Microblog

Stopped at Bordertown Coffee to warm up from a chilly cycle ride with a friend. In the colder months, there’s often a fire going, but apparently today wasn’t cold enough.

My monthly drug run, / Walking past the county morgue, / Leaves corralled by wind.

Cooked in volume: stock in a slow-cooker and a large root vegetable/lamb braise still doing its slow magic in a stovetop Dutch oven. Plenty washing-up today, more to come.

We usually rent a movie on Saturday nights. Tonight: Spirited Away from Japan’s venerable Studio Ghibli. They’ve just opened up their catalog for online rental. Tonight we got to watch this imaginative anime, probably their most famous production. It won an Oscar in 2003.

This morning’s wake-up view. Time to get out the mittens and down jacket.

While Dwight was having his hair cut, wandered around the campus of Macalester College. Saw signs of hope that today’s young people might be better stewards of the planet than my generation. Notable alumni like Kofi Annan and Walter Mondale did their part.

With a hiking trip Up North next week, it was time for the annual Curation of the Gorp. I like to select a range of ingredients so we can vary the mixture each day.

In glorious fall weather, cycled across the Gateway Trail Iron Bridge, one of the few remaining wrought iron bridges in Minnesota. Built in 1873, this is its third location. A sign warns the maximum load is 250 bicycles (presumably with riders).

On my cycle ride, stopped at Sheridan Memorial Park which has a plaque for each of our wars. I appreciate how the plaques don’t whitewash or romanticize war. Minnesota’s US-Dakota War of 1862 is a case in point. Click through for more…

On our Sunday morning walk: this maple delivers every year. The steeple belongs to Our Lady of Lourdes church. The church dates back to the 1850’s, the steeple is a later addition (1880’s).

Later this month we’ll be heading to the North Shore of Lake Superior to hike a few sections of the Superior Hiking Trail. Assembled a compendium of every North Shore hiking trip since 2013. Click through for the link.

After working through Reasoning through Language Arts exercises with women from Somalia and Iraq, walked to Seward Co-op for a spicy Ethiopian lunch. Cooled off with a slice of Mexican tres leches cake. Back home, made a cup of English tea, a blend from India, Ceylon and Kenya.

We spend the majority of our grocery dollars here at Wedge Co-op. Their bulk section is wonderful: today I bought about an ounce of black peppercorns and just enough peanut butter cups to chop into a fro-yo treat I’m making for Sausage Saturday.

Chatted with a guy who was testing a delivery robot. He works for a local company that plans to take on the likes of DoorDash and Uber Eats. They’re evaluating different designs: the turning radius of this one is too wide. As we parted, I wished an optimal design in his future.

On a cycle ride up one side of the Mississippi to I694, then down the other side: a new riverside park, Graco Park, was taking shape. By many metrics, Minneapolis has one of the best park systems in the nation, helped by property tax levies ($79 million in 2023). We call it our country club.

Autumnal ride home after getting a ’flu shot in one arm, and a Covid booster in the other.