Microblog

Thursday nights, dinner with Dwight at our local bar, swapping volunteer stories. Photos from his greenhouse shift popped up on my phone including this particularly puzzling one: “Where do my eyes go?” Turns out, he snapped it with his boss, figuring out which plants needed TLC. That scrawny one by the pipes needed better support.

Enrolled in a study at the university that tracks my daily activities through a location-aware phone app. The researchers are interested in understanding the time cancer patients dedicate to cancer-care related tasks compared to everyday living. I feel a bit of a fraud because all I have to do is show up at appointments. I’m… Continue reading I’m Being Watched: But It’s Okay (It’s For Science)

Cycled the Shars Bluff Trail, a rail trail that provides great views of the Mississippi. Spotted a recently reintroduced herd of bison resting in the prairie land of Spring Lake Park Reserve. Afterwards, treats at a Dairy Queen. An excellent morning out!

Today: lovely spring day at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, MN, with friends. We walked a scenic three-mile loop, chatting so much that pictures completely slipped my mind. Finally, at the end of the walk, I snapped this quick photo of tulips—they were still putting on a good show. Note to self: return for… Continue reading Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Early Sunday mornings, plants take priority in the shower. Here, Dwight is plucking dead bits and checking for pests. Dusty foliage receives a gentle shower from the spray head. There’s a link to his City Gardener blog in the Friends and Family section at the foot of this page.

Silenced my mobile device for a short Minnesota Orchestra concert: a brief contemporary piece celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday, followed by a brisk rendition of Tchaikovsky’s 2nd symphony. Afterwards, we cycled back home, only to learn Olly Alexander hadn’t pulled off a Eurovision win for the UK. He’s still a winner in my book.

Cycled in search of remaining blossoms. Tried to resist using my once-a-year lexicon including ephemeral, fleeting, and transient.

Ordered the current Google Pixel tablets to replace these 2018 6th generation iPads. The Pixel tablets are $399 each, but Google is offering a $399 trade-in for each iPad, with free shipping. The only cost is sales tax (6.875% Minnesota, 0.65% Hennepin County, and 0.5% Minneapolis), which comes out to $36.01 per tablet. We already… Continue reading An Irresistible Upgrade

Kicked off my clinical trial participation with a hefty dose of testosterone. The tumor feeds on it, so the counterintuitive idea is to overload the tumor and cause it to shrink. That was the easy part of my day. Now I’m diving into the historical and political motivations of Shakespeare’s Henry V as preparation for… Continue reading Once More Unto the Breach

It had been raining overnight, but it stopped just in time to hop on a train to Fort Snelling and meet up with a friend. We then cycled a loop via downtown St. Paul, taking in each side of the Mississippi. In St. Paul, we refueled at the legendary Cossetta’s, with its extensive selection of… Continue reading Pit Stop at Cossetta’s

Dentist did a great job preparing a tooth for a crown. On the way home, stopped at Moto-i for comfort food: bibimbap. I felt grateful for modern dentistry and temporarily forgot I had a temporary crown. For my parents’ generation in Scotland in the 1930’s, a pair of “falsies” (dentures) was a 21st birthday rite of… Continue reading Real Enough

Picked up a week’s worth of mail from the mailroom downstairs. We’ve minimized snail mail to the point we don’t stop mail delivery when we travel. We’ve used DMAchoice, PaperKarma, CatalogChoice, and OptOutPreScreen. We’ve contacted senders directly to cancel mail and we give anonymously. The online USPS Informed Delivery service let’s us preview mail and… Continue reading Minimizing Paper Mail

Woke up to a view of wet tarmac and San Francisco SFO’s International Terminal A. After a week of blue skies, rain was pelting down. Soon, the EVA Air (green tail on the left) flight will depart for Taipei, the China Eastern flight (on the right) for Shanghai, and we’ll be en route to Minneapolis/St.… Continue reading Planespotting

Today’s hike was our longest yet, but with the least climbing. From Sausalito, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, then followed the bay to The Embarcadero. The BART whisked us to the airport, where we settled into the comfortable Grand Hyatt right there for the night. Our room has great views of plane movements, and… Continue reading Trail’s End

Our hike, today, was the longest and highest of this trip. Wonderful views kept us motivated: first the Pacific, then one tower of Golden Gate Bridge, then a glimpse of San Francisco’s skyline wedged between two hills. Here, we’re finally Bay-side, soon to descend towards Sausalito to check into a small hotel, shower off the… Continue reading Gradual Reveals

After a shorter hike than yesterday’s (it is a rest day) and a nutritious late lunch of “crisps” (potato chips) and IPA, we retired, here, to the snug with a pot of tea. It was then upstairs to our bedchamber for Kindle-time and naps.