Mounds Park Meanderings

I don't get to Mounds Park very often it seems, but it does have a nice high level view of the Mississippi as it meanders through the Capitol City. Today was a nice day, especially for this late in October, so after a satisfying session of Saturday morning tennis, I took a trip there to see if there had been any changes. A couple of years ago I had a series of photos featuring "Minnesota Rocks" - sculptures done in Minnesota stone by established sculptors that are located around the city. This is one of two in Mounds Park - "The Sacred Dish" by Dewey Goodwin, an Ojibwe Native American from Bemidji.

I wandered around the top of the bluff for a while, taking in the crisp fall air and enjoying the view of the river. The Mississippi flows through an industrial area here, including passing the St Paul Downtown Airport. I'm fairly close to the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, too, which is at the base of the bluff.

As I mentioned, tennis went pretty well. I'm using my old Nike shoes, but they are not going to last much longer unless I locate some ShoeGoo to patch up the hole in the left toe area. The usual Saturday crew was in attendance and we had a couple of close sets, but this time I felt like I was balanced and hitting the ball pretty well. Now I have a couple of days off to rest and decide who I'm going to vote for in the election on Tuesday.

I hear that the Stewart-Colbert rally in Washington D.C. drew over 200,000 people to the activities. I don't know if was politics or comedy, or perhaps just a nice day, but the rally was a success. I hope some sanity returns to public discourse.

I have a new recipe for Asian Slaw, purloined from the InnerTubes, but easy and pretty tasty. I was looking for a good pasta salad when I found the recipe. There is some pasta in this (crushed ramen noodles), but also almonds and sunflower seed kernels. I may post it on the cooking blog the next time I make it - when I have photos. Unky Herb and PP can attest to its level of deliciousness.

Nineteen Eighty-three

I must report that I switched back to my old, battered tennis shoes for today's tennis activities and the results were much better. For whatever reason, I played somewhat better. The old shoes were Nike's, and after the match, I came home and found the exact same shoe for sale on the Internet and bought a new pair. They'll be here next week sometime, probably after the election on Tuesday.

It's a big week. Halloween on Sunday and then Tuesday election. Talk about a scary season.

I'm still scanning slides. A little at a time helps to maintain my eyesight. The task is pretty simple, but I have to do some editing on almost all of the slides. These are from late spring on 1983, about the time of PP's baptism.

This is Unky Herb in his Superman phase. It was a long phase and he was joined in it by his good friend and neighbor, Andy. I think they both wanted to be Superman. For a while I pretended to be the real Superman, but Andy was onto me almost right away. He told me that "Superman doesn't have a mustache." My response, "Yes, I do," was less than convincing. Herb even had a cape in his Superman PJ's. This is his day time attire.

And this, a small group including the prairie princess as a baby with her Uncle Gino and Aunt BB. This was a few short weeks before "Wireless" was born.

Land hurricane disrobes my maple tree

This week we had a large wind storm that some of the more grandiosely inclined weather creatures have named a land hurricane. I guess there was record low barometric pressure for Minnesota and it was low enough that, had we been at sea, it would have been a level 3 hurricane. We had some big winds blow through and about seven inches of snow fell to earth near Duluth. Here we just had strong gusts of wind. In my backyard there used to be a maple tree with a lot of beautiful orange leaves. Now it looks like this. I guess summer is over.

I did get outside some today. It was cold enough for gloves, the first necessary use of gloves for the season. I guess the first hard frost is arriving over night tonight. October 29 is a latish date for the first frost. There will, of course be many more.

The project to scan old slides continues. Most of the slides are mostly interesting to me and so I'm not likely to put them all up on the blog, but some are of more general interest. Tonight, a pair of photos of infants who have appeared as adults on this blog. The first is Unky Herb from April of 1980, in the Minneapolis hospital where he was born.

