Today the apple trees are dropping their petals and the lilacs are coming in to their full bloom, filling our back yard with their fragrance. We have such an abundance that we've delivered a bouquet of lilacs to two homes--Kristina Adams and Jack Walters and his wife Sirje Kiin. We could do more, but today it rains, helping to give a good start to the vegetables we planted and the flowers and bushes we moved yesterday in anticipation of a good soaking from the sky.
Last night we watched an episode of Hoarders, where a couple in Washington state had filled their back yard and their home with so much trash it rose to the ceiling and all the floors were covered so that they were walking and sleeping on trash.
It's not a program I plan to return to--the vivid images of that trash, and the reluctance to part with it by the man and woman will be hard to forget, and there's no reason to remember it, only keep in mind for myself that the accumulation of bicycles or books or records or pens does nothing but tie you to objects. And the objects give little, if not nothing, in return.
Let us be like the lilacs, offering our gifts freely and preparing for the fade.
Friday, May 22, 2020
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Last Day
May 21, 2020, today, is the last day of my contract with DSU, where I have been working since 1996. My teaching career goes back to 1984, when that spring I finished my M.A. in English at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and took a one-year temporary job at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana.
I discovered when I was there that my grandfather, Sidney Clifford Nelson, had gone there when it was still Billings Polytechnic Institute, but I couldn't find evidence beyond a single mention in a yearbook.
From there I took a job at St. Mary of the Plains College in Dodge City, Kansas, a Catholic school with liberal leanings operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Wichita. Many of the faculty there were women, sisters with the PhD's and masters degrees who, given the choice between marriage and motherhood and an independent, educated religious life, chose education and good works and chastity.
That school ran afoul of the law, wracking up unpaid student loans in a mistaken alliance with a truck-driving school that scammed its students.
When it closed in 1992, I took a year to try and finish my PhD at the University of Kansas, but I was undisciplined and depressed and when I was offered a job at Sisseton Wahpeton Community College in South Dakota, I took it.
There the tiny faculty team struggled to bring our courses to a poverty-stricken Native population and others in that far north region, and the politics finally consumed it, and in 1996, our college president, a wildly unpredictable and petty man from a tribe in Minnesota, called me a racist and let me and other white people go.
That brought me to DSU, a phone call I remember taking, standing in my kitchen at the phone and moving to the porch where it was more quiet and I could hear a lifeline being thrown to me that would carry me the next 25 years.
I discovered when I was there that my grandfather, Sidney Clifford Nelson, had gone there when it was still Billings Polytechnic Institute, but I couldn't find evidence beyond a single mention in a yearbook.
From there I took a job at St. Mary of the Plains College in Dodge City, Kansas, a Catholic school with liberal leanings operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Wichita. Many of the faculty there were women, sisters with the PhD's and masters degrees who, given the choice between marriage and motherhood and an independent, educated religious life, chose education and good works and chastity.
That school ran afoul of the law, wracking up unpaid student loans in a mistaken alliance with a truck-driving school that scammed its students.
When it closed in 1992, I took a year to try and finish my PhD at the University of Kansas, but I was undisciplined and depressed and when I was offered a job at Sisseton Wahpeton Community College in South Dakota, I took it.
There the tiny faculty team struggled to bring our courses to a poverty-stricken Native population and others in that far north region, and the politics finally consumed it, and in 1996, our college president, a wildly unpredictable and petty man from a tribe in Minnesota, called me a racist and let me and other white people go.
That brought me to DSU, a phone call I remember taking, standing in my kitchen at the phone and moving to the porch where it was more quiet and I could hear a lifeline being thrown to me that would carry me the next 25 years.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Tentatively, Beginning Again
I'm retired. I hope that means I will turn more to writing as an outlet, that I'll finally tell a story about growing up in the way that I did, not that it's all that dramatic or angst-ridden, but that it was unusual, that it was western. Not what many people face today or even remember. Even then, in the 60s, it was a little strange. Even in Fort Pierre, our experiences were different: while my classmates might be playing baseball and riding bikes around town or working at a drive-in ice cream shop, my brothers and I disappeared on to ranches to be ranch hands. To be cowboys.
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
Beautiful Tuesday Morning
It's a beautiful spring morning in South Dakota, but over our heads hangs the threat of a winter storm that could dump more than a foot of snow on our area in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, the water table beneath our house has risen so high that it's no longer fully beneath our house, but leaking in.
