A rabbit lives around here somewhere

The clouds stayed all day and a feeling of impending autumn was prematurely in the air. I guess it's too early to say summer is ending, but it was a reminder that summer is short at this latitude. The rabbits have taken advantage of the summer and the population has seemed to grow to a pretty high level. I have at least one living in the area, probably in the native plant garden - where the bergamot grows. At least that's where he or she runs to when I surprise it and give chase - like a latter day Farmer McGregor. It always escapes, but just a couple of days ago I found the remains of one of his cousins in the backyard. It had run afoul of a cat or some other killing machine and was half consumed when I came upon it. It's a cat eat rabbit world out there. This one is imperiled every time it goes out for lunch.

Some stats:  Yesterday was the 92nd day of 2013 that I've played tennis. Which averages 13.14 times a month for the first seven months of the year. There have been 210 days so far in the year. 92/210 = 43.8% of the days. No wonder I'm feeling tired today.

Give bees a chance

I saw a bumper sticker a few days ago that said, "Give Bees a Chance." It was referring the problem of colony collapse in bee hives that seems to be threatening various crops in parts of the USA. I guess they're worried about almonds in California, for example. I checked the native plant garden in the back yard for bees and found lots of them. Honey bees, waspy looking bees and the distinctive bumbles. I tried to get some photos of the workers and was at least partially successful. They were all over the purplish flowers in the photo. I don't know the name of the flowers, but the bees were pretty fond of them. The bees are doing just fine in this part of the Saintly City.

The flowers, even the commercial ones are very pretty this time of year. These are growing in a pot on the patio, sitting there radiating their beauty.

It was a really nice day. One of the nicest of the month, if not in the history of days. We had nine geezers at the tennis courts today. We've evolved ways to deal with odd numbers by playing a version of five person tennis that rotates in a new player after every game. It makes it hard to keep track of the score, but no one seems to mind. We play and then go home and forget the results anyhow. That's kind of the beauty of playing with codgers.

 Today we played a bit over two hours, and we finished it was 75º F.

Septuagenarians rule

It's Wednesday. Before tennis I went into the back yard to see if any flowers were ready for prime time. I found this one in a pot of flowers that NCW planted for me about six weeks or more ago. It may be a petunia. It is certainly purple. I have some other flowers and a patch of garden that used to be, years ago,  for vegetables that now is the unruly home for the Prairie Princess' native plants - grasses, wild flowers and, I think, a family of rabbits. A single milkweed grows there, too. PP will be back from Norway to tend her native patch on August 15 - in about three weeks. There are also three tomato plants in the back yard. All three are growing rapidly and green fruit is starting to set. The plants were a gift from Unky Herb's friend, Drew, and thus I'm not sure what style of tomatoes I'll be harvesting in a month or less, but I do know that they'll be organic and fresh from the garden when I eat them.  Unky Herb says he thinks they're heirloom tomatoes.  I'll eat them with respect.

It was a really nice day for tennis outside.  The temperature was mid 70's and dew point in the fifties.  The tennis playing geezer group has expanded for the summer and now we're playing three times a week at Sibley High School in Mendota Heights.  Today we had ten competitors, most in their sixties, but one, at least, at 58 and two septuagenarians (you know, guys in their seventies). We draw cards for partners and then play mini sets to start so that we get some variety of competition. A mini set allows everyone to serve once and if the set gets to 2-2, we have a seven point tie breaker. It's all pretty low key, but silently competitive. No one wants to lose to an old guy, even other old guys. After three mini sets against a variety of opponents, the survivors and the hard core play a set of doubles against whoever is still willing to play.

As one of the septuagenarians, I got to play the last set with the 58 year old guy against two guys who are cousins and pretty good players. It was a fun day and we all managed to get out alive and well. It was good tennis, good for geezers and competitive enough to make the afternoon feel like two hours well spent.  I love those guys and I love that game.

