Gaslight

I watched an old movie today named "Gaslight."  The movie is a black and white mystery thriller from 1944.  In case you didn't know, gaslight is also a verb for ruthlessly manipulating an individual, for nefarious reasons, into believing that they are going crazy or imagining things.  The story takes place before electric lights.  Houses are lit with gas lights.  If someone in the house lights another light, it can make the light currently burning go dim.  If the lights go dim when no one else lights a lamp, how can that be explained except by insanity?  As old as this movie is, it totally stands up as great entertainment.  Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer are the main characters.  At one point in the show, Ingrid gives Charles a talking to that made me want to stand up, pump my fist, and say, "That is right!  You go girl!"  You should see it.

Laugh Out Loud

Today I was doing chores in the yard all afternoon so I let Pamela and Meredith roam while I cleaned the gutters, emptied the compost bins, and set up a new bird feeder.  My girls like to get their exercise.  They roam the yard, scratch in the leaves, and peck at things that lie under the leaves.  I saw Meredith find a cherry tomato that fell off my deck and spit it out.  I guess she doesn't know good food when she finds it.  I happened to be looking at them out of the corner of my eye as they drank from my pond.  The pond is lined with limestone rocks.  Meredith stepped off the rock and into the pond.  I guess the thick duckweed and algae made it look solid.  You should have heard her squack.  It was hilarious.  She flapped her wings to safety but her left side got pretty wet.  I believe she has fully recovered from her fox attack.  She is moulting but her feathers look much better.  She has regained her position as the queen chicken and is back to telling Pamela what to do and being the leader.  Meredith is resilient.  A year ago, in the beginning of October, she was lost for ten days.  And it snowed several of those days.  She survived and was brought home again.  She survived a fox attack too.  Meredith is a touch chick.

Golden Trees

Outside the building where I work is a series of  three sidewalk islands in the parking lot.  Each island has two beautiful trees, one on each side of the sidewalk.  In the fall the trees are especially beautiful because of their horizontal branches and intense color.  The color starts out with a lemon yellow and then deepens into a rich gold.  These trees stand in a line like sentries in front of a castle.  They are truly gorgeous.  Because I go to many meetings, and I always sit on the side of the table where I can look out of the window, I have plenty of time to admire them.  This year I decided to figure out what kind of trees they actually are. So today, at quitting time, I nonchalantly took my camera outside to get a picture and bring a leaf inside.  I guess I wasn't nonchalant enough because I was asked if I was involved in the "hit and run" that just happened in the parking lot.  I suppose he noticed the camera in my hand.  Anyway, I just walked past the police car and snapped this photo.  I have a small pamphlet about Minnesota trees that has a scientific key.  As it turns out the alternate, compound egg shaped leaflets with finely toothed margins belong to a honey locust tree.  When they're older, the trees will probably get those 10-18 inch long seed pods that remind me of beans.  Honey locust - even the name is beautiful.

A Chicken Walks Into A Bar

"Pamela," says Meredith, the tall ginger chicken on the right, "Did you hear the one about the chicken who walks into a bar?"



A chicken walks into a bar, hops up on the bar stool,

looks the bartender in the eye and says, "You got any raisins?"



"No, I don't have any raisins!" the bartenders says.

"You'll have to go to the grocery store down the street."



So the chicken hops down and goes off down the street.



The next day the same thing happens. Chicken walks into the bar,

asks for raisins and is booted out by the bartender. On the third day,

the chicken comes in, hops up on the bar stool, and asks for raisins.

The bartender is fed up.





"If you come in here one more time asking for raisins, I'm going to

staple your little feet to the floor."



The next day, however, the chicken returns, hops up on the bar stool and says, "You got any staples?"

"No, I don't have any staples!"

"Good. You got any raisins?"

Lost In The Woods: Danger and Survival In The Northwoods

I read this book about two men lost in the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada.  This is an account of two men and their experiences being lost.  Dan is a tour guide who hits his head when he falls on the rocks looking for a portage.  He hits his head so hard he becomes unconscious for some time.  Days pass before he regains all his senses.  Jason is a medical student who gets lost hiking through the blow down area.  Cary J. Griffith writes about their experiences in a detached, almost clinical point of view.  He writes about the rocky shores, the tamarack stands, the bogs, the stands of white pine, maple and basswood, and the rocky hill tops.  This is an important and beautiful area.  Right now we're hearing about the boundary waters in the news in part because of the wildfire and in part because of potential copper and nickle mining.  Both Dan and Jason were prepared and experienced and both nearly died.  Both had families who worried about their safety.  I was on the elliptical machine when I read the part where Jason's parents were contacted by phone and told their son was found alive.  Drops of water fell on the elliptical and they weren't all sweat.  I was so moved I was crying in public.  I would recommend this book if you enjoy reading about adventure and survivors.

