Teeny Weeny Halloweeny

It's little troopers that look the cutest for when they're all dolled up in their little costumes begging for candy, and even the little pooches sometimes get caught up in the action, through no fault of their own. Then some people go wacky on the other end of things, getting the stage set at home for the little candy-beggars to arrive. And now, it's a startling thought that some people are already putting up their other holiday decorations. Got your shopping done?

Playaway Style

If you've gone through the trouble of loading books on CD into your mp3 player so you could enjoy Huck Finn on your jog, you might enjoy what might seem to be a step backwards in technology--a dedicated, single-book device. It's the Playaway, an electronic book that our library has bought into.

My first trial was a success, though Bill Bryson's reading of A Short History of Nearly Everything was a little less clear than I'd like. Either that, or the sound quality on the device is a little muddy.

Either way, the device brings books into a simple, stand-alone device. It worked well on my jog, and I look forward to trying it again.

Another Weekend

This evening marks the end of another weekend, one that featured some good fiction and poetry, some work and a presentation, and more work and a good meeting, then a quiet evening.

Last night was our first frost, with the temperature at 27 degrees when I took the pooch out this morning. The tomato plants felt it, but nothing else much seemed affected, except for the bright yellow-leafed maple tree out front, the last one with a full head of foliage. When I went out to get the paper, there it was, giving up its leaves like a slot machine kicking out quarters, or a fountain sprinkling the lawn with its brilliant leaf cover. So I got the camera out and filmed a little action as the tree gave up its gold. I'll try to put it up here a bit later.

Friday the B's and I zipped on down to Vermillion to hear Brian Bedard read a new story, then to join him and the B's and poet Dave Evans and his wife Jan. Good stuff. A night at the motel, and the morning at the John R. Milton Conference listening to Phil Block, Dennis Sjolie, and John Dudley spin their analytical positions, while I gave my take on Indians in video and computer games. More good stuff. Lunch with conferees at the National Music Museum, then a ride back home again to Madison. A quick trip to see DSU get its back pockets handed to it on Trojan Field, then some work, and a quiet night with friends.

Sunday I stayed in and graded papers, then ran the Lake County Historical Society annual meeting where Kelli Wollman sang us some old tunes and we awarded our first Krueger Awards. We're riding the wave of our highest membership yet--215 people.

Sunday evening's been quiet with a little work.

You Say It's Your Birthday

It's the wife's big birthday today, so send birthday greetings her way if you see her or have her email (she'll also take well wishes here too, so feel free to comment). It will be her birthday all day.

Her mom called this morning to wish her well, and she told the story again of loading hogs the day before and being run over by a wild pig, falling on her belly, and lying in bed later wondering whether her little babe was still okay. Born with a bruise on her butt, the babe was otherwise fine, growing into a fine, still-young woman.

She shares a birthday with Pablo Picasso 1881, Minnie Pearl (Sarah Ophelia Colley) 1912, Bobby Knight 1940, Ann Tyler 1941, Helen Reddy 1942, Matthais Jabs (The Scorpions) 1955, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) 1962, Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies) 1970. And, in an event that has changed the lives of people throughout the world, today is the anniversary of the introduction of the microwave oven, for home use, by The Tappan Company in 1955.

Now you know.

An Attack on Vine Country

The encroaching vines got a big dose of setback today as I did some species cleansing in the lilac bushes, digging, chopping, and pulling trees, shrubs, and especially vines out of what is supposed to be a section for lilacs. The foliage now seems thinner, but next spring I hope to see a thicker crop of lilac bushes.
I moved a few trees, too, and tidied up the yard. Four days of rain had put the grass in overdrive, and I found these mushrooms back in the trees. The wood reminded me of Frost's poem "The Woodpile,"
with the lines, "I thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself."
The old wood, some of it from an old apple tree in the yard, was giving off the enchanting, musky odor of apple wine, damp and delicious. After a beautiful day, some of it outside, my thoughts often turning to the moment, five years ago, when my wife and I first held hands, I was pleased to turn to the house, its back light lit, the day fading, a good day of work done.

A Conjunction of English Majors

Well, what DO you call a group of English majors? A collaboration? A paragraph? An edition? A collection? We do have a capital group of English majors. They came to our house last night and I think had a very good time, met some professors and other students they hadn't had a chance to talk to yet, and devoured some good eats. Maybe it was the free food that got them here, but they enjoyed each other's company, you could tell. There was evidence, plenty of examples, a fully developed essay full of examples--easy talk, loud talk, game-play, and plenty of laughter. These aren't the greatest pictures, and we missed a few people, but we hope the word spreads that this group deserves an exclamation point.

