The Land of Hype and Hyperbole

 If only it felt as nice as it looks outside. 

Blue skies, bright, blinding sunshine bouncing off the snow. But it is about 10 degrees with a nasty 30 mile per hour wind, making it feel like -2 degrees Fahrenheit. 

There was a significant snowstorm about 70 miles south of me this weekend. I was right on the border of the storm, stuck in forecast purgatory; literally, "1 inch to 13 inches of snow", but the unknown forced me to stay at my workplace Saturday night (I must be within 20 minutes of my work when I am on-call, and I had no idea what the weather was going to do; nor did Mr. Weatherman). 

Turns out we got perhaps three inches, maximum. 'Tis the "Land of Hype and Hyperbole," I like to call it.

Looking out my window on this chilly Monday, 16 March 2026

Turns out, not much happened workwise this weekend. But it was one of those things where I couldn't do much but wait for my pager to go off, so I made a huge dent in a new book I am reading, John Williams: A Composer's Life by Tim Greiving, which I am just loving.  

I knew nothing about Williams prior to opening this book, and what a life -- what a career!! Of course, he's known for his close association with Spielberg, but Williams was in the music/television/film business for twenty years prior to meeting Spielberg. 

Williams had already scored films such as The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Fiddler on the Roof and Valley of the Dolls as well as made-for-television movies such as Jane Eyre and the infamous (to football fans) Heidi, plus television series like Lost in Space (he wrote the theme song), Gilligan's Island and Wagon Train, just to name a few. If that wasn't enough he had also already won a Grammy and an Academy Award. At 43 years old, he was considered perhaps the best film composer in Hollywood. 

Then he met a 25 year-old film geek named Steven who was a Williams "fanboy" and desperately wanted to work with the music legend. I think it is very akin to compare their fortuitous union with that of Lennon and McCartney in pop music: the meeting of two geniuses from which the rest of the world was rewarded with a lifetime of entertainment.

One of the interesting bits that I have read is that Spielberg strongly recommended John Williams to his friend George Lucas, who was struggling with a "space opera." Lucas thought it would ultimately be "a film to be watched by 10 year-old boys on a Saturday afternoon." As partial payment for his work, Lucas offered Williams 1% of the film's box office earnings.

Star Wars has earned approximately $10 billion at the box office; 1% of $10 billion is $100 million. Not a bad day's work.

Remember,that's just ONE film. We won't even go into the remainder of the Star Wars series, Jaws, the Indiana Jones series, the Jurassic Park series, E.T. (The Extra Terrestrial), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler's List, Home Alone, the Harry Potter series... well, you get my drift. The man is simply the greatest movie composer of all time and no one else is even close. Period. (Oh, did I mention Superman?)

Anyway, what I meant to say before going off on this tangent is that I am enjoying this book very much.

So that's it for now. I will update again, soon. Meanwhile I will sit in my easy chair and sadly watch the world burn. I have a feeling the other shoe is going to drop soon, I am just not sure which shoe; I am hopeful of one and fearful of the other. 

I promised myself not to get political on this site, so I will stop there. 

(**Gemini, Google's AI platform, tells me that it was Alec Guiness who was offered a percentage of the box office receipts, not Williams. However, author Tim Greiving has done impeccable, detailed homework in this biography and I trust his years of research over a shitty one second AI search.)

Hella Kids

This morning I finished All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Everyone on the planet has heard of this classic, published 97 years ago, but I had never read it. It was an incredibly heavy book (emotionally heavy; the book itself is just 179 pages). 

The story is based on Remarque's own horrendous physical and psychological ordeal in the trenches of France during World War One. The reader is truly left with a sense of how horrific and utterly senseless war really is. It should be required reading for every world leader. 

But that assumes every world leader can read.

"The only good thing to come from war is camaraderie."

On a lighter note, my part of this big world woke up to cotton candy fog this morning. "Thick as pea soup" as my mother used to say, although I don't remember her ever making pea soup, In fact, I'm not sure what pea soup even looks like. I'm guessing it is thick and green, which is nothing like fog. 

A better descriptor would be "Thick as Campbell's mushroom soup." That's definitely better. Opaque and gray-ish. It resembles two-day old phlegm but it tastes great. Or should I say, M'm! M'm! Good!

But these murky mornings are welcome here. As we inch closer to spring, hour by hour, fog forms like the ghost of winter, slowly fading, melting, releasing its death grip. It actually feels satisfying to turn on the fog lights as one ventures out and about. 

