Went out for a 2-mile run this morning, just to get in some exercise. First real running I have done in a while, but my knees survived.
Day of Computers
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Tag Archives: clann
The Future of Reenactment
Another Blow
M is down at the Mayo Clinic. All of us in colgaffneyis are worried.
Today I received bad news from another side of my life: One of my Carleton classmates was diagnosed with colon cancer on Friday. Not a really close friend from the old days, but someone I like and respect, and with whom I have been happily working on alumni business in recent years. I e-mailed her last week asking for a favor on behalf of another friend, and was wondering why she had not replied. Now I know.
Otherwise, this was actually a good day (“Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”).
Despite my management’s best efforts….
My blood pressure is still OK. I had an apheresis (platelet donation) appointment this afternoon at the Red Cross, and as part of the procedure they checked my BP: 112/76.
It was a particularly good experience. We in colgaffneyis are all worried about our friend M, who has been in the hospital for a week and will be going to the Mayo Clinic tomorrow. And there is nothing we can do to help her. At least this way I could help somebody.
Not that I did anything heroic in the process. They stuck the needle in my arm, and I just dozed off for two hours while they extracted the platelets.
Slow Weekend
Good Day
mia_mcdavid and I spent some time this morning on post-snowstorm house maintenance. We cleared some snow from the deck, and unplugged a downspout that had frozen up. A heat gun and boiling water did the job here.
After that Mia went out to visit redwingkali. I ran some errands, then went home for the rest of the day. I did some hand sewing on a 17th century style coat/doublet to wear at colgaffneyis events, while listening to the Met Opera broadcast(Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra) on Public Radio. I got a lot done, and enjoyed the music. Exactly the kind of afternoon I wanted. Pleasant, productive, and cheap.
After Mia got home I made some hot-and-sour soup for dinner, following (more or less) a recipe we have used for many years. As usual, I had to greatly increase the spice levels for our taste, but after that it was very good. All in all a quiet, but satisfying day.
Coping with Snow, work, and Clann
Saturday
As so often happens, I was quite tired from the work week last night, and went to bed about 9 PM, sleeping until 8 AM today. The forecasted snowstorm had not yet left much on the ground, so about 10 AM I drove into Minneapolis. As I wrote last month, Irish Books and Media was going out of business. Their lease expires at the end of the month, so today the owners were having a big move-out event. I have been involved in countless moves over the last 35+ years, including two previous bookstore closings. Most of the friends I have helped move have large collections of books, as do Mia and I, so I have a lot of relevant experience :-)>
This was one of the best moving sessions in my experience. There were plenty of people there to help, and lots of tools for taking down the shelves. I helped package several pallet loads of books to be trucked away, took down some furnitures, and hauled lots of boxes, bookshelves, and whatever. I also helped take a truckload of books to Irish on Grand in St. Paul. We got pizza for lunch, as is almost universal at such events. One of the pizzas was Pizza Lucé‘s “Pizza Athena”–the best commercial pizza I have had since we moved to Minnesota. The plan had been to work all day Saturday and Sunday. By 2 PM Saturday we were finishing up, and the owner was cancelling Sunday’s session.
So, with more of an afternoon than I expected, I drove down to c_nocturnum‘s, for colgaffneyis “camp drill”–a sewing and fabric work session today. mia_mcdavid and rillapins were there, along with a couple other members and haddayr, who had just joined. It was a pleasant time.
We are back home now. The much-heralded snowstorm seems to be finally here, but we have done our important weekend things. I am particularly pleased that the bookstore move went so well–they don’t need to worry about tomorrow’s weather. We hope to go to church and visit Tom tomorrow, but if we are snowbound we will be fine.
A day off
….because of the Presidents’ Day Observance. I accomplished the first and foremost objective of any day off: Sleeping in. During the rest of the morning I helped mia_mcdavid with the process of “warping” her loom, for the Ulster tartan plaid she is weaving for me. Not difficult work, but it took a while. I am never going to be able to listen to Captain Kirk talk about “warp speed” in quite the same way again.
In the early afternoon the three of us ran a couple errands, then went for a two mile walk along Snelling Avenue. Bookstores at both ends gave this some additional definition and motivation, although I did not buy anything.
Over the course of the three day weekend I have done some organization of historical research materials that I had scattered about the house. They will be much more useful now, and in fact going through them I noticed a couple more references that are relevant to an ongoing discussion in colgaffneyis.
Skipped one bar for another
We skipped colgaffneyis Night at the Pub last night, but went out tonight and met several friends from that organization at an Irish Bar near downtown Minneapolis. The band was loud and rather indistinct where we were sitting, which was a disappointment. It was also very crowded. We had seven people in a booth for six. As a result I was squeezed between mia_mcdavid and c_nocturnum. I have no complaint ;-)> Working our way out through the crowd I tried to imagine what the place is like on St. Patrick’s Day and failed. Maybe they repeal the Pauli Exclusion Principle :-)>
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 