Deer

The deer are getting quite bold around my neighborhood.  If I or my neighbors stop to look at one, the deer stares back.  The deer may also snort and stomp it's hoof which in deer language probably means, "What are YOU looking at?"  They come to my yard for dessert - Haralson apples. Now that all my vegetables are gone (thanks to them), all they have to eat is apples.  I wish we had fewer deer around here.  When we first moved here, I thought seeing deer was cool but now I look at them as a menace to my safety in a vehicle and my health because deer ticks carry Lymes Disease.  It doesn't matter how I feel about the deer, the fox, the chipmunks, the field mice, the hawks or the cedar waxwings.  We are all just fellow travelers on this planet trying to get through the day.  A deer is a vegetarian mammal, just like me.

Merriam-Webster Method of Swimming

To combat the mind numbing boredom of swimming, I use the Merriam-Webster method.  You can only stare at that stripe of  three blue 2-inch tiles for so long without loosing your mind.  If you want to know, the Merriam-Webster method involves the alphabet.  At the beginning of each lap I go through the alphabet.  I start with A.  Across the pool, I come up with two words starting with A in a certain category.  On the way back across the pool, I define each of the two words in my head.  Today the category was adjectives.  First half of the lap I'm thinking awesome, admirable, asinine, acrimonious, ancient, applicable, aromatic, acid, appropriate, and amenable.  Back and forth across the pool, I go through all 26 letters of the alphabet.  Some letters are easy.  The letter X is about impossible so either I focus on dirty words or let my mind wander at will.  Besides adjectives, I've focused on animals, birds, verbs, places, foods, colors, areas of study, and names of people.  Clock watching has totally disappeared since I started using the Merriam-Webster method of swimming.

Please Look After Mom

I read Please Look After Mom, a novel by Korean writer Kyung-Sook Shin translated into English.  It was really good.  The Mom in this story is a sacrificing, successful woman who's hard work and dedication go undetected by her family until she is lost.  Mom got lost at the train station in Seoul.  Her family, husband and 4 now grown children, look high and low for her while remembering all she has done for them.  The story is told by her eldest son, her eldest daughter, her husband, her youngest daughter and by her.  Mom raised her family in the country by cultivating rice, vegetables, raising poultry and pigs, and picking fruits from the trees in the yard.  She was an excellent gardener and a great cook.  She keeps the house clean and holds the family together.  She gets more done every day than seems humanly possible.  I enjoyed reading about the food and the gardening and the culture. 



Pearl Jam 20

Last night I spent the evening in Uptown.  We took in dinner and a show.  The show was "Pearl Jam 20," a retrospective look at a grunge rock band over the past 20 years.  I am not a Pearl Jam fan but I went with someone who is a HUGE FAN.  Pearl Jam is her passion.  So she made it a fun evening.  The movie showed the band from before it's beginnings when most of the members were in a Seattle bands called Green River, Mother Love Bone and Mookie Blaylock.  Eddie Vedder (see photo) has always been the lead singer and most noticed member of Pearl Jam. Aside from the drummer, the group has stayed very consistent.  This group of long-haired young men are very talented.  When young, they would swing their heads back and forth making their long hair slap forward in front of them and slap back on their backs.  Just try it once.  I tried it once this morning and got a killer headache for about 4 minutes. How did they do that?  Rocking your brain inside the skull like that can't be healthy.  Maybe if you take enough drugs and alcohol, you can't feel the pain as much.  Eddie Vedder used to climb high on the stage, jump off and crowd surf.  If I saw the lead singer jump off and fly toward me I would duck and run, not reach up to support him.  Once, in Europe, the crowd surged forward recklessly during a Pearl Jam concert and 9 people were killed.  What I liked about Pearl Jam is that their lyrics were not misogynistic like other bands in the 90's.  They supported causes like environmentalism, reproductive choice, research for Crohn's disease, and a free Tibet. Pearl Jam - a very interesting band. 