Speaking of, I drove my son to jazz band this morning; he has jazz practice every morning at 7:30 AM. I give him credit, because jazz is meant to be played at midnight, when you finally find the pocket and the atmosphere of a smokey nightclub is just right; capturing that groove right after breakfast is impossible, but you do what you have to do. 

As I headed home, navigating the roundabouts, I approached a rusted out Dodge Durango from behind. I could see white lettering stenciled on the back window and being the curious type, I had to inch closer to see what it read:  

"HELLA KIDS IN THIS BITCH" in capital letters (a fancy, dancing script to give it a classy touch). 

I am too old to understand this vernacular, so I had to look it up. It turns out "hella" actually has its roots in 1970s and 1980s slang in the Bay Area of California. I'm not so sure about that because I grew up in the '70s and '80s, and I never heard of the word "hella" until No Doubt came out with a song called "Hella Good" around the turn of the 21st century. 

I presume "hella" is an adverb; roughly meaning "really" or "very." If so, the phrase "hella kids" doesn't make a lot of sense to me. "Hella kids in this bitch" obscures the meaning even more. The "bitch" part could mean the Durango itself, or perhaps it refers to the driver of the Durango, who could be pregnant. 

Regardless, the essence of the meaning, I am guessing, is a redneck/white ghetto interpretation of "Baby On Board."

Either way, I give Durango credit for spelling everything correctly, because the "t" is silent in "bitch," and it is frequently overlooked. 

Hella well done, Durango.

The Blind Assassin

 This is a quick post for book lovers, because only book lovers know the feeling I have right now: a feeling of contented exhaustion after finishing a great novel. 

As usual, I am late to the party. The Blind Assassin was published 26 years ago, but it was new to me, and I had no idea what to expected when I opened to page one; maybe something about a professional assassin? Maybe some secret agent man shit going on? 

Nope, not at all. Essentially this was a novel within a novel with three different, yet interwoven stories twisting around each other. 

I admit I had the thing figured out about 3/4 of the way through, or at least I thought I did, but then the last 125 pages had me second-guessing myself. Awesome storytelling.

Margaret Atwood turned 86 years old last November and she now has a brand new fan. Hey, it is better late than never!

It is hard to believe, but I am actually going to sit down and write a bit. I have my cup of tea by my side -- the cup is a big, black 20 ounce treasure from the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. It's a great place to visit if you're in the area -- especially if dinosaurs are your thing. The tea is "Organic Peachy Green" by Tazo. I am happy it is "organic," because an inorganic tea doesn't sound very palatable. The Tazo connoisseurs say this tea has a "hint of cucumber," but I'm not buying it. Still, it is pretty tasty.

No, I have not stopped drinking coffee; far from it, actually. Throughout the morning, I've had two pots of Sunrise Blend from New Hill Coffee Roasters. My friend, Kevin, is the owner/operator of New Hill and he roasts and blends fantastic coffee.

This date, February 28, is earmarked in my life and it might be why I was moved to write today. My father died on this day back in 1997. I held his hand when he slipped away. I've always been thankful I was with him when he took his last breath. I will never know if he knew I was there, but I am glad he wasn't alone. Twenty-nine years ago feels like yesterday, but at the same time it feels like a lifetime ago.

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So what have I been doing? Working, mostly. I usually have a day off during the week and then embrace these precious weekends. I've been watching lots of basketball lately; I always do in February and March. It isn't nearly as entertaining and interesting as football, but it is better than most things on television. 

I am also reading (almost done) a fantastic novel, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It was a Christmas gift from my daughter who picked it up at a used book store (she knows I love those kinds of gifts). Atwood, of course, is most famous for The Handmaid's Tale, which presently sits atop my desk, part of my lengthy "To Read" list. If it is half as good as The Blind Assassin, I will be happy. She's an awesome writer.

Well, the days are getting longer. That's a positive. This time of year I am always looking for something positive, because this is an ugly time of year. The snow has become a flagrant gray-black, as if its very existence is meant to be offensive. The trees are barren skeletons. The few pock marks of bare ground are dreary and dead. The sky is concrete on most days. On good days, the temperatures rise above freezing for a short time, then the world becomes a skating rink at night. Rinse and repeat. Day after day. 

Oh, and there's dog shit everywhere.

I guess this is called "spring fever," right?

And, as any Minnesotan knows, winter isn't over. My dad used to say we always get a snowstorm right around the boys state basketball tournament. And you know what? He was right every time. I suspect the same will be true this year.

