Category: Living

Reimagining tree stumps

My friend and I stopped to check out the newly sharpened Loti Pencil, which is basically a 180-year-old bur oak stump in the front yard of a Lake of the Isles home. It had just gotten its yearly “shave” with a giant pencil sharpener a few days prior. A passer-by asked if we’d seen “the giraffe.” We hadn’t, so we cycled a few blocks, and there it was!

Pride in a challenging time

It was time to bring out our Everyone is Awesome LEGO model for Pride Month. This year, it feels less like a celebration and more about asking what we can do to stand up to the discrimination flooding out of Washington.

My atomic bike tour

The word “Atomic” inspired a less-traveled cycle route via Atomic Tattoo, Atomic Data, and Atomic Recycling. For now, I have to stay a bike’s-length from people while excess radioactivity works its way out of my system.

Treatment cycle 1

Walked over to the U for my first Pluvicto infusion, a radiopharmaceutical that selectively delivers radiation to cancer cells in my lymph nodes. The journey continues, with therapies that were not available ten years ago when we first became suspicious something was going on. I’m grateful for every day.

Categorized as Cancer

Sunday dinner with family

Dinner with my sister-in-law, two brothers-in-law, and a nephew at Misono Asian Bistro, which is midway between our homes. Caught up on life’s events over sushi (one of two trays shown here) and various starters, including gyoza.

Categorized as Family

The slow drip of savings

Set up irrigation drippers in planters in outdoor spaces around our building. You can just see some of the tubes in this photo, but they will soon disappear as the plants fill out. Our building’s garden club has saved us over $30,000 in recent years by taking on some tasks that would otherwise be performed by contractors.

Beyond the forecast: pedaling the Mississippi

Despite an iffy weather forecast, a friend and I set out on a bike ride from near where the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers meet. Our route took us downriver, past St. Paul and three miles beyond to our turnaround. The journey included fanciful Mexican animal sculptures at Raspberry Island, a pleasant coffee shop (despite being out of pastries), and a paddlewheeler with a functioning sternwheel. And, it didn’t rain.

School’s out, but plants rest for no-one

As we do on Thursdays we compared our volunteer experiences—he in the university greenhouse, I at the school. I’m cautious taking photos at the school, but Dwight went full-throttle photographing over-the-top orchids, including this one. Today was the final day of school, but I’ll be assisting with Summer School later this month. Meanwhile, the greenhouse needs constant attention.

And then it was gone

I looked away for a moment and the eagle vanished. It’s one of a pair raising chicks across the river from where we live, but it likes this safe perch on our side of the river where it presumably scopes out meal options. I then spent way too much time trying to track down a quote about the prey being dead the moment its image touches the retina of an eagle. AI assures me Saint-Exupéry never wrote anything like that, but I’m not so sure.