I expect that “Life Ain’t Always Empty”, my 2020 report’s utter failure to update people on COVID, politics and such will be forgiven. As will, I hope, this year’s failure to entirely avoid those topics. Plus forgiveness for the travelogue feel of this report.
Karen and I drive up to the Duluth area every month or two to see Molly, Mara, Courtney and Matthew and the dogs. They are in the scrub forest about 20 minutes out of the city. We are charmed and bowled over by the girls every time we see them. Matthew is now doing security system installation work and Courtney is helping families with challenged kids. She has a much harder job.
We stopped for gas and coffee near the Black Bear Casino south of Duluth on the way home this summer. A big white Dodge Ram pickup truck parked next to the entrance of the store. Running. No-one inside. MN license plate was white and first two letters on it were “WW”. These are issued to drivers with DWI convictions. A bumper sticker reads: “I’m not drunk, I’m dodging potholes.” Another reads “rollin’ coal since 2015.”
Coal rolling? What the heck? That is when drivers of trucks with diesel engines set them up so that with a flick of the switch more fuel is pumped in, power is (maybe) increased, emission controls by-passed or overcome and huge amounts of stinky, poisonous black diesel smoke fouls the air. Apparently, some owners/drivers like to “roll coal” whenever they see bicycle riders, electric vehicles, etc. I read about this a few months before the 2016 Presidential election and had an ominous feel in the pit of my stomach. It is still there. If you roll coal, please unsubscribe.
Karen and I drove to Seattle in June and saw plenty of coal trains rolling out of North Dakota and Montana. We stopped in Glendive, Mt and then near Glacier National Park on the westward journey. I drove that way in 1977 but with a crew that barely stopped on the side of the road for a chance to sleep. Karen’s mom made a similar journey or two in the 30s and 40s with her Aunt Jen (the power behind The Frigid Fluid Co.), her brother and the chauffeur.
Western ND and much of Montana were breathtakingly beautiful. The Teddy Roosevelt National Park in ND is like the badlands in So. Dakota. Great views of a landscape like no other. The TR statue in front of the Museum of Natural History in NYC is moving there. Unlike many statues that are criticized solely because of who they depict, this statue that I saw in November epitomizes both white supremacy and imperialism. Like almost everyone who has ever lived, TR had some good and bad features, but this statue speaks for itself in a most offensive manner. Thank you, I think, North Dakota.
Somewhere along the way in Tinyville, Mt on the two lane road on the way to Glacier National Park I had to break Karen out of the restroom of a Holiday gas station. Cashier said: “We just had that lock replaced.” Happily it took me only 20 or 25 minutes of fiddling with a paperclip to get the door open. One of my proudest-ever technical feats. Don’t know if Tinyville has a locksmith and if she is available on Sunday morning.
We stopped in Chester, MT for fuel and toothpaste. Took photos because of its flat beauty and because it shares a name with my almost brother-cousin, Chet. It was near Chester that an Amtrak train derailed a few months ago. The owners of the grocery store we stopped at told townspeople who were helping with disaster relief: “Just take whatever you need, don’t worry about paying.” according to news reports. A 100% American immigrant family originally from South Asia.
Labor shortages iun the U.S.? "Can do spirit" missing? Obvious answer….
Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. What a beautiful setting! Stopped for fuel and lunch and found Satay Bistro, and a great lunch in a wholly unexpected spot just off the highway.
And we spent most of June with Lachlann, Elizabeth (Lily), Don and Sara in Seattle. A wonderful visit. We went nearly to Canada and stayed in a house in the woods near Mount Baker. What a lovely environment! Lots of walking about for most of us, though, having gotten old in 2021, my arthritic hip gave me great trouble, especially trying to sleep at night. 2 vehicles, so we separated on the return trip so that Karen and I could have a lovely seafood lunch overlooking the Bay in Bellingham.
When we got back to Seattle, we experienced the worst heat that we have ever lived through. Houses in Seattle rarely have AC and such was the case on Seward Park Av. I think it was 93 in the house at 9 pm one night. Higher? They have a huge window set facing west on the landing heading up to the 2nd floor. 10 feet wide by 15+ feet high? Before the worst arrived, Don and Sara bought curtains to keep some of the sun and heat out.
Environmentally sensitive as I am, I still suggested that Karen and I got out for a drive to no-where in our Honda, just so we could get some AC. It was worth it, but remind me to donate more to https://fresh-energy.org. Did the thermometer show 111 degrees F one day? I think so.
