oh, and Savoy's Pizza in Minneapolis is some pretty good stuff!

2011 Has Arrived

2011-01-02T19:05:00.012-06:00

2010 was a big year for us with Rachel graduating from high-school and going off to college. Our lives didn't change much if any but I know we could all sense the passing of a phase of our lives. But more than anything it's been an exciting time. One thing I'm especially grateful for in all of this is the technology that allows us to be just a text message away.

We've taken over her dance floor in the basement and officially turned it into our workout room. I moved our treadmill into it from out of the glass shop which helped to open that space up for me to better move around in. Charlie will have to find something else to stand on from which to taunt Toby and Allie. When I first got the treadmill I was still a runner but these days it's only being used for walking. My running days have been over for a while. That was something that took me a long time to come to grips with. I used to have dreams where I'd be running and they were the best dreams but they always left me a little saddened when I'd awake to realize that they were only that.

My outdoor biking came to a snowy and abrupt halt November 18th with my last outdoor ride. I expected to get out more before the end of the year but I lost my motivation and never looked too hard to find it. I closed out the year with 6759 miles on the road and another 1128 on my rollers. I'm pleased with those numbers. Typically the last several years have found me doing a considerable amount of outdoor winter riding and I hope to resume that soon enough but for now I'm content in our basement on my rollers.

Mom continues to make steady progress. She's driving again and has more energy than she's had in months. One month ago I didn't have much hope that she would make it to see the new year. I couldn't be happier for her. Tammy's mother is in town for the next week and I brought her over to visit a few days ago.

We're (air traffic controllers) still waiting to see if we'll be exempt from President Obama's order to freeze federal wages for 2 years. Initially it was thought that because we have a CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement as do US Postal workers who are exempt) that our raises would stand but I have yet to see anything definitive on it. Considering that we recently absorbed a 3 year pay freeze when no other federal workers did I would think that would be reason enough to give us a pass this go-around.

Rachel spent part of her week up north at her dad's. She came back with the cutest video on her cellphone of her sister Amy who is soon-to-be 4 years old.

Here are the lyrics to what I believe she's singing:

Grandpa's Turkey

There's a big fat turkey on Grandpa's farm
Who thinks he's really grand.
He spreads his tail into a great big fan,
And he struts around all day.
gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble
He'll sing his song another way
Upon Thanksgiving Day!

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I fell asleep before midnight New Years Eve. But so did Tammy so I suppose that makes it okay. Between my sickness last week and coming off Prednisone my energy levels have been at a low ebb for a couple weeks. I'm more than ready to reclaim my normal again.

Every New Years Day members of Minnesota Kite Society gather just down the road at North Park to do what they do; fly kites. I either forget to go watch them or I don't notice they're out there until I'm on my way to work but this year I made a point to mark my calendar and be there. I don't think I could've picked a more lousy year to finally have a look. A frigid temp of 5f and 25+ mph winds kept all but the most die-hard of their group at home. Still, it was interesting to watch. They'll be at Lake Harriet in South Minneapolis next Saturday where there's certain to be dozens of kites to photograph. Tammy is coming with me.

We had Tammy's family over New Years Day for a late Christmas celebration. Her mother nearly stayed home in Babbitt fearing that the virus which had taken over our home last weekend may still be lingering. Tammy did a full disinfect of our home and gave the all-clear. The hit of the night was a game Rachel brought home that she's been playing at UMR with friends called Quelf. Watch the video below for Tammy's interpretation of a rapping prison guard who has no lips and whose knees are super-glued together.

2011 has arrived.

Christmas 2010 and Oh, What a Little Cutie

2010-12-27T13:58:00.016-06:00

I ventured out in my truck this morning and picked up our Sunday paper at the bottom of our driveway on the way out. Today is Monday. I never made it beyond our living room couch yesterday. I awoke out of a sound sleep at 2:00 Sunday morning to an awful, nauseous feeling. Rather than waiting to see if it would quietly go away I quickly made my way to the bathroom and stood bent over the toilet for just a moment before my insides exploded. I spent the rest of the morning until after 7:00 repeating the above at least hourly. I'll spare you all the details. The rest of my day was spent curled up on the couch with our pups.

