Say What?

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 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 ...

We finally made it back to Foci last Thursday after more than three weeks away. We did alright on 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 two 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 Alzheimer's descends upon a marriage. I'm not much of a...

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 proceeded to kill nearly 3000 innocent people and help bring our economy to a grinding halt. 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 com...

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 our home that are out on the horizon in addition to Rachel's col...

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 Flickr where I'm uploading photos of our work and sequencing them in order from newest to oldest so we'll b...

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 of years of that experience, I would have my eyes opened wide. My metamorphosis away from conservatism is detailed in my blog for those curiou...

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 through the area but then I began to wonder because 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 of 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 away and no, I'm not referring to 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 fo...