Our Own Mr. Bundy

He might be married, with children, but our Mr. Bundy, DSU's Director of Student Development, didn't talk about being a good spouse or parent today in his convocation speech at DSU. Rather, he discussed how technology and attitude can make a significant difference in a person's life. He developed his presentation with references to his own experiences in this regard, primarily about how the obstacle of his sightlessness has been addressed by technology and how he has made use of it. He also told a story about a defining moment in his life came about, as he realized he had to choose between taking charge of his life or letting things be done for him. He chose to stand and wipe his tears away, venturing out into the unknown as he took on the challenge of making his life what he wanted it to be. Laced with humor and pathos, the address brought the audience to its feet. The speech is available here. Thanks, Keith.

Coming Up!

Tomorrow we're hosting a little get-together for English majors and faculty, and I hope things keep the right balance between raucous and genteel, rowdy and urbane. Somewhere in the middle is best for me. Look for pictures here tomorrow or soon after.

I've also got some other things going on. DSU, lead by our own Dan Weinstein, is hosting the GPACW Conference on November 8 and 9, where I'll be presenting at with my international fellow-traveler TQ, who will arrive from the frozen north. We'll be talking about how we use Web 2.0 technology to help students with bibliographies and gathering information. Come and join us!

I'll be doing a solo thing on October 27 down at USD for the John R. Milton Conference "East Meets (the American) West," where I'll talk about the research I'm doing on electronic games and Native Americans.

Also, I just sent off a proposal for the symposium on "Death, Murder, and Mayhem: Healing and Violence on the Great Plains" in Lincoln, Nebraska, in April. I hope they let me come down there.

Finally, I've gotten some funding from DSU's own Center for Excellence for work on my Native American and games research. Cool.

An Attraction to the Old and Broken

Some people like new things, the flashy and shiny and fresh-out-of-the-box, things that work like they're supposed to, with warranties in case they don't and repair shops and experts that stand by the ready if the gadget doesn't gadge or the do-dad doesn't do. But I'm one of those whose attention is drawn to the car back in the tree row, the one with its tires flat and its hood missing, with torn seats and rusted floorboards. My ownership of cars includes a list of these sad-sacks, a 1959 Chevy with a bad fuel pump, a 1957 Chevy pickup piled with trash when I found it, a 1980 BMW that sat on the back lot of the Big Lot in Fargo until my son and I came along to fund its revival. Motorcycles too, like the Honda SL 100 that appeared to me at a garage sale; all it needed was the engine unstuck and worked over, same for the Yamaha Jazz that the kids enjoyed, and the Honda XL 350 I salvaged from the ravages of flood waters. Then there was the trio of Honda 350's I bought at a garage sale for 25 bucks, one of which actually ran some time later. I've had my fling at restoring dead vehicles to life.

So it's no surprise that down at the local flea market, a 1957 Mobylette keeps attracting my attention. It's not the zippy sort of scooter you see so often these days, requiring, as you see in the photo, a readiness to actually pedal the machine to life. The French have a different take on things, and it could look good, as you can see here. But I do hear it calling my name; after all, it's a long ways from home and could use a friend.

A Spot on the Radio

Yours truly recently had a moment on the state public radio station's program Food for Thought, discussing with Julia Monczunski Ivan Doig's book The Whistling Season, a book I led discussion of here in Madison. I was part of a program that included poet Andy Thorstensen and SD Humanities Council chair Fee Jacobson. Hear the program by following this link.

The Work, the Work, the Working Life

Springsteen chronicles the working life, but it's something a little less metropolitan and even less industrial that I have in mind, as I describe the work I did today, getting rid of the last remnants of the old willow tree and making some long-delayed progress on the "beverage room" in the new house. Compare, if you will, the previous photo of the fallen willow, with the one here, where little remains, the area marked by the lack of grass alone. In my second photo, a happy clown marks the spot where a tiny lilac bush had already volunteered to replace the fading willow.

Meanwhile, it appeared that some volunteer lilac bushes were appearing in the rose gardens, so those volunteers have been recruited for service along the perimeter between us and the house to the west. As I write, those volunteers are being supplied with ample water supplies, along with the nourishment I supplied.

