Solstice

The particulates that clogged the air yesterday fell out of the atmosphere as snowflake nuclei today. It was pretty enough to photograph. This particular branch belongs to a tree in my backyard. In a sense, it is my tree, unless I fail to pay my real estate taxes, in which case it will be clear who really owns the backyard.



Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, a full 4 seconds shorter than yesterday and also tomorrow - a good example of nature's symmetry. Thankfully the days start to lengthen, and the lengthening accelerates for a while, until the vernal equinox when the change here in the Saintly City is 3 minutes and 9 seconds each day. On the equinox the length of the day is slightly longer than the length of the night. Wikipedia will explain why. I've gone on long enough in this vein.

There was a gathering of tennis playing oldsters this morning. It was a bit of a test to drive on St Paul streets on the way over there, but only because of the ice on the pavement. The tennis was spirited. Jerry and I had a chance to redeem ourselves from the bad loss last week to our friendly rivals and played well enough to prevail. There are times when no matter what you do, the result is positive, the territory known as "the zone." Jerry and I visited the zone this morning for a while. I think that I'd like to live there. We won 6-1 and separated and each took one of the opponents as partners for the next set. The result was a more balanced 6-4.

After playing we hang around and chat. Today the subject was Jerry's hobby: buying and selling on eBay. He has been doing pretty well this Christmas season by purchasing old ugly sweaters at thrift shops and reselling them on eBay for "ugly sweater parties", which seem to be popular in some parts. He buys for a couple of bucks and sells for 15 to 20 dollars and makes a few dollars on each transaction. He says that he has a pretty good eye for ugly and hasn't had many complaints about the quality of merchandise. He says that he buys women's sweaters because they are more garish and sells them as men's sweaters. The gall of the guy. The entrepreneurial spirit.

The Christmas holiday will be cutting into my tennis addiction. No Monday night tennis for the next two weeks as we try to finish out the year. The club closes for Christmas and New Year's Eves. So it goes.

The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Pacers last night to improve to 4-21, still the worst record in the NBA. I watched some of the action on the local sports channel, just by chance. It wasn't as ugly as it usually is, but they sure miss their recently traded superstar, Kevin Garnett.

Photoless

Well, it's October 10th and it is a real fall day. The temperature barely made it to fifty degrees and it was cloudy all day long. Herb and I chatted for a while with the OWITIJ (one who is teaching in Japan) this morning. It was abbreviated because Herb needed his computer to address some crisis at his job and that process sucks up all the bandwidth that we have in the house. OWITIJ had just returned from swimming and talked about her friends and her job in Okaki. She's going to chat with us again Sunday.

There was no biking from this house. I made a trek to the Apple store in Rosedale to try to buy a replacement battery for this laptop. When I arrived at the store I discovered that they are remodeling and won't be selling anything there until the 13th. So I'm getting by with the old battery and a long cord to an electrical outlet to keep it juiced.

There was outside tennis at 5 p.m. with the geezers. We all played in sweatpants and sweatshirts or jackets against the chill. A new guy came tonight and claimed special treatment for being the oldest guy on the courts, of the eight who were playing. But he was only 61 and had to settle for 5th oldest. He didn't seem too crestfallen, and he was a good player. We squeezed in two and a half sets before the light began to fail and we were forced to stand around and shoot the breeze (or something). The prediction for the rest of the week appears to be more of the same, so we'll be moving the game inside soon enough.

My new used racket purchased on eBay has not yet arrived, so my racket stringer has not yet been pressed into service. I'm planning to use different colored strings so that I can tell the difference between the rackets and perhaps crown a favorite.

There is no photo on this blog today.

Steamy Sunday Smacking

It's still too hot in St Paul. It reached 81 degrees and although the temp is down a bit, the dewpoint is still 70 degrees, which the Strib weather guy calls uncomfortable. Muggy. I had a chance to sweat profusely again today at the Marie courts. Dennis and I hit tennis balls, trying to get him back into the game after his cataract surgery and the cortisone injection for his hip. He's been out for about six weeks, but seemed back on his game today.

Heb and I had a bike ride yesterday to Como Park in the steamy air. Herb is standing next to a very large tree that was blown down in the big storm early in August. KS was still in town then. The tree is still lying on the ground, but it isn't blocking the path. We rode around the lake and then rode over to the Conservatory and Zoo.


Herb took this photo of TT on the ride around the lake. It more or less proves that I was along and that my outfit of the day was far from stylish, but functional. The ride continued through Hamline U. and back along Chatsworth to the homestead. About 15 miles.


I had an eBay experience this week. I've been looking for a tennis racket that duplicates and backs up my Hyper Prostaff 6.1 racket. There was a used one on sale on eBay that fit the bill, but unstrung, that I thought I could buy cheap and restring. I thought that I could get it with a $30 dollar bid, but competition materialized and I had to make a last minute strategic bid to get it for $76 - about half price of a new one. It should arrive in a few days and I'll have another opportunity to use the racket stringer that I bought from GZ. It was a plan, but mostly a puny plan. It'll be nice to try out this new, but used weapon.