November begins with theme day

Okay. I'm in again for this blogging every day in November marathon. NaBloPoMo??? I have some photos stockpiled and two pretty good cameras to carry around as the weather slowly deteriorates. Towards winter.

I took a walk over by my favorite lake, looking for a decent picture for theme day. The theme is apparently "water's edge" so I found the edge of the water and waited for some edgy inspiration as I trod around the lake. It was a nice enough day and the sun was out, so I was happy to be out and still able to enjoy such a day. This view is from the walk on the little peninsula that sticks out into the lake. It pretty well represents the day.

I also extended the walk over towards the conservatory and the frog pond. Another place where there's water and thus an edge. The vegetation all over the park is just now morphing over to their winter form. What is it with willow trees? They don't seem to change colors or drop their leaves in anywhere near the schedule of the other trees around here. This one is big and beautiful and seems stubborn enough to be designated a "Kelsey tree." Willows seem to be just the opposite of those ash trees that seem to give up their leaves right away.

It's Thursday night and there will be Thursday night mixed doubles tennis. I should mention tennis once in a while, since this is purported to be a tennis blog. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the geezers and I played outdoor tennis yesterday. It may be that it was the last day of outdoor tennis for the year. I usually say that anything below 50º is too cold for tennis. About at that temperature the balls become hard and refuse to bounce properly, plus my fingers get cold. It was 51º yesterday.

October continues

Summer disappeared so suddenly that it seems like it may make a comeback. It wasn't to be today, although it wasn't too bad a day for autumn. The mercury (who uses mercury thermometers any more?) rose to 50 degrees, stuck for an hour or so and then drifted back into the forties. [How nice would it be to drift back into the forties?]

A walk around Crosby Farm with my camera seemed like a good idea.  I was surprised on arrival to find that the park is in the midst of improvements.  A good deal of asphalt is about to be replaced by prairie, and the parking lot enlarged to replace lost parking elsewhere.  In addition, a new stretch of bike path was bulldozed through the edge of the woods to allow easier access to Upper Lake, necessary because of the loss of road surface.  I guess.  The park was posted as closed, but I walked by the sign and visited Upper Lake.  There were just a few people around, but the wild birds were nestled onto the lakes surface; a bunch of mallards and a flock of Canada geese.  The trees are well on the way to their colorful best, a few have dropped their leaves - probably ashes.

It was a nice walk and a nice day in the forest in the heart of the Twin Cities.  By the big river.

I walked by this structure.  It's just a big pile of drift wood, deposited by the floods of the spring, but now a long way from the nearest body of water.  Upper Lake is in the background.

Johnny Unitas was in the news lately, because his record for TD's in consecutive football games was broken by Drew Brees. Because Alex Karras (Mongo in "Blazing Saddles") died this week at 77, I wondered whether Johnny U. was still alive. Pro football is pretty hard on the human body. He died in 2002 at the age of 69, a fact not lost on a guy about to change decades. He had a heart attack. He had lost almost total use of his right hand, with the middle finger and thumb noticeably disfigured from being repeatedly broken during games.  Tennis is hard on your body, too, but nothing like that.

Tennis, Tennis

It was another really nice day in the Saintly City. It was a day custom made for a bit of tennis, and luckily, my old tennis buddy and nemesis is in town for the upcoming Hamline Homecoming and various alumni activities. That Hamline stuff isn't until next week, so today we went to Linwood Park and smacked some balls at each other. I guess we're getting older and maybe not quite as quick on our feet, but we got around the courts pretty well and managed to play two full sets of our favorite game. Then to prove that we were there, we took pictures and here I am posting a photo of Rich after a bit of competition.  He even worked up a bit of perspiration.

It's a two session day. I'm off to play a little competitive tennis in a bit with Jerry and the hard core girls. I guess that might be called re-tennis.

Life is good.

