Last day of BEDFAMM bedlam

It's a cold day in the tundra. I have not been out, although I have seen the weather report and forecast for tomorrow, which will be December. Cold and colder. Plus I'm currently nursing a hurting left wing, so I'm staying in and defaulting to what I used many times in November. Old photos.

Marvin, Leona, Louise and Lillie Anderson in about 1926, 88 years ago. Taken, I assume, at the farm, and with a big flock of black chickens. I cropped and edited a larger image to bring the faces closer to the viewer.

Tom and Jane Miller in 1914 - 100 years ago this year. On the back it says, "Tom and Jane at old Gaslyn. Probably 1914." There is a black dog in the foreground, too. I did some cropping and editing of this one, too.

We have leftovers to eat tonight. The Flaherty Thanksgiving was bountiful and we are helping finish the best of the vittles. PP is here handling the world of Skyrim on the playstation. I've been struggling with the two crossword puzzles in the Strib. One down and about half of another to go.  NCW is working on an online crossword puzzle.

I blame the shoes

I was running out of ideas for BEDFAMM, so I broke a couple of fingers so that I'd have a bloggable subject. Tennis wasn't going as well as usual or as well as I like it to go. The first set was lost and we were a bit behind and I wasn't about to give up on any point. There was a sharp volley to my backhand. I turned and reached for a low bounce, but as I ran to my left I caught my left shoe on my right one - or vice versa - and fell heavily on the ring and little finger on my left hand. I also lost a little skin on my knees, but the main damage was to the fingers. I was sure immediately that at least one of them was fractured. That was it for tennis today. I think the shoes were to blame - see their guilty expression below.

My bound up left hand after a trip to urgent care and some X-rays. Two fractured fingers and probably a cast for a while.

We had Flaherty family Thanksgiving today at NCW's daughter's place. Plenty of good food, plenty of fun, and there will be more as leftovers tomorrow. NCW made buns and pie and also a ham to go with the 12 pound turkey. And stuffing for the bird. Maybe more than that. I was mainly a spectator. I have a hurt hand.

Only one more blog this month. I'm going to make it. too.

Photo Booth shenanigans

There was some talk at the Thanksgiving get-together/feast that the photos from the August wedding of Unky Herb and YY hadn't received enough exposure.  The photo booth shots were entertaining and fun to do.  I have copies.  The folks in these photo are well known to my usual readers.  The photographer deserves credit.  Spicy Meatball Photography.  They did a good job.  They provided a release requiring that no money be made off these photos.  These are free.  As Santini says, "Behave."

The bride and groom:

Some people mostly dressed in blue.

The father of the groom and a lady of the lake.  Swan Lake.

The same crazies.  This photo was made into a print and a copy given to me.  I put it up in the second bathroom to scare puppies.

Some gypsies off the street.

Visitors from the east.

Just two more days of BEDFAMM bedlam.

Thanksgiving comes around just once (or twice) a year

We packed the pie and a bottle of wine and went off to the Moohoo house to celebrate and give thanks for a great and eventful year. As we left we learned that NCW's granddaughter gave birth today to a healthy 6 pound 7 ounce boy - after a long labor.  The news made the atmosphere much lighter and the food taste better.

The menu was much like the last many years, traditional, filling, delicious. The main course was the big bird roasted in the oven and perfectly turned out. This was taken just before we wrestled it out onto the carving board and before starting on the mashed potatoes and gravy. In the extended menu was a unique recipe for green grape salad(?).

Dinner was about to begin and all looked around to get into the photo - all but the photographer of course.

The cooks and hosts posed in the kitchen before sitting down to the Thanksgiving dinner.

Some of the guests posed before sitting down to the banquet.

No tennis today and we held off on the Christmas shopping, too. Although we drove by Target on the way home and saw there a very full parking lot - people off to a fast start for Black Friday.

An apple pie before it's a pie, and maybe after

I've been waiting for the apple pie maker to arrive. PP decided to go do some rock climbing and then do a pie later. Rock climbing is her newest activity and the pie had to wait. The ingredients are ready, but she just arrived and the pie is a distance from completion. I decided to show a few of the ingredients and then maybe later, if I'm still up and about, edit and add a photo of the finished product.

