Say What?

Some of the music in my iTunes library was missing artwork so the Virgo in me got busy and found the missing images. I feel better now. Rachel and I celebrated birthdays last week—her 25th and my 59th! Tammy and I met Rachel and her friends at a bar in Rochester before going out with them to Jenpachi Japanese Steak House. We all sat in a semicircle around a grill and were dazzled by our chef as he tossed bowls full of rice behind his back and up over his head with flames shooting 3 feet in the air above the grill while adding knives and other tools of the trade to the items he was juggling. It was impressive! A bottle of saki worked its way around our table and added to the fun. Best of all, Rachel really enjoyed herself. She has some good friends! We made it to the State Fair on Friday and walked 11 miles around the fairgrounds. Still, that's nowhere near our record of 14 miles from a couple years ago. It was nice to make it back after not being able to go last year. And I...

Tammy got us tickets to see Jonny James and the Hall of Fames, a Led Zeppelin tribute band playing at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre last Friday night. We had a rocking nice time. Led Zeppelin has been one of Tammy's favorite rock bands since her high school days so I was happy to make a date-night of it with her even though I'd have rather seen a Supertramp tribute band. Just kidding—no, actually, I'm serious if you really wanna know. I've been getting out for some nice rides on my road bike and pushing myself more than I have in a while thanks to my Garmin 820 that I mentioned briefly in a previous post. There's so much gee-whiz stuff associated with this piece of technology that I'm still trying to get my head around it all. It's even got crash detection. If the unit is slammed hard so that it abruptly stops its forward movement, it will send a text message to Tammy (via BlueTooth connection with my LG G4) to tell her I'm in trouble. I don't honestly...

The plan for this morning is to get on my Shaman and head for the trails at Murphy but my legs are saying "not yet, please". Instead, I'll sit on the deck with the sounds of trash hauling trucks working the neighborhood and a woodpecker relentlessly trying to achieve its goal a few backyards away. A lone hummingbird darts into view and catches my eye to momentarily drink from a feeder before speeding away. There's both a low overcast keeping the sun at bay and a light breeze working in my favor. The only thing in need of my attention will be our deck plants that require daily watering but they can wait a little longer. As I mentioned before, Tammy and I have found a new church home at Family of Christ in Lakeville. She had the women from their book club over last night to discuss their most recent read:  Two Old Women . The church appeals to us both but my concern is mostly for Tammy because a church family is so important to her. She had that too at Hosanna but she...

I posted to Facebook last night before going to bed: "I think I need a vacation from my retirement. Is that possible?". I can't seem to get enough of a good thing and find myself as active as I'd ever imagined I could be in retirement. Each night when my head hits the pillow I'm exhausted and pretty much nod off within minutes if not seconds. I recall having thoughts of getting a kayak or a stand-up paddleboard not that long ago but as much as I'd like to, I don't see how I could fit those activities into my routine. I'd have to cut back on my golfing, biking or walking and I'd rather not. It's a nice problem to have. We finally made it down to Rochester to meet up with Rachel to take in the sights, sounds, and tastes of Thursdays on First and 3rd . The weather could've been nicer (it was drizzling) but we still enjoyed our time together. Tammy and I celebrated 17 years of marriage a few days ago. We like to tell others that we're p...

The oldest in our family, my brother Bryan, flew into town a week ago to attend a Celebration of Life gathering we had for Tim last Saturday. We're always happy to have Bryan stay with us although all we had to offer him (during one of the hottest weeks of the summer with a temp at one point in triple digits) was an overly warm upstairs bedroom. We reached 100º f (38º c) on Friday. The get-together to honor Tim was somewhat of a washout. The heaviest rains of the year descended on the cities just as we were set to begin. Most of the family made it but only a few of his friends did. It was understandable considering the weather. Still, it was nice to be with family and reconnect. One of Tim's friends from his AA group made it out and he told us how Tim was instrumental in helping him see how his actions were negatively affecting those around him. He stressed how Tim had helped him and others see their lives from a different perspective. We all listened intently as he spoke. ...

I received a package in the mail last week from Lifetime Fitness and more specifically, the folks that head up the Lutsen 99er/69er mountain bike race that I competed in a few weeks ago. Inside the package was a trophy for my 3rd place overall finish in the fat-bike division. What a nice surprise! I can't recall ever receiving a trophy before and neither was that a thing on my bucket list but I'll take it! So, the Republican National Convention is in full swing in Cleveland, Ohio and I gotta say, I've never seen a group of people more steeped in fear and lacking in any sort of uplifting vision whatsoever. It's disturbing to watch. If I take to heart what I'm hearing, I should think twice about ever venturing away from home again out of concern for never returning because a jihadist or an illegal immigrant will end my life. I thought we're the "home of the brave"? What happened to that? What has me most bewildered is the seemingly misplaced, over-th...

There was a killing in St Paul last week of a black man, Philando Castile ; he was in his mid-30s. His death came on the heels of the killing of another black man, Alton Sterling , also in his mid-30s in Baton Rouge. Both lives were taken as the result of shots fired by police. If you watched them, those are difficult videos to get through and not something I'd normally share here but as disturbing as they are to see, it's even more disturbing to realize that they happened at all. In the case of Alton Sterling—the body cameras worn by the police somehow fell off and couldn't record their actions. How convenient for them and really, what are the odds of that happening? Thankfully there was another video to help tell Alton's story. I don't want to look back at my writings years from now and find that I was silent on this issue of excessive police force if that's in fact what the videos show. Law enforcement officers have a difficult and dangerous job to do and...