A Day for Tousan

It was Father's Day and the weather creatures were predicting rain. As was our usual custom on the day reserved for patriarchs, PP, Unky Herb and I went to the Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. The Spoonbridge with the bright red cherry was refurbished this year - removed, repainted and reinstalled. It looked pretty good and it looked familiar. There are few changes to the park this year. There are now a boatload of wind chimes in a grove of trees near the spoonbridge and they make a wonderful musical addition to the area on a windy day like today.

We walked around, taking in the sights while it misted - from the spoonbridge and from the clouds in the sky. My kids posed for this photo in the greenhouse on the site, where the huge plexiglass carp is housed. We managed to stay dry enough and had a good time identifying plants, most of which were non-native, a fact that PP mildly disapproved of. They have some pretty and also unusual flora. Herb has perhaps more photos than I do of the day's activities.



The photo below is repeated almost every year. We stand in front of the outdoor mirror sculpture and I take our photo with the backs of the younger set in the forground. The display always amuses us as we look for ways to make it new.


The rest of the day went well, too. There wasn't much more rain until about five, after PP had done some more planting in the backyard, and I'd weeded some of my own, but mostly non-native, food and flower plantings. Herb laid out in the yard under the maple tree, resting his weary muscles.

Then we went to a movie in Eagan, the Pixar animated film "Up" about Carl, who gets his house to float away using helium balloons, and has a long cast of characters, including a dog named Doug, who talks, often about squirrels. We pronounced it a good movie and quite amusing. I laughed out loud several times at well placed witticisms.

We ate dinner at Sambols in Eagan, an Indian and Sri Lankan restaurant. The food was spicy, but good and I was treated to the meal by my employed children. Life is indeed good.

Tousan's Tousan

A father's father in 1945 with his two oldest children, Tommy and Jimmy. I suspect that it was taken in Hovland on the north shore of the big lake, but just a hunch. The old guy would be 98 this year. Doesn't he look like a logging truck driver.


The traditional Father's Day at the Sculpture Garden yielded this photo of the Lion King (LK??) and the Spoonbridge and Cherry. We missed the smiling countenance of the wanderer, KS, last seen in the Orient.


There is no biking today. The trip to the Spoon and a walk around the Garden and Loring Park in the heat was enough today. The wind is coming on strong, too, which discourages tennis ball slamming and riding of velocipedes.

Happy Father's Day to you who read this, and who are fathers.

A Half and Half Day

It is raining cats and dogs now. But I've had a reasonably active day. Unky Herb was up and off to Chicago by 5 am and I missed his departure, but by 8:15 I was sweeping a tennis court at Marie Park to clear last night's precipitation. Only two of the gang showed up today and so Curt and I hit tennis balls for an hour without the spice of competition. The sky was very blue and the day's forecast of rain seemed wrong. It was eventually and forcefully correct.

I came home and decided to ride to Como Park and search for the sculptures there. I found one, but the one on Midway Parkway and Hamline escaped my search and I'll have to go back for more thorough searching. It's purported to be close to the rain garden. I need to find the rain garden first, I suppose. The ride was 14+ miles including a side trip through the Hamline campus past the tennis courts and Klas Center.
This is Minnesota Rocks sculpture number 6 located on Lexington and Jessamine very near Como Park. "Paisley Perch" by Peter Morales, a native of Guatamala who lives and works in St Paul.


Mauresmo exited the tourney in Paris, so, of my predicted champions, I have only Nadal left. He won convincingly in three sets today against another Spaniard, Montanes, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. Serena is the only American left in the singles competitions of either gender. In the men's draw there are 4 Spaniards, 3 Russians, and 3 Argentinians. In the women's draw there are 4 Russians left, but there is also a French woman still in contention - Marion Bartoli, seeded 18, who is Milagros Sequera's doubles partner.

Gas was $2.969 this morning. What causes such price gyration?

No poetry today. I'll be trying to come up with something to rhyme with July towards the end of this month.

Grand Ol' Day is tomorrow and the neighborhood will be filled with people attending the music and food festival. Unless it rains. There are some locally famous musical groups performing not far from here, so I may wander up and see what is playing at Kowalskis.

Wooden Art

It is raining as a most unsettled day comes to a close. No biking or tennis today. The photo is an elm tree that has been converted to a muscian playing a violin (or probably something else entirely). This one is on Holly Avenue, not far from Western. No title, no artist.



Herb and I went to a program of Tibetan dancers and singers, bookended by full throated Buddhist monks chanting in the language of Tibet. It was presented at the Children's Theater in Minneapolis. We went for the chanting. Stayed for the dumplings.

Milagros Sequera won her first round match 5-7, 6-3, 9-7 and will play the "bootylicious" Serena sometime after 11 am tomorrow on Phillipe Chatrier Stadium clay. It is probably the biggest match of her career.

Sunday before Memorial Day

The Indianapolis 500 is history and my five picks in the race were wrong again, as usual. Apparently the closest I got was my fifth choice, Ashley Judd, who will likely be sleeping with the champion.

I was able to squeeze in a short ride on the Trek, down to the Minnesota state capitol, about three miles distant. It was clear, nearly windless and about 68 degrees. As close to perfect as ever a Sunday was. I meandered on the ride, while your Unky Herb was out blistering the paths down along Old Man River. We left home and returned within minutes of each other and compared mileage totals at the end. He had twice the miles, but I had these photos and enough energy for ninety minutes of crushing forehands at St Clair playground with Tennis Dennis. It was a reasonable exchange. There is a sculpture park just across the street from the Sears store on Rice Street. It is the home of several imaginative sculptures of a variety of materials. The park is next to some apartment buildings that house a number of immigrants from Somalia, I think. One of the kids talked at me in his language as I left, but as I did in Japan last May, I could only smile and nod. I took the first photo near where the conversation took place.

Large, long-legged creature looming over Trekkie.



On Memorial Day for the last few years, I have biked down to the Capitol grounds to see the Minnesota memorials to the various wars that we've been afflicted with, most of them in my lifetime. On Memorial Day there are always a bunch of Viet Nam veterans at the memorial to that conflict, guys about my age and their families. They'll be there tomorrow. I guess it was my war. I never served in the conflict. I was one of the lucky ones. I'd like to thank any and all who did serve for their sacrifices, including those with their name on the wall pictured below. I am forever grateful that the names on the wall do not include any of my family or close friends.

Minnesota's Viet Nam War Memorial and the words of Archibald MacLeish:



As John Lennon wrote many years ago "All I am asking, is give peace a chance."

Sculpture

On my bike journey, I came across one of the 13 new rock sculptures recently placed around St Paul by the Minnesota Rocks project done at St Paul College a couple of years ago. Unky Herb and I visited while the sculptures were being created. This one is called "Overlook" and resides at Prospect Boulevard and Strykker overlooking downtown St Paul. It was created by David Wyrick, a St. Paul artist with a studio in Lower Town Artist District. For more info:
http://www.minnesotarocks.org/
I plan to track down the rest of them and may include photos as I find them. Two are on Mississippi River Boulevard, one at Como Park, another at Lake Phalen. A map of sculpture locations is on the linked page.



Mostly a tennis day today. I played for an hour plus at Marie Park, just ground strokes, net play, overheads, and some serves. It was about 80 degrees and windy, but a beautiful May day. There were a couple of young ladies there playing a plenty good level of tennis, but otherwise the park was empty. The French Open is nearly upon us - nine days out.

Gas is only $3.399 at the stations I observed. The gas suppliers are getting ready for the holiday drivers and the guaranteed income.