Secondly, the second and third photos show the room that's been under construction since almost the first day we arrived, and now the nail holes are full and the whole has been primed for a new paint, texture, or whatever remains for it. On Wednesday, English majors from DSU will arrive and have a chance to look things over, so they'll see some work done, not knowing what things looked like when we arrived. They'll look better yet, as texture and paint awaits.

A Leaf in Suspension

Walking out to the mailbox this morning, I spotted this leaf caught in the act of falling. I'm sure the wind will soon finish the job, but for now the leaf appears to be arrested in its fall. It reminded me of the e.e. cummings poem about a leaf falling.

Someone Knew, and Said So

Here is an audio recording of some prescient students making their predictions for their teacher's marathon attempt. Courtesy of DW.

Recovering, Moving Forward

The wife and I went for a short recovery run on Monday and met our two Chinese guests of DSU out at Lake Herman, Fan Tang, at left, and Bei Zhao on the right. I was feeling pretty stiff, but I managed to make it the 2.5 miles around the loop. By today I'm feeling much better.

Last night we had the biggest group yet in our new house, folks who were there for a Pampered Chef party. People left happy, I think (though I removed myself for most of the evening in my office upstairs), and full, with the expectation of their fine new cooking utensils on their way.

It Could Have Been Worse

After finishing the Twin Cities Marathon, I called my mother in law, who was worried that I might keel over and croak on the marathon course, and told her she could postpone my funeral, but the second half of the race was so tough for me that a quiet ceremony in a cool parlor might have been a good idea. It was hot out there, and humid, but like most people who entered, I managed to get to the finish line (with a little hustle in the home stretch to beat some big guy who seemed to have been air-lifted in just to taunt me in my last 100 meters).

As I mentioned before, I was hoping for a Boston Marathon qualifying time (3:35), which might have been possible in good weather, and I was on pace for it with a 1:45 first half (about 8-minute miles), but then things started to unravel as the heat seemed to press in. The second half , which included a lot of walking, was 20 minutes slower for a finish of 3:55:48 (chip time). Anyway, it was a little disappointing, even though it was clear days before that a good race was not in the cards. I've only run one marathon slower, and that was one with my old running partner Mark F., who was running the Omaha Marathon with little training, and I stuck with him, also running a little thin on training.

Still, it went okay, and I got to see Laura Carrow, a graduate from DSU with an English degree and a good runner who in her senior year here was a speed demon. Having her spot me in the line for the porta-potties before the race helped make up for the half-hour wait. My daughter April, her guy Chester, and the wife showed up at points throughout the course to urge me on, and we had some fun with that, and the weekend included going to a movie with my son Casey.

Plus, the marathon didn't fare as badly as the one in Chicago yesterday, where it was 87 degrees and they called off the race about three and a half hours in after people were "falling all over the city" according to the Chicago Sun-Times article.

So what now? I'm thinking about another marathon this fall, maybe the one in November in Overland Park.

It's TCM Day

Today's the day. We'll soon take off for the Metrodome, where the Twin Cities Marathon begins on a day that is a fall treasure if you're not planning to run 26.2 miles. It's supposed to be 80 degrees today and is already 74 at 6:30 in the morning. The race starts at 8:00, and by 11:35 I hope to be done.

Inside the Willow Tree

You might be surprised at what you'd find inside an old willow tree that finally gives up, one day in the wind, when the only branches it has left collapse into the rose bushes, like an old man who lays down one last time to take a whiff of the roses before he dies. It was a good smell, I noticed, as I cut away the branches, lopped the trunk into sections I could handle with the wheel barrow. There was mint in the garden, a smell of fresh soil like a new grave. I draped the willow branches over the pickup truck until it looked like a haystack had fallen into the bed. I looked at the trunk still standing and it too looked weary enough to fall, so I leaned into it hard until it moaned, and I leaned again, and one more time I leaned and it let out a kind of whoosh as it fell and the rotten center scattered, the pieces full of holes the bugs had made. Soft inside like a soggy tree-bed, it wasn't a tree at all, it seemed, but a standing sponge with bark on it, its center gone and filled with what seemed to be the richest soil on earth. I thought of Queequeg reaching into the head of the whale for its ambergris as I lifted handfuls out and tossed them to the roses. My back sore and enough of the tree gone so I could quit, I returned to take these pictures as the setting sun lit the lilacs, now on their last legs of the year.

