An advantage, if not a responsibility, of being old is using resources when others can’t. Today at noon, our local bar is quiet. It was doubtless packed last night for New Year’s Eve, but the patrons are now home nursing hangovers. Our New Year’s Day tradition is a walk, though today it was curtailed by the cold; a five-minute stroll to our local, Maxwell’s, for lunch was all we could muster.
Category: Minneapolis
Hue and haze
Inside, colorful American Indian mosaics and artwork blend traditional and non-traditional materials. Outside, the world fades to grey in the mist. This morning at the Walker Art Center.
Frozen in time
At Minnehaha Park, I couldn’t resist taking yet another photo of the falls before meeting up with a friend for a walk, great conversation, and a cuppa.
Goodies at the museum
Our local farmers market is a more modest affair during the winter. Instead of being outside, it’s held in the lobby of the Mill City Museum. Picked up bacon sausages from a local farm, along with some crusty bread and savory croissants from a small local bakery.
Neighbors
Picked up a coffee at Open Book, with its welcoming marquee, before catching a bus to school. The route passed the second marquee in Cedar-Riverside (“Little Mogadishu”). In my first class, I worked with Somali-American women studying to be Certified Nursing Assistants. In the final class, students marked the end of the semester by bringing an abundance of delicious Somali food, including, of course, the obligatory sambusas.
We like it here*
A cyclist, unperturbed by the chill, overtook me as I walked home after wandering around the university with a friend. (*Slogan once used to promote tourism to Minneapolis. To me, it comes over as defensive, even though I do like it here, provided we can shorten the winter by retreating to warmer climes.)
You’re gonna make it after all!*
Went on a Target run, or rather a walk, to the downtown store. En route, I passed Mary Tyler Moore/Mary Richards eternally throwing her tam in the air in front of the Dayton’s building, oblivious to the traces of yesterday’s snow on her head and shoulders. Back in the 1980s, her thirty-year-old character had moved to Minneapolis and was making a fresh start, as had I. (*Line from the show’s theme song.)
Life in a cold climate
Waiting for friends at a light rail station, I pushed a timer button to run this ceiling-mounted infrared heater. I used to view these as wasteful, but given this cold snap, I’ve come to appreciate anything that takes the chill off my bones.
From Gold to Cold
The season’s first winter storm hit overnight, leaving three inches of snow. The hard wind brought windchill temperatures into the teens. Took this photo at Gold Medal Park, then back home I retreated under my blankie and asked AI to turn the G into a C.
Graveyard grazing
Yesterday at the National Cemetery, I was impressed by the work it must take to keep the grass short around tens of thousands of grave markers. This morning, across the road from the school where I volunteer, I spotted these deer, grazing in the oldest cemetery in Minneapolis, the Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. Some of those headstones mark the graves of Civil War soldiers.