A Blessed Day

Today has been a blessed day. A good friend had surgery and was blessed with a positive outcome (oh, I hope you're not puking right now), the weather was wonderful, a huge bald eagle landed on a tree across Lake Achieve and waited until I got there before soaring across the pond and to the west, a kind coworker came and got me to show me the eagle which I really appreciate as my office has no windows to the outside, the dog has gained two pounds and is back up to her fighting weight because of the nutritional supplements I've been adding to her food (hard boiled eggs, yogurt, brown rice, peanut butter toast and cheese), I spent an hour outside tilling the soil and listening to the birds sing, and finally, no bills came in the mail today. All in all, it's been a blessed day. I learned something new about bald eagles today. They have risky sexual practices. Before mating, they fly way high up, join claws and free fall together, a$$ over teakettle, until the last possible moment when they separate and soar just seconds before they would hit the ground. Now that I would like to see.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

May 5, 1968

Does this map look familiar? I read in the paper today that on this day in 1968 nine Minnesota men were killed in Vietnam, forty years ago today. Nine young men gave up their lives. Nine families were torn apart by grief and loss. These Minnesota men would have been in their 60's or 70's by now. How would our world be different if they had lived? It is possible that my own life would be different if one or more of those men had lived. I'll never know. They didn't have a chance. Nine of them. Nine can be such a large number. I am very sad.

Bugs Me

Yesterday we were talking about weather related anxiety. Some people get nervous when they hear thunder or see lightning or see dark clouds rolling by. That usually doesn't bother me. I like thunder. I know lightning is dangerous but it also enriches the soil. Strong winds bother me a little because 25 years ago my home was damaged by straight line winds. But weather doesn't usually bother me as much as most people. In this conversation, someone mentioned that those people who are really anxious about the weather often become meteorologists. That explains a lot! What bugs me? Meteorologists who dramatize the weather. OOOh, the coldest, the windiest, the most dangerous, the worst case scenario thunderstorm or snowfall. They quietly say the weather will probably be normal but go on and on about what could happen if things got worse. And the details! Oh, the freaking details. They'll tell you about weather patterns on the west coast and the name of this wind pattern and historical averages until I hit the MUTE button which is my way of saying, "Shut up about the weather!" Long as I'm at it, know what else bothers me? The teasing bothers me. Newscasters will spend more time hinting about what they're gonna talk about after the commercial than actually giving me the news. "Find out what health practice is shortening your life and whether you need to bring an umbrella to work tomorrow after this message." FGS! Stop telling me you're going to tell me and just tell me! I miss Dave Moore. He gave the news straight out without any teasing.

Wild Thursday

Twas a wild Thursday at the Blaine Human Services Center this week. A elderly man in a trench coat exposed himself on the second floor. We have a community service officer in our building but the geriatric exposer got away. The situation was sad, serious and humorous all at the same time. I saw a exposer once - sort of. It was the summer after 9th grade and I was walking north on Victoria, down the hill from Sextant towards Central Park with my girlfriend, Jenny. Jenny was way more street smart than I was. We saw a man pull over to the side of the road and open his car door. He stood with the car door open. Suddenly Jenny pushes me and yells, "Run! It's a perv!" I don't run. I don't even know what a perv is. She pushes me around and yells at me to run. I ask, "What's a perv?" She laughs and pushes me up the hill. I'm reluctant to run away from a crime scene when I don't even know what it is yet. The man seemed ordinary enough and he was just standing by his car door. If being a perv is such a scary thing, I want to be able to differentiate it from the other ordinary men I see standing by their cars. Her reactions are way faster than mine. My friend Jenny was always very convincing so I run with her trying to turn around and look. I get caught up in the excitement of running away from "The Perv." I actually thought it was a skin condition, perhaps something like leprosy and in that case running away from him was not a very nice thing to do. Or maybe perv is another word for alien from another planet like Mars or Pervo. Once we round the corner and we're back on Sextant, she explains that perv is short for pervert - someone who exposes their thing. And yes, Jenny had to explain what the thing was. I didn't know such things could happen. I'm lucky she was with me. The other wild thing that happened at the Blaine Human Services Center on Thursday was the sighting of a female turkey on 89th Avenue - strutting across the street and angrily fussing at the cars in her path. Turkeys have such big egos. They act like they own the place. They're kinda human in that way.

Concert Tonight - Fitzgerald Theater

My Favorite Trees

Turns out it's not Arbor Day today unless you are in Vermont. Each states sets it's own date for Arbor Day. Lets pretend we're in Vermont. Happy Arbor Day Vermontonians! In honor of this special day, I want to tell you about some of my favorite trees. I have picked out trees over the years and become attached to them. Sadly, one of my favorite trees died several years ago and has been replaced by another. This tree was a beautiful pink crab apple tree on Main Street in Anoka between 5th and 6th in front of St. Stephan's School. I first noticed it when I was marching with the Girl Scouts in the Halloween parade. Several kids were perched in the branches of the crab apple so they could get a better view of the parade. For me, it was a Norman Rockwell moment. The tree was surrounded by asphalt parking lot/playground. I was amazed that a tree could survive such harsh conditions. It might have lived longer in a grassy area. Another favorite tree is a tall elm on the east side of 35E just north of the Maryland Street exit. This tall elm stands like a dutiful sentry at the top of a high hill, silently observing. I've kept my eye on this tree for about 20 years. It's still doing well. Another favorite tree is an award winner. This is a red pine in Itasca State Park. Not just any red pine. Oh, no,this beauty is the tallest red pine in the state. You need to take the Wilderness Drive to find it. The park map points it out. Another favorite is an white oak tree on south side of Highway 10 just east of the Hanson Street intersection. The building used to be a real estate building, then a bank and now it's an insurance agency. Oaks are my favorite tree. I admire their gnarliness. Typically imperfections are not treasured for their beauty. Bumps and bulges are to oaks what smoothness and symmetry are to a cover girl. My most recent favorite tree is growing on the right side of the entrance ramp onto Highway 10 from Coon Rapids Boulevard. This is another white oak. Behind it is a storage unit the navy blue garage doors. I had to pull up along side it to take the picture without shooting through the windshield (you didn't want me getting out of the car on the entrance ramp - too dangerous). So you really can't see what it looks like driving up to it. There is a cavity about 5 feet off the ground and long grass (20 inches long?) is growing out of the tree trunk. So as you drive up you see a beautiful, healthy oak tree with a tremendous crown and arms uplifted with grass growing out of a pubic area. Trees don't really have pubic areas but this one does. I think it's a very sexy tree.