I went to the grocer on Grand earlier to day to get some granny smith apples and, by special request from the baker, a few honey crisps. They were busy at the grocers, all the last minute preparations were going on in the midst of a snow squall. I managed to get the ingredients and get home in time to shovel and get ready to go play some tennis at Ft Snelling.

Before the pie:

Perhaps later; after the pie is done:

EDIT:  Going into the oven.

My Tennis Racket

Wilson Hyper ProStaff 6.1 tennis racket. I've been using it, or one exactly like it, since about 2001. It was the racket of choice for Roger Federer for a while in 2002 before the French Open that year, but he has since moved on to newer technology and I'm still playing with a 13 year-old racket. I even bought a new racket in about 2005 that I thought would work for me. It was a nSix-one tour 95 - a racket very much like Federer's racket in 2004-2006, but after playing with it for about a month, I started to get pains in my shoulder so I came back to this one. I gave the nSix-one to Unky Herb.

This racket is getting scarred up from scraping on the court on low shots and the paint is beginning to look bad in spots. So I'm thinking about maybe buying Fed's newest racket - the one he's supposedly using now. Wilson ProStaff RF97 Autograph which is $219 on the internet. My main problem is finding somewhere to get a demo racket and trying it out to see if I'm man enough to swing a racket worth that much dough. And whether or not the racket is as good as it has been reviewed. Fed participated in the design, so it's probably a great racket.

November is getting towards the end and it's back to acting like January. It may be a really long winter.

I lost my new camera

Sometime last weekend my new walk-around camera turned up missing. I searched all over the house thinking I had left it in the pocket of my parka. It wasn't to be found. I've only had it since February 6th of this year, but it takes pretty good pictures if I point it in the right direction. I like that camera. It's a lot like the one that Santini has been using, except mine is the silver body and not quite as fancy. I was beginning to think that I'd have to go buy another one just like it at Best Buy. Or maybe the gods were telling me to use my SLR camera more. But I had a couple of candidates for places it may have fallen out of my parka pocket. Fort Snelling and Wooddale, the places I play tennis. Today I visited Fort Snelling and their lost and found department. They had a lot of stuff - shirts, gloves, socks, and a fine assortment of water bottles - but no camera.

I drove to Wooddale and checked into an almost deserted facility. I asked the woman at the desk if I could check the lost and found. She asked what I was looking for and I described my hand-held camera. She had it at the desk. The lost is found. So I walked outside, lighthearted and took this next photo. It was getting ready to snow and there was a dark looking sky, but the day was much brighter than when I went into the building.

The second picture I took after I got it back. It's the place where I lost it. They call it the "Fun Zone," but I call it Wooddale Tennis Center and that's the name I put on the check when I pay my tennis bill.

Aunt Mayme

A foggy day in November and warm, unseasonably so. Not a good day for photos, so I'm opting for more genealogy.

Mary Elizabeth Miller Mowrey was born August 16, 1884 in Desoto, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of G.L. and Nancy Jane Miller. This was taken in the 1900's, but I'd just be guessing the date.

George E. (Fritz) Miller and Charles Miller taken about 1884 in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Mayme's older brothers. Fritz was born August 28, 1875. Charles was born May 22, 1877.

From a letter from Mayme Miller Mowrey to Jane Miller in 1968:

“Don't tell me that you've never heard any details about the journey north! Or when the girls first came to our house. Mama and I were home alone one day first week in July, 1899. Papa was gone out of town for the day. George McDill came to tell the folks about Uncle George's death and to talk over what was to be done about the four girls. He had always told the girls if anything ever happened to him, they should get in touch with their cousin George. Mama didn't know just what to tell him and they made no decision. The next thing happened about a week later. Papa got a telegram from George saying he and the four girls would arrive on the midnight train on the Burlington road. Charlie happened to be home, so he and papa met the train. I don't remember the exact date, but it was in the first week of July, 1899. They all stayed with us until early in November. Then Gladys and Mollie went to live with George, and Ruth and Ella stayed with us. The next summer, as soon as school was out, Glad and Mollie came back and stayed all summer.

