Last Friday in the week

It's nearly the end of September and thus the end of the third quarter of the year. My tennis log is filling up, but I've been putting off calculating and summing up. That part of it will wait for another day. After tomorrow's session I will have played on 14 of September's days - not bad for having spent a week in Michigan and a couple of weekends in the northland. I guess I'm satisfied with that.

 Today at Marie Courts we had a foursome, including the visitor from Arizona who was pictured here yesterday. After playing two sets in nearly perfect, windless weather, one of the guys reminded us that we'd decided to go to Summit Brewery in St Paul on the first day that they could legally sell and serve beer at the brewery. There used to be a Minnesota statute forbidding that practice, but it was changed in the last tumultuous session of the legislature. Summit brews its beer in a business park near highway 35E and Shephard Road. We sat in their patio, had a beer (Summit Extra Pale Ale), and reanalyzed our tennis styles among other idle chit-chat. It was a pleasant way to spent one of the last really nice days of September.

It's been a hard week of tennis and I think I need a couple of days off to recover. Next week will be a bit slower and probably a bit more varied.

The trees across the pond from the tennis courts at Marie Park are changing color. The chlorophyl is retreating leaving only the colored sugary cells.

I had a phone conversation with the Prairie Princess today. She's arrived at her field work station in Amani Nature Preserve, but it appears to be without internet. So I guess she may only be reachable by telephone until sometime in December. Unless she finds a way to get to the internet. I checked with my long distance phone provider and they quoted a price of $6.48 a minute to talk to Tanzania without a special plan. They had a cheaper rate to sign up for ($5 a month plus $.49 per minute when calling). Even that seems pretty pricey. I'm sure going to miss iChat and Skype over the next two and a half months.