Willow Falls

We've been wondering what to call our big new house, and we've been using the name August House, since we moved in here in August and we kind of like the sound of it, but today the wind came up and made me wonder whether a new name was in order--Willow Falls.

The big willow tree in the back yard, an old timer more than a yard across, went down today, probably when the big wind came up over noon hour and switched directions. But it could have been any time, and it was due. The wife wasn't expecting anything like this when she arrived home this afternoon, and she called me to tell me the news. When I got home it was just as you see it here, keeled over and fallen into the rose bushes. That's how things lie in the back yard. I'll probably cut most of it out of there tomorrow.

The poor old thing didn't have much going for it any more. The wood the fall exposed was soft as sponges, and only about six inches of the trunk appears to have been alive. When I haul things out of there tomorrow, much of it just as well be hauled off with a scoop shovel it's so soft. But still heavy. I'm glad it didn't fall the other way.

I write this now at the end of the Ken Burns series on The War, on PBS. We watched much of it, though other things lie pressing for attention. The last episode saw the end come for the Germans and the Japanese armies both. Like the wind in our our tree, the impact of war had eaten away the strength of the two opposing armies, and there was nothing much left standing, so when the armies came pressing in, at some point the whole thing came down and brought an end to conflict.

Aiming Again for the Indian in the Console

I'm committed again to posting to my research blog, now linked from these pages, where I pursue a long-term project on examining Native American imagery in computer and video games.

If you have any tips on the presence of such items in games that you play, especially new ones, please drop me a line!

A Car in the Garage, a Pumpkin on the Step

It's been another busy few days, with a birthday celebration, a ride in a parade, visits from far-off friends, and some good work in the garage. Wednesday saw a good meeting with fellow English faculty members about revising our program. Thursday we kept busy and were rewarded that afternoon with good baguettes and bread at the farmer's market. Friday saw the Scholarship Car Show come and go on the day that my students and I discussed the play Medea and then finalized papers and turned them in. Friday night we tried out the new Stadium Sports Grill downtown and met here for some camaraderie and cake to mark CB's big birthday (flames and all) until we all grew weary and called it a night, including TQ and LB, who were our third guests to use the cool bedroom with the bay windows.

TQ rose early the next morning to let little Walter do his business, which left me later to assume he had NOT been out, so I left him some privacy as usual and made coffee, but when I returned he was no where to be seen. I looked high and (mostly) low, but no little W appeared. On a windy morning like that, the knucklehead's pitiful sensibilities are rendered entirely inoperable, so, the wife and I hopped in separate vehicles and went on the chase, leaving our guests to wonder what had become of us. The little guy was sighted trotting down a sidewalk several blocks away. He surrendered himself without incident.

We returned to find LB decked out in her fine livery, prepared for a parade walk/drill with carts, librarians showing they knew how to make use of a red carpet, the theme of the homecoming parade that LB and I (and TQ later too, it turned out) were a part of. I joined my fellow faculty officers and the VP, and we kept one eye on the sky, one on the crowd, and our hands turning (wrist-wrist-elbow-elbow) as we made our way down the parade route, greeting faces known and unknown and smiling to kids who were looking rather for candy. One treat was seeing the Howard band, featuring a young lady on snare drums doing some nearly wild shit.

Once finished with the parade, a few of us made our way to our Mexican restaurant and then back to the house, where our guests had conked out for a nap. The wife and I relaxed a while and then realized we'd missed the football game (which we WON, by the way, leaving the Trojans 3-1 on the season), visiting with our awakened guests until late in the afternoon. They left with some nice apples picked from the trees, which I hope they enjoy.

We drove around a bit then and got some pumpkins for the step, two bucks a pop for some nice pumpkins. Saturday night I spent mostly out in the garage, dismantling some old bookshelves and arranging things so I could get a car in there. Once I pulled the car in I figured I'd accomplished something. In the meantime, one of the wife's buddies stopped by with her three kids and they looked the place over.

Sunday has been fairly quiet, with a trip to Howard, a short visit over coffee, a stop on the way back for some more pumpkins and gourds, and a dinner at the sports grill again, with a pause at the flea market for some shopping. Doesn't it start to sound like a busy day? It wasn't. We relaxed some, enjoyed some apple crisp and a little TV, and found some time to work in the evening. Tomorrow it's Monday and a new week.

