USTA codgers

For the first time in a year or so I played in a USTA league tennis match. There is a division in USTA for men over 60 - Super Seniors it's called. I agreed to play on a team of players rated 4.0 tonight at Fort Snelling, a place that I played twice a week all winter. The courts are somewhat different in the summer, because they take the bubble down and play takes place outside. That means that wind is now a factor in play. It's a new team for me, but I've played with many of the players before over the last ten years or so. Tonight my partner, Ahto, and I played against a pretty good team who play out of White Bear Lake, a team of players that often have won the leagues they play in. There are only three teams in this league drawn from all over the Twin Cities. I guess by this age most players have given up tennis and moved on to golf and shuffleboard. The guys that are left are hardcore, but still codgers. It'll take a while to get used to playing with Ahto, but we were competitive before losing 6-4, 6-4. It was windy. It was fun and as I told Ahto as we left the courts, we are all winners just by showing up and competing. Ahto is 66 and agreed immediately. I love this game.

The heat wave has dissipated a bit and I have a few photos that I've taken in the last few days. I've mostly been playing tennis and doing some walking around the neighborhood and some of my favorite parks in the Twin Cities.

My flower planter after being upgraded by the Girl From The North Country (GFTNC) a couple of days ago. The colorful flowers that were originally in the planter were flooded out by a couple of big rainfalls. They look quite a bit better now that there are new colors in the pot.

A single sunflower growing in the neighborhood not far from home.

A native American mask posted near Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, taken in a walk by the falls over the weekend with the GFTNC.

I changed my blog's header photo today. The white heron's image was captured about a year ago as it stood in shallow water in Lake Como.

1001

It's not a prime number. 1001. But it's a lot of posts. I have a few photos from the last several days while I was taking a break from blogging to commemorate a thousand and now I'm beginning the second thousand. I have some photos from several trips to Como Park, where I often walk for exercise and to appreciate the natural and near natural areas around the lake and the Conservatory.

I caught a bee at work on this orange flower at the butterfly garden near the frog pond at Como.

Some whitish flowers growing outside and near the Como Conservatory.

Three ducks at Como Park, swimming at ease in the summer sun.

It's been hot lately, actually most of the month. Yesterday was a tennis day and even though the thermometer in my car said 97, we played a couple of sets and it was actually fun. It helps if you get hydrated ahead of time and strive to stay hydrated through the whole process. There were seven guys who were willing to spend an hour and a half in the sun and all of them were still feeling pretty well at the end of the day. I walked off feeling well, but I came home to air conditioning, a little snack, and a short nap.

The Olympics begins on Friday. I guess there will be a pretty good tennis tournament at Wimbledon as part of the competition. I'm looking forward to watching some of the competition, hoping that NBC will squeeze some of the good matches into their coverage. I'm planning to watch some of the events on the internet. It is reported that all the events will be available on line. It would be pretty nice if Andy Murray could win the singles, since he's been stymied in his efforts to win Wimbledon in the best of five set format that is used in tennis grand slam events. In the Olympics winning two of three sets is enough.

I enclose a video that I encountered on the Discover Magazine site.   It's one of the earliest uploads of non-text data to the internet - purportedly.  It's a bevy of beauties from CERN singing a do-wop song to the scientist boy friends in their lives who prefer their collider to them.  It also has a section featuring Cray computers from the early nineties when I was doing software for the same machines.  Very nice memories for me.

[7*11*13 = 1001]

One thousand

It's time that I blogged again. I've been short of material (that usually means my photos are of below par quality) and not much really exciting has been happening. But I'm invigorated by Mr and Mrs Smith's trip to Paris and the prospects for some good blog reading, and by the fact that I just realized that this is my 1000th blog entry - the first was May 3, 2007.