The second is the Prairie Princess in the same Minneapolis hospital where Herb was born and where she also made her arrival. This was April, 1983. A long time ago.

The tennis wars continue. I seem to be in a slump. Maybe it's age related, but I'm blaming the new Adidas tennis shoes that I've been wearing the last week or so. They are fancy shoes with a six month guarantee on the soles. But because the soles have to last that long without being worn through on the toes or heels, they seem to have an unusual thickness of rubber - and thus they are a tad heavier than my old Nikes. And for some reason, I'm feeling a little out of balance when I hit some shots, and my usual fancy footwork is leaden. Tonight at Wooddale with Jerry and the hardcore girls, my side went down 1-6, 6-2, 6-2. Then I went to Yang's for Singapore Rice Noodles to share with the Prairie Princess.

I'm buying some cheap Nikes tomorrow and hoping that that fixes the shoe problem Otherwise it's age related and I'm not ready to admit that yet (a la Brett Favre)

Diamonds and Rust, mostly rust

That Judas Priest cover of "Diamonds and Rust" on the Moohoo blog keeps running through my brain.  I recommend it for its novel appeal.

When it's this windy and you have 37 trays of slides, and you're a retired guy, you, too, might spend most of the day scanning in the slides and arranging them into a semblance of order. I think that the ones I'm posting today are in sequence.  The boxes have dates written on them and the individual slides have the date of development stamped on them.

This is from the summer of 1978.  I think the place is a well used lake resort near Grand Rapids.  These people are currently Michiganders.

This is is stamped September, 1978.  Maybe it was taken in August, but the box says it was taken in a medium sized city in Illinois.   I think that's correct.  A girl (OSLO) and her dog.  Brownie?  Duke?

This is also September, 1978, in the same medium sized city.  Notice the monogramed top on Santini.

Also in 1978. The slide is stamped October, and was taken in this very house. Mr Mohoo in his salad days and in need of a shave.

This was taken very near to April 5, 1980. The baby is my son, who in these pages and on occasion in Michigan, goes by the alias, Unky Herb. He's sleeping peacefully in the photo, an activity that usually happened during the day, so that we could have quality time together in the middle of the night.  I think we borrowed the bassinet for the first few weeks of his time here.

This slide scanner is working well enough for my purposes. I have used iPhoto software to enhance every one of them, but I am pleased with the results. I have about thirty boxes to get to, but there is no hurry and the winter in these parts seems interminable.

["Time, you thief..."  from Leigh Hunt's "Jenny Kissed Me"]

About those boxes of slides

The scanner started me down this path. I haven't seen these photos in a decade or more and now I'm using them on my blog. They may mean something to some of my regular readers. I'm scanning 1974 events and happenings today. The boxes have photos up until 1987.

This is one of the few photos of me playing tennis. It was the Hamline alumni tennis tournament at the old courts before they were improved. I'm using one of those T2000 tennis rackets that Jimmy Connors used and made popular. The slide was a little dark, but I was able to get it presentable using the magic of iPhoto. In the summer of 1974 I was 31 years old, just a year older than my own son today. PP said something like, "nice shorts, Tousan," when she saw the image.

Time, you thief.

A photo of Tom Miller on the occasion of Andy's high school graduation. There are some photos here of a very young Andy, too, which may get an airing the next marginal photography day. Dad was 65 when the photo was snapped - just three years younger than I am. [Insert another curse at Father Time here].

Other than photos there was actually other action today. The USTA mixed doubles team that I am a part of had its first match today at Wooddale. Jerry is the captain and he put me and a new woman on the team, Kathy, in the number one doubles spot, a dubious honor - we played their supposed best team. This is an open age team, so the folks we played were youngish (while I'm geezerish), but we gave it a run. We won a set but lost in the third set tiebreaker - a ten pointer - 11-9. The scores 4-6, 6-0, 1-0. I kiddingly accused Jerry of "throwing us under the bus" to get our other teams an easier match - sandbagging, it's called, but he reminded me that we only lost by two points, the thinnest of margins. The other two doubles teams won, so the team as a whole is now 1-0 in the league.