Six more days to the marathon, in its own way a kind of parade in itself.

My How the Days Go By

Whew! Funny how a week goes by like a little bug zipping past as you zing down the road on a motorcycle. So it went. It kind of got packed with goings-on, with work on the house, apple-picking, entertaining guests, and of course, a bit of The War, which I couldn't resist. Last Tuesday I led a good discussion of Ivan Doig's The Whistling Season down at the Madison Public Library, and on Thursday I read a few poems to accompany JB's skilled reading of a story about a painter/farmer, both of us attempting to warm up the crowd for Brian Bedard's reading of two stories, a new one and one from his collection Grieving on the Run, published by Snake Nation Press. He had everyone laughing and enjoying his stories before the night was through. Friday evening the wife and I hustled to make the house nice for guests, then went to friends to help select good coffees for an upcoming coffee kiosk in Madison. That was a treat. Then my daughter, her charming fellow, and my youngest son showed up and got their first look at the big new place. We had a good Saturday, hanging out, trying out the pellet gun, picking up apple crud, picking good apples, and getting the big bookshelves into the second floor office. We took the kids out for a meal at our dandy new El Vaquero Mexican restaurant. Saturday night we hosted family members and roasted marshmallows, grilled burgers and brats, and played croquet. Sunday I got my last long run (2 hours, 36 minutes) in for the marathon, and we had a good brunch before they had to dive into the Contour for their long drive back to the cities. It was a dandy weekend, but something got to us Sunday and the wife and I were both under the weather yesterday. Today, so far, is better.

Bicycle Attacks Boy

So, I'm getting into my pickup, I've forgotten my power supply in the lab and hustled up to the school to find the lab locked and the whereabouts of that key gadget in doubt, and I begin to pull away from the curb when a cry goes out "Help! Haaaaalp!" but I don't see where it's coming from until I look over and this kid, a little blond boy about eight is yelling "HAAAALP!" at the top of his lungs like he's about to be eaten by crocodiles and I think maybe he's got a broken leg or something because he's lying there on his back on the sidewalk with a bike between his legs, so I stop the pickup and leap out, leaving my pickup in the street and asking him, "You okay?" while two other boys cruise up nonchalantly on their bikes paying him little heed, and the dying kid says nothing, thinking maybe I'm going to nab him maybe and/or his bike and fling both of them into the bed of the truck and zoom off while mother and dad begin to wonder, but I look him over thinking maybe his pant leg is stuck in the chain, but it's not his pants, it's his freakin' shoelace wrapped around the pedal, so I say, "Take off your shoe," which is easy enough since it's untied, and he says, "I didn't want to tie my shoe," and he slips it off and I whip it round and round unwinding the shoelace and hand him his shoe again and say, "Tuck your shoelaces into your shoe if you don't want to tie them." That's what I do. He's putting his shoe back on when I drive away.

Now More News--Free!

Since The New York Times came on to the web scene years ago, I've been a fan. Me, a guy who's been to the big apple only once for eight hours. Nonetheless, I loved the site. It was great writing, easily accessible, and timely. I was disappointed when they put some of their material behind a wall about two years ago and required payment for some of their premium writers. They apparently made some money at it, but they figure they'll make even more by offering all their content for free. Cool! No more scrambling to the library to find those articles I want!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

At the start of every marathon there's a surge when people finally have a chance to put into motion what they have spent months preparing for. It's those experienced ones who know that the adrenaline that comes when they fire the starting gun can be a killer. Take off like a shot and zip through the first four miles, and you're facing a last six miles that will make you weep. I hope our start on the house isn't a similar situation. We're off to a fast start, but I think we'll enjoy it all the more having some of these things done. What we’ve done so far.

Since moving into our house we’ve been busy not only with entertaining and providing tours for curious friends, we’ve been making improvements.

· Removed the cabinets, wallpaper, crown molding, and ceiling tiles from the parlor. That room is a little rough right now. We’re working on redoing the ceiling so there’s no need to cover it. Carpet will have to be pieced in. Right now this all doesn’t really count as an “improvement,” but it's a step in the right direction.
· Removed the wallpaper from the dining room and repainted it, covering up the flowered wallpaper.
· Trimmed the bushes along the east side of the house and removed saplings (and some small trees) growing among them.
· Painted the north wall in the dining room where the wallpaper is covering some paneling that was put in when the fireplace was installed.
· Cleaned up and removed some of the dead wood in among the lilac bushes to the north.
· Replaced the toilet seats!
· Repaired and replaced the kitchen sink drain pipes.

