Flat On The Bottom

I got a flat tire on Tuesday. I noticed the passenger rear tire was low on Monday afternoon so I filled it with air and hoped I would get through another day but that didn't happen. I had an appointment after work to get the tire repaired. Luckily I know how to change tires. My father taught me how to change a tire before he let me drive my car away alone so I know how to change tires. Over the years I have changed many tires. I used to buy retreads - tires that were worn out and someone cut deeper treads into the tire. Those retreads never lasted long but they were affordable for me when I was young and poor so I bought them. I don't buy retreads anymore. A friend from work came out to offer assistance. I pulled the donut tire out of the trunk and assembled the jack. In our busy parking lot we set down to the task. The lug nuts were on very tight. I have dealt with this before so I put the lug wrench at just the right angle and, while hanging onto the car, stood on the lug wrench to loosen the nut. I had two lug nuts loosened before this man saw what I was doing and offered to help. I let him help. Once the nuts were loose we jacked up the car. We had the car jacked up so the tire, which was only flat on the bottom, could spin. But the wheel would not pull off the axle. Another man came by to help. I told him he could help. This guy did not speak English but he could work a tire like a pro. He banged on the tire and got it loose from the axle. We handed him the donut and he handed us the flat tire. He put the donut on the axle and hand tightened the lug nuts. My car has four lug nuts so he tightened the two across from each other before tightening the other two which is just like I would have done. Then he lowered the jack so the donut was resting on the asphalt. I kept lowering the jack while he tightened the lug nuts on very tight. My guess is he comes to this building to take English as a second language lessons. He had a notebook in his hands. We thanked him and he responded but not in English before he scurried off. Looking at the other tires I saw that they had very little tread left. After washing my hands I cancelled my appointment to get the tire repaired and made another appointment to install four new sixteen inch tires. After work I drove on side roads so as to stay below 50 miles per hour. Within an hour I was on my way with four new tires. Problem solved. Changing tires is a life skill every adult should learn. I counted myself lucky. A sunny day and moderate temperatures is a great day to get a flat tire. With winter approaching soon, I am glad I have good tires to get through all the snow that is going to fall.

Educated

Last night my book club discussed Educated by Tara Westover. We all agreed that it had to be a memoir because no one would believe the story if it were a novel. This book has been on the best seller list for over a year and was listed as recommended reading by Barack Obama and Reese Witherspoon. I found it really difficult to read. I didn't want to spend the money to get a  hard copy. It isn't available in paperback unless you can read Spanish. I borrowed it from the Cloud Library as an audio book so I listened to it while doing chores around the house. Sometimes the sadness of the abuse Tara received from her brother Sean was just too much for me to listen to anymore and I had to shut it off and think about happier things. Growing up in a family like Tara's could not be easy but she seems to be doing well. She is brilliant and successful and lives in another country across the ocean from her family which is probably wise. We don't know if everything she claims is true was actually true. Even in my own family, my perception of people and events varies very much from other siblings. In this day and age truth seems more shaky than it did when I was young. Journalism has changed a lot. Photo editing is so rampant you can't believe pictures or even video. What will life be like for children born today in the year 2069? Our group agreed it is important to teach kids to use critical thinking skills and not believe everything they see or read or hear.

Brothers 2

Last Friday we were invited to go to an event organized by the art meander. This event was a concert put on by a band called brothers2 in Watson, Minnesota. Watson was the closest city to our Airbnb so we went. Watson is a small town so we thought we could find it easily. We stopped at a small convenience/liquor store. Some of my companions wanted to buy some beer. We walk into the convenience store. We asked the woman where the beer was. She told us we had to walk around the building and go in the other day. All five of us file out one door and into the other. There we see the same woman at the counter. All she had to do was walk through a curtain from one store to another. We bought the beer and got back into the car. We wondered where the town hall was. As the headlights came on one of the women mentioned the unusual stripes on the building ahead of us. We all peer at the building and see the words Watson Town Hall. We drove across the street and park in front of the hall. As we walked up the steps and in the door we put $20 in a jar as a good will offering. In the town hall we see 20 tables set up with folding chairs around them. This room was once a gym for the one room school house in Watson. A basketball net hangs above the door we came in. At the other end of the room is a stage with velvet curtains and an easy chair and other boxes. In front of the stage at floor level are two men playing guitars and singing. They sang songs from the 60's,70's and 80's. They were good musicians. Some people were singing along. They invited a woman up to the front to join them. She sang several songs that she had written. One song was about the grief she felt when her husband passed away. Before she sang she told us that any life event that leads to a good song isn't all bad. We sat and chatted with the very friendly people at our table. We listened to music for a couple of hours. We learned that the restrooms were on the stage. Eventually I had to make my way up to the stage to use the bathroom. As I came out the group was singing one of my very favorite songs "Dream A Little Dream Of Me." I waited on stage behind the curtains and sang along while mourning the death of Cass Elliot who had one of the most beautiful voices I had ever heard. As we left one of the woman who sang on stage came up to me and said she enjoyed watching me sway to the music as she sang. She was the wife of the mayor of Watson. We walked out the door and the two brothers waved good by to us. Rain fell on us as we squinted through the windshield trying to find our turn off the highway. We were all glad we went to this concert on Friday.

Chippewa River

This morning I woke up on the futon at our Airbnb in Montivideo. For once it wasn't raining. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. We woke up gradually and had breakfast with conversation flowing the entire time. We decided we should walk down to the Chippewa River before leaving. We hiked through the front yard to find the mowed path down the hill. A three legged dog named Cooper came along. Cooper is still a pup. He lost his leg just a few weeks ago but that doesn't stop him from playfully nipping at our elbows and knees. A long walk would do this dog some good. We walked down the long hill through the forest. We climbed onto the railroad tracks and walked west until we came to the road. We took the road toward the river. We found a path through the grass down to the river bank. That is where I took this picture. Cooper took a long drink of river water. As we walked back up the hill, across the tracks, and up the road Cooper finally showed signs of tiring. We walked past the tree line to the mowed path through the prairie. We found a few frogs and a flock of cedar waxwings. By the time we made it back to the house the dog was tired. We cleaned out our belongings and tidied up the place a little bit. We had a lovely weekend in Montivideo.

Summer Kitchen

Some of my master naturalist friends are staying at an Airbnb in Montivideo, Minnesota. The owner of this renovated summer kitchen is the head of the program and she took us on a day long adventure. Our adventure was part of the art crawl in the area and part nature. Here is a picture of a rare ball cactus near Big Stone Lake in Big Stone State Park.

She took us to a rare fen along the side of the highway. Plants that can only survive in the calcereous soil. No one knew it was a fen until the DNR burned the property. We stayed there in the light rain for quite a while and enjoyed ourselves very much.

This is a view of LacQuie Parle Lake. The wind was blowing so hard it created a howling sound. Also we found a fox skull at the overlook. The poor fox looked like it had a bullet hole in it's head.

Clemantis

Beautiful display this morning.

Seasons Change

Today I realized for sure that summer is sincerely over. I came home at 8:15 after a long day to a dwelling in which the temperature was only 50 degrees. I consider that temperature to be unbearable. So I dug out my box of furnace filters, sprayed a new filter with germ killing spray, stuck into the furnace, carried the dusty old filter out to the trash, came back inside and flipped the thermostat to heat. (Heavy sigh)