The Vikings were not so lucky losing in Green Bay 28-24 in Sunday Night Football. It was a fun game to watch with that Favre guy doing his usual Favre stuff.

Thirty-six boxes of slides

A few days ago, I was asked to supply a few old family photos for a school project. I found that the photos were actually on 35mm slides and that I hadn't looked at those slides for maybe ten years. I have about 36 boxes of the slides, each box holding about 100 slides. I want to digitize quite a few of them for my own use and actually to have them available when I want to look at them. They are historical documents in a sense and help me remember where I've been and how I came to be this senior tennis playing retired guy. I went to Best Buy and asked the camera guy what to use for this project and they recommended an ION scanner for slides and 35mm negatives. It comes with an SD memory card and also a USB connection to a computer, so I bought one.

I've been scanning slides today, because the weather is kind of iffy and I'm done with my morning tennis match. These are from the middle 1970's, a time I well remember, but a few years before the birth of Unky Herb and the Prairie Princess. I scanned about twenty slides onto the SD memory card and transferred them to my Apple laptop. I also sent a few to my niece, Nicole, who was the requester of the original photos. Thanks, Nicole, for the inspiration.

This is the Boyd family from 1976, I think in Fort Wayne, Indiana - John, Sylvi, Johnny and Nancy. All have changed in the 34 years since the photo, but the slide is still in good shape. Photos are a kind of cheap time machine.

And Santini from the same trip - 1976. I didn't remember the photo, but I remember the person and a bit about the trip. I think it was Thanksgiving.

This is a slightly older photo. The date on the slide said October, 1973. Gino was coaching a kid's football team and I was trying to help out. I took some photos and I think I may have a super 8 mm film from the time, probably somewhere in my basement.

The scanner did a passable job with the scan, but it was necessary to tweak the images, using some of the features of Apple's iPhoto software. I had to lighten the exposure and mess with the color a bit, but I'm reasonably satisfied with the results.

The morning tennis at Wooddale did not go my way today. Bob and I lost two sets to Jerry and Pat, 6-7, 5-7. It was pretty good tennis and even, but I was a little off my game and a little fatigued from tennis four of the last five days. Pat and Jerry took it to us. And what they say is true. You cannot win them all.

The sun was shining

I took a walk in Como Park this afternoon. It may be the last nice week of the season, and maybe not, but I wanted to spend some time in the outdoors. I had to play tennis later in the evening so I didn't want to do anything too strenuous, just a decent walkabout. I also needed a picture or two to put up on this blog.

The reflection in the pool outside the Conservatory was pretty, and I couldn't pass it by.

And the topiary and the vertical garden (or whatever it's called) are very popular places to take wedding photos in the summer months. There hasn't been a hard freeze yet so the plants are still active and still in place. I know that some of the plants are those known as hens and chicks. Someone puts in a lot of work to keep this display healthy and attractive.

And yet another of the trees in the park. This is an oak and they are turning colors now, a while after the ash trees have dropped all their leaves, the quitters. The oaks are in various stages of their change process, but this one is doing just fine, thank you.

All this in anticipation of about 90 minutes of mixed doubles at Wooddale. The tennis was pretty competitive and some long points ensued. The scores 7-5, 6-3 got us to the 90 requisite minutes. The USTA team tennis starts this weekend. I'm playing mixed doubles again on the team that I played on a year ago. There are some new players and a nucleus of players back, but as in life, this team is in a state of flux.

Another Bean Salad

It was a nice brisk October day, a nice day for a walk outside and for creating yet another bean salad. The bean salad may have been the highlight of the day. It has been a couple of weeks since my last one, and I was getting hungry for those chewy garbanzos. Again I added just a few pieces of carrot to jazz up the color.