It's been a hot few weeks and this week was a kind of reprieve from the 90's and 100's of the early part of the month. I've been to Como just walking around (JWA) and have a few pictures of the place where I take quite a few photos. The Conservatory is pictured from a somewhat different angle than usual, on the slope down toward the frog pond. I guess frog pond is a good enough name for it - there is a stone frog in the pool, or maybe it's concrete.

A duck on the stone frog's head.

It was 88 today, with reasonable humidity. The usual tennis crowd gathered at Marie courts and we played some tennis. I've been somewhat off my game lately, I think because of the difficulty of dealing with the heat and humidity and staying adequately hydrated. Today worked better because I made a conscious effort to get ahead of the water need by drinking a couple of large glasses of water before leaving the house for the courts. It seemed to work and my level of fatigue seemed to be less than during the height of the heat wave. I think I'll stick with the regimen for a while to see where it leads.

I spent some of the morning watching the 10th stage of the Tour de France. It was a mountain stage and Thomas Voeckler, the popular French cyclist, won the stage. There has been some talk about doping again in this year's race, but so far the unexpected strong riders haven't been caught, if indeed they're doping. It was a good race, but it's less fun when it seems like there is cheating going on.

I don't think that there is any doping in professional tennis. But then I didn't think that there was any doping in baseball for a long time and it turned out that there was quite a bit of it.

Prairie Grass

The heat of summer has arrived. The Strib weather guy says that we'll be in the mid 90's for highs most of the week, topping out at 100 later in the week - maybe Friday. It sounds warm, but we have electricity, a commodity that apparently is lacking in parts of the East, where they're having a similar heat wave. So far, I've been maintaining a normal schedule, even playing tennis in the late afternoon. On Saturday, we had seven codgers at Marie Park in the morning, all well into their sixties or more. The next test is Monday afternoon.

I have some photos from late last week which I took on various walks with the GFTNC around more natural areas in the city. We checked out Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, a place where the Prairie Princess helped transform to a prairie with ambitions to turn into an oak savannah. The prairie grass looks very healthy and has a much different look from the usual lawns of other parks. The oak trees are doing pretty well, too.

On another day on a hike around Lake Como with the previously mentioned GFTNC, we encountered this bird sitting in a tree. I haven't posted a photo of this variety of bird before, so I took a chance. I think it's a Carolina Wren.

The Prairie Princess is just a month away from her field work trip to Africa. She'll be spending five months in Tanzania, at the Equator, then hopefully coming to Minnesota, home, for Christmas. Lately she's been going by a nickname of Daughter of Norway, but may have to temporarily change to something more African.

Guest Photographer

There's a Rembrandt art show at MIA this week and it probably continues into September sometime. The GFTNC thought it might be fun to take in some art work from the 1600's, so we took a ride over to Minneapolis. Since we planned to be in the MIA, I left my picture taken apparatus at home. I neglected to check the web site for the museum and we found when arriving at the front door, that the museum is closed on Mondays.

What to do? It was a beautiful day in June and we were in Minneapolis. I was camera-less, but the GFTNC had hers with her, so she volunteered to take some photos and we went to the Rose Garden and the Peace Garden, just north of Lake Harriet in the big city next door.

Did I say it was a beautiful day? It was. The roses, however, were somewhat past their prime. The GFTNC amused herself by taking this photo of some roses in her shadow, hoping that it would look like her holding a bouquet. I like the creativity and the photo isn't bad either. In any case it's hers and she's the guest photographer.

 

Here I am sitting on a Japanese style bridge in the Peace Garden. Japanese bridges often have a bend in the middle somewhere so the evil spirits, who can't change directions over water, can't follow you to the other side.  [At least that's the story I remember.]  The photo is also the product of the GPhotographer. Did I say it was a beautiful day?

 

We spent a couple of hours in the park, looking at flowers, foliage and statuary. Then we came back to this side of the river and had a picnic lunch - chicken salad - on the patio behind my house.

And there was also some later afternoon tennis south of the city with five other retired gents. We played some tennis and agreed to do it again on Wednesday.

