Leaving On A Jet Plane, Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again, Oh, Billy, I Hate To Go

 

An Otter As Tall As Me?

I was reading an article in the Conservation Minnesota about river otters. I was astounded to read they are between four and five and a half feet long. I am not even five and a half feet long or tall. That blew my mind.

 

Jingle Bells Batman Smells

 

Vermillion Falls In The Snow

 

Fire Exit

Morgan Talty is the author of Fire Exit. I listened to the audio book. This is a debut novel about a guy named Charlie who grew up on a reservation in Maine.  His beloved step-father died in a hunting accident. Now his mother is progressing in her dementia. His best buddy, Bobby, is an alcoholic. Bobby helps Charlie car for Louise. Charlie has a daughter he has only seen once. He is desperate to get in contact again. This is a compelling story about culture, family and whether we owe it to others to tell the truth.

 

Stunningly Gorgeous

Today I drove to Winona to look at an apartment. I was early. I remembered that one talkative guy told me about a zigzag road that took you up Barn Bluff to Memorial Park. Dang, today they locked the gates. I kept driving until I came to Coleville Park.

I saw a couple of guys putting in a boat. I thought they were dedicated anglers. I looked again and one man was wearing waders and stood next to an orange fence similar to the ones I saw to protect the wild rice from the geese in the Saint Louis River. On my way back I saw the sun shining on the Wisconsin side. The area around here is stunningly gorgeous.

 

I Took Suggestions

Last night I met the site steward at the Lost Valley Prairie Scientific Natural Area.

So this morning I went there. I met a young guy about to drive off in a Bobcat. He said they were cutting down trees and gathering brush.

She also suggested I visit Grey Cloud Island.

So I went there too.

A bald eagle flew toward me and went right over the top of my car.

 

Party

 Last night I went to a holiday party and had much fun. Free food, free drinks, people I know,  conversations had, it was terrific. I am so glad I joined the MN Master Naturalists.

An Amazingly Lucky Day

Today I got a message from a friend of mine. He and his wife went to Berlin because she loves Bach and her cousins live there. He made a You Tube video of their trip. Now I want to do that for my next trip. I went to the library to get a book on Japanese language. They didn't have any books but I found one on Libby. I drove to Kaposia Landing. Incredible. Simply Incredible.

I met a friendly couple. They said they were going to take the path down the hill to get out of the wind. We could hear the eagles talking to each other. He got some great photos. He used to work for NW Airlines. He said that to test the engines they would throw a frozen chicken into the engines. He met 3 birders at Silverwood Park in New Brighton. They were all doctors. One was a doctor in Peru. They went birding in Peru. He said he was in Costa Rica. I said I was going to Costa Rica soon. I said I wanted to see a Harpy eagle and a toucan. He showed me pictures of both birds.

I didn't get the apartment I wanted in Winona but the second choice is also good so maybe I have found an apartment. That is cool.

I will tell you the other lucky stuff tomorrow.

 

All Things New

 I have a new favorite historical fiction author and her name is Lynn Austin. I just this morning finished reading All Things New. Set in the south, just after the end of the Civil War, Josephine is adapting to the changes around her but the rest of her family is not. Her mother thinks it's terrible that she works in the garden or sews a dress. Josephine doesn't like being bored. Josephine makes friends with Lizzie the slave. Her mother, brother, and younger sister are appalled. Josephine is right but will the rest of the family come to that same conclusion? 

A Walk Downtown

After lunch I decided I would walk downtown. I walked to the east of Highway 61 down to the river. On the way back I walked a block or two west of Highway 61. A few spots were slippery so I walked in the grass or on the road.

This one cracked me up. This is a rock bass. I looked at the link from the QR code and learned that I could buy or rent this statue.

I walked through the Confluence Hotel. This is a fancy place. Some day I would like to eat at their restaurant.

After the hotel I walked into 2 local shops. The second one was a game shop. I looked at all the games and comic books. I ordered a delicious cup of ginger/tumeric tea and sat in a room with 20 mostly male customers playing role playing games. Walking on the west side of the highway was a whole different vibe. The lawns on the west side are bigger. I got back to my place at 4:30.

 

River Blades Skating School 19th Annual Skate With Santa At The Hastings Civic Center

I planned to walk to the Civic Center at 5:45 because it was only a 3 minute walk and I didn't have to cross any major roads. I took 8 steps outside before I realized the parking lot was glazed in ice. I decided to drive. My snow scraper is in the trunk. The trunk was frozen shut. So I used my plastic card from the YMCA in Duluth which worked very well. I was only 5 minutes late. There were so many people there I had to park in the boondocks. The boondocks were slippery so I walked in the grass. The closer I got to the door of the Civic Center, the less slippery it got. How come so many people came out on this slippery night? There were more than 300 people there.

I was laughing and clapping and singing along to the music.

Santa is sitting on the ice handing out gifts to children. At 7:15 guests could join on the ice.

I am so glad I decided to go. On the other side of the arena I watched a few minutes of a hockey game. It has been a llllloooonnnngggg time since I watched a hockey game.

 

Vermillion Dragonfly

This morning I went for a 2 mile walk from my hotel along the Vermillion Greenway. I saw a dragonfly. The prairie had lots of big blue stem and sideoate  gramma.

Hastings has nice parks.