Spring Hill tennis

 After a two year absence this year I was able to return to Spring Hill to play some tennis with my high school tennis coach, the guy that taught me tennis and a winning attitude in 1959-61 at Greenway High School, Paul B.  The girl from Pengilly (PW) who graduated with me in 1961, and thus is quite familiar with the old coach, and I, took a road trip up the coast 143 miles to his retirement community in Spring Hill.  He's recently remarried and we were able to meet his new wife, and his new home.  Both nice.

He arranged two tennis matches with some of the tennis players in the area - one for Tuesday at 2:30 (the heat of the day) and one for Wednesday at 9:30.  Both were played at Bob's private court in his orange orchard.  On Tuesday we played Ken and Reuben a close three setter 5-7, 7-5, 6-4.  It was close and a lot of good clean fun.  PW stayed for the match and took some photos of the action.

This picture was taken just before we left Paul's place for our return to Santini's place in Port Charlotte.  We were happy to have survived the tennis and that were able to play the game we love one more time.

TT and Paul after the two matches that each lasted two and a half hours.

This was action shot in the orange orchard by  PW during the Tuesday competition.

Paul, TT, and Ken after Tuesday match.  Reuben had gone by this time, but he came back for more tennis on Wednesday below.

The Wednesday match wasn't as close, but we managed to win the third set 6-3.  Unfortunately we lost the first two sets 6-1, 6-4.  I guess we outlasted them, but it is important to note that Bob is the owner of the court and was fresh - having skipped the Tuesday action.  Also Rueben is 60 and Bob 67, so we were playing much younger players.  Reasonably good excuses, too, in my opinion.

Paul, TT, Reuben, Bob after the Wednesday match.

All photos by PW.

Flutterbyes

It was a nice, nice day. I was scheduled to play Senior USTA mixed doubles at 7:30, so I took a stroll around Como Park as a kind of warm-up for the evening. I circled the lake first. They have done a lot of improving of the vegetation and flowers and planted milkweeds and butterfly milkweeds along with an assortment of other blooms to attract butterflies. They should really be called flutterbyes. Then I walked over the pedestrian bridge over Lexington Avenue to see how the Enchanted Garden was progressing. It's planted every year with the express purpose of attracting a population of butterflies. It has an assortment of colorful flowers and, of course, milkweed.

This butterfly is not a monarch.

This butterfly is a monarch.

I was pleased with my collection of butterfly photos. I may go back with my new camera tomorrow and see if I can get some better ones.

And then, tonight, there was tennis. This was the first match of the season for the senior league. Mostly I've been playing in an open league, where there is no age limit, but the senior team requires people of at least age 50 (I think). It doesn't matter what the age is, because I'm old enough. It was nice to play against people who have slowed down nearly as much as I have, and to be reasonably competitive. The people on the open team that I played on this summer are mostly old enough to play on this team, so we were good enough to win tonight. Marsha was my partner tonight and we won too.

Old Tennis Players

One of my team mates, Bruce McK. from the 1964 Hamline tennis team is trying to get our old coach into Hamline's athletic hall of fame. As a result of his activities rounding up the old players and getting the necessary documentation, I had the occasion to go look at the yearbook from 1964 and a chance to remember some times nearly forgotten. The coach was Doc Lewis, the Hamline librarian, and an all around good guy. He was instrumental in getting me to attend Hamline, and helped get me some financial aid, without which I couldn't have attended a private college, even in the cheap old days. As I recall, a year's tuition and books, plus a room in the dorm, was $700 for my freshman year. Times have changed a lot. Doc Lewis' teams won conference championships for three of the four years that I was at Hamline. Since those years, nearly every subsequent tennis championship has been taken by Gustavus. Doc Lewis died on April 1st of this year in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Doc is the guy in the suit.  I'm in the back row between Charlie Huss and Bruce McKinnon.  John Wirtanen is in the back row at the far left.  Rich Stebbins, my long time tennis playing doubles partner and singles competitor is in the front row on the right.   He carried me to some nice doubles wins that year (1964), for which I am grateful.

