Microblog

Here, I’m waiting for a TTP (Trusted Traveler Program) interview via Zoom to renew Global Entry. With a simple selfie using an app as the plane arrives, I can skip immigration lines and I don’t even show my passport. Last time at O’Hare, I walked past a two-hour line and easily made my connection.

On our Sunday morning walk, the mist veiled our surroundings. Patches of slippery ice, remnants of yesterday’s snow, distracted us from the calm scenes. Here in Boom Island Park, Downtown was obscured, allowing me to frame a simple composition.

Posted 12 Months of Microposts: 2024. One Micropost from each month.

On my walk, the view upriver from the Franklin Avenue Bridge. At this point, the Mississippi is slow-moving, so it’s frozen from edge to edge. Beyond the Interstate 94 bridge, downtown Minneapolis stretches out to the left, and the University of Minnesota Medical Center is on the right. As I walked, the temperature was slowly rising, bringing snow once I was safely home.

Straddling today’s 4:32 pm sunset, in a former industrial building: Plantulary. A “word-list-dance-song-architecture made from observations, conversations, and relationships with each other and the plants that continue to teach us about what it means to be in relationship with the cycles of time, the processes of living and dying, and with this place that sustains us.”

Every four weeks, I undergo testing for a clinical trial. Today’s lineup: lab tests and two full-body scans. The scans show my tumors aren’t growing or spreading, thanks to a promising new therapy. While there’s no cure, we’ve successfully managed this for eight years. I’m grateful.

I’ve been helping a neighbor set up an automated watering system to keep their plants alive while they’re away for three months. The control unit’s integrated rechargeable battery won’t last that long. Instead of continuous charging, I opted for this $8 smart plug, which arrived from Amazon today, to occasionally turn on to top up the battery.

On a downtown walk with a friend, we explored the repurposed Dayton’s department store, now a mixed-use building. The first floor hosted Christmas pop-up shops, while the basement showcased exhibits from the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame. My baseball-loving friend got to reminisce and I enjoyed the backstories.

On my walk, I dropped off mail at the downtown post office. Here I am looking at one end of the art deco lobby, built in 1933. Behind me stretches a 365-foot bronze light fixture, a full city block long. Recently, Channel 5 local news reported, without attribution, that Joseph Stalin, upon hearing about this, ordered a longer fixture for a Moscow train station. Click through for pictures of the light fixture.

On our Sunday morning walk we noticed that half of Stone Arch Bridge had reopened after months of restoration. This gave us a chance to take in a much-photographed view of Downtown. In the distance, barriers block public access to the rest of the bridge while that half is restored.

Part of my walk today took me through the university. Descending through the student union, I saw groups of young people being led around on campus tours. Goldy Gopher has been the university’s mascot since 1888. Minnesota has been known as the Gopher State since its founding, based on a political cartoon.

Today I started my Christmas shopping at the Downtown Target where I purchased a gift card. I’ll pick up the rest of the gifts from an ATM.

Birthday boy about to extinguish candles.

At the Weisman Museum, walked through an exhibition of Harper’s Bazaar woodcut prints from the 1860s, documenting the Civil War. Contemporary artist Kara Walker overlaid some of these prints with paper cutouts depicting the injustices faced by Black people then and now. Another gallery showcased an injustice I had not realized: the plight of Black families who had migrated to Minnesota post-Reconstruction trying to reconnect with lost family members.

Replaced our Wi-Fi mesh which used routers first sold in 2016. Since then, communications standards have improved enough for this nerd to want to take advantage of a Black Friday deal. The Google routers are wired to Ethernet at three points in our home. I’ll convert the old routers into a Doctors Without Borders donation via eBay.

My chilly walk took me past the former Pillsbury A-Mill, now home to artist lofts. Here, I unintentionally caught the evolution of grain elevators in a single photo. Brick was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, in 1901, Minneapolis made history by constructing the world’s first concrete elevator. They were narrow like the one in the middle. Shortly after, larger-scale concrete elevators, like those on the right, won out.