Microblog

This was my view from bed this morning: sipping coffee, reading the news (the NYT and the Minnesota Star Tribune), and doing a side of doomscrolling where I like to challenge misinformation.

Structured today’s bike ride as a foraging exercise for hiking snacks. I picked up wasabi peas from United Noodles (a large Asian supermarket) and was pleased to confirm wasabi was on the ingredient list, not the commonly substituted horseradish. I also filled up on generic M&Ms from Seward Co-op and granola bars from Trader Joe’s.

The weather was great for our Sunday walk without jackets: the 70s and dry… until it wasn’t. A couple of short deluges forced us to make for cover. Here, we’re sitting in a park shelter watching geese embracing the downpour by having a feast.

At Wedge Co-op’s bulk section collected small quantities of ingredients for GORP for our upcoming hikes along the Superior Hiking Trail. So far: cashews, yogurt-coated raisins, pistachios, Brazil nuts, granola, dried papaya, rice crackers, and garlic sesame sticks. GORP stands for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts, so I guess I’m taking a few liberties. We like to make different mixes, some savory, some sweeter.

Following appointments at the U this morning, I checked their app periodically while cycling downriver. The news was great: my tumor marker is now “in the weeds,” confirming recent scans that show the tumors are no longer visible. I used the app to communicate with the care team, then returned to the U for a quarterly injection they’d missed. I’ll have just one more infusion in October, skipping the two final planned sessions. I’m grateful.

Looked out at the sun setting over Downtown back home from our usual Thursday dinner out. My day hadn’t gone as planned. Yesterday, I got an email letting me know the school was closed today for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. So, while Dwight worked in the university greenhouse, I unexpectedly hit the trails.

Tonight at the Guthrie’s A Doll’s House, I anticipated the moment the central protagonist, Nora, walks out into the snow, leaving her home and loveless marriage. Earlier, I had learned from the Guthrie’s study guide that this depiction of Nora was groundbreaking in 1879. Back in the elevator in our building, we had to reassure a neighbor who had attended the performance that Nora was seeking a new life, not ending her own.

Cycled through South Minneapolis with a friend on a route loosely themed around racial justice, stopping here at the former home of Harry Davis, Sr. He was a civil rights advocate in a racially divided Minneapolis from the 1940s and throughout the turmoil of the 1960s, and in 1971 became the city’s first Black mayoral candidate. The city is applying to have this house added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Mailing in our ballots for the November election and getting a COVID booster this morning felt like acts of resistance against the Administration. Its adoption of Project 2025 policies, which restrict access to mail-in voting and vaccinations, intentionally and disproportionately burdens people with limited resources.

Halfway through our Sunday walk, we crossed the bridge connecting Nicollet Island to Boom Island Park, a trail section that used to be a railroad line. A tiny, bright splash of red in the trees, just visible in this photo, reminded us that it’s officially fall.

On 38th Street, my attention was caught by origami butterflies decorating power poles. Each pole also included an upbeat message like “In every setback there’s an opportunity for joy,” “Let gratitude be your compass in times of uncertainty,” and “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” Truisms, maybe, but joy, gratitude, and hope are often choices.

…sometimes I even put it in the food. (I think I’ve used that line before.) Forgot to take a photo as I went about my day, so here’s me cooking dinner.

I’d been looking forward to this yakisoba bowl at Zen Box Izakaya all day. I’d left home for school as the sun was rising after a late night (for us), and I’d taken on an extra class, a reading group. But it was a joy to work with the adult learners, always in good spirits, always trying hard despite fitting in their classes with family and job commitments.

Walked over to the Guthrie for the first production in the Dowling Studio since its closure due to the pandemic. The new play, The Ruins, is mildly surreal and explores themes of living well and dying well: I’m still figuring it out. Here, one of the two actors was already on stage as the audience filed in.

Both my friend and I felt the last few miles of this year’s longest bike ride: a round trip on the Dakota Rail Trail from Wayzata to St. Bonifacius. We earned our lunch of coffee and salted caramel cheesecake, which we enjoyed in St. Bonifacius before burning it off on the ride back.

Spotted Bigfoot, a fraternity mascot, shuffling through the university. The barriers had been installed for crowd control for tonight’s Turning Point USA anti-anti-fascist rally at Northrop Auditorium.