Fort Snelling

In the interest of exercise and to find an interesting photo for this blog, I ventured over to Fort Snelling. There is a nice tennis facility there, which I should photograph and include here, but today I went to the old fort. It has been restored from the original and looks pretty much the way it did in the beginning. Beginning means 1820-24 when it was put up in the early days of Minnesota by the army. It's winter and there aren't many people around during this season so I was alone at the site. It is Minnesota's 150th anniversary in 2008 - statehood was conferred in 1858, just shortly before the Civil War. The fort is one of the few structures in Minnesota that is older than the state itself.


It's election crazy season all over the country. The pollsters are embarrassed because they failed to predict the Hilary Clinton "victory" in New Hampshire. They predicted the McCain victory over Mitt, but missed badly on the Democratic side. There are lots of theories floating around from the pundits, but they really are mystified. If the New Hampshire people are like me, they refuse to participate in polls, or perhaps even lie to the pollsters when they call at dinner time looking for free info. It may also be the prevalence of cell phones and the inability to reach those who use them exclusively. Or maybe the people that they would have caught at the dinner table have caller ID and refused to answer calls from numbers that they don't recognize. It is gratifying to hear that the polls miss sometimes and sometimes very badly. Their success rate is still better than Paul Douglas, our hippy dippy TV weather creature.

I'm in the midst of a tennis marathon - four days in a row. Last night I was a sub for Brad S. at St Paul Indoor and ended up playing with three guys that I haven't played with before. It went ok, but my side lost two sets. Tonight I played at Wooddale with the hardcore girls. Jerry wasn't there because he had to attend a Minnesota PCA meeting with the public about water quality in the eastern suburbs. It seems that some 3M chemicals are showing up in well water near old dump sites of some of their chemicals. Jerry works for the PCA , who has responsibility for these matters. So the tennis was somewhat different tonight, because Pat took his place, and Pat is taller, rangier, and has much more mobility around the court. He doesn't, however have Jerry's bazooka forehand or cannonball serve. It was hard going and we had lots of long interesting points. Barb and I managed to prevail in the end, but it would have been almost as much fun if we had lost. Although we both agree that winning is better.

Tomorrow night we have another USTA match at Wooddale. It's mixed doubles again, but it should be competitive and fun. And Saturday morning I'll be back playing geezer men's doubles. Four days in a row.

The Republican National convention for this election cycle will be in St Paul next summer. From the look of the current contest, there may be some opportunities for good blogging next summer. There will be celebrities in town and lots on interesting protests, probably. Watch this space.