Pulling Carrots

I pulled carrots today.  This month has been very dry so even though it rained on and off today the ground was very hard.  There is a technique to pulling carrots.  If you're not careful you end up with a handful of greens and no carrot.  Only the carrots with shoulders above the sand level can be pulled out easily.  I grasp the green stalks and wiggle in a circular motion.  If the carrot won't budge, stop pulling.  Dig it out with a shovel.  I had to use a shovel on 80% of the carrots today.  They were in there tight.  And the ground was hard too.  Even when I stepped on the shovel with both feet at the same time, it wouldn't penetrate the hard soil.  Eventually I got all my carrots out.  I dug up potatoes and garlic as well.  I found lots of cutworms as I dug in the dirt.  I don't like cutworms.  They cut off my transplants in the spring.  If you try to cut them with a shovel, they generally just sink into the ground and survive.  So I threw them.  Every cut worm I found, and I found at least 20, was thrown as far as I could throw - maybe 10 feet away from the garden at most.  Was that far enough?  I know voles travel a quarter of an acre but I don't know about cutworms.  I hope I threw them far enough.   The entire job took almost two hours and would have been a lot easier if it wasn't for the swarms of gnats.  The gnats were flying around my face when I stood up. When I knelt closer to the earth, the gnats were even thicker and flew into my eyes and nose. One of the gnats bit me in the eyelid.  I look like I have very thick dramatic makeup on one eye but not the other. 

A Little Tour

Yesterday we went on a little tour of the caves on Wabasha Street.  I like caves.  When I was in high school a group of us would explore the caves at Battle Creek Park on the east side of St. Paul.  On this tour we learned how dangerous that could be.  A bonfire in a cave can dry out and weaken the ceiling.  The fire can also burn all the oxygen leaving only carbon monoxide to breath.  The caves on Wabasha are safe. No bonfires and plenty of air circulating through there.  Some of the rooms are heated.  The caves can be used for events.  A wedding was going to take place this evening.  I think you could fit a couple hundred people in there.  Some of the rooms have stucco walls and ceilings.  In the past the caves has been used for mining silica sand, growing mushrooms, a nightclub, a diner, a discotheque, and cold storage of produce and heavy machinery.  It was fun to go in the caves, look around, and get a little history lesson.

A Virtuous Woman

My book club read A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons.  We've been on a southern women writers theme lately.  This book is set in the south east.  The author, we were told, wrote some of the story while simultaneously breastfeeding twins.  That is multi-tasking if I've ever heard it.  The main characters are Jack and Ruby.  Others include Tiny Fran, Burr and June.  Jack and Ruby don't have much but they share a love that other people envy.  Ruby's love for Jack is demonstrated by cooking meals ahead of time so that Jack doesn't run out of frozen dinners until 4 months after her death.  Jack's love for Ruby is demonstrated by his moving her hands out of the traditional "crossing over the chest" position in her coffin because he knows she wouldn't want the nicotine stains on her fingers showing. Someone in the book club said the novel could easily be called "A Virtuous Man" because of Jack.  Jack is something.  He is at least as if not more virtuous than Ruby.  This is a good story if you want a quick book about true love that includes some memorable characters.

Pileated Woodpecker Came To Visit

I got home a little later than usual tonight and was rewarded with a pileated woodpecker sitting on my deck railing.  The woodpecker was staring at my suet feeder.  Gosh, those birds are huge.  I knew they were big but until I saw him sitting there in the same spot where the chickadees, chipping sparrows and goldfinches sit, I really couldn't appreciate their actual size.  This one was a male.  His red crested started right down at the beak and he had a red mustache.  I've always had a thing for mustaches.  He was beautiful.  After a few minutes, he tried to fly to the suet feeder which is suspended from a cable across the back yard.  The cable dipped down with his weight and that must have frightened him off because he didn't stay to eat.  What a nice treat to see such a large and odd yet beautiful bird so close.