Ruth graduated from high school in 1901 and she came up here and taught school. Maxwells lived up here and she stayed with Aunt Em as much as possible. She always had the most horrible boarding places!

In April, 1903, the move up here was made. I've always wondered why! Your dad had been up here since the fall of 1901 - I think. Papa chartered a box car for the move. One end of it was shut off some way an d was fixed up for living quarters for mama, Ella, and "grossvater" and Papa. In the rest of the car, they brought a pet trotting horse, some cattle, I don't remember how many. They left P.D.C. [Prairie du Chien] in the evening of April 7, 1903, and arrived in Spooner the morning of April 10th. It must have been a horrible trip. How many times have I heard that pastures were green, so that the cattle could be turned out to eat!? Nothing like that very often the first part of April these days.

I stayed in P.D.C. until school was out in June. Gladys was graduated in Omaha the same year. Then she came up here the same day I did. We met in the union depot in St. Paul and came on to Spooner together. She never went back.

Your dad and mother [Ed. Geo. E. and Melissa Miller] had been married in January and lived in the log house. It must have expanded its walls, for it encompassed all the new comers! It was about two years before the other house was built. You must remember a lot about things in later years.”

Revisiting 1944-46

November made a comeback today. 36º at 4 pm in the Saintly City. But it's cloudy and gloomy.

I'm posting a couple of photos from the 1940's. The first one has four generations of women - Jacobine, Hansine, Lillie, Sylvia. The background - Gloria Hansen, Richard Anderson, Jake Hansen, Nels Hansen. I'm guessing 1946 based on the supposed age of the youngest in the photo.  The photo was taken by the door to the farmhouse at Dick's Farm.  Photographer unknown.

The Anderson family from, I think, 1944, mostly because Santini is absent and it looks like she may be born soon.  Back rows: Marvin, Sue, Marian, Lillie, Louise, Dorothy, Leona, Hansine.  Front: Tommy, Richard, Jimmy, Anita.  This was taken very near the same spot as the first - just a bit to the west perhaps.  Richard's cigar and hat on the ground for scale. Photographer unknown, but may have been my old man.

I indulged in a bit more tennis today. We played two sets in 90 minutes at Wooddale this morning. The participants are not yet geezers, except for me of course, but mostly sixty-something aging, but active athletes. It was my fourth day in a row, and I'm basically knackered. I get three days off from the wars until I start again on Wednesday.

NCW and I took a walk to Penzey's Spice emporium on Grand Ave. this afternoon, too. We were in need of cinnamon and cumin, plus a walk was called for after the recent nasty weather that was beginning to induce cabin fever. The sidewalks were mushy and slushy and didn't feel dangerous. I think the ice will return next week, but for today all was good. Penzey's always smells nice.

Tag, a dog

January seems to be relenting just a bit. We climbed to 28º and slush began to appear.

Tag, the border terrier that we had for 11 years, was a puppy in November, 1991. That was a nicer November than this one and besides the kids, later to be known as PP and UH, got a dog. And what's as cute as a puppy? I found and scanned some photos from his first few days here. A dog, even (or maybe especially) a puppy will change your life. He was around for quite a spell, until 2002.  "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." - Harry S Truman.

There aren't many border terriers around, but I've run into someone walking with their canine from time to time. The last time was on Pike Island when I was walking with PP. The dog's owner was surprised that I recognized his breed, but one gets to recognize the features of one's own hound dog.

Alert and happy dog.

A sleeping dog gathers no moss.  My hand for scale.

I played a couple of sets of tennis again today. I was planning to take the day off, but one of the other geezers had to go to his wife's retirement party, so I played for him at Fort Snelling. It was enough to get me back to knackerdom.

November 2006

January continues to repeat itself.