We’ll continue to try to make progress. The mother-in-law has been a wizard in painting and stripping wallpaper, sometimes when we have been at work.

We’ll continue to try to make progress. The mother-in-law has been a wizard in painting and stripping wallpaper, sometimes when we have been at work. It’s good to have people helping.

We have also enjoyed the fruits of the former owners, especially those in the yard:

· Tomatoes
· Apples
· Roses
· Zinnias
· Hydrangeas

Come spring we’ll have lilacs, peonies, and other blossoms.

I’ve been looking over wood stoves that might go in the house and make a bigger contribution to the heat than the fireplace would. So far so good. We weathered some wicked rains when we first moved in, but nothing was damaged, and the rain stayed outside where it belonged (mostly).

Morning's Minion

Expecting to find the news of the day in the newspaper box, courtesy of the Argus Leader, I found instead this view of the sky above our address, the sunlight frosting the wisps of clouds that would soon disappear with the sunrise. I'll call for the paper, but I'm duly reminded that what I find in those pages isn't anything compared to the turning of the earth, the daily miracle in the dawn.

Payback, Concrete Style

The sister-in-law and her husband were our best helpers when we moved, and what comes around goes around (at least I try to make it that way), so I tooled over to their place in the country on my motorcycle and helped lay and stamp the concrete patio they were putting on. It's a beauty, much unlike the crew that put it up. We were an ugly sight, but after a shower things are better, and they've got a dandy place to roast marshmallows.

Overdue Update, With Photos

The past few days have been busy ones, what with moving two houses full of stuff into one, getting TQ shipped off to Aberdeen, getting the Liberty house ready for renters, getting the Catherine house ready for buyers (oh, please!), and getting the Big House ready for us and our guests.

However, we took time Saturday for a few hours out at Prairie Village, where the big crowds enjoyed perfect weekend weather after a wet early morning.

The pictures show the father-in-law reminiscing in front of the Winfred jail, where he spent a few hours after a Halloween prank as a teenager, him again teaching me a thing or two about Model T's (check out the cool carpentry setup on this rig!). They had the rails running, with a steam engine, a diesel unit, and a shuttle car working. Also, crafts galore were offered. Mother-in law found a chair she liked. The last shows the wife whose day at school couldn't be complete without yanking some wallpaper off the new house.

Now, tomorrow is a new day, with me leading the faculty meetings, hoping to remember the names of MOST people.

And Yet Another Move

The wife and I made our own big move the last few days, with help of friends and family and a sturdy horse-trailer. More about that soon. Right now, we're tidying up the old house for a second open house this afternoon. Wish us luck!

Mama Makes Her Move

The last two days were spent in Ft. Pierre, where my mom is making her own move, out of a house she's been in for more than a decade. She's been going through stacks of old papers, sorting the coupons from the keepsakes, the crap from the quaint. Mom's heading down to Georgia where Sister1 lives, for part of the winter to assess and make plans about her next home.
The wife and my youngest brother and his other were there, along will nephew Dillon, all ready to help out. We got most everything into storage, out in the trash, or off to charity. The women did good work in the kitchen and bathroom, getting things put away and clean, not just tidy, the definitions of which made for some discussion.
A good dinner at La Minestra and treats at The Zesto helped put the days in perspective. Dillon pointed out at The Zesto that while I was eating mud (a mocha mud pie malt), he was eating dirt (a dirt pile?). Both were mighty tasty.
Best wishes go out to Mom today as she sorts through the last of the paper pile and this stage of her life in Ft. Pierre.

Karmic Day

The program "My Name is Earl" has poor Earl Hickey trying to work off what he thinks of as a kind of cosmic debt by doing good deeds to undo bad ones from his past. Not a bad idea, but doing good deeds is its own reward, too, right?

So today I was feeling pretty philanthropic, spending much of the day working on a book for my Chinese friend Cuiping and her husband. It's a textbook for business students, and I'm pretty sure I'll never see a penny for the work, but it will be fun to see the book with my name on it. I hope I get a copy!

Then I got an email inviting me to come help work on a Habitat for Humanity house here in Madison, so I packed up my tool belt (so women might at least find me handy, if not handsome) and headed over. A good crew, headed by an experienced carpenter, finished putting up all walls so the house is now ready for sheathing and soon rafters and a roof. Pictures from Saturday's work are here. Work continues on Wednesday evenings, 5:30 to dark, Saturday all day.

