Outside the Comfort Zone

I did something outside my comfort zone last night. There is good reason it was outside my comfort zone.  This act would be outside most people's comfort zone.  I have no experience in this and I did it by myself.  Everything worked out fine which is great because it would  be ironic if I got in trouble for lighting a grass fire in my yard. Would they take away my opportunity to play Smokey the Bear?  The evening was nice.  The wind was coming across the Rum River from Andover and moving towards my house. I lit the fire with a bag of sawdust, some wax, and some papers. I really did not need that much to get the fire started because the dry prairie grass took off very quickly, scarily quickly.  I started the fire on the edge of my prairie and I allowed it to move towards my house.  In total I burned an area about the size of my bedroom. When the fire moved toward my cherry bushes and lilac bush I got nervous and put the sprinkler out to keep those bushes from burning. I stood out there supervising for over an hour. I added other grass to keep some parts of the fire burning.  Who knows what the chickens thought of my behavior. The flock was keeping an eye on me.  I suppose they were worried about becoming fried chicken. I am very proud of my black prairie. I see all kinds of  other parts I wish I had burned but I think I had better not get ahead of myself.  I have a cousin who is on the city fire department.  How embarrassing that would be if he had to come and help me.

Holy Suds Batman!

After kayaking yesterday I went to the gym for a swim.  My bathing suit felt slimy when I took it out of my gym bag. I looked into the bag and discovered my nearly full bottle of Suave Ocean Breeze shampoo was now only one third full.  Two thirds of a bottle of shampoo was now outside of the  bottle yet inside my gym bag. Holy suds, Batman.  I took everything out of my gym bag and rinsed them off in the sink.  The gym has quite a few hand sinks. I used one to rinse off my stuff and I used another one to rinse out the bag itself. Suds rose in both sinks.  The more I tried to get rid of the suds the higher they rose.  Now I had two sinks full of suds.  The suds were so high they rose eight inches above the top of the counter top.  I had so many bubbles! The harder I tried the more suds I had. There was a garbage can there for paper towels so I started taking hand fulls of suds and throwing them in the trash. Another woman came by to wash her hands. She says to me, "You got a lot of suds there."  I tell her if she ever wants suds she should buy Suave Ocean Breeze shampoo.  I also tell I have the cleanest gym bag ever. Eventually the level of suds is reduced to a manageable level. I take my things and put them in a locker.  I hang my gym bag on a peg to dry. I clean up both sinks and the counter top as best I can with paper towels. I  put on my wet swim suit. Is there anything worse than putting on a wet swim suit? I hate putting on a wet swim suit. I enter the pool and start swimming.  I look behind me to see if a trail of suds is following me but I see no suds.  I start swimming and after two laps all my sudsy problems have dissolved. I wish all problems were as easy to resolve as shampoo spills.