[editor's note: my last post waaay back in July 2025 was about the Amelia Earhart plane wreckage and the Purdue University expedition to Nikumaroro where the mysterious Taraia Object is located. I mentioned there was something very odd on the northwestern shore, which was nowhere close to the infamous satellite imagery that many researchers think is Earhart's plane. 

As it turns out, this is actually a shipwreck of the SS Norwich City, which foundered there in 1929. So, my eyes didn't deceive me; it really was something man-made, just not an airplane. Mystery solved.

By the way, this expedition, originally slated for November 2025, has been postponed until later in 2026.]

Crime and Punishment

 I am happy to report to myself that I have finished Crime and Punishment and I completed the book in under a month, which for me is reading at warp speed. But to be honest, it was really that good! The last few chapters were page turners and I wasn't really sure what was going to happen until the very last sentence of the novel. I mean that literally. Now that is good writing.

A couple of negatives, and this was probably on me, because I didn't read to foreword and I have a feeling this was addressed in that portion of the book: Dostoevsky would frequently use three different names for the same character. Their last name. Their first and middle name. Their nickname. He would use these interchangeably and it took me quite a while to finally catch on that, for example, "Rodya," Rodion Romanovitch" and "Raskolnikov" were all the same person. I found myself going back in the book and trying to figure out who was who until I finally got familiar with all the characters. My guess is this was a cultural thing and not much thought was even given to it at the time.

Also, the novel was written in the formal, Victorian style of the time, which was just fine, but it was also translated from Russian to English, which made it much more of a challenge to read. But the plot and the sub-plots and all the interweaving of the characters' stories was masterful. 

I am not a literary expert, but I am guessing this was one of the earliest novels to dig into the psychological profile of murderer (not to give away the plot in case you want to read it... but yes, a crime was committed!). It was published in 1866 but still resonates today. I wasn't sure I would like this book or even make it to the end... and I am so glad I decided to give it a try! Like I said, I couldn't put it down when I got to the last 75 pages or so.

Up next, I think I am going to read another classic published more than 140 years before Crime and Punishment and 50 years before the Declaration of Independence. Bet you can't guess what it is!

Super Bowl set and a new read started

 Everyone is lying.

Super Bowl LIX is set and it is the Chiefs versus Eagles (again). Indeed, we saw this match up just two years ago and it is exactly what most of the country did not want to see. People are sick of the Chiefs' preferential treatment by the NFL and Eagles fans are universally hated by everyone (for good reason, by the way). As a result, fans near and far are claiming they are not going to watch the big game. "Might as well find something else to do, I'm not watching this game." 

Give me a break.

Of course you are going to watch the game! If you are a real football fan like me, you are going to watch the fricking Super Bowl. Full stop. 

Trust me, I hope both teams lose. But I'm still going to watch the game. So are you, Mr. "I Might As Well Find Something Else To Do." Stop lying.

But I do empathize with Bills fans this morning. Like my Vikings, it feels like Bills fans cheer for a cursed franchise. It is crazy how at critical moments, some teams always rise to the challenge and others crap themselves. Both the Vikings and the Bills have a history of incontinence.

Both teams are always pretty good. Each have a long history of winning. Each have even been dominant at times. But they are never good enough. At the same time, they are never bad enough to scrap everything and start over again. They are stuck in football purgatory together.

The Vikings have lost four Super Bowls, although many fans don't even remember the last Super Bowl the Vikings played in (9 January 1977); that includes myself. I was just seven years old. 

The Bills have also lost four Super Bowls, but they did so in spectacular fashion: they are the only team in NFL history to go to four consecutive Super Bowls... and they lost all four. Brutal.

Since 1998, the Vikings were one game away from the Super Bowl four different times... in fact, they were one play away in a couple of games. They are 0-6 in their last six conference championship appearances. If anyone can empathize with Bills fans this morning, it is Vikings fans. We know.

☆

Earlier this week I started reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. As crazy as it may sound, I am really enjoying it. I knew nothing about this novel before opening it up, but it has captured my attention.  The story (so far) delves into the disturbed thoughts of a psychopath... and I'd guess the novel was way ahead of its time (it was written in the 1860s).  It is translated from Russian, so the flow can be choppy at times, but the story is quite compelling. I wasn't sure what I'd think of it, but so far so good!