It was the first day in the 70's of the year, and it was a surprise to me.  I was able to be outside and be comfortable without a jacket.  The prairie princess left today for her new job, halfway to Michigan.  She crammed her auto with the necessary items and drove.   It's going to be a lot quieter here without her.

There will be outside tennis soon for me.  I saw a family hitting balls back and forth at the Linwood courts this afternoon while I was out walking with PP's bro.  Spring has returned to the tundra.

Cute Babies

When you don't have much to say, sometimes it's best to trot out an old picture of babies. These cuties were babies circa 1983 and the photo is one I've rescued from my dusty drawer of photographic slides. From left to right (pseudonyms only): Tennis Tousan, Prairie Princess, Wireless, Mr Moohoo.

I managed to get in some mall walking today. Once in a while I circle the inside of HarMar mall a couple of times to get exercise. This morning was only about ten degrees outside, so it seemed like an opportune day to do some circling.

Incidentally, speaking of circling, Bert Blyleven, a former Minnesota Twin, was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame this week. He was the fourth Twin to be so honored.

I've decided to keep track of my tennis activities this month and perhaps all year if I like the process. Other bloggers seem to have all the fun, logging their biking miles and reaching milestones, while I've been ignoring the beauty of statistics. It's not clear to me yet what I'll do with the stats, and what possible realizations will come of it, but I'm giving it a go. I have a new file on my laptop and I'll be filling it with cold hard facts.

I played mixed doubles tonight at Wooddale. Tonight, Becky had family responsibilities so the players were Jerry, Barb, Marsha and me. We managed to fit three full sets into an hour and a half. That doesn't happen very often, but the games were quick with few deuce points and the pace crisp: 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. I have a USTA league mixed doubles match Sunday night at Fort Snelling and Marsha is my expected partner. I'm on a league match losing streak, but I'm hoping to be able to get a win at Fort Snelling, which is one of my favorite tennis venues.

Heat wave continues

It's hot again in this end of the world, and it appears that it will stay that way through the weekend. I was scheduled for tennis this afternoon, so I was out and about, running errands and enjoying the luxury of an air conditioned car. To get warmed up a bit, I walked along the Mississippi near Lilydale for a while. There's a pretty good bike path there and some picturesque vistas. Santini has been featuring benches occasionally on her blog, so I was, of course, struck by this seldom used bench along the path surrounded by cone flowers or maybe black-eyed susans. It looks like a fine place to rest and watch the river flow, perhaps in the early evening on days where the temperature is not life threatening.



And close by stands the 35E bridge. I've biked over this bridge several times, but it looks quite a bit different from underneath. It's also a little quieter because the traffic noise is muffled by the bridge structure.



It was 92 degrees when I got to Marie Park at 3:30 along with a couple of quarts of gatorade. Soon we had eight geezers and near geezers on the courts playing tennis, actually competing and trying to win a set or two. It was perhaps foolhardy, but we all finished two sets of fairly decent tennis. I know I was fairly fatigued at the end, and the quality of play was beginning to suffer. But we survived and retreated to Bill's nearby house and sat by his pool with some cool beverages.

I think that I'm starting to get used to the heat.

The primary election has been completed and we now know the suspects who will be running for the governorship of Minnesota in November. The mainstream candidates: Dayton, Emmer, and Horner will be ignoring PP's Ecology Democracy Party candidate, Ken Pentel. The fate of minor party candidates is usually to be ignored by the media and the major candidates. I met Ken last week at one of the princess's campaign events, and he seems like a nice guy, with a lot of idealism, with some pretty decent ideas, but sorely underfunded. I hope he gets some attention and some votes.