Letter on the Mailbox

I had a note attached to my mailbox yesterday.  The note is from a woman who lives about a block away.  I have never met her.  The letter says she found a feral kitten living in her yard last summer.  She provided food and shelter for the kitten last winter and planned to live-trap her and have her "fixed."  Before she could live trap the feral kitten, she had a litter of four kittens.  The neighbor live trapped all 5 cats and had them spayed or neutered and vaccinated.  We shouldn't worry about the cats reproducing or spreading disease.  She said the cats are feral and not suitable as pets.   She enjoyed the cats as part of her routine. She fed them and provided them with food and a heated, predator proof shelter and plenty of straw.  The letter says that as of Tuesday the cats are missing.  The mother is a calico. Two of the kittens are gray tabbies, one is gray and orange with white feet and the last one is rather homely mix of gray and orange.  The neighbor says she realizes that nature must take its course and they may not all survive.  She just wanted us to be aware of the situation.  I'm not quite sure what I think about this.  The woman seems to be an animal lover.  But in her animal loving, she is being rather hard on the songbirds around here.  I could tell her about the gray fox that has been hanging out on our block but I doubt that would give her any comfort.  She sounds like a very nice and reasonable person and I think it's cool that she is reaching out to her neighbors like she did.

Thanks to Ed

Thanks to Ed I now have my saddlebags on my bike.  No more heavy backpack to wear.  Although on a day like today, when it is cold outside, the warmth and weight of the backpack was helpful.  I'm lucky to have friends who like to help me out.  In that way, I am a very rich person.  The backpacks will be helpful in storing my lunch, my work out clothes, and rain gear.  When I arrive somewhere, I can throw my jacket in there instead of carrying it around.  I'm really glad to have the backpacks on again.



Changing Definitions

I was talking to a friend today at work. He's my age or maybe a little older.  He told me about his granddaughter.  She is 16.  She finished with high school early and is now attending college.  He tells me, "My granddaughter, she is 16 and going to college, she is hooking up with these college seniors.  They are showing her things and helping her out."  He looks at me with a big smile, like he is happy about it. 

I debate with myself.  Should I or shouldn't I?  He's a good guy.  I decide I should.  "Listen (insert name here), you may not know this but hooking up has a newer definition than it used to have.  I just think you ought to know." 

He looks at me.  "Really?  What is it?" 

I gulp and spit it out, "Sometimes hooking up refers to sexual behaviors."

He turns red.  "Really?"  Another coworker in the same room skedaddles out of the area after hearing me say this.  He calls after her to confirm what he has heard but she pretends she didn't hear him.  "I never heard of this.  When did this start?  I use hook up all the time.  I tell my friends we will hook up here and there.  What am I going to do?"

I say, "Be careful who you say it to."

"Seriously," he adds, "how long has this definition been going on?  Six months maybe?"

I tell him I'm not sure but I suspect it has been longer than six months.  Funny how definitions change over time.  How is a person supposed to keep up?  How does the average person know these things?  Hooking up used to mean meeting someone at a predetermined place and time or plugging a phone line into a wall or attaching a disabled car to a tow truck.  Hooking up used to be so innocent - just like the letter X.  The letter X was  naive and innocent until these movie ratings came along.  It was the only letter that could be the same on all four sides; a balanced and sturdy letter; and now it stands for perverted and pornographic.

What will be the next innocent word or letter to reference something sexual?  Wallpaper?  Telescope?  Calendar?  I hope someone sets me straight if I fall out of the loop and use unwittingly use a word with a newer definition.

Karma?

I came home from a busy day this afternoon.  I was about to do some outdoor chores and give the chickens a chance to roam the yard with my protection.  I let Pamela and Meredith out and was sitting in a lawn chair enjoying a popsicle before I filled the bird feeders.  Three out of the five bird feeders were empty and I was going to fill them as soon as I finished this delicious popsicle. Pamela and Meredith were having a dust bath in the sand next to the house.  I sat relaxing under the white oak tree when I heard something fall through the leaves and hit my leg.  An acorn?  No.  Not an acorn.  Bird crap on my pants leg.  I got a 2 and half acre lot and the bird has to go right now?  Right here?  Seriously?  Is this some comment on the empty feeders?