This particular novel is from the library of my wife's grandfather, Dr. H. R. Piltingsrud

We are enjoying a warming trend this week. It is gray and overcast, but it is actually above freezing(!). I took advantage of the warmer (relatively speaking, of course) weather and washed my truck this morning. I thought I would get ahead of the crowd, but there was already a line at 8:00 AM. A dash of patience paid off; the salt and grime is off my truck, so it was worth the wait.

Lastly, I did some deep purging this morning, removing something like 30 shirts from my closet that haven't seen the light of day in years. I found myself immediately saying, "Oh, I shouldn't get rid of this because... because...." 

Just get rid of it. 

My thought process is if I haven't worn it in the last 12 months, I don't need it. Anyway, I have way too much stuff. And now that I have cleaned things out, I feel 10 pounds lighter. It is weird how that works.

22 January 2025

 I'm not sure what to do with this site. Should I make it into a football-only site? Maybe record the daily weather? How about my own personal book club? A personal diary? All of the above? 

I don't know.

I suppose it doesn't really matter. I'm not marketing myself for an audience and if you don't promote a site, you don't get traffic. I'm good with that. This is for my own therapy. 

We all need a release valve. There can be no doubt today's world is far more toxic to one's mental health than it was 30 years ago. It is almost impossible to get away from the slings and arrows of social media (and yes, the irony that I am writing this on a website is not lost on me). I know for a fact my mind was much happier before Facebook, Instagram, etc. I find the less attention I pay to social media and news outlets, the better I am. 

Am I burying my head in the sand? To a degree, yes, I suppose I am. Does it really matter? No, it doesn't. The country will meander off the edge of the earth with or without me. This is not to imply I ignore current events and world news, but I try to tune the bullshit out. And most of it is bullshit.

Speaking of current events...

This year has been a theme of fire and ice so far. Fire on the West Coast: cataclysmic wild fires around Los Angeles earlier in January (they started on the 7th). Dry conditions with 100 mph winds make very favorable conditions for a catastrophe. Ice in the south: Lafayette, Louisiana, has more snow (10+ inches) than Baxter, Minnesota as of January 21. 

Are these cyclical patterns? Climate change? Even though the theory of climate change is based on the course and trends of 175 years worth of data, it doesn't exist if you say it doesn't exist. Draw a line in the sand and anything is political.

As John Lennon once wrote, "Living is easy with eyes closed."

Speaking of weather, we've had brutally cold temperatures here in central Minnesota earlier this week. Monday night was the coldest it has been in the last calendar year. It was -32° F on Monday night/Tuesday morning. It always amazes me that wildlife, like deer and birds, can exist in extreme cold like that, but they do. It is much more pleasant now -- something like 19° F right now. Above zero is always a nice thing. 

It is a little late for resolutions, but my son mentioned something yesterday that I have thought of before and I even made an abortive attempt at trying once: converting all my weather apps to Celsius/metric scale. In his words, "It's just so much easier to understand." (And so it is: 0 is when water freezes, 100 is when water boils. It is simply a paradigm shift to thinking anything from 17 to 29 Celsius is very pleasant. Anything below that is getting chilly and anything above that is getting hot.)

Liberia, Myanmar and the United States are the only three countries in the world that "officially" use the old imperial units. The U.S. isn't exactly a forward-moving, progressive nation, but obviously this is what the majority of Americans desire. Certainly, we are no longer leaders in education (far from it!). We've also fallen behind as the world leader in science and technology. That's not my opinion. That's a fact. Unless you choose to not believe it. Remember, it doesn't exist if you say it doesn't exist. Easy!

I finished a novella yesterday, The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I haven't read anything by Steinbeck that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. The moral of this quick read was, essentially, "be careful what you wish for."

I think my next book is going to be Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. It is yet another classic I have not yet read.

Happy birthday to my dad, who was born on 21 Jan 1915.

My Effin' Life

 We are approaching the end of yet another year. As I get older, I become more thankful for another precious trip around the sun. I know time is temporary and we all need to enjoy every moment. So easy to say, so difficult to do. But I try.

I finished yet another book. My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee, one of the co-founders of the band Rush. Now, full disclosure here, I fell in love with Rush when I was 13 or 14 and I have followed them ever since. Their music was so influential on me that I named my only son after the band's drummer, Neil Peart. In my opinion, I believe Peart to be the greatest drummer of all time. And no, I'm not forgetting about the great Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Chick Webb, Louis Bellson... or even Jeff Porcaro and, of course, John Bonham. 