Red dirt plus rain equals red mud

Our third day at Roland Garros started off well. After previous visits we knew when to arrive and where to go to be well situated to see some world class tennis. We settled on Court 2 where we were scheduled to see Elena Dementieva, David Ferraro, and Lleyton Hewitt, all without leaving our covered seats in the small grandstand. It was cloudy but dry when we arrived. We stopped in front of the statue of Rene Lacoste, one of the better known of the Three Musketeers of French tennis. A photo of the bicyclist is below with the great French tennis player.

We went to the court and staked out our claim with at least a half hour to spare before the 11 o'clock start time. At 10:50 it began to rain and they covered the court with a green tarp, shown below as it puddled up.



Until after 3:30, all we saw was rain and the spectators across the court holding up umbrellas. Very few spectators left the grandstand, because, at the French Open, if you leave the stadium you lose your seat and must join a massive queue to be readmitted. They seem to count on people moving from court to court to allow all the spectators a chance to view the beat tennis players in the world. There were six young guys amongst the crowd, umbrella-less, all wearing "I [heart] Paris" tee shirts and berets, who got drenched to the bone, but stayed for the tennis throughout.


From our seats we could see part of the Philippe Chartrier court - the show court - and the flags above it. The four central flags of USA, UK, France, and Australia represent the countries where the four Grand Slams of tennis are played each year.


Finally at 3:40 the ground crew took off the tarp and readied the court for action again. Then for an hour and a half we saw a great women's singles match between Russian Elena Dementieva and Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues. Dementieva is pictured below during warm ups.


Anabel is shown during play, I think in the first set. It was a pretty good battle with the Russian winning finally 6-2, 7-6. They are both hard hitting, very athletic players. Neither has won a grand slam event, although Dementieva was singles runner up in the US Open in about 2004.


It was a good view of top tennis, probably not enough of it, but all that Mother Nature was allowing this rainy day in Paris.

We came home from the courts on a city bus through Paris and stopped and bought some takeout French pizza for leisurely eating at our home away from home.

Dapper Dan, Greenway H.S Class of 1960

This afternoon I talked with Dapper Dan, a tennis team mate of mine from high school. He was in town visiting relatives. We had talked previously to arrange the meeting after a chance reconnect through his sister, Cherie and my sister, the often mentioned Santini. We had a couple of hours' chat at the Black Bear Crossing on the shore of Lake Como. It has been a few weeks short of 50 years since we have been in each other's company, but we still have a lot in common to talk about. We have , however, taken divergent paths. He spent most of his working life teaching junior and senior high school students in our alma mater. He is a recent widower and is, like me, retired. He gave up tennis some years ago, but is now thinking of taking it up again, an activity that I personally recommend. In the interest of history I am posting his photo, and a cropped photo of the 1960 tennis team. Dan is the second from the right, standing next to our young, at the time, coach, Paul Bouchard.



Looking at the photo and the tennis rackets that we used that year in playing the game, it is pretty apparent that I was wielding a poor kid's excuse for a racket. Especially pitiful by today's standards, but good enough to win a few matches and to spark a life time love of the game. I'm at the far left in the photo. The line up includes only Coleraine players, all living within a five minute walk of the courts. Dapper Dan lived about a block away from me at 207 Hartley. Left to right: Jim, Tom, John, Dave. Dan, and Coach Paul - all good Anglo-Saxon names.
I don't intend to exclude today's tennis activities. I played my third day in a row, meeting with the youngest of my usual combatants at Wooddale Tennis Emporium, the Fun Zone. At least one of the players is still in his thirties. We managed two very close and entertaining sets, 8-6, 7-5. Indoor season is nearly done and we're beginning to play outside on nice enough days. Tomorrow, for example.

Has any one noticed that if the French Open was to begin this week, some of the U.S. fans would not be able to get to the action? The air ports in northern Europe, including Charles de Gaulle International are closed by volcanic activity in Iceland. I'm hoping that it settles down soon, because I'm aware of some folks who plan a trek in that direction.

I saw my first shirtless bike rider of the season, a guy who was tooling down Selby unaware of his unique status. It wasn't really that warm today, but it's an encouraging sight. And entertaining.

