Most days I post something about my day in a microblog. Without over-thinking, I’ve selected one post from each month of 2020. January Looking back from today, January 2020 seems like an alternate reality where we could sit in theater audiences, eat in restaurants, and ride public transport. The Minneapolis Guthrie Theater’s artistic director, Joseph…… Continue reading 12 Months of Microposts: 2020
Author: Tom Wilson
Learning in a Time of Covid
In these days of Covid, travel is not an option. Instead, learning new stuff has been fueling our ikigai (getting us out of bed in the morning), and giving us plenty to talk about over dinner. Until one of our dinnertime conversations, I thought grow lights were pretty straightforward. Apparently the cognoscente measure “photosynthetically active…… Continue reading Learning in a Time of Covid
Globetrotter Martha
Google Photos’ People-and-Pets search feature makes it easy to click a face and go directly to photographs of that person. Here’s an example from our photo collection: My mum, a good friend all the way back to my childhood, my dad, New Orleans brother-in-law, another good friend (we go back 40 years), Fargo sister-in-law, and,…… Continue reading Globetrotter Martha
A Place Where Masks Are Apolitical
I’ve been searching through my photographs for crowd scenes in Japan. Here’s one at a Tokyo train station: November 2018. Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station. A woman, bottom right, is wearing a face mask. Perhaps she has a cold and wants to protect others, or maybe she’s protecting herself from airborne pathogens. If you look more closely,…… Continue reading A Place Where Masks Are Apolitical
Our Elopement Timeline
1987 May 30, 1987 We met at a birthday brunch at Rudolph’s Bar-B-Que in Minneapolis. He sat across the table from me. It was a buffet, so whenever he left the table to fill a plate, I had a chance to ask mutual friends about him. I think he did the same thing when I…… Continue reading Our Elopement Timeline
Living in a Walled City
Sometimes I feel I live in a walled city. The wall is roughly defined by the Interstates that circle the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. When I cycle out from the city, beyond those “city walls,” I’m heading towards places that have rejected people like me in recent times. There was a time when I could…… Continue reading Living in a Walled City
Snapshots: Superior Hiking Trail 2020
In the past few days, we made our annual trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior to hike sections of the Superior Hiking Trail. We had booked a townhouse in Tofte, Minnesota, back in the Before-Times, when Covid-19 was something that was only happening on the other side of the world. Our nephews, 11…… Continue reading Snapshots: Superior Hiking Trail 2020
Mississippi Bottom
This week a stretch of the the Mississippi below our home dropped by twelve feet. The US Army Corps of Engineers had temporarily lowered the river between two dams so they could inspect infrastructure. They also opened one of the dams to the public. This was a rare opportunity to explore the river bottom and…… Continue reading Mississippi Bottom
Navigating by US Presidents
Every week I look forward to cycling adventures with my friend, Dave, not least because he’s a better navigator than me. He also knows his presidents, which is helpful when we explore Northeast Minneapolis. Minneapolis streets are in alphabetical or numerical order, except when they’re not. Notably, Northeast Minneapolis streets are in presidential chronological order.…… Continue reading Navigating by US Presidents
I’m Not a Bot
A Twitter algorithm has decided I’m a bot, so I’m being prevented from posting to my daily microblog. I’ve submitted a ticket, and expect resolution eventually. This is no big deal, I won’t be hounding Twitter to get my access back. Although I’ve been posting daily for almost a decade, I do occasionally miss a…… Continue reading I’m Not a Bot