Walked the skyway over lunch hour both yesterday and today. The usual–from Government Center to the Hyatt Regency and back. I am looking forward to warmer weather so I can go outside. There is essentially one way to walk much more than a mile on the skyway and I need a change of scenery.
… but I still was able to get out for a walk on the Skyway, similar to my route back on Monday of last week. Chilly outside, so I stayed in the Skyway the whole way.
I started out from Government Center in the Skyway, but after a short time realized that the weather outside was not bad at all (50oF/10oC and fair), so I went outside and walked southwest along 3rd Ave, around the far side of the Convention Center, then northeast on LaSalle for most of the return trip.
I stopped at the downtown Barnes & Noble before going back to the office. This had the useful result that I was able to look at a few books that had interested me when I read their listings at Amazon.com. A few minutes of browsing convinced me that they were not worth buying after all.
Lunch itself was a bag of raw vegetables at my desk. Fear not that I becoming overly virtuous: I had blue cheese dressing with them. Also, last night Mia made Chicago-style pizza for our dinner.
After too-long a hiatus, I am finally doing something resembling exercise again. Both Monday and today I went out for walks on the downtown Minneapolis skyway system, going from Government Center to the Hyatt Regency on Nicollet Mall and back again. I think it is about two miles on the map, but the twists and turns of the Skyway must lengthen it considerably. I need to get a better measure of the distance I actually cover.
Because of the snowstorm I stayed inside for the entire trip on Monday, but today I ducked outside for a few blocks on the return trip. This was not too bad, even though I did not bring a coat. The cold (41oF/5oC) weather kept me moving fast.
A crew from the city came by a few weeks ago and trimmed our front yard tree–the branches were hanging way out over the street. We saved the branches to see if I could make anything out of them with green woodworking techniques using only hand (non-electric) tools. After a couple hours of hard work with saws, splitting wedges and a maul, and other tools, the answer is yes: Firewood (if we let it dry for a couple years). The branches were just too knotty and bent to get any useful length of straight-grained wood. Perhaps I will be able to carve a few spoons. This was about what I expected from the literature; you really need wood from the tree’s trunk, and from the trunk of the right tree. My selection here in a first ring suburb is limited.
I kept trying for quite a while, and it was with some difficulty I tore myself away from the effort. However, that was the right thing to do. I was tired, and might have made a mistake. So I quit while I still had ten fingers, and all of my blood was still inside my body. Well, I certainly got my exercise today.
Once again I made it through “Black Friday” without spending any money. Continue reading
After that scramble yesterday at work to prepare for tomorrow’s server move I have nothing to do there. Everything has to wait until tomorrow. So I have today to myself, except for such household chores as need doing.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 