Archive for the ‘Chronicle’ Category
A Special Day
First of all, let me just say… Happy Birthday, Julian! Of course, in addition to Julian’s birthday, today is Cyndie’s and my 29th wedding anniversary, as well. We are celebrating with the trip to Portugal, where Cyndie gets to enjoy a lot of horse-play, and I will have mountain air and forests of trees. I have no idea how it will be possible to top this next year.
Travel Day!
Honestly, I really am thrilled to the core with anticipation for our adventure in Portugal. But I am not fond of anything to do with packing or deciding what to bring, and most of all, keeping track of where the heck I ended up packing the things I finally decided to include.
I would like to show up at my destination with nothing but a modest sized bag that contains everything I could possibly want or need for any and all weather conditions, and know exactly where to find any little thing I brought along.
My habit is to discover a wonderful pocket somewhere in some bag that works just perfect for something I want to bring along, and then never again be able to remember or find where that place was. That becomes exacerbated by the security routines and airline regulations that force me to pack in specific ways that have nothing to do with the way I want to use items, nor how or where I want them to be when I reach my destination.
I am going to have a wonderful trip, regardless the travel hassles, but every time I go through the packing process, I am reminded why it is I am just as happy staying home when offered options to travel, or not.
As they say in Minnesota, either option is not too bad. Whatever. Bring on the airports!
Supposedly Packing
Sorry, to time to post… Busy packing. Wait, I mean, busy doing laundry so that I can pack. Wait, I meant, going through the mail to get bills paid so that when the laundry is done, I can sort and fold into piles to pack.
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Golden Years
Take a look at the years the University of Minnesota Gophers enjoyed success in the Big Ten conference.
I wonder how much of a reflection that is of the players that coincidentally attend the institution at the same time.
If a player was just average, yet happened to make the team in his Sophomore year back in 1909, he’d be able to enjoy a pretty good college football experience. If a player was exceptionally great, but arrived at the U during the many decades when the Gophers have failed to challenge for a spot at the top of the conference, that greatness doesn’t appear to carry enough sway.
Cyndie and I were generously invited to join her parents for this year’s home opener against the University of South Dakota, but it turned out to be a stinker for the home team. They were out-smarted and out-played by a team from a smaller school in a lower division. Next week the Gophers host the Trojans of the University of Southern California, making us the BIG underdog. I wonder how it feels to be a player on the football team this year.
I don’t think the average player has a lot to look forward to, and if there are any exceptionally great players hiding on the team, I’m going to guess that their greatness won’t be enough to bring a championship to the program.
Manic Minutes
With more things to be done than there are minutes to do them, the days are flying past me in a blur now. The day-job is extra-taxing for me this week, due to a key employee being on vacation. It is one less person for me to rely on –from the all-important role of final inspection– and double the workload I need to accomplish daily.
Meanwhile, Cyndie is on the road through Wednesday. After we both get off work on Thursday, our schedule has us joining a group of the Hays family relatives attending a live theater performance of “How to Speak Minnesotan” to see one of my nephews in the show.
The days feel like they are passing faster than ever. I sure hope they slow down significantly once we reach the days of our trip!
Trip Beginnings
I am preparing to travel to Portugal with Cyndie in a few days. It was back in January of 2010 that we began plotting this adventure and now we are packing our bags. It is a very exciting time. This trip is special for us in that it is not just a random touristy jaunt to a foreign country. The seeds for this magical adventure were planted almost 8 years ago in an online discussion on the topic of trees.
I have mentioned in my posts here in the past about my activity with the virtual community of Brainstorms. It is there that I first met our connection in Portugal. He shares an affinity for trees, and my interactions with him in that online community started with discussions on the planting of new trees and expanded over the years to include stories about our children and details about the rest of our lives.
For years I read about the work going on to maintain the place he referred to as, “the farm.” He admitted that no real farming occurs there, but the 22 acre property includes forested areas, some with cultivated stands of pine trees, a variety of terraces that have grape vines, olive trees, peaches, dates, and oranges. There is a greenhouse and a good variety of flowering plants, especially one of our host’s prizes, the camellia.
After he wrote about the completed renovations of one of the old original buildings, which he described as a “writer’s cottage,” (complete with pictures of the new roof going up on the structure of hand-cut granite blocks) I wanted to offer my services as ‘farm-hand’ in the biggest way. Then he went and added horses, an addition that I knew would appeal to Cyndie.
Last January, we offered up the idea of our visiting Portugal to help with chores on the farm. I asked how long a stay would be appropriate. We couldn’t have been more pleased with his reply… A minimum of a week, preferably a month. We were able to make it 2 weeks. It becomes a reality in a few days.
