Tennis Bubbles in Sunlight

This month of miserable weather is ready to end. Too much rain and too much gray dominated. Therefore when the sun shines a little it's a good idea to have your camera ready. These are the twin bubbles at Fred Wells Tennis Center at Fort Snelling where I play twice a week, most weeks. The blue stuff between the clouds is the sky in its natural color.



We played two and a half sets, finished on time and with a satisfying percentage of decent back and forth points. Tennis continues even on the last day of the rainiest October on record in the People's Republic of Minnesota. And since it's Halloween and the candy requesting children of the republic are out and about, it was nice to see a mostly dry day. I'm not sure how this custom of giving candy to other people's children got to where it is, but it seems like it might be a good idea to curtail it a bit. Halloween has always inaugurated the eating season, followed by the other big food holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. A later start to the season might cut into our national obesity epidemic. Who knows?

Because October acted like November, is it possible that November will act like a normal October?

World Series action in Philadelphia is scheduled for tonight. To me, at least, baseball should be played in warm weather. November in Philly for the Series just feels wrong. Maybe they should hold it on a neutral field in the South somewhere, like they do the Super Bowl. That'll never happen.

Takeout Chinese Food

I was sorely tempted to put this photo on the Family Cooking Blog but thought better of it. Takeout food, even from Yang's is not cooking, at least not by me. The instructions - unpack food, dish up on plate, chow down - are pretty simple and need no exposition. But it sure was tasty. It was Singapore Rice Noodles made with just enough curry sauce to make sleeping a bit uncomfortable for your standard geezer.

I stop at Yang's nearly every Thursday night after mixed doubles at Woodbury Tennis Club with Jerry and the hardcore girls. Tonight was no different. Even with a rainy night, there were customers at Yang's and good food to be had. The tennis had been good. We played and split two good sets before quitting for the evening. All of us will be visiting Tucson in a few weeks for the USTA national 8.0 mixed doubles tourney and we're getting ready. It's not formal training, just playing a lot of tennis and trying to get better. We don't want to embarrass ourselves.



Earlier today I caught Unky Herb doing yoga in the living room. He took the week off from his labors and was hoping to get in some outdoor activities before winter closes in. Unluckily, it's been gray and rainy most of this week. Today was the worst, so Herb decided to get his exercise doing yoga to his P90X CD. He's been doing this exercise program for several weeks and seems to be thriving and getting in pretty good shape. This is one of his exercises.



If October were the Civil War, the Confederate states would be winning. There have been a lot more gray days than blue days. Today would have been a massacre.

Fade to Gray

One nice day doesn't make a nice month, and today we reverted to the month's norm. Gray. It's been a blue-gray game most of the month with the rebs winning most of the battles.

I had lunch over near Macalester College, a private liberal arts college near here, and near and dear to the heartstrings of some reader(s). Lunch at the Italian Pie Shoppe. They have some good pie, and a nice lunch special. On the way I encountered an "art car" parked on the street near what was once Ace Hardware. I have encountered several of these the last few months, including in the Grand Old Day parade, and I'm starting to suspect that there may be some sort of movement afoot. Perhaps a conspiracy. There was, in fact, another similarly festooned auto on Grand Avenue near the shoppe. I always wonder what the redecoration of these autos does to their resale value, but the autos are usually on their last owner. I've included an informative video of a Minnesota art car parade from earlier this year. Just the thing for a gray day.



My main exercise today was a long walk past the new rain garden that PP and her MCC cohorts installed at Linwood, then around the block, up the big stairs, north to Summit and past the Guv's Mansion, and back home. About an hour. I plan to revisit the tennis wars tomorrow come blue or come gray.