I recently was reading an argument about the greatest rock drummer of all time and, as usual, it came down to Neil Peart and John Bonham. Someone said Peart could do what Bonham could do, but it is doubtful Bonham could do what Peart did. That was pretty profound statement to me, and it sealed the deal.

Anway, back to My Effin' Life. The book was -- trying to find the right adjective -- delightful. It was written in a very casual manner, almost as if Geddy was writing an email or text to you. He takes you on an engaging journey from his earliest memories, and includes a somber chapter about his parents' nightmarish experience in concentration camps during the Holocaust. The book is full of highs and lows, joys and sadnesses. He's lived quite an effin' life. 

~

I was looking back on my posts this year. Ten posts in total, seven were since November 1st. Most of those entries were about books and music. What a surprise. My New Years resolution will be to blog more. After all, it is nice to see what happened during the year because my memory is frequently a blur.

We had our own private little Christmas on Saturday morning (23rd) before heading to my in-law's cabin on Pierz Lake. This was the first Christmas in my life where I was awoken during the night because of rain pelting the roof. The year 2023 was most definitely the Rainy and Foggy Christmas (just like the song, "then one foggy Christmas Eve"), as it poured rained from December 23 through Christmas Day and not a lick of snow on the ground. Speaking of, if that pummeling rain had been snow, we probably would not have gotten together for Christmas because the roads would not have been passable.

Lookin' out my backyard, 30 December 2023

I had taken in my rain gauge in October so it wouldn't freeze and break, so I can't say how much rain we actually got, but all that water had a chance to evaporate (thanks to "warm" temperatures) before anything had the chance to freeze. We would've been in major trouble if it had -- downed power lines, downed trees, not to mention sheer ice on roads and sidewalks. Yeah, it could've been bad. Luck was on our side this time. 

I have no plans to see in the new year. Staying home and watching football on the tube sounds magical. The coming week and month will be full of activity and I will try to document it here as a record for myself (I get motivated to document after reading a good memoir). It will be February before I know it... and I believe this is a leap year, so we get a bonus day to 2024.

Saturday morning, 18 November 2023

 After a week of very unseasonably warm weather (highs in the 60s!), today was a slap back to reality. A crisp, chilly, late autumn morning. I was up relatively early (6:30 AM-ish) and read a bit more from Scattershot (yeah, I am a notoriously slow reader) and drank multitudes of strong, black coffee. 

I was thinking this morning that coffee is the solution to everything, literally and figuratively (from a scientific standpoint, coffee really is a solution. And coffee is the answer to anything life can throw at you. Get it?). Then I started thinking ...hmmm... there is an essay there somewhere. Then I thought, nevermind. I'm sure that's already been done before.

Still, coffee and a good book. A near-perfect beginning to the day.

The perfect solution

Because of Scattershot, I have gone down an Elton John/Bernie Taupin wormhole. I have been an Elton John fan for a long time. Many years ago, when I was lost and working at Fingerhut, I met a co-worker who was a huge Elton John fan. She let me borrow a four or six-CD (I forget how many) "greatest works" box set, which I promptly copied onto cassette (yes, cassette). I was exposed to all sorts of fantastic Elton John songs that were not hits; I felt I had a nice foothold on the deeper tracks. 

[editor's note: I had to think for a long time, but I remembered that co-worker was named Michelle. I think she was the first person I ever met with one green eye and one blue eye. I don't remember Michelle's last name... in fact, I'm not sure if I ever knew it. But she was more than happy to share her love of Elton John with me and she trusted me with that magnificent box set, which was definitely not cheap. For that, I will always be grateful. I wonder what ever happened to Michelle?]

Anyway, last night I was up a little later than usual sifting through John's first few albums, listening to really deep cuts, some more than 50 years old which I've never heard before (the nice thing is if you've never heard the song before, it is new to you!). As expected, I discovered a pile of hidden gems. "Come Down in Time," "High Flying Bird," "First Episode at Hienton," "Amoreena," and the wonderful "Talking Old Soldiers" are just a handful of great lesser known songs that I was unfamiliar with, just waiting to be discovered. Of course, there are many, many more albums to go, so I feel like I have got a whole world waiting to be explored.

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Ah, Saturdays... when I don't have to work, I love relaxing weekends (who doesn't? I guess that was a stupid statement). Today there's an abundance of college football on the tube. I might even enjoy a delicious Romeo y Julieta cigar at some point today. The sun is shining and the sky is completely cloudless. Best of all, we still don't have any snow. Each week without snow means a another week less of winter in my mind. It is chilly, but I don't mind that. It is the snow and its debilitating effects that I hate. 

