Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JUNE 6, 2021 – No matter how much I read about it; no matter how many movies I’ve watched, I can’t imagine myself on the beach at Normandy on that day—this day—in 1944. The Germans knew it was coming but didn’t know when or exactly where. Thanks to their Führer who thought he was a …
JUNE 5, 2021 – Yesterday I planted more trees. Seven balsam to be exact. The entire operation was complicated. It started with the nursery that grows trees from seeds to seedlings. Move on to the media by wh ich the nursery markets its products and add the systems by which those products are processed, packaged, …
JUNE 4, 2021 – We’ve all seen the most recent set of scratchy photos of UFOs. This time around, we’re told, the bobbing lights “really are unexplainable.” I’m skeptical—especially after four years of “fake news,” “Big Lies,” and a royal fest of “conspiracy theories.” But pretend, for a moment, that aliens have actually landed on …
June 1, 2021 – Lately, I’ve experienced lots of . . . pain. Call me a wimp for my exceptionally low threshold—even for the needle that’s supposed to bring relief from pain. At midnight yesterday evening, when the ER nurse appeared to administer a shot of Toradol, I raised my hand and said, “Warning: I …
MAY 31, 2021 – I’ve long forgotten the context of the conversation, but one day when I was a firstgrader palling around with Johnny Ridge a couple of doors down, he told me nonchalantly that his uncle “sat on a grenade and got a reward.” Years later, the uncle, Rick Sorenson, came back to Anoka …
MAY 20, 2021 – Dad would’ve turned 99 today—had he lived another 11 years. In his mind, 87, almost 88, was a respectable number. When the hospitalist gave him the bad news, Dad’s response was to note the ages of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. A student of history, Dad admired deeply George and Abe. “Washington …
MAY 19, 2021 – Over years I’ve experienced episodic lower back pain—sometimes severe. I’m not alone. In searching for relief, I discovered that 80% of people older than 18 experience back trouble. A deeper dive reveals that among other maladies and dysfunctionalities, lower back pain is killing us. I wonder if other vertebrates experience “lower …
MAY 12, 2021 – Yesterday I noticed a few doors down, a parked van belonging to a plumbing outfit named, “Weld & Sons.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a business name that included “Sons” or “Brothers” (or “Bros.”). Back in the day—my day, anyway—you’d see a lot of trucks, stores, and commercial …
MAY 10, 2021 – Walk with me here . . . Early yesterday evening as I was returning from my “hill climbs” in Little Switzerland, the reclining sun played with my imagination. Backlighting nascent leaves, splashing across greening yards, and casting playful shadows onto westward facing walls, sun beams worked their magic. Magic, I thought. …
MAY 7, 2021 – Before heading for the Red Cabin yesterday, I decided to give the yard a quick haircut. As I pushed the mower to the front, a lawn service guy hired by the next-door neighbors approached along the boundary. I greeted him, and he responded in kind. After a couple of rows of …
MAY 3, 2021 – The weather was gloomy—low, dark overcast, with intermittent rain—as I “flew” home from the Red Cabin early yesterday evening. Most of the 137-mile journey over “Thoughtland” is along two-lane, rural highways through northwestern Wisconsin. I’ll say I’ve taken the trip a thousand times, just to ensure understatement of the number. Yet, …
MAY 1, 2021 – Today, “May Day” (not to be confused with the pilot’s distress call, derived from “m’aidez!”), is when you were supposed to hang a homemade May basket, filled with candy, on the outside door handle of your girlfriend’s house, hit the doorbell, and run as the girl chased you down for a …
APRIL 28, 2021 – Over 19 months have passed since I’ve flown. Since I was 12, that’s the longest I’ve been grounded. When I do fly again, I’m sure the details of air travel will come flooding back, just as reality fills the room when I wake up from a very deep sleep. One detail: …
APRIL 25, 2021 – Last night we watched Stowaway on Netflix. The estimated cost: $6 billion. No, not our Texas-style “bundled” cable/internet subscription for April because of cold weather without regulation of utilities. And no, not the actual production budget for the film. Six billion is the estimated cost (according to the internet) of sending …
APRIL 24, 2021 – Yesterday brought another “first-in-a-year”: practicing violin with my pianist collaborator, Sally. Though she and her husband, Don, plus friends Liz and Perry, and my wife and I had visited via Zoom a time ago, I’d not seen Sally—or Don—in person in over a year, let alone inside their old, beautiful St. …
APRIL 23, 2021 – Yesterday evening, for the first time in over a year, we entered a house that was not our own. Stranger yet, we counted among six people—two of my three sisters, two brothers-in-law, my wife and I (all of us fully vaccinated). Each of us savored the occasion. We hadn’t been together …
APRIL 22, 2021 – Amidst our rancor and failures, we need to remind ourselves that we’ve also wrought wondrous works. Yesterday evening I stumbled upon an example of such works: a bayan played by Ukrainian super-star, Aleksandr Hrushevich. As an expert at being ignorant, I’d never before heard of the “bayan” (not to be confused …
APRIL 18, 2021 – Most “lake people” nowadays have a light-weight aluminum dock installed by easy-to-manage sections or by its own big wheels mounted under the front. In either case, most lacustrian dwellers hire out the task to a friendly, local service for a not-so-friendly fee. I don’t know of any research into the possible …
APRIL 10, 2021 – Recently, I cleared a stack of books from one nook of our house and deposited them in another cranny. In the process a thin paperback escaped my grip and fell lightly to the floor. It was The Amateur Emigrant by Robert Louis Stevenson. On the cover was an illustration of the …
MARCH 20, 2021 – Friday marked the death of Byron Hanson, musician and teacher extraordinaire at Interlochen Arts Academy. I first heard about Mr. Hanson from my sister Elsa. As I prepared for my first year at Interlochen—immediately following Elsa’s last—she told much about his genius, dedication, and inspiration. A graduate of Edina High School …
MARCH 15, 2021 – The shoreline of Björnholm, our family’s retreat in northwest Wisconsin, presents an engineering challenge. After years of fighting the steep embankment in front of the cabin, Dad and Grandpa moved the dock and boatlift to more accessible terrain down the shore. Years later lake ice re-arranged that location. Over time, Dad …
MARCH 13, 2021 – Yesterday marked an anniversary—the last time I rode a bus; my last day at my downtown office; the day I sat for 20 minutes across a table from a voluble guy, who experienced severe symptoms the following day, winding up on a hospital ventilator and nearly succumbing to The Plague. I …
MARCH 2, 2021 – Yesterday, while walking home from my skiing, I pondered material for today’s post. A fertile patch: news items I’d scrolled through an hour before, just before heading out the door. One story in particular was Sunday’s CPAC appearance by you-know-who and a statement by South Dakota Governor Noem that “We aren’t …
FEBRUARY 27, 2021 – Yesterday evening our five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter was working hard at a life-size drawing of “make believe” on a large sheet of paper. When I approached, she waved me off. “You’re not allowed to look yet, Grandpa!” she said, “It’s not done yet.” Obediently, I repaired to a nearby chair to continue my …
FEBRUARY 25, 2021 – After practicing law all day, what did I do yesterday evening? I watched Nuremberg, the 2000 mini-series starring Alec Baldwin. This cinematic experience was the inevitable sequel to my having watched Tokyo Trial. (See my 2/23/21 post.) Despite some historical inaccuracies, Nuremberg provides a reasonably satisfactory overview of the proceedings against …