Three Points of Contact

A friend of mine was thinking about getting a kayak. I offered her the chance to try mine to see if she liked it.  She and her husband have a boat but she thought a kayak is something she could do when he wasn't around. We met at Crooked Lake on Saturday morning. I got there early so I quickly zoomed around the lake.I felt like a kid again pushing myself through the water and seeing the sights. A Canadian goose sat on a nest and pretended to be asleep. The relaxed black neck was striking against the gray feathers.  A man with a sloping lot down to the lake was busy weeding the lake shore.  I could see where he had applied lines of fertilizer to his turf.  On another property a camp fire smoldered near the lake shore.  Smoke drifted across the water.  Four wood ducks landed and swam away. Another large house had a big swing set.  Three kids were swinging on the swings and jumping off into the lush green grass. Sometimes when I am on a lake I feel like a peeping Tom. I get a sensation that the people on the lake don't appreciate being spied on. On the other hand, they own the lake shore but not the lake so there is not reason to feel like a peeping Tom. A muskrat swam by. A painted turtle clung to a clump of reeds trying to warm itself in the sunshine. Traffic zoomed by on Highway 10.  A man with curly red hair got into his boat with a girl; his daughter I imagined.  She was three years old and had long blonde hair and a sun dress.  They smiled and motored away. My friend arrived and I got out so she could get in. She is much shorter than I am so we had to shorten the pegs so she could reach them. A kayak has foot pegs so you can push your foot against the peg as you move forward. She put on my life vest. I warned her to have three points on contact when getting in and getting out.  She did pretty well until both of her feet were in and she tried to stand up straight. I told her that was two points of contact so she sat down. I shoved her out and told her to go around the whole lake if she wanted to.  She ended up going around the whole lake.  I thought she was pretty brave to do that. I got my binoculars and cup of tea out of my car.  I sat on the dock and made friends with a woman who fishes there every day the lake is't frozen. For this lake, it has been about a week since the ice went out. This lady loves fishing.  She fishes every day either here or near the Coon Rapids dam.  She fishes for pan fish but she never keeps them. She told me a story from last year when she made friends with a mother grebe and her grebelings. She got to know this grebe family.  She would  make a noise and they would come out to greet her. I saw some yellow rumped warblers and some sparrows that I could not identify. Tree swallows were diving for insects. A couple of huge dragonflies flew past and they looked like they were attached some how. The woman said the loons are on the lake but I never saw them.  After an hour my friend came back. She had a big smile on her face.  She said she felt like a kid again. She had a hard time getting out of the kayak.  I had her parked parallel to the shore. I sat on top of the bow of the kayak to keep it steady and we both almost went in the lake. She did get out though and she was unhurt.   We loaded the kayak in my car. She helped me tie it down with yellow nylon rope.  She asked me if I could tell her jean capris were wet. I admitted she looked like she had a toileting accident. She said she didn't care and was off to the garden center now. What a beautiful morning in Minnesota today!

American Toads are Calling!

Today on my walk around Laddie Lake I saw warblers. Unfortunately the person I walk with is not interested in birds.  He is also not interested in waiting for me to look at birds.  So I know I saw warblers but I don't know what kind. The chorus frogs were quieter today but they were still calling.  The exciting sound today was the long musical trill of at least 4 separate individual toads.

Conversation Overheard Yesterday

I was walking down a sidewalk in Coon Rapids on my way to my car.  A group of students were walking together ahead of me. They walked so slow I caught up to them but I don't think anyone noticed me because they were speaking pretty freely.

One girl said, "If my step-father isn't home, I can get away with anything!"  She threw her arms up in the air and spun in a circle.

Another young man said, "My mother is home all the time.  She is the reason I am still a virgin."

The entire group, including me, cracked up at that one!

Longing For The Sound of a Sora

Today on my walk around Laddie Lake I noticed the ice was completely gone. Yesterday the ice was a very dark gray and today it is gone.  On top of the red winged blackbirds, starlings, woodpeckers, cardinals, robins and mallards, I thought I heard a rail calling.  Maybe it was a sora rail or maybe it was my ears longing for the sound of a sora rail calling that fooled me. In any case, it sure was a good day to go for a mid-morning walk! 

Random High Praise

About a year ago I was at a grocery store.  We were shopping for food at the NEX - a store designed for Navy families and other people on the Navy base.  I was trying to distract a two year old while her very pregnant mother picked out fresh fruits and vegetables.  A man in scrubs walked by with his own cart.  He introduced himself as the doc who would deliver my second grandgirl.  As he walked off he looked over the grocery cart and remarked, "I wish all my patients would select food like you do."  Wow, I thought to myself, that is high praise indeed.  Last Saturday I heard high praise again. I was at a graduation ceremony at Augsburg. Offspring #2 was getting a master degree in leadership.  My niece and I went to the reception to have a cookie and a cup of lemon flavored water.  A socially awkward professor, in a robe and a hood asked Offspring #2 if she was planning to get a PhD.  She said she didn't know yet. He said, "You got the chops for it.  You certainly got the chops for it."  Wow, high praise again!  Random high praise is very meaningful.