Guess Who's Back from White Earth

It was such a nice day, that even I was coerced into riding my bike. The mileage got me into single digits for the month and double digits for the year. PP wanted to bike over to the garden plot at Hamline and see if her perennial plants were coming up yet. She showed some enthusiasm for the ride - her first bike ride of the year - by pretending to fly. The ride was only 6.25 miles, but enough for a start. After all, I had tennis to play tonight with Jerry and the hardcore girls.


A word or two about my trip yesterday to the History Center in search of more info about George Miller, the last of my ancestors to live in the Alsace region of France, and that in 1828. This was done with an eye to perhaps doing some more research when I visit France later this year.

It was a trip to the History Center to find a reference book - "The Alsace Emigration Book." I found volume 1, but not volume 2. There were just a few Millers in the book and no George or Jean, or Jaçon (Jaçon?), Marie Elisabeth (not Elis.), or Marie Roni (perhaps Rom). Maybe volume 2 has something, if I can track it down.

The Ancestry.com site, which is available there, did add some tantalizing details. I did a search for George Miller (aka Grossfather), born in 1823 in France. An entry from the 1880 Federal Census from Missouri (done in April, 1880)shows a George Miller, born in 1823 in Alsace. It could be Grossfather, but he is married to Caroline Miller, 47, and has a 17 year-old son, George Miller, and an adopted daughter, Corinne, 3. He was a grocer in St Louis township, St Louis County, Mo. The 17 year-old son would have been born in about 1863, around the time that Grossfather disappeared for 28 years. When he returned Sept 10, 1888, the Crawford County Journal article indicates that he was gone for 28 years and was visiting from Missouri. He must have left Prairie du Chien in 1860.

There is also a George Miller, born in France in about 1823, a servant in a hotel in November, 1880, working for a Barbara Heckler. He was in Clinton, Henry County, Missouri. Could they both be him? There is quite a distance between Clinton and St Louis.

And then tonight there was tennis at Wooddale. We played two very good and very close sets, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5). The biking took some of the starch out of my game, but all in all it was a good match and I was glad to be off the court. I think I will sleep well tonight, except that later I did have the curried Singapore Rice Noodles from Yang's and that be a constraining factor to a good night's slumber.

Crosby Farm is Flooded and Closed

A chilly March day after a string of pretty good Minnesota spring days gave me pause, but since the river crested yesterday, I wanted to see the beaver dam on Upper Lake. The weather creatures have been saying that this is the eighth worst flood on record at 18.5 feet above flood stage in St Paul. Around noon I drove to Crosby Farm and parked. Across the river from the top of the hill I could see Fort Snelling and Pike Island below. The photo below shows Pike Island and the Mendota Bridge in the far background. Pike Island is inaccessible and flooded. I soon found that Upper Lake is also inaccessible. So the beaver dam will have to wait for the water level to ebb. I had a nice brisk walk through the part of Crosby Farm that is still above water, and I managed to get enough exercise for the morning.



The Thursday night mixed doubles went a little late tonight because the next players didn't show up. We played on and were able to get in three complete sets - 6-3,7-5,6-4. We've been changing partners for the last few weeks, weekly, and playing the whole session with the same teams we began with. Tonight I was paired with Becky, against Jerry and Barb. Good tennis and no bickering. Then off to Yang's for grand chicken.

PP is still at White Earth while her car is being repaired. A minor parking lot wounding. She'll be back next week. Unky Herb is off to Chicago again this weekend in the Corolla. Busy. Busy. Busy.

Ice on the Lakes and Rivers

After tennis at the Fort Snelling Emporium of Geezer Tennis, I went outside and found spring. The thermometer in my car said 64 degrees. That's warm enough to play outside, if only that pesky layer of ice, and below it the muck, would cooperate. When I got home, my son, UH, was outside without shoes or a shirt basking in the heat. I know, this is false spring, but worth celebrating, or at least enjoying. I went down to Crosby Farm Park to see if the ice on Upper Lake had taken its leave. As you can see in the photo, there is some open water, but ice remains. It's too cold to swim. I circumnavigated Upper Lake and walked along the big river for a while. There were plenty of sun worshippers out, but the river is starting to swell and flooding is expected.