I was concerned for my mom because she was exposed to the bug as well while at our home Christmas Eve. Our littlest visitor that night had just gotten over the illness (or so we thought) and he must've infected many of us. Tammy tried to get a hold of Mom but her phone was off the hook. I texted Tim and he confirmed that she was sick in bed. Rachel texted us from her dad's home in the early afternoon to say that she too was sick. Keith and Tracee? They're sick as well as is Kelsey, Cole, Dustin and Clayton. Ah yes, the sort of thing memories are made of.

I'm better now but opted to stay away from work one more day just in case I'm still contagious. Madden appeared fine too when Keith and Tracee brought him over so I'd rather not chance exposing others to this.

Speaking of Christmas Eve; we hosted it at our home again this year. Tammy didn't find out until a little over a week ago that her hours had been changed to a later shift, 1:30 to 10:00 PM, so she had to miss out on most of the night but did manage to join in on her breaks.

Tim dropped Mom off at our home and Rachel and I brought her to Hosanna with us where we met Erin, Clayton and Anja. Hosanna once again had camels, a donkey, a llama and other assorted animals on stage to try as best they can to bring the manger scene to life. They do a good job but not everybody thinks it's necessary. Mom and Rachel could do without it and I can't say I disagree with them. I made a comment to Rachel after the service that I really love our church but she countered with the thought that they put too much emphasis on the materialistic side. She caught me a little off guard with that. She used the billboard off 35W as an example. Why the emphasis on live animals to draw people to the church and not a living savior? She has a point. I'm not afraid to admit that sometimes she causes me to pause and reevaluate things. Sort of like when I have a trainee at work who shows me a different or better way of doing something, usually computer entry related. It happens. When they start showing me how to better handle traffic then I'll know for sure it's time to retire.

I'll let the video and pictures I took from Christmas Eve tell the story of the night.

Santa (Tammy) was very good to me this year. After hijacking Tammy's Kindle a few weeks ago to read a book I'd downloaded to it I got hooked and thought I'd like to have one of my own. Santa must've read my mind. My camera was an early Christmas gift so I could get familiar with it before Christmas Eve. I've spent several hours going through the tutorial and I'm still not finished but I've got a good idea of what I'm doing.

This December is going down as one of the snowiest on record for the Twin Cities. If we keep getting snow at anywhere near the rate we've been I'm not sure where they'll put it. The snowbanks at many intersections are already dangerous because they're so high causing you to have to nose your car out into the lane to see traffic.

I'm slowly working my way back to normal after coming off the prednisone more than a week ago. My workouts have been lacking any sort of kick to them but that's expected. I mostly just go through the motions knowing that my adrenal gland is most likely still in a state of dormancy having been put there by the drug. I have a theory that staying active as I do causes it to spring back to life sooner but some days I have to wonder as I'm left pretty whipped by the end of the day and lack the energy levels I'm used to. I can still sense that I'm more irritable than normal and that's probably the thing I dislike the most.

Tammy and I watched Gremlins a few nights ago. I remember seeing it at the theater in Huron, SD when it was out but as I watched it with Tammy there was nothing in the show that I could recall. It was like I was seeing it for the first time. That's how I often am with movies unless they really do something for me; movies like Breaking Away. I can recite numerous lines from that film. We watched one other movie this week that I won't soon forget; Hachi: A Dog's Tale. The preview of the movie gives too much away so don't read it. Just rent it and be amazed. It's a true story. I had a lump in my throat the size of a tennis ball at one point in the show but then I'm a dog lover who believes God gives us these incredible creatures to teach even the most hard-hearted people about love.

I've seen a few bloggers making a list of their top ten posts from the past year. In looking back at mine I'd be hard-pressed to find ten that really stand out. I did finish a series of writings about my time in the Navy that I found a lot of satisfaction in both recalling and writing about. I began the series a couple years ago but didn't finish it until last fall so I suppose it qualifies for 2010. There are 14 posts in total. Follow the prompts at the end of each to find the next one. Here's the first...1975 Revisited.

Thanks for your interest in my blog and best wishes to you all in 2011!

A Social Network Christmas

2010-12-18T22:33:00.014-06:00

One of the white squirrels (as of last winter we had two) that frequents our feeders met an untimely death this past week. He got tangled up in the cornstalk feeder we have on the side of our house by the bird feeders. I was sad to discover his lifeless, frozen body tangled in the metal tines of the feeder knowing he suffered a difficult death. He was a nice addition to the wildlife we have in the area and I'll miss him.