While the sump pump purges much of the water, there's a lingering pool that needs its own special attention.
And there's the pile of wood that still needs to be split and stacked. And someone needs to fire up the lawn mowers to make sure that once the expected snow or rain arrives, we've got a way to mow the grass.
At the same time, our new travel van, our little RV, what they call a class B, is waiting in the driveway for us to escape. We need less water, less work, and less bad news. I'm ready to hit the road.
Meanwhile, every day there comes a new sign that the head of our government is an addled, angry head whose strategy is to do more than enough to keep his name at the top of the news feed, sometimes by figuratively lopping off the heads of the people around him.
While the sump pump purges much of the water, there's a lingering pool that needs its own special attention.
And there's the pile of wood that still needs to be split and stacked. And someone needs to fire up the lawn mowers to make sure that once the expected snow or rain arrives, we've got a way to mow the grass.
At the same time, our new travel van, our little RV, what they call a class B, is waiting in the driveway for us to escape. We need less water, less work, and less bad news. I'm ready to hit the road.
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| Our new travel van awaits us. |
Sunday, February 03, 2019
Denied
Strange how events fall into place sometimes in a string of misfortunes, leaving us wondering why what we wanted is being denied to us. Denial makes us feel smaller, less important, more trapped by circumstance and fate, and less able to move and enact the things we want for ourselves.
It was a string of things, nothing very important, that piled on this weekend to make a person feel small. We had plans--dinner and a concert, Fleetwood Mac, for crying out loud. I watched a documentary on the group as I spent some time on the treadmill, and got a little work done before heading off to Sioux Falls to enjoy dinner before the concert. We had reservations, which we knew was important because we'd been to the packed Crooked Pint once before another concert, and there was no way we'd get in early enough to eat and get to the concert.
But the reservation was a bust. We got there before our reservation time, but they told us they'd given our table away. "We just got busy," she said. Yup, just like before every other big concert. So we stood for half an hour or more waiting for a table. Their offer? A free appetizer. Poutine is good, but not that good.
Fine, plenty of time. So then we head over to the Sanford Arena and got in with 20 minutes to spare. Except we had to stand in line for 45 minutes, and by the time we got to security the concert had already been going on for 20 minutes. We could hear it, muffled through the walls and the floor, "Rhiannon," for one. Finally, through security and on to the scans, where our tickets from StubHub would finally get us in, even though, by that time, we were getting a little annoyed.
But the scanner bleeped a big red X, and the worker told us to go to the ticket office. Another denial!
At the box office, the woman there told me the same ticket had been scanned two hours before. So there was that, a ripoff ticket from StubHub. The woman offered me a ticket--there were tickets available--but the prospect of dropping another hundred bucks per ticket when the hundreds I'd already spent had just gone up in smoke, that didn't appeal to me.
So we paused, had a seat, listened to another muffled song from that great band, and decided to mitigate our disappointment by having a beer. It seemed only fitting that as we pulled up at Castaway's, across the street, the last few letters were dim, so we walked in under the Castaw and tried to spin ourselves back up from our denials.
Today I reminded myself, as I cheered for the Rams to prevail over the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII (53 for you non-Romans), that disappointment is often self-inflicted. It didn't really matter who won the game. It didn't kill us to stand and chat while the folks at Crooked Pint tried to find us a table. We've got the Fleetwood Mac albums at home.
And StubHub is refunding what we spent on the tickets, with a discount on our next purchase.
We had a fun drive down to Sioux Falls chatting with our friend, a nice meal, a chance to see some great music, and a safe drive home again.
And that Super Bowl? We got to watch, cheer, chat, eat, and share the night with some good people. Life is good.
It was a string of things, nothing very important, that piled on this weekend to make a person feel small. We had plans--dinner and a concert, Fleetwood Mac, for crying out loud. I watched a documentary on the group as I spent some time on the treadmill, and got a little work done before heading off to Sioux Falls to enjoy dinner before the concert. We had reservations, which we knew was important because we'd been to the packed Crooked Pint once before another concert, and there was no way we'd get in early enough to eat and get to the concert.
But the reservation was a bust. We got there before our reservation time, but they told us they'd given our table away. "We just got busy," she said. Yup, just like before every other big concert. So we stood for half an hour or more waiting for a table. Their offer? A free appetizer. Poutine is good, but not that good.