The afternoon walkabout turned out to be a trip to Hamline. I had an email from them lately that advertised a soccer game, and I decided to watch a little collegiate athletic action. My very short collegiate soccer career was composed of a couple of games as a goal keeper for the club team that functioned as Hamline's entry in unofficial conference play in 1965. Dave Streeter, a friend and a very good soccer player from New England, organized the team and needed a guy who could catch a ball to be keeper and he asked me to play. I played a couple of games before I was forced to quit because I broke my wrist in a intramural touch football game. I remember especially a game at Macalester against a team made up almost exclusively, as I remember it, of foreign students. Guys who could actually play.

So today I watched the Hamline (in white) women play the Northwestern college women. Here they are lined up for the National anthem. They always play the Star Spangled Banner before athletic contests these days, but usually not tennis matches that I've attended, at least. When I left the game near halftime the score was 1-0 for the visitors.

While I was roaming around the campus after the game, I ran into an employee of the university, whom I recognized immediately, Dr. BB. She was on her way into Drew Hall, the dormitory that I lived in for four years almost 45 years ago.

There were some orange tinged maple trees in the parking area near Drew, so I included this shot in the spirit of the autumn season. Still no hard freeze in the city.

We (the geezers) played tennis outside for two hours yesterday, and we are scheduled to do it again tomorrow at Marie Park. It's been an amazing run of good weather. I know we'll pay for this with some truly abysmal weather in January.

Apple orchard

After early morning tennis at Wooddale, where the two sets went to 7-6, 5-7, it occurred to me that the weather was just too nice to spend much time inside. The princess was here and she was agreeable to a trip to an apple orchard and a chance to buy some local produce. The afternoon was sunny and warm - 67 degrees on my auto's thermometer - and the sky was October blue. We drove to Aamodt's Apple Farm just north of highway 36 on the way to Stillwater. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the Aamodts, we weren't the only people with the same idea today.

We had a stroll among the apple trees. It is amazing how many apples end up on the ground and apparently wasted. This tree had more apples on the ground than I could down in a month. I don't know the economics of the business, but it seems like a lot of profit was left on the ground.

I guess they make up for the waste by keeping their prices high enough. We bought some honey crisp apples, some apple butter and some honey. I felt good about contributing to the local economy and I have fresh apples for a week or so.

And the Halloween season is clearly on its way. There are a lot of attractively decorated homes in the area, and there are still two weeks until the holiday. Even in bad economic times people like to scare the kiddies on Halloween.

LXVIII

Unky Herb and I visited Wild River State Park a while ago and he sent me some photos from the trek around the park. This is the tousan (me) amid some red tinged sumac. I like the photo because the light is such that the wrinkles on my face are not very prominent. This getting old is not for sissies, and also not for the vain.

A nice October day today. Not as nice as last week and the weekend, but for October, one must be thankful.

There was tennis at Wooddale. It was as even a match as one can expect and there were a lot of those enjoyable long, competitive points. It was mixed doubles with one of the hardcore girls, Barb, and a sub, Linda, because Becky had family business to attend to. And Jerry. We played to a tie breaker in the first set before losing. So 6-7, and we were up 4-3 when we gave up the court for fresher players. Ten games apiece.  I was playing with new tennis shoes that I bought today, because all the old pairs in my closet have a hole worn through the toe on the right foot. Even with the new shoes we lost, but there were no blisters to report.  One more thing to be thankful for.

The ash trees in front of the house have given up their leaves. Just like last year the ashes have exposed themselves as quitters. The oaks, stalwarts of the tree family are just now getting around to changing colors, but the cowardly ash quitters are all done. Unfortunately, St Paul has identified the Emerald ash borer in the city, and they are silently, but fairly surely, killing the ash trees. In another five years or so the ashes will be gone, replaced with some more robust species, perhaps maples.

And I guess I'm old enough to start using Roman numerals for my age, and have been for a while.