Installed a super-quiet, low-speed fan to ventilate the closet by our front door. Next up: paint the grill to match the wall and design the perfect algorithm to control the fan. I’m considering factors like humidity and temperature inside the closet versus the rest of our home, and whether we’ve been outside, all using existing sensors, plus the weather and time of day. Or, I could just put it on a timer!
Category: Living
Stillwater via rail trails
It was glorious weather for a bike ride on part of the Gateway Trail then the Brown’s Creek Trail to Stillwater. Here we’re cycling back out of Stillwater after stopping for coffee and calories. On the left, the former railroad depot has unevenly morphed into a K-5 charter school. (Dwight took this photo of our friend and me.)
Table service at Lake Harriet
Cycled our favorite loop via Lake Harriet where we stopped for breakfast at Bread & Pickle. Here I’m delivering the always-fresh coffee while breakfast sandwiches were being cooked to order.
A LEGO plate flipper
Successfully prototyped a machine, shown here, that accepts a LEGO 1×1 plate, regardless of whether it’s stud-side up or stud-side down, and spits it back out stud-side up. (Motorized pneumatic valves, an air compressor, and a computer are off-camera.) This afternoon I worked on my next challenge: a feeding mechanism to supply this machine from a queue of randomly oriented plates.
Affirming life at the Dakota
Tonight: dinner and a high-energy evening with Aloe Blacc on his ‘We Stand Together’ tour at the Dakota.
The irony of a Carnegie library
Worked with an adult English language learner in this beautiful Carnegie library as I do most Friday mornings. The library, located in a disadvantaged neighborhood where 38% of residents live below the poverty line, was built with funds from a benefactor who accumulated immense wealth on the backs of working people and presided over the worst labor conflict in American history.
Building a 15-minute city
For us, aging in place means living in a “15-minute city.” Today I aligned my primary care with that goal and signed up at a clinic just a short walk from our home. My new primary care physician used to be an actor (Juilliard graduate!) at the Guthrie, just across the road from the clinic, before deciding to go to medical school.
Minnesota River ride
Cycled with a friend, starting at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, now free of automobiles. An ice warning sign was a great reminder to make the most of the last days of summer. Across the bridge, we followed a lovely new wooded trail along the Minnesota River, then backtracked.
Seeing pink
Woke up to this view of low clouds, glowing hot pink over the Capella Tower downtown, announcing both a day of light rain and World Breast Cancer Research Day. The color served as a reminder of recent NIH cuts in breast cancer research funding.
All we are is confetti in the wind
Spotted this on our Sunday walk: A tram had just dropped off a wedding party for photos on the Stone Arch Bridge, apparently leaving behind some expired wedding guests. I started imagining ways of incorporating this into the wedding vows: “Till death do us part. All we are is confetti in the wind, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”