I was standing in line at Michaels Wednesday afternoon waiting to pay for a picture frame and matting that's to be part of a Christmas gift for my mom. While waiting I spied some containers of gummy candies at the end of the register and agreed with my inner voice that I needed to bring a couple of those home with me to have for a Christmas Eve gathering at our home. I'd no sooner had that thought when I took notice of the woman finishing paying and walking toward the door. Is that Luan I wondered? I couldn't see her very well as I'd just caught the side of her face as she turned toward the door. I called her name, "Luan!" She turned and her face lit up when she saw it was me. She walked back and we stood there attempting to catch up on too many years as the cashier rang up my order. We continued our conversation outside.

Luan and Jim were my neighbors where I previously lived. They're really good people; salt of the earth type. Yearly Christmas cards don't do justice to a friendship like theirs but that's all it's been since I moved away. Jim was diagnosed with MS a few years after I left and life for him has become a struggle as his is an aggressive form of the disease. I exchanged phone numbers with Luan with a promise to give Jim a call and get together.

It wasn't until I was stuck in gridlocked traffic trying to get on to county road 42 that I realized I'd forgotten to add the gummy candies to my stuff at the register.

I made good yesterday on my promise to call Jim and spent a couple hours in the afternoon at their townhome in Burnsville getting caught up on 18 years. I had to laugh at one point. I learned some things about my former wife/life that I never knew and at the time they were reluctant to say anything to me. Maybe it was just as well.

On the way home I stopped at Starbucks to grab a couple coffees. Tammy was in the office and I always enjoy surprising her with one. I pulled up to the drive-thru window and got a surprise of my own. Tracee was handling the register and had been on the other end of the speaker when I placed my order for a grande-dark-roast and venti-decaf-skinny-carmel-latte. I took the opportunity to try out my new camera.

Yes, I've outgrown my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 for an upgraded Lumix LX5. I don't think I could be happier with this little gem of a powerhouse. My other camera was poor in low light shots and I decided to not let another Christmas Eve or family get-together fall victim to it.

I've spent a few hours this week going over the settings and menus trying to get familiar with it so I can make the most of its ability but I've got a considerable amount more to learn. I knew a real test for it would be our stained glass lamps so I took a bunch of bracketed photos of them last night and was very pleased with the results. Excuse me for getting a little carried away with the Wisteria lamp. It takes nice video too with the ability to zoom while in video capture mode. That's not something most cameras offer. Not having that ability would've been a deal-breaker for me.

Tammy and I made it out to Southdale Wednesday night. I can't remember the last time I was there. I'd heard there were a lot of vacancies but that's not true; there were some. I wouldn't say the mall was bustling with people but it appeared to be holding its own. Steve Casperson and I used to ride our bikes there when we were all of 8 years old back in 1965. We were neighbors for less than a year when my parents rented a home on 66th street and Lakeshore Drive. The mall has held up well over the years and I was glad to see that.

My shopping is done and everything is wrapped that can be with the exception of what has yet to make it to our front door from Amazon.

I came across this on Facebook today and thought I'd share it here: A Social Network Christmas. I really like this...

Hunkered Down

2010-12-12T23:07:00.027-06:00

I'd taken my red Serotta (what's up with the Hugh Jazz seat bag?) in to Flanders Bros in Minneapolis several weeks ago for some upgrades. Adrian called Wednesday afternoon to tell me it was ready. I combined my trip to pick it up with a stop at J Ring Studios in St Paul for some stained glass supplies. I left my failing Mavic Ksyrium rim at the shop to be sent back across the Atlantic to be rebuilt. Rather than investing $1000+ in a new set of wheels it makes more sense for me to have the one repaired for a few hundred. I'll be good-to-go for several more seasons with it.

It's been over 2 weeks since I've ridden and I'm getting that need again but the break has been nice. I've been able to focus a whole bunch of time on other stuff, namely stained glass. More on that toward the end of this entry.

Friday morning I went back to the lighted tree on Cedar Avenue in Bloomington to get some video and daylight shots of it. I wanted to capture it with a blue sky background and it would be my only chance for a couple days with a menacing storm approaching for later that night. The owner was a real nice guy who encouraged me to take whatever photos and video I wanted. If you're not familiar with it here's some video of the 100 year oak when it's lighted.