I was outside for a while today. It was just a quick trip to top up the larder, but it was colder than November should be, a high of 18º. I went back in my archives to see what previous Novembers held for us, before the popularization of the term "polar vortex." I found a photo of the Lake Street bridge from November 9, 2006. The sumac were in full color and the trees looked like they were going to keep their leaves a while. The photo was taken from the park at the end of Summit Avenue. It was shortly after PP went to Takehara, Japan.

The main activity today was cooking. NCW baked some of that Scandinavian Dark Raisin Rye Bread from the cooks.com site that was referenced by Santini on Facebook. It has molasses, raisins, cocoa, and rye flour. It turned out to be pretty tasty, but NCW is going to use more yeast next time. I made a big pot of Turkey Chili with Black Beans and Bacon. I'll have a big bowl of it later when the simmer stage is done.  It smells like it might just fill the need for January comfort food.

I'm off to play some tennis tonight at Wooddale Tennis to shake off some of these January blahs.

More archival material with a biking theme

January refuses to abate.

At least I don't live in Buffalo, NY. They are near 70 inches of snow this storm. Lake effect is unstoppable this year. I played some tennis at Fred Wells Tennis Center, aka Fort Snelling, today. The tennis bubbles give me a decent place for some exercise, so I took the opportunity. Two sets and a ten point tie breaker in 90 minutes.

I'm going to the archives again. The reserves are pretty deep so I'll be able to ride out the month. These photos are from my first ride across Minnesota (TRAM) in 2002. Most of the participants, support personnel, and ardent fans are in the first photo.

The end of the first day in Austin. The big Spam guy is the give away here.

Bikers with a large cow somewhere in the southern half of Minnesota. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to find this citizen art work again. But I'm glad I found it the first time. There were peanut butter sandwiches and bananas galore nearby.

A thaw may be coming to the tundra over the weekend. And then it'll probably rain and freeze to the sidewalks and streets. No sense at all to being optimistic.

Sweet Sixteen

January continues unabated.

 It's not very often that you turn 16 and get a snow day the same day. So, a big happy birthday to Teej, aka Totally Jammin'. I have a picture of him with a happy group taken in 2005 when he was six and a half. It was PP's graduation from college and he and his family came to help us celebrate.

I've been outside a time or two today, but mostly don't recommend it. It's been below freezing continuously here since early August. Or, at least, it seems like it.

Old photos from the archives to fill this space today

January continues apace. It was 9º this morning and 14º as I type.

The archives are summoned again. This time I'm using black and white photos from the 40's and 50's. These are more than 60 years old, but like all good black and white photos, still pretty clear.

The first one. On the back of the print it says," The Sun. Buddy was babtized [sic] Aug 1946. " And in pencil, "I have the negative so you can keep this." I think that I know all the principals, although one man is obscured. I'm guessing Al Hoffman. Leona is probably the photographer.  It may have been taken at Nils Olai and Jacobine's place on county U.

I think this was taken in 1952. I think I know all the people in the photo.  Taken at Dick's ranch by Yellow River.  The puppy for scale.

This one says "1953", and only that on the back. I think that is the latest of the three and I am not sure that I can recognize everyone pictured.  It, too, was taken at Dick's ranch.

So the challenge is to identify all the characters.

I had a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon with the intention of getting a photo of the cold.  Cold just looks boring.   Besides, my fingers were cold and the wind was cold enough to sting.  The weather beasts are predicting sub-zero wind chills for tomorrow morning.  Does the term "polar vortex" sound familiar?

Thinking

January continues.

 I was out for a walk this p.m., partly for exercise and partly to find a blog-worthy photo. It was too cold to really get creative, and hard to convince myself that taking the gloves off was worth whatever dingy photo I might be able to capture. I think it's time to go to the well. I have a lot of pretty sweet photos in reserve and stories to go with some of them. I think.

Rodin's "La Penseur" stands, or maybe more correctly, sits, in the garden at Rodin's museum in Paris. I like this famous statue and even have a different photo, one taken in 2011, framed and hanging in my bathroom. This one was taken in 2010 a few days after spending a rainy day at Roland Garros Stadium and the French Open tennis Tournament.

I should grouse a bit more about November. I think.

