Fort Snelling

In the interest of exercise and to find an interesting photo for this blog, I ventured over to Fort Snelling. There is a nice tennis facility there, which I should photograph and include here, but today I went to the old fort. It has been restored from the original and looks pretty much the way it did in the beginning. Beginning means 1820-24 when it was put up in the early days of Minnesota by the army. It's winter and there aren't many people around during this season so I was alone at the site. It is Minnesota's 150th anniversary in 2008 - statehood was conferred in 1858, just shortly before the Civil War. The fort is one of the few structures in Minnesota that is older than the state itself.


It's election crazy season all over the country. The pollsters are embarrassed because they failed to predict the Hilary Clinton "victory" in New Hampshire. They predicted the McCain victory over Mitt, but missed badly on the Democratic side. There are lots of theories floating around from the pundits, but they really are mystified. If the New Hampshire people are like me, they refuse to participate in polls, or perhaps even lie to the pollsters when they call at dinner time looking for free info. It may also be the prevalence of cell phones and the inability to reach those who use them exclusively. Or maybe the people that they would have caught at the dinner table have caller ID and refused to answer calls from numbers that they don't recognize. It is gratifying to hear that the polls miss sometimes and sometimes very badly. Their success rate is still better than Paul Douglas, our hippy dippy TV weather creature.

I'm in the midst of a tennis marathon - four days in a row. Last night I was a sub for Brad S. at St Paul Indoor and ended up playing with three guys that I haven't played with before. It went ok, but my side lost two sets. Tonight I played at Wooddale with the hardcore girls. Jerry wasn't there because he had to attend a Minnesota PCA meeting with the public about water quality in the eastern suburbs. It seems that some 3M chemicals are showing up in well water near old dump sites of some of their chemicals. Jerry works for the PCA , who has responsibility for these matters. So the tennis was somewhat different tonight, because Pat took his place, and Pat is taller, rangier, and has much more mobility around the court. He doesn't, however have Jerry's bazooka forehand or cannonball serve. It was hard going and we had lots of long interesting points. Barb and I managed to prevail in the end, but it would have been almost as much fun if we had lost. Although we both agree that winning is better.

Tomorrow night we have another USTA match at Wooddale. It's mixed doubles again, but it should be competitive and fun. And Saturday morning I'll be back playing geezer men's doubles. Four days in a row.

The Republican National convention for this election cycle will be in St Paul next summer. From the look of the current contest, there may be some opportunities for good blogging next summer. There will be celebrities in town and lots on interesting protests, probably. Watch this space.

Election Day 2007

The first Tuesday in November is the traditional time to vote in this country. I heard some explanation today about why November and why Tuesday were selected for the day to vote. Apparently the choice was made in the 1840's when most of the people in the country were engaged in agriculture. There could be no voting during times when the agrarian economy required labor. Thus November. Tuesday was chosen because it was far enough from the Sabbath, when good Christian farmers couldn't travel to town to do anything including to vote. Also Tuesday was good because then everyone had enough time after Sunday to travel to the polling place by horse and buggy. No one has seen fit to change the standard election day since then, so voter turnout is always low compared to civilized countries. This may explain our current political leadership.

This is my polling place, Linwood Community Center. I walked there this afternoon in about five minutes.


This is the door to the building with the sign indicating that I had arrived at the right location.


The voting area, a gymnasium, was devoid of other active voters when I arrived. There were five or six poll workers to make sure that my franchise was not compromised.

There was a race for city council, Ward 2, for which a single vote was expected, and the school board race in which I could have voted for up to four aspirants. I voted for three, all minorities in one way or another. I guess, in the larger sense,we all belong to one minority or another. I, for instance, belong to the geezer minority.

I expect to report results when they become available, unless I forget, or it seems just not important enough.

Bright Saturday

It's a bright enough Saturday and the temperature is hovering around 50 degrees. After playing some tennis at Wooddale this morning and eating some lunch, Herb and I had a stroll around the neighborhood. The tennis, I'd just as soon forget, an off day, and get on with the blog.

The school board election is next Tuesday, so I won't have many more chances to use campaign signs as a relevant subject. This sign is an ad for the only current minority member of the St Paul school board. Kazoua Kong-Thao came to the USA as a refugee child from Laos and is a member of the St Paul Hmong community. She was elected in 2003 and is running for reelection this year. She is the Vice-chair of the school board and a strong representative of the minority community in St Paul which makes up 70% of the student bodies. I am likely to vote Tuesday and likely will vote for her, too. We are electing four members this year.


It's November and soon there will be no more flowers growing in the outdoors. These black-eyed susans are still going strong and may be the last flowers to survive. I'll be watching them, because they are near my garage, and they are native plants from the variety that KS planted in the back yard before hoofing to Japan.


I have put the tennis scores out of my memory banks.

Campaign Season

I've been thinking about the challenge to blog every day. It seems like it might be easier if there were a theme for November. After walking around the neighborhood, mostly to the west, it became clear to me that it is political season. In St Paul there is an election next Tuesday to elect school board honchos and city council members. There should be fodder in that to fill up a couple of day's blogs. There must be a campaign sign or two that is odd, or perhaps uniquely St Paul in some way. I'm posting this campaign sign for two reasons: 1. It is a blue sign and thus fits yesterday's "blue" theme. 2. I had an uncle David Peterson, but I know that it is not him running for school board. This Dave is a 60 year old Republican who has retired from printing industry consulting. I may have to cast a ballot for Uncle Dave. St Paul, a strongly Democratic city, has only one Republican on the school board.


Another of my possible schemes to fill dead space on this blog is to do some restaurant reviews of the eateries on Grand Avenue that are within walking distance of home. I'd have to do it from some odd vantage point, like maybe look into its vegetarian offerings. This is just a work in progress at the moment.

I have a two picture commentary on Halloween and wildlife, squirrels in particular. I ran across this creature eating on a jack o'lantern on a porch somewhere to the west of here. Any squirrel with a taste for pumpkin is in hog heaven this week. There are so many former jack o'lanterns in front of houses that will feed the squirrels, that I sense a population surge of these creatures in the near future. Maybe there is work for a squirrel Jenny Craig.


Another shot of the squirrel, chewing on his feast, while the damage to jack is readily apparent behind him.


Squirrels are vermin.

There was no tennis for me today. I'll be on Wooddale courts tomorrow morning with the geezers.