Say What?

Over the past several months I've become somewhat preoccupied with thoughts of how fast my life is passing by. It's kind of disturbing. Weeks, months, and years fly by like I'm in some sort of time warp. I think in terms now of how many more years of mobility I have left to live the active lifestyle I enjoy. It's not something I take for granted. Do I have 15 more years? 20? Maybe 25, tops? All I know for certain is that whatever amount of time remains in this active phase of my life, it's going to pass much too quickly. Now, more than ever, I have a difficult time sitting still for very long and watching my remaining time here slip away at a pace that saddens me. I've got at least a dozen books I'd like to read but I tell myself there will be plenty of time for reading in my next phase of life. We've been enjoying a mild winter in the Minneapolis area. I wouldn't mind some snow and cooler temps to make for decent trail riding. The temp inside our ...

If this mild weather continues, we may be back to a snowless landscape by the end of the week. I prefer the look of snow rather than the browns of the alternative during the winter months but I'm content either way. Not having to muck out the garage floor from the snow melting off our vehicles is a bonus. I took advantage of today's warm temps (40º f / 4.4º c) to put on my walking shoes and do my Orchard Lake loop . It's an 8.7-mile loop that I do in around 2 hours—a little longer if I'm stopping to take photos. It felt nice to have the sun on my face. I saw this little guy  working his way across the sidewalk and it had me wondering, what do caterpillars do during the harsh winter months? I looked online and came up with this: "They find a protected place to rest and enter a type of hibernation called diapause, where their body functions decrease and their growth pauses until they wake. Many wrap themselves in leaves or other organic matter, holding it in place ...

It was two years ago today that Allie left us. That was such a sad time. Toby (Allie's littermate) is coming up on 15 years 4 months. His hearing is mostly gone and his vision is very limited but he seems content. I know his time with us is short. He's reluctant to go walking in the colder temps but when I last had him out about 10 days ago with Charlie, he led us in a run most of the last tenth of a mile home. It's been nearly a year since we've done the Fleet Farm loop (as I refer to it) on our walks and I'm fairly certain he'll never do it again. It was a favorite walk of Toby's because the roads that took us by Fleet Farm added an extra mile to our walk. I always let Toby lead us and I would smile when he'd tug at his leash to take us across Jonquil Trail in the direction of the roads that would take us by Fleet Farm. He knew exactly what he was doing. He would come home, drink his fill from his water bowl then splay out on the wood floor, panting wi...

My blog has fallen in priority as I've been spending most of my time down in my shop working on stained glass projects. One would think that making an entry in a blog would be a quick 30-minute exercise but it's not. At least not for me—not usually, anyway. But here I am, determined to make an entry of some sort for future reference. I began a rather large stained glass project for Bryan and Sue last spring after we'd returned from visiting them  in Oregon. They had a decades-old, wood-framed stained glass panel hanging in the sidelight of their front entry which has a few cracked pieces of glass. I offered to remake the window, figuring it would be just as easy to simply redo the entire panel rather than repairing it. They told me it wasn't necessary to copy the existing panel and to feel free to do whatever my heart desired for the space. And so I did. I came up with plans for a 3-part panel but I didn't share the design with them, wanting it to be a surpris...

My day usually begins anywhere from 5:30 to 7:00 when Toby wakes up and lets me know it's time. His most effective method for waking me is a fake sneeze that sounds like the real deal, but I know it's not. We head downstairs and I let the pups out, standing with them in the front yard while they do their business. The occasional coyote or fox is enough of a threat that I don't like to leave them unattended. We go inside and I turn on the gas fireplace in the sunporch to take the chill out of the air so it's toasty warm when Tammy comes down a half-hour later. The pups prance at my feet while I fix their main meal of the day. I reach over and flip on the TV to Morning Joe to get a recap of the previous day's happenings. I like my news shows to offer a variety of opinions from people across the political spectrum, and Morning Joe does that. During commercial breaks, I'll switch to some of the other competing morning shows to see what they're discussing. Two ...