Returning home, we stayed on the Interstates the whole way, except for cutting through the Northern Cheyenne Nation at the east end of Montana. While driving through eastern Montana several observations: Red shale, red shale, red shale everywhere! Geology aways puts me in my miniscule place, time-wise. And our tax dollars paid to build and maintain many Interstate exits and entrances, not just for tiny towns, but many for a single farm or ranch. Not on tribal land, though. Tell me again about the hardly independent entrepreneurs who take nothing from anyone and begrudge paying taxes…. I can see why Billings and Missoula are attracting new residents. Great settings. How soon will they be overcome by sprawl?
While driving through the Cheyenne reservation, we saw in the far distance billowing smoke. In the east, then the northeast, then the north. A forest fire - I think we might have passed 20 miles from it. It looked big to us, but it did not merit a name, an update, or a prediction on the government’s tracking of fires when I looked it up that night. In a month, fire smoke from the NW and Canada kept our Seattle, Duluth and St Paul families indoors.
We stopped in Rapid City, SD for the night - July 2? A big downtown celebration of the Fourth of July was underway and made parking tight. As we arrived in search of dinner, a group of Dakota kids with signs about the deaths of Indian children in boarding schools were finishing a demonstration and getting out of town. Many looked quite frightened. We had a very good dinner at a South Asian Indian cafe that night. The crowds were more racially diverse in appearance than I expected. But the Dakota children were frightened.
The Honda CRV is hands down the best vehicle we’ve owned. I did all the driving and it made driving easy and reasonably comfortable.
Travelogue break time.
I got old this year. Developed significant arthritis in my hip and have had to quit even medium long walks and I am using a cane for short ones. Am trying lots of things to fight it but probably will need a replacement. Uggh. Karen is less-mobile too. But our spirits remain pretty good.
Happily, most of the time, biking does not make for more hip problems. I have 3500+ miles, but that’s almost 3000 less than last year. No Wisconsin cycling at all. Some in Seattle. Humble-bragging - I rode up Ramsey Hill almost 30 times this year. Top slope is around 14%. Borrowed fancy used HED wheels from my friend, Mike. He tells me that his purchase price was hundreds more than standard HED Ardennes wheels, just because there is scoring on the rims where the brakes grip. I told him “less always costs more in this game - a block of marble is pretty cheap until Michelangelo cuts most of it away.”
For our 40th wedding anniversary, and then for Karen’s birthday, we celebrated at one of our favorite restaurants, Joan’s in the Park. They are only booking seven tables for two hour segments. We ate on the patio as our unseasonably warm weather continued through the fall. Great food, as usual, and exceptional fois gras! Kudos to Joan and Susan for providing a top dinner in a COVID-aware setting!
Our home was the cultural capitol of the neighborhood this fall. Did I tell you about the tradition of Flamingo Fridays? Back in olden times (2017-2019) neighbors gathered in a yard on most summer Fridays, in a yard marked with pinky kitsch plastic flamingos. Simple customs: have a great time, bring your own everything, use your own toilet. Not much of this in the past couple summers. But our neighbor Becky proposed that it was time for a FF breakout.
So we did. What a great spark! Our FF included Becky singing a set of songs accompanied by an electric piano; neighbor Elizabeth playing a varied repertoire with her D’Amici String Quartet. I displayed a print of a Chicago Tribune full page ad from 1969 in which the headline read, over a drawing of a Giant’s Green legs sitting on a railroad refrigerator car: “Why Does Herschel Hudgens Say That The Burlington’s New Refrigerator Cars Are Nothing to Ho-HoHo About?” I then read verse (or doggerel) about my Uncle Herschel, a high emotional IQ person. And several other poems. The program was topping off by the unexpected breakout performance by our 7 year old neighbor, Nathan. He stepped up and recited a 90 second speech from a mythic fantasy series he has been reading. Next year let’s find more Flamingo Fridays! We would be so gratified to learn that other neighborhoods already or will adopt some kind of face-to-face fun times.
A neighbor (we don’t know her) two blocks away was arrested 6 months ago after brandishing a shotgun, pointing it at police and raving that Black Lives Matter was after her. Reportedly one trigger for this was a neighborhood Black family out walking their dog. They were advised to avoid that block and have since moved. Happily she was safely taken into custody after several hours. Last month she was re-arrested after wild driving, threats with a fake gun and hanging off a bridge over the highway.
We need much more effective mental health care and far fewer guns. Five year old shot dead when playing with other kids last week. It's so great that there are more guns than residents in the U.S. Anyone among the 2nd Amendment absolutists out there got a helpful response? Doubt it.
St. Paul Police Department has dramatically reduced their use of force and on-the-job injuries and civil suits in the past several years with new training and policies. Sorry to know that Chief Axtell will not be continuing in his job.
I had a couple of small-scale “music meetings” once vaccines came along. Really good to get back to sharing that particular joy. I bought a ticket for Idles, a UK rock band for October 7 (Karen said OK) but then decided to skip it when Delta arose. Review was very positive. Oh well. Idles is a punky rock band with a strong streak of anti-misogyny and self-awareness in their lyrics. Still, I like Fontaines DC, who I featured in last year’s sum-up, better. Check them out.