So, I'm feeling those cosmic forces for good--sometimes you make your own luck. Sometimes bad luck finds you. It didn't find my daughter or my son, both living in the Twin Cities.

Clydesdales Rule

Many road races these days have categories for heavier people (you can read "fatsos" there if you must), with "Athenas" for women over 175 pounds, and Clydesdale (why not Zeus?) for men over 200. As much I hate to say it, I'm currently in the second category, but Saturday morning's run made me feel a little more like a thoroughbred again. My PR for a 10K run is about 37 minutes, 17 seconds, which was right at six minutes per mile. I weighed then about 30 pounds less. I remember the race that gave me the PR, a hilly 10K down in Beaver, Oklahoma, where I got into a battle for 2nd place with a guy through the entire race and we both came steaming down the hill to the finish line, gutting it out, and he beat me by a step, but I never ran a 10K faster. So I was grateful to him. That was maybe 15 years ago. About 10 years ago I ran The Strawberry Run in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the first 10K I had run in years, and I finished in over 45 minutes, which I considered a great fall, a sign of fading athleticism. But until Saturday I hadn't run a 10K under 45 minutes since before that Wisconsin "disaster."
So, Saturday I hauled my Clydesdale ass to the starting line of Madison's "Tour the City" 10K, joining 19 others, including the true thoroughbred Rod DeHaven, an Olympic marathoner and holder of some state and national records. I was hoping for something under 50 minutes, but I had the feeble hope that a 45 minute 10K was in the tank, since I've been running well. 50 minutes would mean about a 7:30 pace or so, and I had my lap counter watch to check my pace. But there were no mile markers! How fast was I going? I had no idea until I passed the finish line and saw a 44:11 was my time. Whoop! When I checked the pace, and saw the 7:06 per mile speed I was going, I gave my 50-year-old self a slap on the back and a double whoop. Visions of a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon (3:25 for this old codger) began to take shape. So if the foot holds up, and I manage to stay on the DELAP Diet (Don't Eat Like A Pig), maybe I can improve mightily on last year's 3:51. Things are looking good. With some luck and good training, I'll make it.

House for Sale

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for people to move from one house to another, the world's opinion encourages those people to divest themselves of the former house when aquiring the newer. So, we're putting up the Catherine house for sale. If you know of anyone looking for a house in Madison, SD, please send me a line and I'll hook them up with our realtor. It's a nice cozy little place where one can watch the world go by, our lucky little home.

Bloody Knees and a 99 Year-old Lady

Again, it seems like life keeps me busy, much to some peoples' dismay. No, it's not classes, but socializing and other events keep coming after the wife and me. Tuesday afternoon (as we fretted about whether we could--or should--buy our big house) some of the Lake County Historical Society board members and friends led about 50 local kids on an "Old Fashioned Game Day." We played some old games like jacks and marbles and jumprope and outdoor games including Red Light Green Light, Simon Says, and variations on these games and others. I was surprised to learn that a number of the kids knew how to play Pumpumpollaway (or however you spell it), a game that we loved to play on the school playground in Ft. Pierre, a game like tag that begins with a lone tagger in the middle of the playground as everyone is lined up on one side of the field. She faces them and cries out, "Pumpumpollaway, come away or I'll pull you away!" The kids race to safety on the other side unless they're tagged, which puts them on her side. Last one caught (in my experience it was usually my buddy Mark Huebner) is the next tagger.

We didn't have a good building for Annie-I-Over (or again, whatever you call it). Again, I loved the ritual calling-out of of phrases or sayings that went along with the game.

My buddy JS led the kids, most of them 8 or so years old, in various races across the grass--a three legged race, hopping on one foot, rolling across the grass (and trying to avoid the doggie land mines). The race on your knees led some to cry out after they'd scrambled across the finish line, "My knees are bleeding!" But most kids pushed on to the next race, the next game, the next race across the lawn with a potato on a spoon.

After the games, the board had its monthly meeting, and then it was off to house negotiations.

Wednesday I got in 33 laps in the pool early, then went to the funeral of my great-aunt Regina (Schnell) Rensch. The funeral, held not in Latin but English, contrary to her request, was held in Ramona, followed by her burial there and then lunch in the parish hall. Mother dear sang several songs for the service for the aunt she always thought of as a classy beauty, born in 1908.