And here's a shameless plug for the Facebook page I started for it. Like it!

Tammy and I headed out to Mall of America Friday night to kick around for a few hours. I know it's not cool to admit this but I absolutely love that place especially in the winter with the Christmas decorations suspended throughout the mall. It's a nice diversion to have so close by (15 minutes) in the dead of winter. Even on the worst shopping days of the year you never get a sense that it's crowded.

On the drive to the mall we got a pic/text from Rachel saying she was outdoors watching Elf at Peace Plaza in downtown Rochester with friends. They had some fire cans/heaters of some sort set up for warmth. After the movie she was "on my way to a social dance to practice my ballroom!" She's not one to hang around and watch the world pass by.

We got to the mall and hit Starbucks for a couple coffees then cruised the levels before stopping for dinner at Noodles and Company. Macaroni and Cheese with Meatballs...does it get any better?

We got home just before the snow started falling. It wouldn't stop until later the next evening and would go on record as the 8th largest snowfall for the Twin Cities. We hunkered down with the comfort of knowing we had nowhere to be for the duration of the storm. Between a few ventures out to snowblow the driveway and shovel the walk I hung out down in the shop working on stained glass.

The metro area ended up with 15-21 inches of snow and a collapsed Hubert Humphrey Dome. Our snowbank at the bottom of the driveway is already all of 5 feet high and looks to be easily on its way to surpassing last year's record snowbank height. I take pride in the neatness of my snowbanks and so should you.

Some random outdoor video during various stages of the storm.

I spent most of last week working on the 5th of 6 panels over our entertainment center in the basement. I'm never a good judge of how many hours of labor I have left in a project because I'm much more optimistic than I should be. I think with this project in particular it's important to be precise and because of that I find it's a slower process than I plan for. Anyway, I finally had it ready to solder late this morning and spent most of the afternoon putting the finishing touches on it and getting it hung. We're very happy with how these are turning out. One more to go.

Here's a short video that does a better job of showing how they look together than my camera can capture.

But seriously...it's time to get back to Foci before we forget everything we've learned.

Socialism Today or There's Enough For Everybody

2010-12-07T23:30:00.051-06:00

The pacemaker replacement surgery last Friday for mom was only partially successful. A third lead from the pacemaker that winds its way through and around her heart to more fully involve the whole heart had to be disconnected as it was coming in contact with a nerve causing her diaphragm to spasm. She was disappointed because without the third lead (something her other pacemaker didn't have) her condition wasn't much different than before surgery. Tired all the time. They told her it would be 7-10 days before they could see her again to attempt to fix the problem. We didn't have to wait that long.

Tracee called me yesterday morning to see if I'd talked to Mom yet today. I hadn't. She said she sounded extremely tired on the phone and that she was going to put in a call to her doctor to see if she could get her seen asap. Mom is always one to minimize her need to be seen and not one to want to be fussed over so the chance that she was going to take the initiative to make the necessary calls was slim. After some back and forth between Mom and her doctor's staff it was worked out that I could take her in late this morning for an early afternoon procedure to replace the bad lead.

It all went well. The doctor told me he replaced the lead with a longer one that allowed him to more fully route it away from the nerve that was causing the problem. He was hopeful that this would make a marked difference in her condition.

My disappointment with Obama is growing but not because he's too liberal. He appears too ready to give in to Republican demands. Clearly he capitulated to Republican hawks who have a fantasy that we can actually win in Afghanistan when he escalated our efforts there. I'd love nothing more than to be able to make that country a better place for those who live there but the sort of change they need isn't going to happen because we forced it on them; not with their history. If stability ever is achieved there and I have no illusions that it will be, it certainly won't last without our continued presence. At some point we have to recognize that whatever small successes we're experiencing there are being outweighed by the expense. How many more lives and how much more money before we admit that? Are we at war with al Qaeda still or is our focus the Taliban because it seems we went in there for one reason but now we're there for another. I'm confused. Is Osama bin Laden even alive still?

The most recent way in which Obama let me (and you) down was yesterday when he gave in to Republican demands to extend Bush's tax cuts for another two years, even for the top earners. There's simply no way for us to add to the massive amount of debt we already have but we are. I could see a much stronger case being made for extending unemployment benefits than I can for tax breaks for the wealthiest of us all but now we've added both to our list of things we'll put on the next generation to figure out.