I made a significant upgrade in my stereo system - added another eight inches of cement blocks under the speakers ($24)to bring the Tannoy DC speakers up to ear level, When you are at that level of audiophile or audiophrenia, ever inch makes a difference, at least we come to believe that. Last week was exciting as I found a $2 copy of Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (a 1959 benefit concert) with a terribly damaged cover. It is one of the best sounding albums ever, if in decent shape. I already own a copy with a decent cover but very poor condition LPs. So I am switching them out as the new purchase sounds so much better! Not a true record collector practice, but I resist some rules of record collecting, along with other things. Cadence Records and Coffee on Payne Av. in Saint Paul.
I haven’t done much creative writing this year. Need to get back to it. Well, there is an essay: “Trouble At Work.” I think it was last year I wrote up my nostalgic paen to growing up in small town Proctor, Vt. Both these and others at https://jaywwrote.blogspot.com. I am working on my first short story, inspired by my imagination of how my Dad came to love the music of Thelonious Monk.
Here’s an easy at-home recipe I came up with that is very quick and tasty. Heat oven to 400. Roll largish shrimp and/or scallops in a mix of bread or cracker crumbs, a little olive oil, grated Parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper, basil. Place on baking sheet and bake maybe 7 minutes, flip and bake maybe 5 more. Serve with what suits you.
I volunteer providing legal advice to clients. Have my CLE credits caught up on for now and need not re-certify for another 30 months. Maybe will hang up the practice of law then. I also continue a frustrating campaign to invigorate the volunteer St Paul Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. New members have given me new hope.
In the November election I was the Head Judge at a suburban precinct that had only school levy issues on the ballot. Worked 15 hours - no 17 hours - that day. Fewer than 200 voters. Well, it's good to practice with a low demand event. The system is very well-designed and has several layers of double-checking to avoid and identify errors. I am so impressed each time I work as an election judge. So many states are now passing laws that will make elections less secure and less accessible. Tragic.
St Paul voters approved a “rent stability” ordinance last month limiting rent increases to 3% a year unless the owner shows need for higher rents for a “reasonable return on investment." I wish that a little city like St Paul could efficiently both slow rent increases, keep good landlords and insure that new rental housing is developed. I see a flight of capital and replacement of existing local owners by hedge-fund-owned housing. And a costly new burden on the City to administer the program. The affordable housing crisis needs either much better income support for poor people or much greater direct public investment in permanent low cost housing. Rent stability in one city vs. the predominance of capitalist housing is a losing cause.
A friend is dealing with serious health problems - dealing very well so far from all I can detect. But the future is uncertain and we need to grab the best of life when we can. So we went to New York City in mid-November. I for 3 1/2 days and he for a week (a sibling joined him as I was leaving).
Lots of art - MOMA, The Met, The Neue Gallery, The Jewish Museum, The Frick, a Banksy “tag” - they saw more, I think. We heard Ron Carter, the fantastic jazz bass player, with pianist, Emmet Cohen and Evan Sherman, drummer, at the Village Vanguard. Bought a CD and Carter graciously signed the cover after the show. And we watched a under-resourced Japanese movie about WWII war crimes at MOMA. (Director is son of super star director Akira Kurosawa [Rashoman, Seven Samurai, etc.]) And we saw Sweatshop Overlord, a one woman show about her family’s and friends’ and others’ fight against COVID - is there such a thing as serious comedy? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/theater/kristina-wong-sweatshop-overlord-review.html.
We stayed at a hotel in Manhattan, The Belleclaire, which like many, has an interesting history. Look it up. And the people-watching was great - on Broadway (the street), in Central Park, at the Vanguard, in the Village, on the subway. There are many free COVID testing kiosks on street corners, especially in the high rent districts downtown (near Trump Tower, MOMA, etc.) and very good masking compliance on subways and indoors. 75 or 80% of bikes I saw were electric powered - probably these were delivery workers and/or commuters. Trains were clean and peaceful. Cabbies were amazing drivers. 5% of midtown Manhattan is boarded up and 20% is being remodeled. We did not see anything about the NYC Anime convention when the monster Omicron seems to have lurked - and would not have gone anyway. I did see on the street the poster expert from Antiques Roadshow - plaid suit, handlebar mustache, you know who I mean. Zabar’s deli every day. No carousing nor late nights. We were tired, sore from all the walking and standing but very happy and, under the circumstances, healthy. Brought home nova salmon from Zabar’s for Karen and Erica who helped out in my absence. We had a really great visit.
I do run on…. No boredom here. Hoping for more of the same…
Comments
Post a Comment