Say What?

I attended my first ever protest last week in front of the Burnsville office of 2nd district Congressman Jason Lewis to draw attention to his reluctance to hold a town hall meeting with his constituents so people can voice their concerns and yes, vent some anger. Between protesting Wells Fargo's support of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the pipeline itself, and the Woman's March in January, Tammy has been walking the walk and showing up at these protests with her signs, not content to only voice her concerns on social media and leave it at that. She's been activated. I went along with her to get a feel for what's happening at the grassroots level. I see more of this in my future as well. We also attended a meeting at a friend's home last week to view 13th , a documentary on Netflix about the history of mass incarceration of African Americans in the US. The documentary delves into post Civil War racist legislation that in effect kept many African Americans from truly...

I've pretty much given up hope for getting back on my fat-bike for the rest of the snow season due to the amount of ice on the trails. I can't recall a winter anything like this in the 5 years I've been trail riding. I'm disappointed because I had hoped for getting in lots of snowy miles this winter but such is life. All is not lost though because I'm actually getting in some excellent workouts on my CompuTrainer and enjoying the thrashing I receive on it more than ever now that I'm using the online program Zwift. It's both fun and effective at improving my performance. Check this out—this is from a recent ride I did. The video looks a little sparse of riders but there were actually about one thousand others on the course with me. Typically, there's never any lack of other riders to try and keep up with or ride off your wheel if that's what you're looking for, and I do enjoy that. There are also some structured "workout mode" f...

For a few weeks after Trump's* election, I'd have fleeting moments where it felt like I was about to wake up from a disturbing dream and all would be well—he wouldn't actually be poised to be our next president. Whew! What a relief! We really dodged a bullet there! But I'm still here and this really bad dream continues. It's one thing for me to grasp that Trump* is our president and that many of you voted for him but it's a whole other thing to come to terms with so many among us who are still not flinching or voicing any reservations about his opening foreign policy blunder with his ban on Muslims immigrating to the U.S. and in particular his ban on refugees. I can't get my head around that and I won't even try because to do that would be to admit that there could be a valid reason to the hyped-up fear that so many are too willing to accept. John Fugelsang said it best in the meme to the left. When I think about Syrian refugees I try and imagine t...

It's been difficult to tune out the news of the first 5 days of Trump's* Presidency, mostly because it's concerning to me and so many others the way in which it feels like we're watching the early stages of a dictator, drunk on power and cheered on by his minions who have sold their souls for a U.S. Supreme Court justice to champion their narrow view of the world. That's how I see it. It did not matter what the man said or did along the way to his coronation and I worry that the initial assaults on our basic institutions of government will matter none to these same supporters. We've already seen a muzzling of governmental departments and a gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency. This is especially worrying when you consider Trump's* and republicans' intent on abolishing regulations wherever they can. This is a vast overreach we're witnessing and although I'd like to think I'm not surprised by it, I am. This won't be good for the...

Charles "Chic" Williams passed away last Sunday of a heart attack. Chic was a retired controller/supervisor at Minneapolis Center and although our careers overlapped by many years I never really knew Chic while we worked together. Our workplace could be like that. He friended me on Facebook a while back and I've enjoyed getting to know him in the years since. Chic was only 70. Recently Chic had been posting videos on Facebook of a tame little squirrel he'd befriended when his dogs took off after it in his yard one morning when he let them out. I had been asking him about the settings he was using on his video uploads because I was trying to share them with another friend who had also recently rescued a baby squirrel. Chic preferred to talk so he surprised me with a call instead and we chatted for a half-hour. Chic said the squirrel ran for cover in a fern plant in his backyard after the altercation with his dogs and he went to see if it was okay. As he got up next...

Rachel has been doing some travel in her position as an admissions representative for the University of Minnesota at their Rochester campus. She visits high schools to meet face to face with students to make them aware of UMR's program and to generate interest in it. Typically, her stops are within a few hours of Rochester and they will often include overnight stays but last weekend found her in Tempe, Arizona where she was attending a CIVSA seminar. She enjoys the travel, especially when it takes her to much warmer climes in the dead of winter. Our Spectrum Cable bill is well over $200 per month and we're not even getting any premium channels. Part of what's driving it is the cost of renting the boxes that serve each television. We currently rent 6 boxes, down from 8. I think we can get by with 6 sets. I know—embarrassing. There are few other options for us other than Spectrum. I've heard such horrible things about Comcast's support that I won't even conside...

My shins are sore from all of the walking I've been doing (64 miles in the past week) as I continue to compete in the weekly Garmin step challenges. I've been doing most of my walks at either Mall of America or on our treadmill but yesterday and today I walked outside. The bike paths and sidewalks are very icy in spots so I was often walking on the shoulder of the road where there was better footing. Heavy rains more than a week ago followed by freezing temps left the mountain bike trails a ribbon of ice and unless you have studded tires, which I don't, the trails are unrideable. It hasn't been a good winter for studless fat-biking and I don't expect to be on mine anytime soon. I'll be firing up my CompuTrainer this week. We had a low-key New Year's Eve. We went out for dinner then came home and were fast asleep well before midnight. I was whipped and had a pounding headache that had been with me off and on for a few days. I was sure the fireworks at Buc...