Microblog

To add interest to winter walks, started to add pins, linked to old postcards, to an interactive map.

Traveled to Japan via Hawaii with Spam musubi for lunch: sushi rice with rice vinegar, fried Spam with a shoyu/sherry glaze, nori, and sprinkles of furikake. The journey started in Austin, Minnesota, also known as “Spam Town USA,” home of Hormel

Included NE Harrison Street on today’s walk, named after the American President who spent the shortest time in office (31 days). Hoping a new record is established between now and noon on January 20.

This evening we’ll choose a show to watch from the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, or Denmark.

Tonight eggplant Parmigiana. I blast the sliced eggplant in the microwave for 6 minutes at 60% to get it on its way before breading with Japanese panko crumbs then shallow-frying.

Proud to have taken part in several peaceful street protests in the past four years, including this one in 2018. In November 2020, the voters spoke.

12th Night: time to put away the ornaments, possibly for the next two years. Covid *may* be sufficiently diminished near the end of this year, making it feasible for us to travel to a Southern Hemisphere summer.

Walked with a friend as temperatures rose above freezing. This guy seemed quite lucid as he assured us he had been working out.

Did something really nerdy: posted to a technical discussion on an AFOL (adult fans of LEGO) site.

Walked through a deserted university campus.

Walked, as we always do on the first morning of the year. The bridge and the decapitated pole are remnants of this former railroad right of way. We’ll wait until next year for the bar lunch we usually include in this first walk.

Decided 5:00 p.m. was late enough to see in the new year, so “went to Spain” (7 hours ahead of Central time) by streaming Madrid TV. Grape Lady squeezed booze out of one of the plastic grapes; love that cork. Once it was 2021 in Spain, made paella for dinner.

Posted 12 Months of Microposts: 2020.

Explored Minnehaha Park and the campus of the Minnesota Veterans Home with a friend. This Mississippi view was new to me: the dam, and a hydroelectric plant in the red-roofed building were owned by the Ford Motor Company to power the now-demolished Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Made the mistake of asking The Google to play upbeat music while I showered. This stuck me with a Cher/Abba earworm: “Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight.” I’m now trying to mitigate it with Donna Summer: “Someone left the cake out in the rain… .”

With snow falling, our Sunday walk took us across four Mississippi bridges, including this former railroad bridge to Nicollet Island.