Unky Herb was here for a while today to visit his friends in Skyrim. PP has taken control of that planet now and seems to have it under control. NCW took a fast visit to Swan Lake for a dentist visit and see how the winter is settling in up north. I did the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle and now am trying to get another post done.

It's Sunday and it's halfway through this blog every day in November process. I think I'll make it.

No wonder distemper

January continues.

I played some tennis this morning. The competition was keen so we only finished a single 7-6 set in 90 minutes. When I came out of the tennis club, it was again snowing - no snain to be seen. Just snow. It didn't accumulate much, but on the drive back from Woodbury I had to wait in line on the freeway as an accident was cleared in what's known as spaghetti junction - the area where 35E and 94 merge. Someone had spun out on the icy surface and smacked the wall of the freeway. The police were on the scene.

I did a little shoveling in the afternoon, but had some help from PP, who was here for some yoga with NCW and some adventuring in Skyrim. The alley behind the garage is pretty icy and I was careful to stay upright - a good policy for any septuagenarian. While I was in the alley I photographed the back yard. Is it still November?

The comet visitor, Philae, has used all its power and since it's in the shade and relies on solar batteries, and is a long way from the sun, it put itself to sleep. There is hope that it may awaken when the comet gets closer to the sun and the sunshine brightens. For now it is masquerading as a boat anchor. Nonetheless, the ten year chase to catch this comet was a great technical achievement.

Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Some tennis today at Fort Snelling.  Just a couple of sets and a ten point tie breaker.  It was cold and very January-like here on the tundra.  I can't like it.

The European Space Agency just landed a washing machine size package on a comet 300 million miles from earth. And they sent back souvenir photos and a lot of scientific data. I see by the inner tubes that there is a conspiracy theory emerging that the comet is actually an alien spaceship.  The Rosetta probe was sent to make contact with them. I hope it wasn't a theory hatched by Jesse Ventura. In any case, the comet has a long name representing its discoverers, a couple of Russian astronomers (see blog title). I've been watching the Rosetta website and hoping that they find lots of interesting, actual scientific facts.

Fountaine du Saint Michel at Place St. Michel in Paris. Another photo from 2011. And another site in Paris named for NCW.   The couple in the foreground dilly-dallyed so long taking their memento photo that I just went ahead and included them in my memento photo.  Then I continued walking towards my goal that day - Jardin du Luxenbourg.

 

It all culminated that day in a sunset through two more of the ponts on the Seine.  So I'm able to work in another bridge shot today - and a shot of two bridges. I don't remember which two.

After the faux apocalypse

On Sunday I posted a photo that was meant to be a "before" photo, followed by an "after" photo showing the 12-15 inches of snow that might have fallen on Monday, that did indeed fall somewhere near St Cloud. I didn't want to waste a good theme, so today I took the "after" photo while on a late morning walk with NCW. The trees are in Linwood Park.  the photo's not very dramatic, but it's what's happening here this chilly November, that's pretending to be January.

The sun came out for a while while we were walking this morning. It was cold, but the blue sky and sunshine made it worthwhile.

I played some tennis tonight at Wooddale. I often stop at Yang's to get Chinese food on Thursday night, but it seemed redundant today, since there are already Chinese food leftovers in the fridge. Tennis was good, and I'm going to have some of the Chinese food now before bed time.

Pont Saint-Michel

Not much to recommend today's weather either. Cloudy and dank. I did play a couple of sets of tennis at Fort Snelling and spent some time watching the European Space Agency land a scientific package on a comet so far away from earth that light takes 28 minutes to get there from here. It was a a massive achievement.

But I didn't take any new photos, so I'm falling back on my cache of bridge photos. I like this one. I took it from the top of Notre Dame and the bridge across the Seine is Pont Saint-Michel. Eiffel Tower for scale. It was a beautiful day in July, 2011.

Still Ugly

It's another cloudy day with more cold air than necessary this early in November. I shoveled a bit and generally rued the day.

It's Veteran's Day. Thanks to everyone who served, for their service to this country.