I'm usually an optimistic person who doesn't let these sort of worries occupy much of my time because there's nothing I can do about them. Lately I find myself wondering more than a little if we're headed for financial ruin as a country? I can't see how we're not.

I posted a video yesterday to my Facebook page which sparked a lot of discussion...

People are quick to dismiss Bernie Sanders as an out of touch socialist. If that's what he is then you can label me one as well. The views I was offering in the dialog that followed (click on the image to the right) were not views I was looking to legislate but rather, idealistic thoughts about what we need to do to strengthen our middle class, without which there can be no economic recovery.

A coworker friend had all the Republican talking points down. He was quick to point out that Bernie was only playing the class warfare card and looking to redistribute wealth. He of course mentioned that you don't go after corporations, the 'golden goose', with higher taxes because you'll only stifle their production and ability to create jobs. I get that but what about Exxon? (as mentioned toward the end of the video)

The point I was trying to make is that the divide between the haves and the have-nots gets wider every year and to have the vast majority of our country's wealth in the hands of so few can't be a good thing. When a corporation rewards a CEO with a multi-million dollar severance package for driving his/her company into the ground at the expense of the company's labor force we have a real fundamental problem. When did we begin to reward such incompetence while at the same time showing such great disregard to the real people who are at the heart of a company; its workers?

For me this entire discussion came down to greed and that's not something easily legislated away. My coworker is all for a company doing whatever it must to keep their operation running as efficiently as possible and that the labor required to make that happen is something to be discarded when no longer needed. That was my impression anyway and to a certain extent he's right. But I think what we're seeing more and more today is a lot of people sacrificing themselves for a few at the top who are tightening their hold on the masses a little more with each passing year. I don't like that trend.

We're no longer our brothers' keeper and that's not a mindset you can force on anybody, certainly no more than forcing peace on those unwilling in the Middle East. It's something we either collectively do of our own free will or we get crushed under the weight of our capitalist greed. Look around.

The idealistic me says take care of one another and the rest will sort itself out. There's enough to go around for everybody.

Say a Prayer

2010-12-02T14:18:00.003-06:00

Mom has surgery tomorrow morning to replace her pacemaker with a pacemaker/defibrillator combination. The last time I wrote about this I'd said that her doctor didn't feel her heart was strong enough for this procedure but he's decided to go forward with it anyway. I don't want to look at this as being a last-ditch effort to resuscitate her life but considering how weak her heart is what else can it be? The surgery is a risk, there's no question of that. The doctor was very clear with her when he told her they lose people in her condition on the operating table. Still, it's about quality of life and should this turn out successfully she'll have a return to her old self; the indefatigable, independent older woman in her green '97 Ford Escort wagon running around town and occasionally jumping on the freeway to blend with 70mph traffic.

I want her back to her old self as do we all.

One thing that has caused me to pause and take notice is her attitude. I admire the way she's facing up to all of this, putting one foot in front of the other in an effort to improve her quality of life while taking the ultimate risk in the process and understanding that if it's not meant to be then that's fine as well. She's a Christian woman with a strong faith; one who has no doubt about where she's headed when her time here is done and it shows. All too often we Christians are more aligned with the 'everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die' crowd. Earthly survival is at the core of our DNA.

Say a prayer for her if you'e so inclined.

Tammy is heading for Rochester this afternoon to spend the evening with Rachel. It's part of a surprise birthday gift from Rachel to her mom. She doesn't know it yet but Rachel has tickets for the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker at the Mayo Civic Center. As I mentioned in my previous post, Rachel has a love of the Nutcracker and dance. This will be a great show for them both.

They're also getting together with the head of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries at UMR for dinner at their home. Tammy had talked with Rick on the phone over a year ago and he mentioned then that he was looking to being an outreach to UMR as there was nothing in place yet. I can't even remember how Tammy got Rick's name but we quickly lost touch with him after Tammy's computer crashed and she lost his contact info. Anyway, early in the school year Rachel and Elsa went to an Assemblies of God church in Rochester and connected with their youth group. Through the youth group Rachel was connected with Rick once again. We're going to shift some of our support from our home church to help support their ministry. It's been very easy to see God's hand in bring this all together.