Fine, plenty of time. So then we head over to the Sanford Arena and got in with 20 minutes to spare. Except we had to stand in line for 45 minutes, and by the time we got to security the concert had already been going on for 20 minutes. We could hear it, muffled through the walls and the floor, "Rhiannon," for one. Finally, through security and on to the scans, where our tickets from StubHub would finally get us in, even though, by that time, we were getting a little annoyed.
But the scanner bleeped a big red X, and the worker told us to go to the ticket office. Another denial!
At the box office, the woman there told me the same ticket had been scanned two hours before. So there was that, a ripoff ticket from StubHub. The woman offered me a ticket--there were tickets available--but the prospect of dropping another hundred bucks per ticket when the hundreds I'd already spent had just gone up in smoke, that didn't appeal to me.
So we paused, had a seat, listened to another muffled song from that great band, and decided to mitigate our disappointment by having a beer. It seemed only fitting that as we pulled up at Castaway's, across the street, the last few letters were dim, so we walked in under the Castaw and tried to spin ourselves back up from our denials.
Today I reminded myself, as I cheered for the Rams to prevail over the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII (53 for you non-Romans), that disappointment is often self-inflicted. It didn't really matter who won the game. It didn't kill us to stand and chat while the folks at Crooked Pint tried to find us a table. We've got the Fleetwood Mac albums at home.
And StubHub is refunding what we spent on the tickets, with a discount on our next purchase.
We had a fun drive down to Sioux Falls chatting with our friend, a nice meal, a chance to see some great music, and a safe drive home again.
And that Super Bowl? We got to watch, cheer, chat, eat, and share the night with some good people. Life is good.
Thursday, June 07, 2018
Fortune Tells
Wednesday, June 06, 2018
Some Kind of Journey
We have cleaned it up and repaired some of the things that weren't quite right, and the wife is working hard to make sure we are comfy in it. She has discovered many sources online that tell about improvements made to such vans--Roadtrek vans made in Canada. Ours is a 1999 Dodge 3500 Ram (one ton) van with a 318 motor. It's got a lot of miles on it, but Roger's Service here in Madison gives it a thumbs up for traveling. It seems ready to go.
Among the things we've done to improve it:
- installed a new cd/radio with bluetooth so we can plug in a phone to listen to all kinds of stuff.
- removed the old monitor hanging over the back bed
- installed new carpeting up front
- installed new vinyl in the back end
- washed and repaired all the curtains so they function properly
- mounted new tires in the front
- mounted the rear-view mirror (found in a drawer)
- cleaned all the seats and fabric and surfaces inside
- changed the oil and air and oil filters
As we go, we'll see what it's like to live the RV life, with the option of heading into the boondocks and setting up camp with our own power and water supplies. It might drive us crazy, but it might be a whole lot of fun.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Dolphins in the Mirror
I love this story about dolphins demonstrating self-cognition, the ability to recognize themselves as themselves in a mirror. Not many animals (besides humans) can do this, and watching them makes it clear that these young dolphins seem to enjoy seeing their own reflections in the mirror!
Monday, January 15, 2018
Riding the Rollercoaster
There's the story of the cave, Plato's version of reality in which we're chained to the cave wall, watching the shadows of chairs, or, in some cases, the digital recreation of football players vying to gain points over opposing football players. In the digital recreation of other people's lives, it's possible to view the digital recreation of the elevated heartbeat of a real human being.
Our hearts beat wildly for the players. We breathe deep and should loudly in response to those remote views. I like that our Vikings have won another game and get to play again next weekend, but we cheer for the men who wear the purple uniforms. We get to know them, put our hopes in them and wish for the best. But we know very little about them or what they stand for, what they represent. They carry the flag of Minnesota, but most are not Minnesotans. And I'm not a Minnesotan. Most of the Minnesotans I know don't care all that much whether their football team wins or loses.
Still, it was a momentary joy to see the improbable come-from-behind win from a team that has taught us to watch in disappointment. But not this weekend! Skol!
Our hearts beat wildly for the players. We breathe deep and should loudly in response to those remote views. I like that our Vikings have won another game and get to play again next weekend, but we cheer for the men who wear the purple uniforms. We get to know them, put our hopes in them and wish for the best. But we know very little about them or what they stand for, what they represent. They carry the flag of Minnesota, but most are not Minnesotans. And I'm not a Minnesotan. Most of the Minnesotans I know don't care all that much whether their football team wins or loses.