This is what Kurt Vonnegut, a veteran of WWII, said:

"I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not. So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things." -- Breakfast of Champions

But, lastly, I have a bridge photo from days less ugly than today. The High Bridge, or the Smith Avenue bridge from Harriet Island on a much nicer day than today.

Ugly

It was an ugly day today, but not in the way I expected it to be ugly. The snow went north of me, mostly up towards St Cloud. Lots of snow dropped on the people there. Here we got a little snow, some sleet, and some freezing rain. I still had to shovel, but it wasn't shovelfuls of heavy white snow. I had to scrape it off the side walk and then try to get it off the shovel. I guess we may still get some more precipitation later tonight. This was not one of those storms of the century in this part of the Saintly City. But it was one of the ugliest days in the history of days. There should be an acronym.

The weather guys have predicted fifteen of the last five storms of the century.

Before the apocalypse

The weather guys seem to agree that we'll be getting some of that white loveliness on the ground by tomorrow in time for morning rush hour. The neighborhood was alerted and nearly all the neighbors were out doing their last minute clean-ups - raking leaves, cleaning gutters, making sure the snow blower would start, etc. I, myself, with the help of Pster, cleaned the gutters, turned off the outside water faucet, and stowed the garden hose in the attic of the garage. And picked up some more leaves that had blown in since the last time I raked. The leaf recycle center on Pleasant Avenue had a line about a quarter of a mile long, all waiting to deposit the last of their leaf crop in the large pile by the railroad tracks. I'm waiting until after the snow melts to do my deposit.

I took a photo early this afternoon at Linwood Park to serve as my "before" picture. Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll post the "after" shot.

The landscaping for the renovation of the streetcar bridge near Lexington Avenue in Como Park seems to be complete. They've sprayed that green stuff with grass seed in it all around so that there will be grass there next spring. There is still some need for concrete work before the job is done.

My shovels are ready. Let the storms begin.

Streetcars and bridges

I played some tennis this morning. Nothing new there or much to report. After a quick lunch NCW and I went out for a walk and with a secondary goal to find some pictures with which to blog. Como Park near the Conservatory was busy, but it's a big park. We walked west and encountered a recently renovated play area with quite a fancy version of jungle gym. The surface below the equipment was composed of chipped up auto tires.

The sign says that you can only play in this play area if you're between the ages of 2 and 5. That's probably more restrictive than necessary and a sign that is widely ignored. Even today, a brisk November day in the 30's there were some overaged users of the facility. I don't think anyone called the mayor to complain.

Another Como Park bridge. They are numerous, but not endless. This once was used for the Como-Harriet Streetcar Line, in fact for 56 years from 1898 until 1954. Yes, there used to be streetcar service from Lake Harriet in Minneapolis to Como Park. The bridge was unused after 1954 and became decrepit for many years, but was rebuilt and is now part of the bike path network in St Paul.  There is even a museum dedicated to the history of the line.

I was struck by a Sinclair Lewis quote in the paper this morning. It was quoted by Paul Douglas, the local weatherman/entrepreneur. "Winter is not a season, it's an occupation." Snow is predicted for Sunday night into Monday. Possibly a lot of it.

Old photos today

It's November and sometimes November has these sort of days when photography is just not called for. Too dark and colorless.  I'm posting a recent photo - about a week ago - taken at Como's Japanese garden. There were still bright red leaves on a few trees and it made for a calming scene. The garden there is a nice place to visit anytime except on weekends when there is almost always a crowd.

Friday (today) is the third of my four days in a row tennis marathon. This week, I'm worn out after two sessions - yesterday and today - of competitive tennis. I may be improving my conditioning or maybe I'm just wearing down. I played at Fort Snelling, in the bubble, with John, Bill, and Dennis, the usual suspects. We've been doing winter tennis together for at least five years, all in the bubble. Our average age has now passed 70, but the young lady at the front desk still lets us play on court one, what we call the show court.  It makes us try harder, I suppose.

I guess if I'm going to use an old bridge photo, I should use a very old one. This is 41 years old. It was taken in 1973 somewhere very near the Golden Gate Bridge. If it seems like a lifetime ago, that's because it was a lifetime ago.