Say What?

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...

I was driving to work last Sunday afternoon to begin my week with a much-welcomed snow-melt underway. A couple of 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 of the art. We're so thankful for his interest in seei...

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 l...

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 P...

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 of 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 on...

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 some 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 of 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 l...

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 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...