Fifth of July

7/5/08

Sitting on a bench at Mounds Park, littered with garbage on the Fifth
of July, listening to a podcast of Seymour Hersch on Fresh Air,
railing rightly so against Dick Cheney's expansion of the war into
Iraq, I find myself, paradoxically, an advocate of a stronger
executive. I don't think we'll see our way out of our current problems
without it.

Last night we went to the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum.
Sadly disappointing. Afterwards, a beer at Great Waters held us over
to watching the fireworks from the sidewalk by the downtown power
plant. That was spectacular. (The Taste of Minnesota has new owners
who're trying to make an impression.) noticeably multi-ethnic crowd.

--
David
www.schons.net

Painting the 35W bridge

What a splendiferous day. You couldn't ask for a better summer day. Liam just got on first. Last time up, he drew a walk. Pretty good, considering that he was afraid of the Spider's 70 mile an hour pitcher. Now he just scored a run.

I left for a bike ride about 3:00. Dorothea was to leave at 4:00 with her book club for a four-day trip to Ely. Liam was over at a friend's. Madeline was at the public pool.

I stopped to watch the 35W bridge construction. The fellow who is doing the oil painting was there. The construction crew was just preparing for the crane to lift one of the large sections. I got pictures of both.

The painting is realist. Bur even though the scene that he was creating was faithful and accurate and beautiful, it totally left out the crane and the concrete section.

Now, Liam's team has taken the field but he's on the bench, so I don't feel guilty writing. Sure haven't written much lately.

After the 35W bridge, I headed for the Cedar Lake trail and Lak Calhoun. I wasn't paying correct attention to the time when I got a call from Liam. 5:20. I needed to get home, which I did at 6:10. Late. He was very gracious.

Continuing a long tradition of putzing with computers during a long holiday weekend...

Last night, I horrified myself. Returned from a bike ride of the bridges with Madeline and Dorothea. (Our house to Ford Parkway Bridge to Minnehaha Falls to Lake Street Bridge.) And, back in the basement, was fiddling with the dual display that I had gotten working between the laptop and the new flat screen. I did something whereby I lost the ability to control the screens. Ah, horror.

This morning, I disconnected the laptop from everything and rebooted. When I plugged the flat screen back in, voila!, it worked. And better than before, in that I got the behavior that I was really looking for--just the laptop display on the 20 inch monitor. So, I can plug the keyboard, mouse, and monitor into the laptop, close the lid, and forget about it.

I know this stuff is boring. But at least it is getting me back into the blog mode.

There are pictures (of trip to D.C., of Liam's birthday, Mother's Day, the Mayday parade, etc. at http://www.flickr.com/photos/somekindapossible/.

Today, my mobile blog is not mobile

I am at a PC. A PC in the basement, no less. So, the blogging is not so mobile today. There are lots of things that I haven't gotten to. The most immediate, though, is that I bought a flatscreen for the 3rd computer. I have the laptop connected. Tired of sitting at the dining room table with the laptop. Now, though, I am in the TV room with the children. Different experience. Also, I am pretty sure that I want to go ahead and move to Blogger. When my domain name was up earlier this year, I was emotionally ready to give it up, but was not technically ready to do so. The next time it comes around, either I will be ready to give it up, or, schons.net will not be my blog address, but it will be my web address. I just dragged a bunch of pictures to Flickr. The pictures extend from the Mayday parade to the D.C. trip.

Budding Birch

5/7/08

Sitting on the couch of the front porch. Gorgeous nice day. The birch
tree is beginning to bud. Last Sunday we finally put the patio
furniture out on the back deck. Haven't had to mow yet, but will soon.

Fairview Avenue is turning into my favorite, translucent green tunnel.
Dorothea has ridden her bike to work twice already. I have done the
bridges once. Yesterday, however, Dorothea had ridden her bicycle to
work, and it was raining in the afternoon. I thought it likely that I
would have to go and pick her up. But she ended up riding home anyway.

I think I will doze until it is time to take Liam to his second weekly
baseball practice.

--
David
www.schons.net

Day 7

7:33 AM, sitting at Nina's, waiting for my tea to steep, killing time
so that I don't eat my bar until 8:00. This marks a week without
coffee. Day 7 of Medifast. To food and eating what I imagine methadone
is to heroin and addiction. The sun is out--a rare occurrence of late.
I don't have much more focus. Tea done.

Just sunk in--this place is deserted.

--
David
www.schons.net

Mom falls

11:34 PM last night, phone rings. Nurse from Country Manor, Diane,
says that my mom fell in her bathroom and pulled the cord, that my
mom's blood pressure was 240 over something, and she wanted to send my
mom to the emergency room. Okay. Diane was using a cellphone, and sh
said that my mother probably wouldn't be able to hear me. She
couldn't. Kept saying "I can't hear you." Writing down the number for
the St. Cloud Hospital ER.

I got called because my sister barb didn't answer her phone. I
called--busy. Eventually we had several conversations, both called the
ER. Consultations with Dorothea. Many. Lying awake. Contemplating
driving to St. Cloud. But that was before I knew about the
weather--late-season blizzard to the north and west.

Waited an hour to give the ambulance to get there. Mom alert and
oriented. Several hours of tests. Then waited for Barb to call with an
update. About four, she did, saying the mom was sent home on a "care
cab," with meds for dizziness and a bruised knee.

Now what? (From the Honda in Y parking lot.)

--
David
www.schons.net