Still, it was a momentary joy to see the improbable come-from-behind win from a team that has taught us to watch in disappointment. But not this weekend! Skol!
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Whitman and Dickinson Again
Today I get to talk again with a group of young people about a remarkable thing, a revolution in language that began to take place with the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson in the second half of the 19th century.
Not many people get to do the same. This is my job today, or at least part of it. I spend fifty minutes with some young people and some poetry.
A world is changing around us, with technology and culture and the environment, but the poems that these two figures managed to put together in their lifetimes will remain. Whitman tells us that he sees us from his far vantage point. Dickinson seems to see herself, and us, in a bog.
In a time that seems to offer an option for every way of looking at the world, I appreciate the comfort of these two poets who recognized the changes in their own times and how an imagination can help us see a bigger picture.
Not many people get to do the same. This is my job today, or at least part of it. I spend fifty minutes with some young people and some poetry.
A world is changing around us, with technology and culture and the environment, but the poems that these two figures managed to put together in their lifetimes will remain. Whitman tells us that he sees us from his far vantage point. Dickinson seems to see herself, and us, in a bog.
In a time that seems to offer an option for every way of looking at the world, I appreciate the comfort of these two poets who recognized the changes in their own times and how an imagination can help us see a bigger picture.
Monday, May 08, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Five Days In
So, it's clear that the landscape is changing so fast and furious it's like a flood washing away much of what was built over the last eight years. Was it so bad? Is this a sign of better things to come? I don't think so. I think it's a sign of petulance and arrogance.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
From News and Guts
*credit for compilation: Karen Cornett-Dwye
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
From News and Guts
*credit for compilation: Karen Cornett-Dwye
Sunday, October 02, 2016
Election Election Election
I'm more worried about this election cycle than any other I've been through, because I've seen the devastation that can come from a president who doesn't have a firm grasp of consequences. And it's not just that there's still a small possibility that the US might elect a president that sends us off the rails.
It's the high level of rancor over the election campaign. How do we get past the divisive rhetoric that we're seeing today? I want my candidate to win, but I want them also then be able to govern, to rally the people of the US to do better, to be better people.
I think of it this way--the election on November 8 is the gateway to a new beginning. I'll take what happens, whatever it is, whatever my worries. But I want a functional government. My worry is that politicians will see opportunity in the vast divide to rally a portion of the populace to their side and demonize the rest, leaving us at odds with each other, prey to forces that loom.
Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Today's rancor seems to me to be a crisis similar to the one Lincoln faced, a country divided by an issue that still hasn't healed.
It isn't one issue that divides our country today; it's many. The multiple challenges our country faces--mounting and crippling debt, threats from abroad, political gridlock, and environmental devastation--together present a crisis that needs decisive action.
We must face this crisis with seriousness and purpose, forging a way forward with respect for differing opinions and positions. And we want a leader who will inspire us with the values that the founders of the country did.
It's the high level of rancor over the election campaign. How do we get past the divisive rhetoric that we're seeing today? I want my candidate to win, but I want them also then be able to govern, to rally the people of the US to do better, to be better people.
I think of it this way--the election on November 8 is the gateway to a new beginning. I'll take what happens, whatever it is, whatever my worries. But I want a functional government. My worry is that politicians will see opportunity in the vast divide to rally a portion of the populace to their side and demonize the rest, leaving us at odds with each other, prey to forces that loom.
Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Today's rancor seems to me to be a crisis similar to the one Lincoln faced, a country divided by an issue that still hasn't healed.
It isn't one issue that divides our country today; it's many. The multiple challenges our country faces--mounting and crippling debt, threats from abroad, political gridlock, and environmental devastation--together present a crisis that needs decisive action.
We must face this crisis with seriousness and purpose, forging a way forward with respect for differing opinions and positions. And we want a leader who will inspire us with the values that the founders of the country did.
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Home Improvement Version 28.212
The big old house we bought years ago keeps insisting that we do something about her sagging good looks, and this summer it's the kitchen that's getting all the attention. The poor old kitchen, with its 50's style metal cabinets, the plywood paneling "improvements" to the door and drawer fronts, and the poor lighting and electrical setup, has been crying out for years to be upgraded. But nothing has bugged me more than the wonky floor that dropped more than an inch just from one side of the back door to the other.
The floor culprits were several--stones and cement packed between the joists on one end that over time heaved up the floor, and on the other end plumbers and electricians who sawed away joists to nothing. Add to that the fact that the kitchen was at one time expanded out over what I think was a little porch that sloped away from the house.