Since it was still very nice late in the afternoon, thanks to daylight saving time, I went to Harriet Island further down the river. The river is not covered with ice, but there are ice floes and pretty big chunks of ice flowing down towards New Orleans. The city looks pretty secure, much of it up on the bluff, but the flood plain may very well live up to its name in the weeks ahead.



It was my fourth consecutive day of tennis. By the time we (the other geezers and me) finished with our two sets, I was tired and ready for some food and some leisure activities. The sets were split 4-6, 6-1, but Dr. Bill was the big winner today. He's been playing well lately and is a force to be reckoned with among this group of seniors. I have tomorrow off from the wars.

John, one of the geezers, and a recreational biker, recommended a good biker documentary about the Tour de France in 2003, called "Hell on Wheels" about the German team, Telecom, that that great horse of a man, Jan Ulrich, led in a dual with Lance Armstrong. The movie is more about Eric Zabel than Lance, but seems to catch the spirit of the event, according to John. I'm going to look for it at Blockbuster.

Harriet Island and the High Bridge

The snow is rapidly leaving us, replaced by puddles and the stuff that won't melt. Harriet Island is pretty much deserted on March days like this, but in the early part of July is the home of a large party. The Taste of Minnesota then fills the island with people searching for unique eats and a place to watch fireworks. These benches are unused and just recently freed from their icy bonds. This idea of photographing benches comes from Santini and I must give her credit. The area behind the benches contains a lot of puddles, but in a few weeks it may be completely under the waters of the mighty Mississippi, if the floods come. Spring in Minnesota can be an adventure.


The high bridge over the Mississippi as seen from Harriet Island is never in any danger of being inundated by flood waters. It has a ghostly look on foggy days, and might serve as a "before" photo in a "before and after" sequence when the flood comes. There is still snow on the ground, but the warmish temps and the rain will soon take care of that.



Tennis. I've played twice in the last 24 hours with mixed results. I split sets last night, playing with the hardcore girls. I hadn't played them for two weeks and it was nice to get back to the action and the competition. I seemed to tire towards the end of our time on court, but was able to rejuvenate myself later with some of that fine Yang's Szechuan cuisine. Although, I must admit that eating spice food that late in the day can be problematic for one with geezer credentials.

This afternoon the geezer gang and I had another set to on the courts at Fort Snelling. It was a very close first set, and I was pleased that my energy level was pretty good for the whole set. We had a lot of closely competed points in the second set, but the score was not reflective of the quality of play. I really like playing these guys. For a bunch of geezers they don't give much quarter, and stay competitive until the end. They get over winning and losing and forget any animosity immediately after the sets are done. They also often forget the score while the match is in progress, which sometimes results in a delay while we, in concert, try to remember the last three or four points. Getting old is not for sissies. [GOINFS].

Super Bowl 44

A busy day. I played some tennis at Fort Snelling and then came home to find Unky Herb doing his P90X exercise program, using the DVD that comes with the program, and generally tying himself in knots. He was done in time for the kickoff of the big event of the day, Super Bowl XLIV. (Why are they using Roman numerals?) He's been doing this exercise program for a couple of months and he seems almost addicted to it. I guess it gives him pleasure, and he's in super condition.



Since PP was giving skating lessons in Minneapolis, and then planned to spend the span of the game with Wireless, I was able to make my own snacks for the expected exciting event. I whipped up some family recipe guacamole and a cream not-key lime pie (not key lime because the limes came from non-key sources) from Santini's recipe. With those two treats and some herring in wine sauce (no liver sausage sandwiches), I noshed while I watched a pretty good football game. It was nice to see the Saints win, but it was an upset of the odds makers' projections. I was happy to see that the whistle blowers didn't decide the game.


