Say What?

Because of our ongoing main floor remodel project I've been relegated to mostly hanging out in our garage and trying to stay out of the way of those doing the work. In a spontaneous moment this past Wednesday,  I packed up my car and headed for Huron, South Dakota to do some golfing and riding. NPR, Neil Young, and Gordon Lightfoot kept me company along the way. I used to live in Huron in the early to mid-'80s when I worked for the FAA there at the Flight Service Station. I don't get to revisit the city often enough. No visit to Huron is complete (for me anyway) without a stop at the Prime Time Tavern for dinner and a margarita. And so I did before going back to my room and getting my things set out for the next day. I got up early Thursday morning intent on riding 50 to 60 miles. I was on the road by 6:43 and heading north out of town, fueled by the decent complimentary spread put out by the staff at the Crossroads Hotel where I was staying. The temperature would qui...

Sue and Bryan came into town last week. They had been in Nebraska where Sue's side of the family had a reunion. It was nice that they took the time to go out of their way to spend a few nights in Minnesota so we could visit with them as well. I met them in Northfield at Keith and Tracee's Tuesday night. We had dinner and drinks at Fielder's Choice. It was such a nice time. I would like to have hosted them here but that wasn't going to happen with our remodeling project in full swing—plus, Bryan commented that they were fine with staying in hotels along the way. He doesn't think they'll be back this way again for a long while so it's up to Tammy and I to make the trek to Portland, Oregon if we're going to get together. I look forward to doing that at some point. We're overdue for a road-trip. Our remodeling project continues to move along at a steady pace. Joe was working on removing baseboards. He's replacing our 2 3/4" oak trim with 5...

Last week was one of the busiest weeks I've had in a while. A good friend offered to run the necessary wiring for our main floor remodel and much of it required us to be up in the attic spaces pulling wires through to the electrical panel in the garage on the other end of the house. Neither of us realized how laborious a job this would be and I feel bad for taking Steve up on his offer to help. He didn't bail on me and for that, I'm grateful and thankful. There were some key decisions to be made along the way with respect to the placement of lights and for the most part I've got one chance to get them right. I think what we've got will work but it won't be until the project comes together more fully that I'll know for sure. Tammy will be in Babbitt with the pups  (Dublin got to ride up front) for another couple weeks while construction continues. This is definitely not the home I'm used to. There are no wagging tales as I come in through the back d...

My former supervisor Otto Pluntz used to say that with respect to sick-leave usage, the lack of a pattern was itself a pattern. I think the same could be said of what used to be my normal routine. I no longer have one and that has become my new routine. We're getting ready for a bunch of dominos to fall in our main level remodel project and Tammy and I are doing our best to stay ahead of the tasks we need to accomplish. Normal routines have been put on hold for the next 6 weeks or more.  Keith and Jason were here Tuesday morning to remove our kitchen cabinets. Keith has a friend who wanted them for his basement and garage so I gave up my parking space in the garage for a couple nights until Emmett could pick them up. We're happy to know they'll have a fate better than a landfill . Our kitchen is mostly useless now so we're sorta camping inside, eating off paper plates with plastic utensils. I'm not complaining but I do miss my routine—and our kitchen sink. W...

Tammy and I went to the Edina Art Fair last Friday morning. The closest parking we could find was a few blocks away and on our walk to the fair we met a man walking an older dog, a Lhasa Apso named Lily. Lily was moving a little slowly. We stopped and chatted with her owner and he commented that Lily is 20 years old. Wow! We were both stunned to learn a dog could live that long.  Lily doesn't hear much anymore and her vision is lacking some; just like Toby, and like Toby, she enjoys her daily walks. On our drive home from the fair Tammy looked online and found that the oldest living dogs live nearly 30 years . I wouldn't have guessed that. We're gearing up for a remodeling of the main level of our home and busting out of this oak look that was so common back in the day. We've been busy emptying the contents of our cabinets and cupboards and storing it all downstairs, or in some cases, giving it the heave-ho. I didn't realize we had so much stuff! Tammy was in ov...

I'm whipped! I went out for a ride tonight (a 20-mile loop to the trails at Murphy) and my legs were dead. I'm terrible at taking a day off and just putting my feet up to get the rest I need. I suppose that's why I welcome rainy days. I'll typically either ride or walk or golf each day but not a combination of those. I've not been so good about limiting my activity lately, and oftentimes I'm finding myself riding in the morning and golfing in the afternoon. I'd planned to volunteer for a few hours tomorrow morning working on the new mountain bike trails in Lakeville but I think I may take a pass. There's a chance I'll be golfing in the afternoon and I need some downtime. I'm not complaining. I signed up for this when I retired. I just didn't know it would be so much work! I'm enjoying my time on the golf course as much as ever and while I'll still play a pitiful round of golf some days, I can see where I'm making noticeable im...

It's a breezy morning out on the deck but I'm mostly shielded from the west wind. Toby is chilling next to me. We've been getting in some nice walks with Charlie lately. We managed a total of 5.7 miles (9 km)  one day recently (split up between two separate walks). That's a lot for a boy of nearly 14 years but he moves right along and sets the pace for us. I received the results of my 23andMe DNA analysis. I'm half Finn! No surprise there, and also no surprise was the finding that I share 13.4% of my DNA with Emily in Montreal, Canada, which puts us at the higher end of 1st cousin/niece range. (There's a backstory to what I'm writing about and it can be found here .) Emily and I share 1001 cM of our DNA. If you enlarge the chart to the right (Thanks, Emily, for more fully sussing out these details.) you'll see that we again fall into the upper range for a half-niece relationship. Unless our findings are some sort of freakish occurrence I'd say th...