New Season
I lost a few more hours of my life to football again last night as the opening game of this year’s NFL season was played by my home team, the Minnesota Vikings, against the New Orleans Saints. It just served to reveal to me, more of the ways I am getting old.
When I was a kid, I was truly excited by all things NFL related. Now, far from it. In all fairness, my first gripe of the night is something that goes far beyond just an NFL issue. It seems all facets of industry that strive to sell entertainment to the masses have fallen into a ridiculous pattern of trying to out-dazzle anything that has come before. It used to be that a championship game was so huge that they demonstrated it by making the half-time show into a spectacle that could stand on its own, even without a football game. Then the half-time became so big they gave it extra time. Pretty soon the commercials of the championship game became as noteworthy as the half-time show. Football isn’t the only place this is happening, but the NFL could be the poster-child of superfluous excess heaping glitz and glamor that is ultimately tarnishing a product that once was able to stand on its own and sell itself.
Before last night’s kickoff, the warm-up act was a couple of full-production live music performances by artists who normally perform their acts as the main event. It’s distracting. It makes the music artists appear second-rate. I’m getting old.
Then the talking heads that are there for the actual football game announce that they have a special news report from their special reporter from “Sports Illustrated.” He proceeds to tell us that another quarterback (Tom Brady), from a team not playing tonight (the Patriots), was involved in a car crash today, but was not injured and practiced today. Oh, thanks for that!
Then at half-time, they tell us that they have breaking news to report… Same special reporter, same quarterback from that other team, agreed to a 4-year contract extension. Thank goodness they were able to break in with that morsel. Why am I not buying what they are selling anymore?
It is a new season, but I’m feeling older than ever.
Oh, can you tell from my ranting? My team got beat in their opening game. Yeah, they eventually did have a football game in there somewhere. The pre-game concert was a lot better than the football.
Surviving
I was flipping through the television channels last night and landed on one of the survival shows where people describe their experience and actors perform the reenactment. I have a fascination for survival stories. I don’t know why that is. I have never been involved in that kind of situation, but when I see such stories, there is a strong sense of recognition. I can definitely imagine myself as the person in the story, but there is always a question in my mind about whether I could actually endure what is being depicted. I think about what I would do different from the people in the reenactments. Too often, my thought is, “I would have given up long before they reached their next precarious predicament.”
I think about what it would be like to survive, even as I wonder if I have what it takes to do so.
If you haven’t ever watched one of these “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” episodes, there are segments where the narrator reports what goes on in the human body at the different levels of reaction to injury, or exposure, or deprivation. It is incredibly informative. I began to think last night that it would be valuable information to have in many of our other daily dramatic endeavors.
During our commute through rush hour traffic, the narrator could report how our blood pressure rises and breathing quickens as adrenalin surges. Or when we skip a meal and later choose some lousy processed food option that’s convenient, the voice will detail the subtle changes our bodies make in response to our bad choices. When we find ourselves embroiled in some dramatic spat with others, we could receive information that improves our perceptions of how our emotions are raging and better hone our responses to maximize safe and healthy outcomes.
Why does it only happen in the reenactments? Maybe someday, in the future…
Progress
This weekend I got a chance to make a little progress with removing material from the wood for Cyndie’s bracelet. I admit to working slowly, but I’m happy to be able to show there is some difference visible. The patterns emerging on the wood are as rewarding as we had hoped they would be. I’m kind of surprised it has proved to be as solid as it is. I expect a crack to pop open whenever I spend time working it. So far, so good …no crack yet.
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Summer’s End
Yesterday marked the end of summer activity at the lake place. All the inflatable toys have been deflated, and anchored rafts have been removed from the swim area. It was a bittersweet day. The weather started out beautifully sunny and we got in a last bit of boating before setting about with the chores of dismantling the equipment of summer recreation. It was a stark reality being presented that affirmed the finality of the season.
Cyndie and I stayed for the afternoon and were able to get in one last game of Cross Crib with her parents on the deck. Then we gathered the cushions and brought them into the basement for storage. Clean up seemed even more dramatic when the contents of the refrigerator were being thoroughly sorted for us to bring home perishables. With family travel plans scheduled for many of us, there will be an unusual lull of visitors to the lake place, and we needed to put a little more effort into the chore of prepping for departure than usual.
From the grass field beside the lodge, I took a look back as we were packing up the floating trampoline, and I saw how great the lodge looked. Behind it, one of the trees was already losing its green color. My favorite place is about to transform into a spectacle of autumn. By the time my next chance to visit rolls around, many of the trees will probably have lost their leaves. I’m alright with that. Bring on the winter, I say. I’ve got igloos to build. What a treat it is to have that to look forward to!