It can snow in March and April all it wants. I know we need precipitation during the winter, nature has its needs, but spring blizzards are not the perma-snow we get in October/November... the shit that lasts six months.

We went to Fargo last weekend, but typical me, I didn't take any pictures. After the football game we went to Drekker Brewing, which we've been to before. However, Drekker has now built a brand new hotel/market/restaurant area called "Brewhalla" next to the original brewery. The shops are very interesting, each selling unique artisan works, from pottery to hand-made dog treats/toys to unique soaps, foods, plants, books, paintings and damn near anything else you can think of. Looking for Japanese mayonnaise? This is the place to find it.

Oh, and there's beer, too. And imbibing is highly encouraged as you browse the shops. Highly recommended.

One of the unique shops in Brewhalla (my daughter spent $100 here)

Until next time...

A Hat That Lets Rain In

 My journey continues with Scattershot, Bernie Taupin's memoir. I just read an excellent quote from the book, attributed to Frederick the Great:

"A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in."

I just love that quote. 

As I may have said earlier, I wish Taupin discussed the originations and inspirations for his lyrics a bit more, because he is one of the best of all time; nevertheless, it is a well-written and fun read. I am enjoying it.

Last week we went to my daughter's last high school fall play. The beginning of many "first lasts" as the year continues. I try not to get sentimental about it, but deep inside, I am a big fucking sap.

Ava's last fall play as stage manager.

Ava has been selected to do an internship at the local hospital, which also happens to be my employer (she swears she did not name drop, even though I told her to. I have found it is not what you know, but WHO you know in life that gains you meaningful employment). This past week has been insane, trying to get everything done (background checks, immunizations, photo for ID, answering a thousand questions from a thousand different forms) so she can start on Monday.

Anyway, she was selected to intern with various departments at the hospital and clinic and I think it will be a fantastic experience for her. But between school, theater, her own part time job and this internship, she's burning the candle at both ends, plus a third end which has never been discovered before. Luckily, the internship is just two days a week and lasts only five weeks. 

The sun has not revealed itself for at least three days. It has been gray, overcast, occasional snow flurries in the air and chilly. We are no longer in the vibrant fall crown of October. We are now in the shades of gray belly of November. 

I do just fine with the seasonal change until daylight saving time ends. When the clocks fall back an hour... let's just say I do not deal with constant darkness very well. Neither does my daughter. Undoubtedly we both have undiagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder, or whatever it is called. 

A photo of my backyard back in 2009. Soon it'll look like this again. Not looking forward to it.

Ava is getting some help from a school shrink, which I am thankful for. I am pounding Vitamin D. In the past, this is the time of year when I start pounding beer/alcohol as well, more than I should. It has never effected my job or my home life, but I've always used the excuse, "It helps me get through the dark months." 

This year, I am very aware of that pitfall and I am making a conscious effort not to go there. I know the vicious cycle it creates. I am thinking of buying one (maye two!) of those bright therapeutic lights. I've seen them actually work for people, to help them get out of the wintertime funk. They are not very expensive. I just might do that. I'm also going to write more here. That helps me too.

Ya know, I never thought I'd move from Minnesota, but the older I get, the more appealing spending winters in Arizona sounds. That's still a few years away, but the gears are turning in the back of my mind.

✴

I decided we are going out for dinner tonight, the four of us. We aren't going to have too many of these moments anymore with Ava going to college next year and it has been a long, stressful week (although it has been very productive, too). We deserve an evening out.

Tomorrow we are going to Fargo to an NDSU football game. The Bison are good, but definitely not great this year; not national champions great -- the first time in about 15 years I've had to say that -- but it is still very fun to go to a game and spend time with family after the game. Anything to break up the routine, even for a day.

Speaking of family, I cannot end without wishing a Happy Birthday to my mother. She passed away unexpectedly some 33 1/2 years ago, but she will never, ever be forgotten. November 8th would have been her 95th birthday.

My mom, taken in the mid-1980s, doing what she loved to do.

 

November 1

 Today seems like a good day to start writing here again. Although I know it is a seldom visited blog, I like to jot down ideas now and then.

I'm currently reading a memoir called Scattershot by Bernie Taupin. Taupin has been Elton John's lyricist since the very beginning of John's career, all the way back when he was still known as Reginald Dwight. I have loved Taupin's lyrics from the very beginning and the book is a fun read, because it is so wonderfully written. Yes, he has a way with words... but about that...