Today would've been Mom's 90th birthday. She died a few years ago, just shy of her 87th birthday, and on the same day that I retired—9/3/15. For years, she was so certain that each birthday, Christmas or Mother's Day, etc. would be her last. I would try and assure her that she still had many years left to live but of course, she'd eventually be right. She never found love again after my father died in 1995. I asked her about it once and I got the feeling that she felt a sense of loyalty to him and didn't want to betray their bond. She was only 66 and would live another 20 years, alone. I never mentioned it again to her. Here's thinking of you, Mom. I think I may be done with organized religion. I won't speak for Tammy. We joined a church in Lakeville two years ago but I've lost my desire to continue on as I question more than ever the faith I've been practicing ever since I can remember. I'm a spiritual person who believes in a higher power ...

In keeping with my strange obsession with tracking meaningless stuff, I'm up to 50 bags of leaves this year. That's important to know because once I get to 59 (the most I've ever filled), I'm pretty much home free when it comes to yard work, and I could use a break. I typically mow/vacuum up leaves once, maybe twice a week but I was out there 5 times in the last 7 days! I've never done that. It gets a bit overwhelming if I wait too long so I sorta like this new approach. With the exception of some major trimming of trees in our yard, I've done all of the landscaping work myself over the years, until now. I hired a guy to remove 3 Japanese Yews in front of our home rather than do the work myself. They'd become overgrown  from 26 years of growth in spite of my best efforts to keep them trimmed. I was reading online where they're a real pain to remove because of their root structure and I just didn't want the hassle, not with all of the other yard wo...

The plan was to spend the day in the yard but a steady snowfall through the morning and into the afternoon kept me indoors. I was in need of a lazy day so I was happy to comply. Tammy and I went to see Aussie Pink Floyd at The State Theater in Minneapolis Friday night. They're an Australian band who play Pink Floyd covers. Pink Floyd has been a favorite for as long as I can remember and their lead guitarist, David Gilmour, is one of the coolest guys in rock. I wasn't sure what to expect when we sat in our seats. The guy next to me said he'd seen them before and that we should expect an awesome show. He wasn't fooling. He also said the band has been performing together for about 30 years and that they were actually hired by David Gilmour to play at his 50th birthday celebration. What a fun night! Here are some snippets of video I took of a few of the songs they played. There was so much more. As we were leaving the theater we were greeted by some buskers drummi...

It's dusk as I sit down to write this, and it's usually around this time that I can look out at our hummingbird feeders and see at least one little flyer feeding at them before darting for the safety of the dense foliage between the neighboring homes. But not tonight. It appears they've all made the trip south. The last sighting I had of one was last Saturday morning. Safe travels, my little friends! My niece Erin and her daughter Anja went to see an astronomy/stargazing class last week put on by Mike Lynch, a meteorologist for WCCO radio. It's something I've been meaning to do for the longest time but hadn't, until last Thursday night. (Thanks, Erin, for the prompt.) Our family lived two doors down from Mike and his family  in 1965 when I was 8 years old. I'd long since lost touch with Mike, Don, and Steve so it was nice to arrive a little early before Mike's presentation to talk with him. Through Mike, I was able to reconnect with Don. Don and I ...

I was sitting with the pups and my laptop this morning in our sunporch when something in my periphery caught my attention. I hadn't seen a hummingbird at our feeders in more than two days so I assumed they'd all begun their 2-week trip south to more hospitable weather. I was wrong. It's October 1st and we've still got at least one hearty soul staying put. I quickly changed out the nectar in their feeders for one last time. I think. Tammy and I spent all of Thursday watching the testimony of Dr. Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She claims he sexually assaulted her 36 years ago and that her claim needs to be heard before he's granted a lifetime appointment to our nation's highest court. It was riveting television but it was also exhausting. I was left with a helpless feeling that Kavanaugh's confirmation is pretty much a sure thing. Democrats simply don't have the votes to stop it, and it's doubtful that th...

It's the 25th of September and we still have hummingbirds at our feeders. I think they're juvenile offspring from the adults that returned in early May. I've read where the adults fly south in early September while the juveniles will stay around a little longer. I usually use a mixture of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water in our feeders but as of a few weeks ago (based on a recommendation I read online), I've been adding just a touch more sugar as a high octane mixture to fuel their flight south. Each day they remain seems like a bonus day especially considering how much cooler our nights have become in the past week since a cold front and an associated line of severe weather came through leaving in its wake a lot of storm damage a half-hour south of us. The squall line  spawned several tornados in addition to straight-line winds ahead of it and wreaked havoc on Northfield and nearby communities. Keith and Tracee lost several trees while many other trees on their property...