Later on we had dinner at Mai Village with my old tennis doubles partner, who is visiting from Arizona.  The food was good and so was the conversation.  Rich reminded the GFTNC and me that his mom went to high school in Coleraine and was an alumna of Greenway High School, too.  A small, small world.

Day of the Tousan

Yesterday was Father's Day, and it has been our tradition to go to the Sculpture Garden over by Walker Art Center on Father's Day. This year the Prairie Princess has assumed a new role as Daughter of Norway and currently resides in Aas, Norway. Thus not available for the trip to visit the Spoonbridge and the lesser known works of art at the Garden. We waited until late afternoon, after a session of iChatting with the girl, before setting out. As it turned out, it rained really hard when we got there, so we changed plans, ate some dinner at Mai Village and then returned to the Garden. The rain had stopped, and eventually the sun came out and the tradition continued.  Photos were taken.

The Spoonbridge is kind of a symbol of Minneapolis. It's image is used often in ads as shorthand for the biggest city in Minnesota. I like the sculpture. It's a little odd and in a very picturesque location.  Yesterday, as always, there were a lot of people milling around in the Garden - even a wedding party who were taking photos of the bride and groom by the art.  They had arrived in a very pink limousine.

 

Unky Herb posing next to the Spoonbridge pool with camera in hand. He was taking photos and stopped to be a subject for a moment.

 

One of my favorite spots in the Sculpture Garden - the place with the mirrors. I almost always try to take some sort of unique photo with UH and me in the frame (and PP when she's available.)

 

 It was a nice Father's Day.  And UH bought me a new axe to take the place of the one that used to belong to Abe Lincoln, the one that he unfortunately broke the handle of. 

Today. It was hot and humid, but it was a scheduled day for tennis with the Cadre of Codgers. Eight of us showed up and we moved the game to the Sibley High School courts. The thermometer in my car read 92 degrees on the way to the courts, but there was minimal wind and tennis went pretty well. It was, however, a day for two water bottles and only two sets of competition.   Rich was in town and he joined us in play.  In fact he was my partner - strictly by chance - for both sets today. No heat stroke was recorded.

A Quiet June Day

The rains from yesterday flooded parts of southern Minnesota and the winds broke a branch off my long suffering ash tree in the front yard. But the sun was shining and I needed to walk or something to shake the cobwebs from my brain. The falls at Minnehaha Park are a popular destination for me and I wanted to see if the rains had affected the volume of water going over the edge. There was a healthy flow, and there were a lot of visitors to the park today. It's Friday and people are taking advantage of June to have a few of those long weekends.

 

 I walked all the way to the Mississippi River and back along Minnehaha Creek. At the end by the river, a guy asked me if this was the Mississippi River. I admitted that it was. Then he asked me the name of the creek that he's just followed to the big river. I told him Minnehaha Creek. He said he'd been here about twenty years ago and didn't remember the names. I walked back to the falls, climbed the steps (about 100 of them I think) and walked by the trendy Se Salt restaurant. It was 12:30 and there was a line 100 feet long extending out the door, waiting to order seafood.  I came home for lunch. 

As I stepped out of the garage on my return from the park, this cardinal was sitting on the fence. As I readied my camera, he flew to the tree and I got just one shot before he moved on.

 

There are other wild animals in the area. A bunny, probably not named Bugs, who lives in my neighborhood, maybe even in my very own bushes or PP's native plant garden, where he lurks waiting for veggies to appear from my garden. This one is a baby, freshly minted, and equipped with a ready hunger.

 

Armstrong charged with doping

The headline in the Minneapolis Fish Wrap from this morning reported on the beginning of a bad week for a certain TDF seven time winner.

My day was a mixed bag. [Interesting expression. I'll have to look up its etymology.] I had a appointment with a medical lab to donate a bit of blood to feed their pack of backroom vampires, and perhaps get a cholesterol reading somewhere in the normal zone.

When I got home the infrared weather map of the USA looked like this.

