Microblog

Sometimes we just don’t feel like cooking dinner, so we head across the road to our neighborhood bar, Maxwell’s. ”The usual?” she asks. “The usual,” we agree. Reubens with coleslaw for us, Summit EPA for him, Surly Furious for me.

Cycled the lovely Gateway and Brown’s Creek State Trails to Stillwater. Crossed the St. Croix River on the car-free Stillwater Lift Bridge. Enjoyed a short delay on the way back from the Wisconsin side.

My cycle ride took me to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Fireplace in St. Paul’s Como Park. Kilmer was a poet (“I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree”) who was killed in the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. He never visited Minnesota.

Finally completed a Web page about the family trip to Spain and Portugal in July. The carousel at the top has long-form posts, and the timeline, below, documents something about each day. Click through for a link.

Dwight’s in Fargo visiting his mom, so I “went” to Japan. After age gyoza then tonkotsu ramen with a side of Japan Times at a local izakaya, walked back past wedding parties striking poses, and sports fans in no hurry to get to the game. Back home, streamed an emotional, visually expressive manga movie filled… Continue reading Sights, Sounds, Tastes

Soaked to the skin, we need the rain.

Drove an electric vehicle for the first time ever. I’ve signed up for a carshare program, no subscription fee, billed by the minute. You find the nearest car on a map then drop it off at just about any regular street parking spot… which I did, right outside our building.

Looked up at a Downtown sidewalk reflected in a mirrored canopy: two men playing a supersized game of chess, me, my bike, sidewalk art, all reduced to a common visual style.

Cycled from Fort Snelling along the river to this view of St. Paul at Indian Mounds Regional Park. Cycled back mostly on the other side of the river.

On my “best of summer” list: cooked-to-order breakfast sandwiches from Bread & Pickle at Lake Harriet.

Craved Japan, cycled to masu for comfort food. Japan is still closed to independent travelers: I’ve cancelled 3 trips to Japan in the past year and may have to cancel a 4th in October. Just in case, I’ve also booked a nonstop to Seoul in October.

Giraffe House, spotted on my cycle ride through Nordeast Minneapolis. A baby giraffe is hiding behind a tree.

Stopped for coffee, resisted a waffle, at Black Coffee and Waffle Bar near the University of Minnesota East Bank Campus. Couldn’t decide if the back of the bathroom door was graffiti or art. Decided I was overthinking.

Walked over to the Guthrie for “Sweat.” Angry workers in a bar as their factory succumbed to the inevitable pressures of NAFTA in the early days of the 21st century.

Cycled past giant LEGO bricks in captivity. Inside the building, Brickmania produces military LEGO kits. The LEGO Company doesn’t produce real-world military kits as a matter of policy.

My friend, Dave, sometimes likes to include a cemetery on our Tuesday cycle rides. Today, at Hillside cemetery, we visited his Aunt Ruth, a beloved kindergarten teacher for 50 years. Her ashes were interred here in 2008.