It was a morning of Certified Nursing Assistant and English Language Learning with mainly Somali immigrants. These word choices by learners demonstrate the classroom as a safe space. Their attitudes were remarkable, especially given the appalling statements made by the POTUS this week. The fear of arbitrary race-based detention and deportation is a disturbing reality in Minneapolis today.
Tag: Microposts 2025
Spur-of-the-moment trip
Just 48 hours ago we hadn’t decided if we’d go to Japan. Then, after medical appointments for Dwight and me, with no follow-ups in the next couple weeks, we said “why not?” So, here we are, about to board a Minneapolis MSP to Tokyo HND flight. From Tokyo, we’ll fly to Fukuoka on Kyushu (the most southerly of Japan’s four main islands) then take a convoluted route riding the rails back toward Tokyo.
Straight-through hike via Poplar River viewpoint
Our brother-in-law joined us for today’s hike. By dropping a car at our Lutsen finish point, we were able to hike straight-through instead of doing a loop. This section of the Superior Hiking Trail first took us along Lake Agnes, a body of water largely created by a beaver dam. From there, we headed uphill to great viewpoints, including one of my favorite views, shown here, looking toward the Poplar River.
Upriver to Anoka
Cycled upriver with Dwight and a friend visiting from the UK to Anoka, a four-hour trip that included a stop at a fine bakery and another stop to admire an extraordinary Halloween yard display. In Anoka, after beer and snacking on appropriately unhealthy starters, we took the Northstar Line back to Minneapolis. We’ll all sleep well tonight.
LEGO machine to align plates stud-side up
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.
Fireworks and apple pie
Watched fireworks from our balcony. Friends were set to join us, but our colds, sadly, put a stop to that. Still, they kindly dropped off slices of freshly baked apple pie. “Feed a cold with apple pie” is an adage I happily live with.
Cycling the Mississippi: St. Paul to Hastings, MN
We took the LRT to St. Paul then cycled to Hastings, enjoying lovely glimpses of the Mississippi along the way. A friend joined us for the last 10 miles before we checked into The Confluence Hotel in a repurposed industrial building beside the river.
Temple plumbing 2025: the tradition continues
I’ve often posted about the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage, a 700-mile circular route around Shikoku, one of Japan’s main islands. Over the years, I’ve hiked to 31 of its 88 temples, some multiple times. Today I continued my tradition of posting one photo of a purification station from each temple I visited this year. Click through for the post.
Hiking the Karatsu OLLE course
It took 3 trains and a bus to reach the trailhead for a Kyushu OLLE hike, but that’s part of the fun. It’s getting harder to find a course I haven’t hiked. I followed special markers past rice paddies, through the ruins of an enormous castle, and through rural villages. Here, I imagined I would be one of the peasants in feudal times, carrying the local Daimyo (lord) in a palanquin.
Ghosts from Palm Springs’ past
While making random turns down streets that were new to me, discovered this scene of celebs who once had homes in Palm Springs. The developer of this building site had decided to have fun until construction begins. The mountains in the distance are topped with last night’s fresh snow while down in the valley it was warm enough to wear shorts while riding my bicycle.