It was great to see Drew Brees holding his son and getting emotional about the big moment. The great thing about sports is that it's pretty much unpredictable, and this was fun to watch.

The weather creatures are predicting another significant snow event here in the next two days. It won't be nearly as big a deal as the two feet of snow that fell in Washington D.C., but it will add to the miserable conditions of the side streets in the Saintly City. I suspect I'll have another significant opportunity to shovel snow.

Still January

The street in front of my house is still covered with packed down snow and ice. It takes a sustained warm spell to rid the surface of its irregularities, and that hasn't happened yet. There is a kind of stark beauty to a clear January day with the blue sky and the naked trees. The ice covered sidewalks are treacherous and demand respect for those of us approaching geezerhood and I can see the wisdom of Florida and Arizona. The grocery bags in the photo are being used to contain recyclables for St. Paul's ongoing recycling program.


I took my creaking body to the Wooddale Tennis Center this morning and played a couple of sets. I wasn't really on my game, but I managed to get the ball over the net more times than the friendly opponents and eked out some victories. The club was not so busy this morning so we were able to play an extra half hour before quitting and calling it a successful day. We sat around a bit and discussed Serena's win in Melbourne over Justine. I remarked that the tale of the tape in this morning's Strib listed Serena at 5'9"" and 150 pounds, and that I was pretty sure that they must have been measuring someone else. I think she must have another 20 pounds on that frame - she can't possibly be smaller than me. That's my just opinion.

I fixed Santini's "famous yams in the oven" recipe from the experimental blog to eat for the evening meal. The yams, veggie burgers and steamed mixed veggies filled the menu. I was joined in a hearty repast by Herb and the princess.

The radio informed me that the current full moon is the brightest full moon of the year. I'm not sure how they know that or why it matters, but it was a high point of my daily input of usually useless facts that sometimes aid in solving a crossword puzzle later in the month.

Not much January left.

Charles Degaulle was a very tall French guy...

I've decided to try and resurrect my once ordinary language skills. In high school, I spent two years in Paul Bouchard's French language class in Greenway High School. I also had a chance to practice my French skills outside of class, because Paul Bouchard was my tennis coach. I was pretty good at French, maybe not as good as Santini, who was going to major in it at one time, but has since taken on an Italian nickname, but it has been nearly 50 years since those classes were in session. They were fun classes, partly because of Paul Bouchard, and partly because the class was mostly girls, many of whom, I hasten to add, had crushes on the young French instructor.

I think that I will have need for some knowledge of French because of my resolve to take in a few matches at the French Open next spring. So I bought a book. I started to go through the book and felt some of the rust get rubbed off, but I have a ways to go to be anywhere near fluent. I'm on page 31, which has the heading, "Si vous voulez demander quelque chose," which is translated "if you want to ask for something." So far so good. I'll let you know how the learning, rather relearning process progresses.



I'm pretty sure I'll be able to improve and maybe be able to chat with some French folks in France. After all, about nine years ago I learned enough Norwegian to be able to thoroughly confuse some third cousins in the far north of Norway. I have little fear in this arena. Perhaps I should.

Tennis news of the day. My Saturday competition at Wooddale was not as successful as I had hoped. Bob and I lost a lopsided 6-1 set, but managed to eke out a 6-4 victory in the second. We started a third, but were shooed off the court with the score 0-3 by a father and daughter who began working hard on the youngster's ground strokes after we left. It was a good day, but I've had better ones. I play again tomorrow at a different venue.

December 22 will be my mom's 96th birthday. She was born in 1913 and has been gone for nearly 55 years. Coincidentally, Lady Bird Johnson was born on December 22, 1912. Charles DeGaulle was born on December 22, 1890, and was 23 when Mom was born. And we're now back to France and issues francais.