 

Soon thereafter my electricity went out. Xcel Energy's electric grid took a hit and I was without power for about three hours. My garage door opener, radio, TV, microwave oven, and internet all require juice. I was left with my cell phone, a battery operated radio, and whatever local stuff I could do on my laptop without the grid. I edited old genealogy files for a while, talked a bit on the phone, and organized my photos on iPhoto (blessedly local).

The power came back at about 2 p.m and I had a message from the lab that my tests were done. I went to their web site and found my cholesterol reading after three months without cheese (or pizza - a better form of cheese) was 173. Normal zone attained.

I'm going to call Papa Murphy's and celebrate a bit. [Just kidding].

Baying at the moon

I'm a fan of folk art, whatever that means. The Twin Cities has several sites where sculpture has been purchased or rented by the city fathers and is on display. A lot of people have probably seen these beauties, but it was the first time I've encountered them. The PW and I, in an effort to get some leg strengthening exercise and a chance to enjoy quite a nice day, decide to walk around a Minneapolis lake. I'm a Saintly City guy mostly, but new territory is always nice to experience. There are some works of folk art stationed on the east side of Lake Nokomis, a place I haven't visited in quite a while, at least on foot. It's a nice walk besides, maybe about three miles. This one is called "Baying at the Moon."

 

Close by is this other sculpture made of local materials. "Recycled Deer" has ears made from previously used bike pedals.

 

It was a rest day for tennis bums here.  It was a better day for tennis than yesterday, but that's how scheduling goes sometimes.  The wind has abated a bit and tomorrow promises good hitting conditions.

Burdock festooned bench

After a stormy night, it seemed like a good idea to take a walk in as wild a place as the Twin Cities could offer.  The Girl from the North Country (GFTNC, who is still in the south country) and I decided that a walk in Fort Snelling State Park was just the ticket.   We thought that perhaps Pike Island could offer some deer photos and besides a walk in the wild is a part of a good exercise program.  The island was open again after having been closed by flooding after our last few rainy weeks.  There weren't many other folk with the same idea, and we resolved to count the people and the deer that we encountered on the island.  It was likely that the deer herd would be visible somewhere on the route around the island, and the GFTNC guessed we'd see five deer.  Unfortunately, she overestimated, but she did get the number of people correct.  There was a photographer trying to get a photo of a rare bird, a runner, and a group of three young folk out for a walk on the island - one of whom was wearing flipflops, a bad choice, because of the thick layer of mud that resulted from last night's rain.  We, too, encountered enough mud to get a thick layer of wet dirt on our shoes.  Still no deer, but plenty of very fresh deer tracks, lots of birds and a lovely morning in June.

One of my favorite subjects for photos lately has been benches.  It's interesting the variety of benches and settings that can be found in wild areas.  This bench hasn't been used by humans very much lately and has been surrounded by burdock.  Burdock looks a lot like wild rhubarb, but Wikipedia assured me that there is no wild rhubarb in Minnesota.


 

 There is a pond on Pike Island very near the Mississippi River.  It's bathed in shadows and is very, very still.   The reflection off the water is like a mirror in a darkened room.  It was a lovely spot to stop for a moment and reflect on reflections.

 

We circled the island in a couple of hours and came home for a lunch of Asian restaurant leftovers. The last three nights have been all Vietnamese cuisine. I'm really starting to like the Bun (noodle salad) at Mai Village.  Very tasty.

I also played about an hour of tennis in the wind with the codgers at Marie Park this afternoon.  It was too windy, I played not so good, and quit early to get home in time for a trip to Mai Village.  I'm hoping the next day of tennis is calmer and that I play a little bit better.

Rafa Nadal won the French Open this morning after the rain delay overnight for his seventh victory in the world's premiere clay court tourney.  He's the best ever on clay now and he's only 26.  It was a four set heavyweight fight with Novak Djokovic, the world's number one player on surfaces other than red clay.