Microblog

​Spent my morning in a safe place, a classroom, where I get to practice kindness, patience, and respect. On the notice boards, instructions are posted that attempt to empower us in the face of external threats.

​I was in the neighborhood of our nearest Asian supermarket, so I popped in for some Japanese guilty pleasures: dark chocolate and orange Kit Kats, curry cubes (great for transforming leftover veggies into a tasty lunch), and a rice cracker mix. At the exit, the claw cranes, ubiquitous in Japan, were thoughtfully arranged so that even the youngest could experience disappointment.

Got a preview of Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival later this month in an industrial area of St. Paul. Over the years, more than 80 murals have been painted on industrial buildings in the neighborhood, and it’s surprisingly free of graffiti. This year’s festival includes this new mural, “Pitzik’ Q’ij: Court of the Sun” by local artist Cadex Herrera. His mural depicting George Floyd against a massive sunflower is recognized worldwide.

Cycled with a friend visiting from the UK. Decided the route didn’t need to be pretty all the way, so we included some industrial areas. This GAF roofing shingle plant fit the bill, especially since the asphalt fumes seemed… robust.

On our Sunday morning walk, an overnight multi-alarm fire had done a number on the air quality. Here we’re standing on the 10th Avenue Bridge looking across the river towards the East Bank Campus of the University. Normally we’d cross by the truss bridge, Northern Pacific Bridge Number 9, but it’s closed for repairs.

Built a dashboard to compare humidity and temperature in the closet beside our front door to another room. It also displays outside conditions and the status of the closet’s vent fan, providing the data needed to optimize its run times.

A flock of scooters had completely taken over the racks outside Whole Foods. I shooed one away to make room for my old hoss, and it promptly succumbed to gravity.

It was time for more slices of the cake Dwight had baked for my birthday to disappear. Not just any cake, but a French dessert called gâteau invisible, so named because of the way layers of thinly sliced Granny Smith apples disappear into a vanilla-bean flavored batter. Here it’s served with a dollop of cream whipped with brown sugar and flecks of cinnamon.

Cycled over to the U for treatment and scans, taking care not to collide with half-awake students. On the way back, the students streaming out of lectures seemed more animated.

Walked over to Owamni by the Sioux Chef where Dwight had reserved this window table for an excellent “de-colonized” meal with ingredients restricted to those available to pre-colonial indigenous Americans. The chef has won several James Beard awards at this nationally recognized restaurant.

Early in my bike ride today I paused before riding this section of wood plank trail. It was replaced in recent years, but it’s still like riding a washboard. To the left the stabilized ruins of the Washburn A Mill are a feature of the Mill City Museum.

Lined up recently introduced large LEGO worm gears as a conveyer for 1×1 plates, much like an Archimedes (water) screw. An unexpected bonus was that the plates were consistently flipped stud-side up. This replaces all my work in recent weeks on pneumatic devices to flip 1×1 plates. Click through for a short video I made today.

Dwight brought dahlias home from the Farmers Market, signalling an early start to my birthday season. 

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!

Tied up my trusty steed at the Minnesota State Fair’s bicycle corral then used skills I acquired in Japan’s mainline train stations to navigate the crowds. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do it, but I followed the aroma to the hog barn to meet sleepy 902-pound Teddy Bear with his enormous scrotum (which I’ve tastefully pixelated). After that I watched cows being milked feeling grateful for small mercies.

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.)