Coop's Corner: Took A Couple Of Days

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Took A Couple Of Days

A short work week this past week, Monday/Tuesday short and another one coming up for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Days off and not a single leg over one of the bikes. In fact, I barely even saw them; I was in the garage that little. Plenty of other things going on though so just because there wasn't any direct contact, that doesn't mean they (and what they allow me to enjoy) weren't in my thoughts. Trip planning, gear, packing, etc. are always in the background, sometimes more prominent than others.

Early last week our daughter was on her way to Detroit for an audition when the call came. Stopped on the side of the toll road, south side of Chicago, car won't go and smells bad. Some phone calls, one to AAA, a tow, diagnosis and the decision to replace a transmission all in the course of little over and hour. She rented a car and continued on to Detroit, used that car to come all of the way back home and Wednesday afternoon I met her at the Rochester airport after she had turned the rental in and brought her home.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Spearfish, SD on business for a few days and missed installment #4 of my evening class Red Wing History 1815-2015.

My favorite Rest Stop, Chamberlain, SD. A good thing the museum was closed for the season or I'd have spent too much time there before continuing west.

Spearfish Canyon...

Fred Johnson, author and local historian has a deep and thorough understanding of history in general, our Minnesota and Red Wing area background in particular. His mother-in-law and my mom are neighbors in the local assisted living facility and on Thursday afternoon, in a tucked away common area on the 3rd floor there I was lucky enough to spend 2 full hours conversing and learning with Fred. Our time together a true and long lasting pleasure with not only what I'd missed on that Tuesday evening a couple of weeks ago discussed but some subjects precious to us both reaching far and wide. Thank you so very much Fred for your time spent sharing facts and ideas that we both seem to be passionate about!

The call came from Carter at Finish Line Auto Service Center in South Holland, IL that Lauren's car was ship shape and ready to go. In a perfect world, the repaired car would have been complete and ready to go when she was on her way home from the Motor City earlier in the week but that was not to be. My taking Amtrak down was very strongly considered and sounded like the perfect adventure; an Uber from Union Station to the South Holland location researched but there was concern about that entire process not being complete before the repair shop's closing at 5PM. In the end my brother made the trip with me, his trip (and day) 4 hours longer than mine and mine was plenty long enough. Thank you bro for your kind help with the retrieval!

We left Frontenac at 7AM and I was back in the driveway at 8PM, the odometer in the van 750.4 miles. Lauren quickly and expertly decided while shoulder-side on the tollway last Monday that towing to the highly rated, 2 miles away, Finish Line was going to be preferable to the 24 mile location that AAA had picked. I can say with authority that things could not have gone better, considering a transmission failure 2 states away. Carter and his shop were nothing but professional and I'm witness to their 5 Star rating; I'd recommend their shop to anyone ..... and have.

So that was Friday's activity. Saturday we were slated to join our oldest daughter and her partner for an early Thanksgiving feast in their downtown Minneapolis location. My first time visiting since their recent move, I can certainly see and feel the attraction of being right down town in the thick of the things they're in the thick of. For the time being at least, I'm content in rural Frontenac.

From their 3rd floor window.....

The Basilica of Saint Mary.....

Up on the roof, their public area "Sky Park" ..... the view of adjacent Loring Park to the southwest.

Looking northeast....a rooftop unit being hoisted on a Saturday morning.

After a wonderful and very full featured meal, we gathered 'round for some Baldor's Gate. I'm not really a board game guy though I can play a pretty mean round of Candyland; Crazy 8's and cribbage are about as gamey as I get but we had a lot of fun and I did my best. It was very clear that I was among experts and they were patient with me, putting off the inevitable as long as they could.

Unlike most of this coming season's early Saturday mornings, Diamond's in Minneapolis didn't happen and as a result, I don't have my freshly shod sidecar rig wheels. I instead helped Peg grate onions, cabbage, carrots and was lucky enough to be the taste tester for the cranberries, made all the better with the addition of a decent smidge of Jim Beam.

Youngest daughter Hanna has been home from Cleveland for the last couple of weeks, subbing with the Minnesota Orchestra and was lucky enough to be playing during the group's recording of a Mahler Symphony. She's also played in a couple of weekend concerts and for Saturday night, her ability to obtain a couple of Comp tickets was taken advantage of. She left our board game early to walk over to the music hall for the afternoon's rehearsal. After a few of us suffered tragic ends at Baldor's Gate, the Mpls couple had a car club party to attend; James is quite active with the local group. Peg and I had some time to kill before the evening's concert at nearby Orchestra Hall.

Anxious and willing to walk off some of the midday's meal, we headed for the Mpls Skyway system. We knew the shortcuts but that wasn't the point so we took the long way around when possible. I had purposely left my coat in the van, the parking ramp is as is most everything else right downtown, connected via 2nd story skyway. We walked a long ways, my jacket would have been redundant since though moving many blocks, we never ventured outside, not even to our eventual destination at Orchestra Hall.

Back to the music hall by 7:45, we were ready to settle in for the concert.

To our friends and family, wishes for a happy, safe and fruitful Thanksgiving!

4 comments:

UnknownNovember 19, 2018 at 7:00 PM
What a great Dad !
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EricNovember 21, 2018 at 6:39 PM
Some extra special camera work. Really nice!
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)