Duluth Day Trip

We were supposed to do a three day camping weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate with us for tent camping. Since the boys both had the day off, they all went up to Duluth for the day. They stopped off at Jay Cooke State Park on the way to see what they had missed.

It was in the 50s with wind and rain. The waves on Lake Superior were pounding spray up over the breaker wall along Canal Park where they ducked in for a warm lunch.

 

Sushi Shiba

JP found a sushi costume for a cat at Target. She got out her sewing machine and added some girth to the belt to fit our sushi-fed shiba. He prefers to eat sushi rather than wear it.

 

Where it All Started

I saw an Atari 400 pop up on Facebook Marketplace. This was my first computer 40-something years ago that really got me into programming. It had an 8-bit 1.8 MHz processor and 16k of RAM. The run of the mill PC I'm using today has six 64-bit 2.6 processing cores running at 2.6 GHz each, 32 GB of RAM plus 12 more for video processing. To put that in perspective, that is 1,400 times faster with 2,750,000 times more memory. What other devices have experience growth like that?

 

Ditka

CP shaved his beard for the first Bears' home game against the Lions. Too bad they did not share his enthusiasm. 

 

Headboard Reduction

We switched from a king to a queen size bed, which made our king headboard too large. Nothing that some power tools on a Saturday can't handle. We lopped off 6-1/2" from each side and rebuilt the legs.

This is the headboard we made in Lincoln for the ginormous room. When we moved here, we had to cut it down in height so it wouldn't block the windows. Now we've taken it down in width. I didn't want to do it until JP showed me what a new headboard would cost. 

With the money we saved, JP ordered a pair of new nightstands. Yes, I suppose it was worth the effort.

 

Dog Walk Sunrise

There is nothing like starting the day with a dog walk along the lake at sunrise. 

There's a guy that is always at the dog beach taking in the sunrise. 

 

Camp Queen Avenue

One of the blocks in the 'hood is very active. To mark the end of summer, they blocked off the street and turned the block into a summer camp for the kids, complete with activities.

 

Afternoon Glow

When the afternoon sun comes around, it lights up the kitchen with a warm glow. The new floor sets off the oak rather than competing with it like the old floor.

 

Fall is Coming

One of the trees across the street is letting the others know that Fall is on its way. 

 

Annunciation Church

I stopped by the church to pay my respects. It is just so sad that stuff like this happens in the world. It's especially sad that it happened in our community. 

 

Dark Day

On Aug. 27th I worked from home in the morning to drive JP to a Dr. appointment. It was a strange visit: the parking lot was completely empty; normally it's like the mall on Sunday afternoon. She was just there for a routine blood draw, but the lab redirected her to the hospital. On our walk there I noticed there were flyers for a gun show on a table in one of the sitting areas. Very strange to see at a hospital!

We got back home and I was finishing up some work before heading in to work and then the sirens started. We're used to hearing one or two emergency vehicles going thru the neighborhood, but this was one after another. We went out to look and it was fire trucks, Minneapolis police, park dept. police, unmarked cars, and ambulances. 

We turned on the TV and watched the coverage of the shooting at the Annunciation School a mile and a half away. It's across the street from the Kowalski's at Lynndale and 54th. It was the first week of school. The kids were in the chapel sitting for service when a nutjob opened fire from the parking thru the church windows. 

We watched the chaos of parents running in the street looking for their kids as the police tried to secure the scene and determine if it was safe. I can't imagine getting a call that there's been a mass shooting at the kids' elementary school of 350 kids. It still brings me to tears.

I took the rest of the day off and we took a lap around the lake. It was a beautiful day, but the shooting cast a dark shadow over the community for the next week. 
 

Sidewalk Chalk

There's a house on our dog walk that always has fun sidewalk chalk doodles. Since the shooting at the school, the themes have turned to love and healing.

 

THE Tone

Every now and then I am able to dial in a specific tone for the guitar or bass. In this case, with the Ibanez bass I finally got close to Geddy Lee's sound on the Moving Pictures album.

 

Fireplace Time

Let the record show that Sept. 3rd was the first night for the fireplace. We had a week of overnight lows in the 40s. 

 

Old Growth Grain

I chopped up the remaining scrap from the kitchen floor project. The old floorboards are old growth with and end grain that you never see in modern lumber. I cut off a bunch of strips and laminated them. Not sure what to make of it.

 

Early Morning

Early morning dog walks are the best.

Ft. Snelling

We have been wanting to hit Ft. Snelling since we moved here. Every time we're there, it has been before or after summer and the open season. This time we intentionally went during open hours.

 

OKC

JP took off for a long weekend to hang out in OKC and see Nana's new home.

It looks like they had a good time!

 

Backyard Buddies

We still have an abundance of bunnies in the neighborhood. I've seen owls out at night and the morning, but I think some of the rabbits are too big for them to carry off. We need more alley cats or a fox.

 

Tubular

We loaded up the boys and had them share in the excitement of tubing the creek. We shuttled cars and put in in Edina and floated all the way down to our neighborhood.