A Flood of Things to Write About

I participated in the first annual Madden Memorial Golf Tournament at Southern Hills last Monday. Madden, my niece's son and my brother's grandson had just turned 13 when he died suddenly while riding his bike a little over a year ago. The tournament was a success in every regard, and thousands of dollars were raised for scholarships to be awarded to graduating high school students in honor of Madden. I've golfed in my share of golf tournaments, but this one stands out as the best—by far!

I mentioned in a previous post that I would make an effort this year (for once) to keep the deer and rabbits from devouring our flowers. I've been using a product called Liquid Fence, which I spray on our flowers weekly or after a hard rain as a deterrent. So far, so good. Spraying our flowers after each rain has been made more difficult this year by the abundant rainfall we've been getting, but that's not a complaint. I'm okay with the rain, but it's been a problem for many areas prone to flooding. 

Much of Minnesota has been contending with rivers overflowing their banks as storm systems have been marching through with high frequency, dumping copious amounts of rain. I've yet to charge our underground sprinkler this year as there's been no need for it. I'll see how long I can go without it. All of the foliage throughout our yard is so lush.

I've never been one for rap music, but for some reason, a video by the rapper Harry Mack recently showed up in my Instagram feed, and rather than scrolling past it, I gave it a listen. Wow! This guy is amazing! My friend Patrick suggested I check out his performance for the New York Yankees from a few months ago. Notice the way he has people give him words to use in his rhymes, but not only that, he recalls both the words and the person who suggested the word. Color me impressed! My Instagram algorithm definitely got this one right!

I finally joined a gym: Planet Fitness. I noticed an ad for their $10 monthly fee (it's since gone up to $15, but still an excellent value) and decided to tour the facility. At that price, I wasn't expecting it to be so well-appointed. It has all I'll need, and then some, to work on strengthening my weak core. I plan to work it into my exercise regimen every other day once my body has become accustomed to the new stresses I'm putting on it. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I imagined I would. 

A few miles from home, a man houses homing pigeons off a gravel road I often ride. I'm intrigued by them, so yesterday, when I was out riding, I saw him tending to his birds and stopped to chat with him about them. He has a business called Wings of Love, where he releases his birds at weddings and funerals for dramatic effect at a cost of between $200 and $600, depending on how many birds are used. He said he did 65 releases a few years ago, and that was a lot. He used to race them at distances between 100 and 1000 miles (161 to 1610 km), but he no longer does that. He said he plans to continue releasing them at events for the next five years and then retire. 

I've scheduled my knee replacement surgery for late November—that was part of the reason I joined a gym—so I could pre-hab my knee and get it as strong as possible before surgery. I've been working with some physical therapists who stressed the importance of my knee's strength before my November date with my surgeon at Twin Cities Orthopedics.

What a disappointing debate performance by both presidential candidates last Thursday night. Biden looked every bit of his 81-year-old age and struggled at times to collect his thoughts, missing numerous opportunities to hit Trump hard on his past statements and lies. For his part, Trump lied the entire time, but that's what we all expected, right? It's what he does. It's all he does. 

There's talk of replacing Biden at the top of the ticket, but I doubt he'll step aside. I'm incredibly thankful for all Biden has done to get our country back on firm footing. Still, I'm disappointed that he feels he's the only one who can defeat Trump—a twice-impeached, civilly adjudicated rapist and felon who is facing a boatload of felony indictments for which the U.S. Supreme Court is shielding him, but that's a whole other blog post. 

I rode down to the Minnesota River this morning to check out the flooding. It's extensive and quite a sight. It'll be a while before the river trails are usable again—for now, kayakers are enjoying them. The river crested yesterday, but there's more rain in the forecast, so it's anyone's guess how it plays out over the next week or more. 

Additional reading.

Come along on a ride with me.

That's all I've got.