Dog Walks

To say that we enjoy walking the dog would be an understatement. We love our walks!

The only gas-powered boat allowed on the lake is the seaweed scooper. It goes around and pulls seaweed out along the shorelines.

There's a no-motor law for the lake which is awesome - it's all sailboats. 

...and the occasional electric-powered hydrofoil surfboard silently cruising above the waves.

The lake is 1-1/2 blocks north of us, and Minnehaha Creek is two blocks to the south on on the way to the Ace Hardware. S is getting to the point that he really likes the water. We need to get some tubes and go tubing on it!

Total Makeover

This is one of the homes we walk past every day. It's a 4,600 square foot beauty from 1907 on a half-acre lot overlooking the lake. It sold last year for $1,200,000 and it's being totally redone. It's hard to see, but half of the windows have been ripped out and the curtains are flopping in the wind - it's going to be a TOTAL remodel. We are excited to see how it comes out.

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We had a crazy 3"+ rainstorm two days after the top photo was taken. JP and I were upset about the cool old house with its windows ripped out. Even if you're planning a total to-the-studs remodel, why would you let all that water come in?!!?

The next day, it became clear why they didn't bother with the windows. It's a bigger remodel job than I thought it would be. 

Such a shame to lose such an historical house in the neighborhood. We hope that its replacement will match the 100 year old architecture of the rest of the neighborhood, but the chances are slim. There's a nightmare of a new house going up a couple blocks away. It fills the lot from side to side and towers over the neighboring houses and it's an ugly monstrosity. This is how and why neighborhoods create restrictive covenants.

Officially Minnesotans

It's official: We are now real Minnesotans!

JP Still has not received her driver's license from January and I still had not put MN plates on my car. With all the craziness going on, there has been little point to trying to get anything like that resolved. My car has accumulated maybe 10 miles in the last three months.

JP managed to get an appointment to get my car registered. There is no way to set up multiple appointments; the DMV website says to call if you need something special. When you call, the only response given is "We are closed. Use our website to setup appointments." There's a lottery system - every Friday, they give out appointment slots for a week a month in the future. We figured we'd try to sneak in getting our driver's licences renewed at the same time as getting plates for my car. It worked!!! 

When we applied for our first go around DLs in January, we were in the apartment and had no forms of residency ID, so we could not get "REAL ID" licenses that would allow us to get on a plane. Now we are all set (provided that they show up in the mail!). Speaking of that, yesterday we received the title for JP's car in the mail - you have to surrender it when you apply for MN plates and we assumed that it had been lost in the shuffle.

Glazing

The windows on the east and south sides were needing some TLC. Thing is, I reglazed 17 windows in the Woodstock house and I understand what it takes to do it. Not this time! 

We hired a window company to do it and they knocked out 10 windows quickly and cleanly. They will be good for the next 50 years

Shift.

With JP riding around on her new bike, it made it clear that I needed to get my bike going. The rear shifter cable had come apart, and I wasn't able to go into low enough gears to make it up the 49th street hill on either side of Minnehaha Creek.

$15 and an hour of trying to cleanly cut a cable housing, and the bike was back in business. Time to ride!

JP's New Bike

JP got a new bike this week. She rode to 50th & France and back. 

Mostly.

I was on a major conference call for work when she came in dripping blood from her knee. Very unnerving. 

Wildlife in the City

Yesterday, on our normal walk by the lake, we were greeted by a Bald Eagle as he/she snagged a fish just 50 feet from us. This morning we were greeted by a decent-sized snapping turtle. Apparently he/she climbed straight up a 2-foot bank. First one we've seen up close.

Closer to home, we have our tribes of chipmunks, grey squirrels, and red squirrels. The chipmunks are the bravest, by far. I had a couple run under my legs.

Sunroom

It's been a long time coming, and now it's here: JP's loveseat for the sunroom. Now it's a full-time search for a narrow table, plant, etc.

The footlocker I still have from MMI (1984?) works OK as an ottoman.

Tidy

One of our new favorite pastimes is just hanging out in the front yard and tidying up. 

Big Tree

This is a cottonwood along the trail from Lake Harriet to Minnehaha Creek. It's no kapok tree from the Amazon, but it's mighty impressive when you stand next to it.

Gulf Breeze Meets High Plains Cold Front

Seriously? A named tropical storm going over Lake Superior?

The tropical storm went to the east of us while a cold front came in from the west. This was the second storm Lincoln has had since we left that has damaged roofs and torn off siding. We heard from the G's and they actually grabbed everything and rode it out in their fraidy hole.

Getting Warmer

I never ever thought that it could get this hot here. Good thing there's a beach a few blocks away.

Summer Flowers

The peonies in the front yard finally bloomed. Unlike those that we had in Woodstock, these don't have any ants, and JP can bring them in.

A Day in the Life of Lockdown

Typical 6:30 AM view on morning dog walk.

Lunch @ home.

Typical view on 9:30 PM dog walk.

Where's the Beef?

Costco now has Beyond Beef non-meat burgers. TASTY!!! I like burgers, but I don't like killing animals.

Tense Calm

We were getting the above alerts on our phones every night. 

The boys are pretty shook up with all the action happening in the city. GP made up a sign the day that there was a protest down the street.

After the night of all the fires, our local corner boarded up. Fortunately, the next few nights were dead calm in our neighborhood. Tense, but eerily calm.

Smudge on the Sky

My morning dog walk to the lake (3 hr later than normal) was marred by a smudge of smoke across the sky. It was a long night here in the city. I went to bed at 1 or 2, and JP was up till 4:30, watching the news and listening to the choppers and post-curfew traffic. Our backyard security camera went off at 12:30 and, for the first time, it really spooked us. It was only a moth that set it off. Then a bit later it went off again - the neighborhood cat cutting through the yard.

We are a few miles from it all, but there's a general feeling of tension in the air (and smoky smell, too). Neighbors strolled around before the 8:00 curfew, checking out the group gathered at 50th & Penn, wondering what they could/should do to further the cause. We are all engaged in this and want to help, but what does a lot of shouting and destruction do?

Fortunately, our little corner of restaurants and shops was spared. There's some graffiti on one of the buildings, but no broken windows. We love our community corner; they have been struggling to survive through the pandemic, and they certainly don't need any vandalism piled onto their burdens.

One of the city/county D.A.s lives down the street from us and there was a group protesting outside his home. Why?? To terrorize his wife & kids?? The violence has taken over any message of hope that the peaceful protests were sending. Outsiders have descended on the city with the sole purpose of stoking the fires and fueling the already bad scene. Apparently, everyone that has been arrested is from out of town. They are not Minneapolis. They are not even Minnesotans. Please leave. Now.

Minneapolis Riots

There is some ugly stuff going on in this beautiful city. Sounds like a lot of out of towners are inciting trouble. We spent the evening here at home, appreciating how good we have it and wishing that all this heals quickly. What's happening now is not Minneapolis; it's not that kind of place, and it makes us sad.

Masked Bandits

Got the coolest Coronavirus-stopping masks ever from Sue Brain, the finest seamstress, EVER! Thanks Sue!!!

I love that they tie behind my neck rather than slice my ears off with elastic.

Potted Plants

JP finally got her pots stuffed with some colorful plants. Starting to feel like it's not winter.