Tag Archives: weather

Walking

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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.

Current Minnesota weather

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From our host in Albert Lea this past weekend:

It’s winter in Minnesota
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below.

Oh, how I love Minnesota
When the snow’s up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I’ll hang around
I could never leave Minnesota
‘Cause I’m frozen to the ground!!

A busy weekend

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Friday evening I spent a lot of time configuring two Linux systems here at home. It may be a reaction from having to work with MS Windows at my day job. I am actually very pleased with what I can do with a Linux 2.6 kernel and the XFCE desktop environment, even on a P-III system.

Saturday our big event was seeing Tom. He is doing well. He has lost some weight, or at least it has been redirected from horizontal to vertical. We took him for a walk around Lake Calhoun (SW Minneapolis) and had to work a lot to keep his pants from falling down. He is doing well. We did this in the morning. A good call, because the rain came in after lunch.

Today we went down to Albert Lea. The setup for colgaffneyis big event there next weekend was scheduled for today, but because of stormy weather it was severely cut back. The last 40 miles driving into Albert Lea were quite scary. We got our tent almost completely set up before twolodge arrived with the corporate trailer. After that the big project was to set up the tavern tent, reinforce it with storm stakes and ropes, and then park the trailer in it for further setup later this week. A lot got done, but it was quite tiring.

Good Day

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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.

Not quite snowbound

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mia_mcdavid and I were able to shovel out enough of the driveway yesterday morning to get our (smallish) cars out. Our local streets had already been plowed, so we could get around somewhat. We followed what has become our usual Sunday pattern: Pick up Tom at his group home, take him to church with us, then to our house for lunch. After that we relaxed at our place for a while, then took him home.

This worked OK, but the side streets around Tom’s home in Minneapolis had not been nearly as well plowed as those in Roseville, which added considerably to the driving stress there. After taking Tom back I needed a nap.

Mia went out to visit some friends in St. Paul. The side streets there were no better than those in Minneapolis. She made a very nice curried chicken dish for dinner, but we were both quite tired and were asleep before 10. Summary: We coped, but it was hard work.