Could Be An Easy Rider

Today the motorcycle was the main mode of transport. I had a knitting/picnic get together with some friends in a park this morning. After that I met my offspring for a birthday lunch at a Thai restaurant in Uptown.  The timing was tight so I had to take major roads like 169, 694, and 100.  I had a birthday present and a birthday cooler attached to my motorcycle seat with two bungee cords.  At one point, on 694, I was sure the boxes had slipped and fallen off.  I said a bad word as I thought about the card with money inside the box.  Why hadn't I thought to put the card in a safer place?  I finally got off to a parking lot and lo and behold, the boxes were still there.  They had slipped to one side and could not be felt with my left hand when I checked.  Whew!  I strapped them up tighter and proceeded on my way.  I would have made it in time but I forgot to allow an extra ten minutes for parking in Uptown.  After a delicious lunch, I headed to the health club to work off those pad Thai calories.  Something in Asian food makes me so thirsty.  I stopped at Cub Foods to buy my second soda of the day.  It was delicious.  Since Cub Foods and my fitness club share a parking lot, I did a dangerous thing.  I moved my bike without wearing my orange vest, gloves or helmet.  In first gear, I tooled through the parking lot in first gear with a bare head and bare hands.  I still had my boots and jacket on though.  I felt so free!  I felt like that Honda feller in Easy Rider.  No, no, that is an exaggeration.  I didn't feel that naked but it did feel good to feel the wind in my hair and to be able to hear everything.  I can see better without the restrictions of the helmet.  Now I can totally see why people ride without helmets.  I get it now.  It's a lot more fun to dress appropriately for the weather instead of the arctic like I always do.  I wish Minnesota would bring back the mandatory helmet law.  Then I wouldn't even be tempted.

Last Day at the Farm

The paddleboat - a great way to exercise.

A gull (aka Jesus bird) appears to stand on water but is actually standing on a mostly submerged log.

Aaargh. Pirates live here.

Lots of algae in the water. Spider webs on a low hanging branch.

The fruit trees in the yard were heavily laden with apples and pears.  The limbs were straining with all the weight of the fruit.  We tried to lighten the load.  I think we picked 30 pounds or more of apples.  The lower limbs looked relieved but the top of the tree was not.  The fruit looked great although the pears were hard.  One of my nephews gave us and the paddle boat a ride to the lake.  While they prepared for bow hunting, Offspring #2 and I paddled around the lake.  We started with the Stoney Point resort side.  We had the entire lake to ourselves today.  I guess we saw one man sitting in a chair reading a book but other than that, we were alone.  We saw turkey vultures, a bald eagle, cormorants,  and gulls.  We disturbed one kingfisher several times near the cabins by the dam.  We disturbed another kingfisher on the north side of the lake by the farm property.  We tried to maneuver up to the edge of the dam. Unfortunately so many reeds and cattails surround the area that the gates of the dam are hidden.  Foamy clumps of wicked stuff floats on top of the water back there and smells really, really bad so we quit looking for the dam gates.  We saw lots of fish jump.  A large and beautiful brick house is on the north side of the lake.  They had a black flag flying on a flagpole.  I guess there are pirates living there because they fly the skull and crossbones flag.  When we got to the last corner of the lake, where the two roads intersect, we texted our driver.  By the time we made the boat landing, we had only a few minutes to wait. I've spent a lot of time on this lake and I like it very much.  I only wish it wasn't so green in the late summer and fall.  Some parts on the north side looked so green that it appeared you could walk on it.  The algae was so think it looked like a manicured lawn. 

Labor Day

At the farm we like to take a sunset stroll past the barn, past the pasture, in between the corn and soybean fields.

Then we walk on the "minimum maintenance road" down to Hillview Road.

This walk takes us past the school house - worn beyond repair.

And if it's cool out, we might take a blanket off a chair to keep warm.

We found a burl on a maple down by the lake.