I do admit I am a little disappointed because he doesn't talk nearly enough about his writing inspirations and influences -- he never talks about why he started writing in the first place, so that's a bit disappointing. He's such a brilliant writer, able to pack a million emotions into just a few lines, which is incredibly difficult; I'd love to know more about how he does it.

I am a music person and I am just fascinated with the creative process. I love to know why things are written. Where did it come from? Why did he write something like "Candle in the Wind" or "Rocketman" or "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," which John set to unforgettable music? What was he reading or watching at the time that inspired those words? 

Anyway...

It is November 1st and Christmas commercials have started in earnest. Christmas displays have been out in local stores for several weeks. I love Christmas, but in like good Americans we go way overboard. Too much, too soon, too long... the American way.

Lastly, the kids went trick or treating last night for the last time together. I can't believe that time is gone. It went far too fast. Actually, they were collecting food for the school's food shelf, which is an annual event sponsored by one of my daughter's high school clubs. Still, it was the last time and it was kind of sad.

One last Trick or Treat.

I Delcare This Bathroom Open!

 Yet another long gap between posts. As usual, I think about writing all the time, but never do it. But today seems a good day to mark time.

Our upstairs bathroom renovation is, at long last, finished. It only took five months (literally). The project was started on 23 September 2022 and went through delay after delay, including replacing two (out of three) damaged surround panels, which meant contacting the company not once, but twice, to send replacement panels. Then waiting for the contractor to come back and install them. 

Then we waited for a contractor to put in the flooring. 

Finally we waited for a contractor to drywall around the new shower. First, he was finishing a larger project (which took more than a month), then he was delayed for a month due to illness.

Wait. Wait. Wait.

Finally this weekend I put the finishing touches on the project on my own, including caulking, recutting floorboards that no longer fit, and cutting and fitting quarter round molding around the vanity (first time using a miter box and it actually looks nice). 

New flooring replaced crappy linoleum.

Partial picture of the surround. Only one panel was undamaged when we opened the original box.

My very first attempt at cutting a 45 degree angle using a miter box. The molding was $17 so there was a little pressure to get it right the first time.

After the new tub went in, waiting for undamaged panels. We looked at this for two months. You can see the old linoleum floor in the lower part of the picture. 

I also completed our taxes today. So, it's been a productive weekend. On top of that, I took a major fall in my driveway today--slipped on the ice. Luckily my bones are pretty strong, but my hip, elbow and wrist are going to be black and blue for a while. How dumb. 

Speaking of breaking shit, our garage door broke last week as well (it has been exciting around here). The spring above the garage door broke in two which meant there was not way on God's green earth I was fixing anything (oh, and it was 20 degrees below zero). It also happened on the day the drywall guy was finishing our bathroom. It was like we were being challenged to the very end.

I've been listening to the band Bowling For Soup lately. My own band has learned their hit "1985" and I just couldn't get the song out of my head (this happens frequently to me), so the way I exorcise that demon is by listening to the culprit song really loudly wearing headphones. 

Once I listened to "1985" a couple times, I started exploring their catalogue (they've been together since 1994 so I'm a little late to the party), and they've got a bunch of fun, tongue-in-cheek, power punk songs. Nothing complicated, nothing earth-shattering. Just fun party music. I needed to find a new band to dig and I have.

I'm currently reading The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch and I'm loving it. Last year I read The Lincoln Conspiracy by the same authors and it was excellent. Both are well researched non-fiction history, but they read like a suspense novels. Not an easy task.

These days I am spending my free time (when I have it) watching college basketball and, on occasion, hockey. I'm a football guy to the core, so I just take a passing interest in sports during these winter months. Obviously I am looking forward to the Super Bowl next week. Then the long offseason.... maybe I should write more since I'm not distracted by football every weekend?

Observation Unrecorded

 What a beautiful fall day; it is very breezy, but with a temp of 78°F, it is hardly worth noting. 

I've not posted for a very long time--six months, to be exact. The spring, summer and most of fall has gone by. Indeed, I'm still here, which is pretty obvious since you are reading this. 

And if you are reading this, thank you for visiting. You must really want to be here because I'm not posting the link for my blog on social media anymore (in fact, I don't even look at social media anymore), I'm just posting for myself (and anyone who cares to read). I like journaling. I like keeping tabs on ideas and current events and looking back on them in context. 