Speaking of my previous post; I retooled it just a little. I'd meant to mention that Tammy and I took a detour on the way home from Black Friday shopping at the Mall of America to see the lighted tree along Cedar Avenue overlooking the Minnesota River. There's an interesting link to a StarTribune newspaper article to check out.

Obama has stated that he intends to freeze federal workers' pay for the next two years. I don't necessarily have a problem with that as they should be doing that and more. I'm a federal employee but considering my pay had already been frozen 3 of the last 4 years by FAA management there's talk that we air traffic controllers won't be caught up in this proposal. Our dispute was resolved in arbitration and I'm hopeful that our contract will work to set us apart from the workforce at large much the same way the postal service is. It's really the only fair approach considering we are the only government entity (13,000 of us out of 1.8 million federal workers) who've already had their pay frozen.

I've been down in the shop the last few days making some nice progress on panel 5 of 6 for our entertainment center. It would be nice to wrap this one up this weekend if I'm able to and get busy on the final one. I knew these were going to be labor intensive when I began doing them and I'm fine with that, it's the sort of work I prefer but I'm ready to do other stuff; possibly another lamp. These have been a couple winters in the making.

I've been in a Gordon Lightfoot music listening mood lately. I think I'll queue him up and get busy.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

2010-11-28T18:23:00.020-06:00

Rachel rolled into town Tuesday night after classes ahead of what was looking to be some nasty weather for Wednesday that never materialized. She and her roommates along with some friends had their own Thanksgiving dinner at their place before saying goodbye for the long weekend. She was excited to be home because many of her friends were also going to be in town and it would be the first time they'd be back together since leaving for college. Plus, she was going to be able to see Amy, her 4 year old sister. Amy thinks the world of Rachel and it must seem like ages to a little kid that age to be apart for even a couple months.

"Rachel...look at me when I'm talking to you!" Hmm...Rachel is pretty sure she knows where she got that from. Too funny.

I've been hearing for years about Keith's deep-fried turkey and finally got a chance to experience it this Thanksgiving. I was told that it's not greasy and I had no reason to doubt it but still I had to try it for myself. It's very good. Besides not being greasy, it's cooked in a fraction of the time it would've taken in an oven.

Tracee and Keith did their usual great job of hosting. Thanks, guys.

We spent some time before and after dinner Thursday putting up Christmas decorations. It was nice to have Rachel home for that as it's become a fun tradition that we all do together and I wasn't ready to let go of that after she left for college. Have I ever mentioned that we're a bit nuts for nutcrackers? Tammy started a collection for Rachel years ago and she adds at least a couple to it each year. I manage the Dept 56 village scene. Maybe it goes back to me always wanting to have a big toy train set as a kid and knowing this is the closest I'll get to that dream.

We had our own Thanksgiving celebration the following day with just the three of us. Tammy baked the turkey in a brine solution after a friend raved about her results doing this. We too were quite pleased with how it turned out and no, it wasn't salty at all.

Usually (I say 'usually' because we missed 2009) each year we do a family photo for our Christmas cards with one of us coming up with a theme for the pic rather than just a plain ordinary photo. More recently we did our Wii characters for 2008 and our last pre-Charlie year had all of us in our glasses for 2007. This year it's a 'snuggie' year. I think maybe snuggies are a bit 2009 but it's the best we've got and once we committed to the idea Tammy went through the effort to make all but Rachel's on her own.

They're toasty!

Tammy and I ventured out to the Mall of America Black Friday night. I love the mall, especially at Christmas. I'm strange that way. On the way back home we detoured to check out the lighted tree west of Cedar Ave just north of the river. It's covered in an awesome display of lights. There were a few other cars pulled over in front of the house doing what we were, getting a better look.

There's an article from a couple years ago in the StarTribune that tells the story of the tree owners who put the display together and at what cost. Here's a link.

I've created a Facebook page for the tree. Feel free to 'like' it. Glowing Tree in Bloomington

And here's a little bit of video I took.

I started putting out feed once again on the side of our house for the birds and squirrels. They're back but not in the numbers we had last year due to the deforestation I had done last spring.

I'm off work for a couple weeks while I've got some meds coursing through me. I hope to indulge myself in a bunch of stained glass work during that time.

Be well. I hope to be.