On Monday, Labor Day, we thought we would take it easy.  After breakfast we sat outside for a few minutes.  I saw some scrapers and thought it might be fun to scrape some of the paint off the house.  Plans are made for the house to be painted later this month. So scraping some paint flecks off now might be helpful in the long run. We started by the main door and, geez Louise, paint flecks were flying everywhere.  It was just so darn satisfying to scrape the boards.  I've scraped other houses before and I didn't get nearly so much paint off as I did on this farm house.  It was like the paint was begging to come off.  Soon it looked like I had a horrible case of dandruff.  The grass was flecked with paint and the spiderwebs were adorned with paint flakes.  We only scraped what we could reach from standing on the ground but we went all the way around and were done in a couple hours.  Scraping satisfies some kind of destructive and sensory need in me.  After that I mowed the lawn.  My Dad has a Cadillac of riding lawn mowers.  I borrowed his sun hat and started out doing my favorite part - the path down to the old school house.  There are two long stretches to mow - to the school house and down to the road.  I always make sure I have plenty of gas when I do those stretches because I don't want to haul a heavy gas can too far away from the barn.  The rest is easy to mow, just back and forth, back and forth.  I find it relaxing to concentrate on making the most efficient work of it.  I don't want to overlap at all and I don't want to go back and fix what I have missed.  I had to duck low beneath the crab apple, apple and pear trees.  Offspring #2 made lunch for us.  After that I found a half gallon of primer so I used that up on the outside of the house.  More nephews came up for the day to practice archery and to check their trail cameras for signs of deer or turkey.  We rode along to collect the memory cards and review the results.  I would really like to get one of those trail cameras for myself.  I would be interested in knowing what all goes into my garden to eat all my vegetables.  Now that we knew where the cameras were hidden, I was really tempted to go back on my own and moon them.  My actions would be caught on camera and shared so that really isn't a good thing to do.  What I could do is be creative.  I could paste a horn on my forehead like a unicorn and prance across the field in front of the camera.  How about Big Foot or the Lock Ness Monster?  Trail cameras open up a whole new world of practical jokes for me.  In reviewing the results of the past two weeks, we saw many deer, many turkey, several raccoons, a tractor, and lots of weeds blowing in the wind.  We walked in the forest down to the lake.  I was in search of ginseng which I heard grew down here.  And whaddya know?  Offspring #2 found some.  We found a spot where lots of ginseng was growing and dug one up.  We also took a sample of Jack in the Pulpit to plant back at home.  We searched the woods for deer trails. We found lots of trails.  We also found evidence of a turkey incident.  One turkey lost quite a few tail feathers.  As we hiked up the hill, we saw more turkey feathers strewn about.  At the end of the turkey trail, only downy turkey feathers were found.  I suspect that turkey survived the incident.  I had fun being in the woods with my family deciphering nature signs and doing turkey crime scene investigation.

Pictures of the Swim



Offspring #2 took these pictures as she walked the shore carrying my clothes.  Across the lake is the penninsula that forms Petey's Bay. Who was Petey and why did he get a bay named after him?  I don't know.  I am visible as a little splash in the center left third of the photo.

I am being watched by a herring gull standing on the end of a floating log in the lower center of the photo.  If the gull was at a center of a clock, I am at 11 o'clock up near the top of the photo. I'm hard to see.

You can see my safety team in the canoe.  I am near them somewhere.

Here we are near the end of the trip. I am behind the reeds.

Sunday Was A Very Fulfilling Day

On Sunday I was at my parent's farm with family members. I had an amazing day full of fun activities.  I think you will agree the list is impressive. After breakfast we walked past the barn, between the corn and soybean fields, through the poison ivy and down into the maple/basswood forest slope to the lake. After that I went to a polka mass. This was my first polka mass. I half expected dancing because to me, polka is a dance more than music. As it turns out, there is no dancing at a polka mass. The church was overcrowded so we had to sit sideways down in front right behind the polka band (accordion, guitars, saxophone, and electric violin). After that we went to the city of Urbank celebration. Just like there is no dancing at a polka mass, there was no walking at the cake walk. We each held a paint stirring stick with a number and watched as they spun the wheel. I won an angelfood cake. My sister won a chocolate zucchini cake. We had plenty of cake for everyone. We walked through the cemetary to visit the graves of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and great grand parents. We visited with family.  After lunch we hiked to the top of Inspiration Peak. And after that I did something I've wanted to do ever since I was a kid and heard my cousin did it - I swam across Block Lake. I started out from the road by the cabins across from Stoney Point and swam to the boat landing. I was worried about safety so I had family nearby in a canoe. I didn't want to make them wait too long. I am a slow swimmer. So I started swimming while they proceeded to the landing, launched the canoe, and met me. I think I was about a third of the way across by the time they met me. At first the waves were choppy and were breaking over my head when I tried to take in a breath. By the time the canoe arrived, the water was calmer and I found it easier to swim. Block Lake is green with algae but it wasn't solid green. I wore goggles. Sometimes I thought I could see something dark under the water. I would close my eyes and pretend it wasn't there. I really didn't want to see anything except my arms.  I really didn't want to see any fish or turtles.  Every 20 strokes or so I would pop up my head to see if I was pointed in the right direction. My goggles fogged up and I could barely see. So I would ask my safety crew, "Is my nose pointed in the right direction?"  I just kept swimming.  Eventually I could make out the giant boulders that line the shore along the tar road.  I knew I was getting close.  And then I felt a weed, "Ewww!  Weed!  Weed!"  I swam away from shore to get out of the weeds.  I just kept listening for the voices of the canoers and tried to swim toward that.  Eventually I had to take off the goggles and dog paddle the rest of the way to avoid most of the weeds.  By the end, when I got out, I wasn't even tired.  Swimming across the lake wasn't really that hard.  My hours of swimming laps in the pool paid off.  My swim across the lake was probably a half mile - less than what I usually swim in an hour.  I could do it again.  The worst part was taking a shower afterwards.  All those spots of algae were filtered by the top of my swim suit and, oh my, that was disgusting.  I don't even want to think about that again. My epic day wasn't over yet.  After the swim I had the opportunity to shoot a rifle at a paper target.  The target had a large bullseye and four little bullseyes in the corner.  I fired 8 to 10 times.  Not only did I hit the paper, I got a bullseye.  It wasn't the bullseye I was aiming for but a bullseye nonetheless.  Most of my shots were right down the middle but above and below the center bullseye.  Who could ask for a better day?  I will add pictures later.