I just finished a book today, Undaunted Courage by acclaimed historian, Stephen E. Ambrose. The subtitle of the book is Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West. I purchased the book while on vacation in Cody, Wyoming, this summer (I bought a whole bunch of books on that vacation!). I've been reading it for multiple weeks (I am a notoriously slow reader); essentially it is about the history surrounding the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with special emphasis on Lewis and Jefferson. 

The odd part is I finished reading it on the day Lewis died (today, October 11th), exactly 213 years later. 

Anyway, excellent book. I looked forward to reading it every single day. My interest in Corps of Discovery (the official name of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) piqued after visiting an interpretive center near Washburn, North Dakota, last year, where the Expedition spent the winter of 1804-05, near the Mandan villages. I purchased the Lewis and Clark journals while at the interpretive center, which I am going to read at some point.

~

Our upstairs bathroom is still not complete. A new shower is being installed (after waiting some 16 months for a plumber) only to find the main piece for the surround was damaged in the box. We contacted the company (Lyons) and they sent a new piece, no questions asked--great customer service. Now, two weeks later, we are still waiting for the surround to be installed.

Still not done...

I spent the 53rd birthday in Walker, MN. A quick getaway. Enjoyed the crisp air and beautiful fall colors on Walker Bay of Leech Lake. Also enjoyed the fantastic beer of Portage Brewing. 

Walker City Dock, near Chase on the Lake Hotel in Walker, MN

Of course it is football season and I've greatly enjoyed watching my son play. He's really improved this year and he seems to really enjoy playing. My daughter is really active in school: member of student council, theater department stage manager, plays in the pep band, symphony and jazz band. They are my source of eternal pride and happiness.

Seven tackles that day!

She's become "famous" for her frog hat during pep band

Some times I get in on the act at football games. It's a pretty good view from here.

Well, there's a quick update. I suppose I am a bit motivated to jot something down since the passage of yet another birthday. It always seems like a good reset. Plus, I read a quote from Undaunted Courage last night that struck me: "Observation unrecorded is knowledge lost." (James P. Ronda)

Now, if I could just keep at it for 21 days. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit.

We'll see.

New year update

New Year's resolutions are stupid.

I "resolved" to start writing every day, 30 minutes a day, beginning January 1st. That didn't happen. I have a dozen excuses, but they are all lame. 

Unlike many people who write, I have a terrible time coming up with something to write about. I seriously struggle with content. 

For that reason, I'm inching toward writing more fiction. Just make stuff up. I can do that, right?

So for lack of anything better to write, and since I spend hardly any time on social media anymore, here's a quick update on life as I know it.

~

Our Christmas was very nice. We spent time with family; on Christmas morning my son got his Oculus Quest he'd been wanting (for over a year) and my daughter got a new phone. No, it wasn't a cheap Christmas, but they've been rockstars in school, they stay out of trouble (for the most part), and good behavior does not go unnoticed by Santa Claus.

Ava getting her new phone

Neil could not believe his eyes

Besides, we spend lots of money on bills; spending a bit of green and putting a smile on our kids' faces is what life is about. I doubt I will lay on my deathbed thinking, "I'm so glad I paid that credit card bill in full." 

~

Coming soon: I'm going to put on a brave face and take my daughter driving in this white crap. My wife simply refuses to do it. Winter driving is a life skill the kid must have prior to getting her license. But I've got a secret to share with you all: I don't want to do it.

~

I've been spending most of my time at work, which I cannot talk about, of course, due to HIPAA. I have a thousand funny stories I could share. Maybe someday when I am retired I will write a tell-all book... 

In fact, I already have a copyrighted title: Nursing and Cursing: My Colorful Life as a Registered Nurse. Cursing someday to a bookstore near you.

I spend my free time writing (when the spirit moves me), and reading--my latest book is a biography on Ava Gardner. I became interested in learning more about her life after reading a biography on Frank Sinatra. It is funny how you read one book and it ignites your interest in another subject or person you'd never given a thought to in the past. In fact, that's why I read.

I've also been watching football--lots of football. I can never get enough football. The FBS bowl games are beyond lame and the Vikings suck this year (it is time for a full reset, kids). However, I'm really looking forward to NDSU Bison playing for a ninth national championship this Saturday. 

Tradition dictates that my family go out for Mexican/Tex-Mex the night before the national championship. It has worked eight times since 2011. So guess what we will be eating Friday night?! (Why Mexican/Tex-Mex, you ask? The championship game is played in Frisco, Texas).

So there you go, a quick update from yours truly... politically correct and non-controversial.