Wednesday night we had some friends over for food and drinks, good company, and a great time. It was especially a treat to have the year-old daughter of J and CB here, embarking on her own life-long journey. This morning (too early) was "Early Burn" at the community center, followed by work on the house. Anxiety, pain, fatigue, they're just as much a reminder of the fact of being alive as the touching lyrics and melody of "How Great Thou Art" or the underwater image of a girl in the pool held aloft by her soul-like life preserver. Being there, and being aware--two kinds of luck.

Tomorrow I head for Minneapolis.

1314 NE 3rd St.--Our Coming Address

We've happily signed the papers on a new address, which comes with a big house, a big yard, and several piles of wood for the fireplace. Check out the map here, and one of the photos here taken during the winter. It's got a GREAT yard, almost nothing for neighbors, a big screened-in porch, and plenty of room for guests and gatherings. I might have to take another shot at learning to play the banjo just so I can make the best of that front porch!

A View from the Top

Among the many recent activities, the wife, a sister, a brother, and I climbed Harney Peak last week, and I got this great shot from the fire tower at the top, the highest point of land east of the Rocky Mountains. It was a long hike, about seven miles round trip, but it was worth it to get the walk in, to see the great vistas of western South Dakota, and to spend good time with good people.

Rosemary's Birthday

So, after a trip to see where my dad's buried, I thought it would be a good idea to go visit Mom where she's still alive and kicking! Today's her birthday, so we'll go out tonight (after a uneventful drive to Ft. Pierre) and have some good food and toast Mom's birthday. She's doing well and looking forward to another phase in life, maybe a big move coming soon.

Yesterday was a good day too, with the afternoon in Dell Rapids where we looked at lots of cool old cars and checked out the downtown and the old houses. We discovered that matinees at the old theater there are just two bucks and two nights a week you can get in for the same price. Cool.

A Trip to See Dad

It was a trip west into my dad's country, the high Bighorn Basin west of Buffalo, Wyoming. After a failed attempt to ride up a muddy, snowy road, after a trip up to Hyattville, where Dad grew up and where his ashes now rest, after successful ride and a long hike in and an overnight stay, brother Jess and I arrived at Lake Solitude, where Dad's dad took him, and where Grandpa Sidney's dad Tude took young Sid. So now I've been there, and I'll be back. I've got a picture of me at the lake; this one is of West Ten Sleep Lake, where we fished after giving up on the first climb. More about all that later. A good day, with calls from two kids, a tribute to the father-in-law, and some good work.

Most Systems are Go

Early summer is not warm up in Hyattville, Wyoming, where my dad's family comes from, but we're headed there anyway. We delayed the bike trip out that way until a snow storm had passed. I was ready to ride behind the plow, but brother thought it might be better done if my bike actually had treads on the rear tire, so, after a day of golf and swimming in Cascade Falls yesterday, we took the rear wheel off my Concours today and hauled it up to Rapid City, where the good boys at Powersports put a new tire on. A new filter and oil was in order, and after lunch at the Mongolian Grill, we headed home, worked the bike over, spent some time up on his little piece of heaven in the hills, and then began packing in earnest. The bikes are now ready to roll. Hyattville shows a low of 40 degrees tonight (colder certainly up on the mountain), but in the morning we're heading west, snowplow or no snowplow.

The wife reports fine times in Boston, including her succumbing to peer pressure and taking a boat into the harbor. What the heck is a duckboat doing in Boston?

On the Road in the Black Hills

Thanks to the wife for her excellent posting here about our New Ulm trip; we had a great time there and I'm glad to see the photo of her by the windows of The Bohemian, where we stayed. It's a great town and a great B&B. Oh for another taste of Bobbi's bacon!

After a stop in Ft. Pierre I'm out here in Whitewood at my sister's getting ready to be back on my bike. As noted, I ran the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon (they're calling it the MTM) yesterday and survived with about 102 minutes of running. With the recent rain, the trail was cris-crossed with running water, making even the excellent trail a muddy mess in spots. It was a real trail run! Only the old Mystic Mountain Run was more rugged.

Now I'm going to work my way south to Hot Springs, where my brother and I will pack up tomorrow and head for Wyoming on our bikes, then hike into the Cloud Peak Wilderness area. Feats don't fail me now!