If You See Me Sobbing

If you happen to drive by me on the street and see me sobbing in my car, it's because I'm listening to the story of Jaycee Dugard and her novel, My Stolen Life.  Golly, who couldn't cry hearing parts of this well-told story?  If you remember back, Jaycee was abducted as an eleven year old girl.  She was in the fifth grade.  By the time she was rescued, she was 29 and had two children of her own.  Her life was stolen.  Jaycee reads her novel herself so I am listening to her actual lisping voice.  It's unbelievably moving.  And although Jaycee is in her 30's now, in some ways her growth has been stunted by her experiences and she is still a naive little girl in some respects.  And even though she is free from her tormenters, Phillip and Nancy Gurrido, she is not really free. Her face is recognizeable and as a good Mom, she has to maintain a normal life for her daughters and is not free to go to school carnivals or football games like other mothers do.  I haven't quite finished the book yet but I know that Jaycee is an amazing person.  Her ability to adapt, endure, protect and explain outperform that of a regular person.  She is a survivor and a heroine.  I'm proud she is not keeping Phillip and Nancy Gurrido's secrets any longer. 

Summer is Over

After a great weekend at the farm, I am now ready to admit summer is over.  I do believe that this summer, I wrung every ounce of joy possible out of the season.  I didn't waste too much time worrying, or mowing, or doing things I do not enjoy doing.  And I can now admit that there are a few things about cold weather that I do enjoy such as putting on warm socks or a heavy sweater, warming up with a hot drink or hot shower, and crawling into a pre-heated bed.  In any case, I had a great weekend.  I brought along my knitting, a book to read, and a movie to watch and I never opened that bag because I was too busy having fun, fun, fun.  More to follow.

Favorite Past Time

Today I had a couple of hours to spare so I did what I've enjoyed doing since I was 18 - I got lost.  On the cycle, I took off onto new and undiscovered roads just to see where they led. I found some really nice roads today between Anoka, Sherburne and Isanti counties.  I found one road named "Hill and Dale Road."  Now what self-respecting motorcyclist could pass by a road with a name like that?  I drove through a lot of horse country.  At one point, I was coming down this road and in the field to my left trotted a young gray horse.  We headed in the same direction; I with my orange vest flapping and he with his black tail held erect and black mane flapping in his eyes.  Horsepower to horsepower.  Good day for a ride.

I'm In Denial and I Like It Here

Here is a song I composed to the tune of "On Top Of Old Smokey."

They say that summer
Has come to an end.
I say no, not yet,
Let's live it again.

Cuz summer's my favorite
I can't let it go.
Not ready for autumn,
Not ready for snow.

So hold back the pages
to August's calendar.
Each day that passes
Brings us closer to winter.

I've been to the State Fair,
I see acorns in the grass.
This morning school buses
Practiced bringing kids to class.

I'm not ready to wear boots,
not ready for socks.
I like sandals and short sleeves.
Keep mittens in a box.

Signs of autumn are around me,
black birds flying en masse.
But I prefer summer.
Fall can kiss my  ___.