Luce Line Trail

It was one of the nicest October 27ths in the history of October 27ths. The sun came out and then the clouds went completely away, leaving only blue. Unky Herb is taking a few days off from the rigors of work and he was free to explore a state park. It's actually on his list of things to do on his free days. So. Yesterday PP did some buckthorn homicide on a state trail, Luce Line, in Wayzata and Plymouth and recommended the area for a hike. UH and I spent a couple of hours there walking along a trail that was once a rail spur into Minneapolis. It was fairly wild, but near residential property and well used by bikes and walkers. Here's UH on the ground readjusting his aching hip muscles, or something, and it was so cute I had to snap off a picture or two.



We spent a couple of hours enjoying the colored leaves and the blue, blue sky. The sunlight makes a very big difference in the quality of photos and the quality of my mood. It was a nice day to be a retired older gentleman, taking a walk in the country. I'm not so sure about the gentleman part.



I have this photo from the weekend taken by UH's camera. He emailed it to me yesterday. He and I were at the end of Summit Avenue in St Paul where the large monument to "the Great War" stands. The war to end all wars didn't end all wars, as we all know, and the Great War is now known as World War I, but it's still an impressive monument. I digress. While we were at the site, overlooking the Mighty Mississippi, we encountered quite a few photographers. This group seemed at least semi professional, with a model that posed multiple times with multiple costume changes. I asked UH to take a photo and this resulted. You can perhaps see why they choose this spot for photos. The trees were nicely colored and the view quite impressive.


No tennis to report. A day off from the wars and a well earned day off, I maintain.

Blueberry Pie

There has been some talk about blueberry pie lately and today there was action in that direction. PP baked a pie from a variety of frozen blueberries that were gathered for the purpose. Some were wild berries, little sweet blues. Some were big luscious berries left from our Michigan adventure. Mixed together and baked in PP's famous pie crust, they made a pretty sight. The first shot was taken partially through the process, before the top crust was affixed.



And then the final product just as it was exiting the oven, golden brown and smelling of something wonderfully tasty. We haven't actually cut into it yet, but be assured that it will be consumed with great appreciation. Thanks for the recipe, Santini. I guess it's pie season.




Yesterday Herb and I went to the end of Summit Avenue in search of beautiful and colorful leaves to photograph. The lighting was less than optimum, but there were a great lot of very pretty maple and oak and sumac leaves, as well as other species that were maybe not yet of optimum color. This is Herb as he sat among some leaves, just after taking some shots, and caught nearly unaware by his tousan, but alert enough to smile at the camera.



There was also tennis today at Fort Snelling with the gang of geezers, undeterred by the cold. We had some good competition and exercised enough to be about the right state of fatigue. My slump has abated a bit and I played well enough, and ended with some energy to spare. We missed the last part of the Vikings first loss of the season, but there have been enough replays and reporter pieces about the game that by early next week I'l be thinking that I saw the whole game.

Ugh

It snowed pretty hard today, and when it wasn't snowing, it was raining. I guess this will end sometime, but I hope that it's soon.



I played a little over two sets of tennis at the Fort Snelling Tennis Bubble. As I played I was able to see the white of the snow falling out the front windows of the club. It was cold inside, but we were still able to play a pretty reasonable game of tennis. That's the miracle of indoor tennis. When I was in high school there were no indoor tennis facilities to be found. We waited out the winter, until the snow melted on the outdoor courts. We even helped out Mother Nature by shoveling the snow off the courts, but the spring season could always be interupted by a snowstorm. It was almost like having to relearn to play every spring. We didn't mind, because it was the way things were.

More indoor tennis tomorrow. I'm in a kind of slump that I need to work out of in the next couple of weeks before the Tucson tournament. But there is time and indoor courts to get it done.

These posts are starting to look like weather reports.

It rained the live long day

There's not much to say when it rains all day. I looked out my back door this morning and the maple leaves, although showing a nice pastel shade, were still wet and stayed that way the rest of the day.



To salvage some sanity I decided to see if there were any pretty flowers at the Como Conservatory. I drove over to the area and found a lot of places to park. Everyone was taking a rain day, I guess. They always have something blooming in the big glass greenhouse. This daisy-like fandango flower is representative of the fall flowers displayed in the Sunken Garden. Pretty, but not dramatic.



