Journeys 3.1

Put on one of my “ramen tees,” which still bears the faint evidence of previous splashes that no amount of washing will completely hide. Then, I headed over to the U for a morning of pokes, stabs, and staying motionless for 25 minutes. Afterward, a bowl of tonkotsu udon took me straight to a happy place where everything is all right.

Viewed downtown through smoky air on our usual Sunday morning walk. American and Canadian firefighters are working side-by-side to control blazes in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, even as the president threatens to impose tariffs on Canada over their forest fire smoke, a power he actually lacks. Meanwhile, the administration is busy rebranding terms like “climate change,” canceling wind farm developments, and promoting the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Cycled along a hydroelectric plant service road just below where we live, an area I’ve rarely visited. The 1903 red brick building across the river was originally a power plant for the Minneapolis streetcar system, but today it serves as the University of Minnesota’s Southeast Steam Plant. It heats nearly every building on the Minneapolis campuses and generates 20% of their electricity.

There were no takers for pre-show drinks outside, where it was a sweltering 90-plus degrees, but inside Orchestra Hall, the AC was doing a grand job. Following medical scans this afternoon, with more lined up for Monday, a glass of wine and an escape into the world of Britten, Beethoven, and Schumann were most welcome.

Walked home from the U through smoke after consenting to a Phase 1 clinical trial. If tests over the next week continue to qualify me, I’ll receive a “Tri-Specific Killer Engager” (!) immunotherapy agent that may harness my immune system to kill tumor cells. I’ve been on Phase 2 and 3 trials; this one is more experimental, but I’m hopeful it will kick the can further down the road.

Mapped circuit breakers to outlets, appliances, and lights on a floor plan, then added a QR code to the breaker box linking to it. There are a few orphan outlets left to figure out, but adding them to the digital plan later means I won’t need to update the physical QR code.

On my steamy cycle ride, I noticed a newcomer to South Minneapolis: the Debre Selam Medhanealem Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. While I work with Muslim Somali adult learners who lived in refugee camps in Ethiopia, I don’t recall ever meeting Ethiopian Christians. Because they first arrived in the Twin Cities in the 1960s, they are generally more established and dispersed than the Somali community, which first arrived in the 1990s.