I'm sitting on the deck overlooking our backyard, enjoying the cooler temps and lack of bugs while Mandolin Orange provides background music. Charlie is keeping me company . I'm not sure it gets any nicer for deck sitting than this. To be inside right now wouldn't seem right, and no, I don't do this enough. Autumn is here and it won't be over until I've filled 60 compost bags (in addition to what gets taken away in both of our yard waste receptacles). Our leaves are still green for now but not for long. I thought I was maybe done with longish rides for the year after the Dawn to Dusk ride a little more than a week ago, but I was wrong. I decided to ride the Jesse James 💯 in Northfield last Saturday. What a fun ride! My plan was to accompany some friends on the ride at a more leisurely pace than I typically ride at but our little-peloton-that-could sorta fell apart after 20-some miles. I latched on to a fairly fast group as they passed us and hoped my legs w...

I've had a fascination with endurance sports for at least the last 30 years. I used to love to watch ABC's  Race Across America  coverage back in the '80s, making sure my VCR was set well in advance to record it. I'd sit in front of my TV and marvel at the determination of the competitors. Sure, it was as much an act of sleep deprivation on wheels as it was a race but it captured my imagination, and I admired those who put themselves in the arena to compete. The annual Ironman Triathlon coverage in Hawaii was another favorite of mine to watch. I, on the other hand, would have to be content in my personal life to make do with an occasional marathon and longish efforts on my bike. Over the past few years, I've moved away from the long rides I once loved, leaving me to wonder if I'd ever find the zest for them again. Walking 18 holes of golf was fun but hardly a replacement for the endurance athlete within me and neither were the hours spent on my fat-bike. I see...

Tammy took me out to see our first game at Target Field for my birthday last Saturday night. Neither of us follows baseball and I could only name one player on the Twins but we were there for the experience more than anything. The Twins lost but that didn't matter. We enjoyed ourselves and both commented that we'd like to do it again. We even drank beer and munched on salted peanuts the way real fans do. I golfed in the annual retirees Red Eye Memorial golf tournament on Tuesday. There were off and on rain showers the first 2 hours of the tournament but the rain let up by the time we made the turn. It's always a fun time, especially the gathering at a local pub in town where we get a chance to catch up with one another afterward. There were two older men in our foursome, Archie and Roger, age 84 and 87 respectively, and I was so impressed by them. I would not have guessed their ages based on their golf swings. They both said that staying active is the key. They didn'...

I'm sitting out on the deck with the pups, listening to Augustana while a hummingbird chirps its dissatisfaction at my presence. The cool evening air feels nice. If I never see another 90º day again in my life that's fine with me. Our city, Lakeville, has contracted with a company to get its residents a discounted price on the preventative treatment of our ash trees for the Emerald Ash Borer. It's a daunting little bug that will destroy any ash trees in its path if the trees aren't treated with a chemical. We had 2 of our 3 ash trees treated last week at a cost of around $120 each for a 2-year application. Because it stands on the boulevard, the remaining tree will hopefully be treated by the city next spring, or so they say. I'm a little late to the party but I finally signed up for Nextdoor , the neighborhood social media site where people can post about events in their neighborhood; lost animals; items for sale; reckless drivers, and whatnot. I'm not sur...

We made it to the Dakota County Fair last Thursday to continue our tradition of watching the demolition derby . Maybe it's because Rachel couldn't be there with us, or maybe the derby didn't quite live up to our expectations but it was sort of a letdown this year. We left after 3 heats. I was talking with a neighbor who was also there with her daughter that night and they too were disappointed, leaving the same time we did. We kicked around the fair for a while after exiting the derby grandstands, taking in some of the exhibits and getting our fill of fair food. It's our warm-up to the State Fair! I mentioned to Tammy how Tim used to love coming to this local fair. I was plotting out a course on my laptop last week for a bike ride the next day when I received an Etsy notification that one of my large stained glass panels had sold. A notification that should've caused a feeling of elation, caused instead my heart to sink a little because I was sorta hoping none of...