So I walked around outside in the rain. I was wearing a pretty good raincoat, so I didn't get very wet, and I was pretty much alone on the walking paths. There were some nice maple trees along the paths, but they are missing the bright sun that makes the leaves really stand out.



The sun may return tomorrow. It's been a gray month, man.

Just a few minutes ago PP posted her pie crust process on the family experimental food blog. I can vouch for its golden goodness.

Park Closed for Deer Hunting

The morning was nice enough to take a walk. The forecast for afternoon was possible rain, and it did rain, so I was right to do my trekking in the a.m. PP had a late start at MCC this morning, but she was committed to going for a run, so I decided to walk around a lake alone. There are a couple of lakes in the Crosby Farm Park by the Mississippi - Crosby Lake and Upper Lake. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a sign announcing Upper Lake, but google maps shows its contours, and I decided that that would be just the right mixture of forest, bog, and exercise. I set out. But my plans were thwarted by the sign in the photo encountered at the entrance to the Park. The city or maybe the county has declared open bow hunting on the deer herd that resides in Crosby Farm and they closed the park. As I stood to take the photo a jogger swept by me into the park, but as she passed the sign, and read it, she stopped and asked what was up. I expressed my own reluctance to enter the park and she apparently agreed with my judgment. She asked what was at the top of the hill. "Shepherd Road," I said. She turned and ran up the hill.



I guess that qualifies as interaction with the public.

I took my new plans further up the river to Hidden Falls and walked along the mighty Mississippi. I had trepidations of errant arrows from careless archers, but that soon passed and I had a nice trek up the river. I met a few amblers walking their dogs and themselves but not much excitement. A barge went by and I was able to see people with their dogs across the river at the Minneapolis leashless dog park. I walked along the river for a while and observed the river's effect on trees, even big trees that grow too close to the water. This big tree has had most of the soil eroded from around its roots, leaving it high and dry when the river is low. And a photo worthy image.



I came home for lunch. I stopped at Trader Joe's for some fixings and ended up with a "toasted" cheese sandwich along with a bowl of tomato soup. I did not, however stick to the "old time" lunch plan - the cheese was colby and feta, the bread, spinach feta from Great Harvest, and the soup, a much fancier non condensed version of tomato without high fructose corn syrup. Quite satisfying.

No tennis again today. Two days in a row without smacking forehands and I'm beginning to feel the effects of withdrawal.

October Progresses

As I was at Fort Snelling, I saw these two red kayaks enjoying the day. That's the Mississippi River that they are paddling down. It seemed like a nice way to spend some free time.


I had the day off from tennis. It was nice to have a day to rest up. My exercise was a walk by the river and trying to recognize the variety of bushes and trees. This time of year the buckthorn bushes are very recognizable and as PP keeps telling me, they are an invasive species and very hardy. They bear berries which are ripe and black this time of year and, when close to walking surfaces, are quite messy.

Substantially nicer day

The sun came out and, although it never got very warm, it was a nice day, and inspired better moods all around. This is almost the same photo as yesterday, except that this time the sun is shining. It makes a better photo, too, don't you think?



My theory about my tennis slump seemed to be right. I switched back to my duct taped racket and played three sets and a tie breaker at Wooddale. Suffice it to say that I now have a couple of won sets since my last birthday. It didn't really feel like I was playing better, but the results were much better.

I walked over to Linwood Park at about noon. I knew that PP would be working there today. She and her MCC cohorts were digging up a flower garden in front of the main building and changing it into a rain garden. She was well along in the process when I arrived, but I stopped and met her crew and a few of her coworkers - Alyssa, who I had met before, plus her supervisor, John, and her co-team teacher, the infamous Sean. They all seem nice, and all very young. The whole organization is composed of people younger than 26. Not a gray beard to be seen, at least until I arrived. They were respectful and actually seemed to be enjoying the work and the sunshine.

Feta fish for dinner and thanks to Santini's food blog posting it turned out acceptably delicious.