 

The Girls We Sent Away

Meagan Church is the author of the historical fiction novel The Girls We Sent Away. Set in North Carolina Lorraine Delford seems to have everything she could ever want. She is beautiful. She has loving parents. She is doing well in her junior year of high school. She has the perfect boyfriend. Her house has a white picket fence. Suddenly she becomes pregnant and everything falls apart. Her boyfriend doesn't help. Her parents force her to leave school and enter a maternity home. She has no autonomy. Others decide for her. It's tragic really. Good book though.

Talkative Man At A Green Spot In The Mississippi

This afternoon I went to the Jaycees Park in Hastings. I parked and started walking down to the river. Here I am standing on a dock looking towards downtown.

Here is the view towards Cottage Grove from the other end of the dock.

As I walked down toward this boat ramp I noticed an older man driving in a truck waving at me. When I got to the boat ramp he pulled over to talk to me. This was a talkative man! We talked for an hour and 15 minutes. First we talked about why the water was green. I thought it was some algae. He asked me where I have been in Hastings. He tried to think of more places but I had already been there. He talked about Red Wing and a Veteran's Memorial Park where you can drive up to barn bluff instead of walk. He talked about La Cross, the oldest spot in the state. He talked about racing his 62 Skylark at race tracks around the area. He talked about a waitress in Brainerd crying because his car was being raced. He talked about his grandfather working in construction of the airport in Bloomington. He knew 3 people who died. One guy fell, as they were pouring concrete, and was buried in the cement. He lives by a lake and he thinks the 500 pelicans are eating too many fish. He talked about his Dad working with dynamite. He talked about his 3 boys liking Spam and he said I should go to the Spam museum in Austin. As he talked I kept stepping side to side and lifting my heel toward my booty. I was cold. I figured he was single because he was talking to me so much. Two bald eagles flew overhead. Canada geese were honking. Turns out he is married so go figure.

 

Lark's Toy Store

My friend suggested I visit Lark's Toy Store. She went with her boys about once a year. She said there is a carousal. I drove to Winona to look at another apartment. My appointment was at 4:30 so I had time. This place is huge!

The prices are expensive but that is to be expected. I spent an hour here. I even found the green cup I used with freckle face strawberry. I think I drank Kool-Aid out of it. I regret drinking all that red food dye.

I got to Winona early and had a half hour to spend at the library. They were having an open house with free food and a string band playing Klezmer music. I was dancing to the music as I waited to use the ladies room.

I met Adam a few minutes early. I told him I wanted this apartment. I paid the $35 application fee. Fingers crossed I get it.

Warty Biggins The Toad. By Don M., in anarchy and mehitable, 1927. I met a toad the other day with the name of Warty Biggins. He was sitting under a toad stool. Feeling contented, he explained that to him the cosmos was created that the toad stool was especially planned for his personal shelter from sun and rain thought out and prepared for him. Do not tell me said Warty Biggins that there is not a purpose in the universe, the thought is blasphemy. A little more conversation revealed that Warty Biggins considers himself to be the center of the same universe. The earth exists to grow toad stools for him to sit under, the sun to give him light by day and the moon and wheeling constellations to make beautiful the night for the sake of Warty Biggins. To what act of yours do you impute this interest on the part of the creator of the universe I asked him, why is it that you are so greatly favored? Ask rather said Warty Biggins what the universe has done to deserve me, if I were a human being I would not laugh too complacently at Warty Biggins for similar absurdities have only too often lodged in the crinkles of the human cerebrum. Archy

After I left I texted my friend. She asked me if I rode the carousal. I didn't know I could. She texted back, next time.

 

Milkweed Ornaments

 

East Side

I had an appointment with a travel doc today on Phalen Boulevard so I decided to visit my old haunts such as Phalen Lake where I saw 20 trumpeter swans swimming in the open water. I used to walk around this lake. I had a date with a guy once. I suggested we fly a kite at Lake Phalen. He didn't want to. No more dates for him!

For one school year I taught at Saint Patrick's School in room 305. Now the school has a new name. I remember one winter I was looking out the window. A car on this hill had it's drivers door open. Another car came sliding down the hill on the ice and took that door clean off. Another time I struck a pheasant on Hwy. 694 at the top of a hill and it flew into my radiator. I went to check and pulled out one cooked leg. The students saw the pheasant. I told them to feel free to take it out of there.

Another time I split my pants. I went to the convent and was highly embarrassed to stand in my underwear as a nun sewed up the rip.

My old apartment on Arcade is now gone along with the post office that was across the street. That is where I lived upstairs with my girlfriend's brother's girlfriend. My girlfriend told me on the phone that his girlfriend was stealing my rent money out of my Kleenex box. I couldn't find my house on Minnehaha by the Hamm's brewery. I think this is the house where I lived when I taught school.

Then I drove to Mounds Park on my way back to Hastings. I had a trip down memory lane.

 

Carpenter Nature Center

Today I drove north to the Carpenter Nature Center. I have been there once before with the MN Master Naturalists. I worked at a table inside the picnic shelter. They had a raptor release that day. That is when I learned that Wisconsin has a Master Naturalist program too with only one biome. I believe it was a lot cheaper to join than the MN program.

I went inside the visitor center where I found no staff. They had turtles and lizards and spiders inside. Bird feeders were everywhere. Then I walked the Savannah trail. After lunch in my car I walked down the ravine. I thought there would be water down here but I don't see any.

I walked the Savannah trail again.

This is Kevin the raven. He's new so they don't want us to get too close. He kept talking as I walked along.

After I saw Kevin I saw this red tailed hawk fly up into this tree. They do bird banding here too. I would like to help with that some time.This nature center has a campus in Wisconsin near Hudson. Some day I will go there.