Nice mix, huh? So now I'm at the stage where the floor is (mostly) flat and level, with the subfloor in place and electricians on the wait for me to put in new joists for the ceiling. Cool. It's been slow going, with lots of other stuff going on, but we're getting there.
Note that we'll also enjoy some warmer floors in the kitchen, so notorious for being cold in the winter!
Now on to the ceiling!
The floor culprits were several--stones and cement packed between the joists on one end that over time heaved up the floor, and on the other end plumbers and electricians who sawed away joists to nothing. Add to that the fact that the kitchen was at one time expanded out over what I think was a little porch that sloped away from the house.
Nice mix, huh? So now I'm at the stage where the floor is (mostly) flat and level, with the subfloor in place and electricians on the wait for me to put in new joists for the ceiling. Cool. It's been slow going, with lots of other stuff going on, but we're getting there.
Note that we'll also enjoy some warmer floors in the kitchen, so notorious for being cold in the winter!
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| Stones and crumbled cement are now removed from the inner wall and work continues on planing joists to even them out. |
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| Note the light colored areas where new joists are in place or old ones planed to level them out. And insulation! |
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| Solid floors, 3/4 inch tongue and groove wafer board, glued and solid. No squeaks! |
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Jack Walters and Toyland at the Madison Public Library Today
We've had a good spell of writers appearing from the woodwork in Madison. Eve Fisher, Eric Johnson, Jack Walters, and Ben Jones have all been acknowledged for their contributions to mystery and history in the past few weeks, and the attention continues tonight as Jack Walters discusses his book Toyland and how to get a novel from the inside to the outside. Starts at 7:00 pm.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Long Long Winter
The winter this year seems to drag along like an old blanket. It makes me think of the Robert Bly poems about the winter and cold, one of the few poets who approaches the effect of winter on the psyche.
Our winters in South Dakota require a changed mind about how a person lives his life, still retaining a connection to the patterns and seasons of nature and the cycle of death and rebirth. It's NOT always sunny in South Dakota. Sometimes, it's damn cold, and the wind blows, and we huddle against it. That takes some work, and planning. One day, you might be planning to get outside, take your skis, get in a little exercise, and enjoy the sunlight. After all, it's the weekend!
But that morning the wind is hurling last week's snow through the air, and an outing loses its savor.
We learn to roll with those disappointments. We recognize that we are small, we need warmth, and we sometimes need to bow to the seasons and protect the heat our bodies make.
Our winters in South Dakota require a changed mind about how a person lives his life, still retaining a connection to the patterns and seasons of nature and the cycle of death and rebirth. It's NOT always sunny in South Dakota. Sometimes, it's damn cold, and the wind blows, and we huddle against it. That takes some work, and planning. One day, you might be planning to get outside, take your skis, get in a little exercise, and enjoy the sunlight. After all, it's the weekend!
But that morning the wind is hurling last week's snow through the air, and an outing loses its savor.
We learn to roll with those disappointments. We recognize that we are small, we need warmth, and we sometimes need to bow to the seasons and protect the heat our bodies make.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Farewell Wave to David Bowie
In 1975, after graduation from high school and joining the Army, I ended the year being shipped off to Germany (West Germany in those days before the wall fell). Music was at the background of much that I did then, whether it was on the radio or played through some other form.
In Germany it was the thing to have a good stereo to play music on, and I quickly began to set up a stereo that reproduced good sound.
On that stereo in 1975 and 1976, there were three albums that got a lot of play. They were Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album, The Four Seasons album Who Loves You, and David Bowie's Station to Station.
One of my favorite songs on that album was "TVC15." What did it mean? I didn't know, but that song always got me jumping, feeling better, made me want to dance and move. See if it works for you!
In Germany it was the thing to have a good stereo to play music on, and I quickly began to set up a stereo that reproduced good sound.
On that stereo in 1975 and 1976, there were three albums that got a lot of play. They were Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album, The Four Seasons album Who Loves You, and David Bowie's Station to Station.
One of my favorite songs on that album was "TVC15." What did it mean? I didn't know, but that song always got me jumping, feeling better, made me want to dance and move. See if it works for you!
Thursday, October 15, 2015
One More Marathon
But I'll come around again, and maybe once again I'll toe the line as in this photo from the Star Tribune. Dillon Dwyer and I are visible just above the start banner to the left, him in a black shirt, to my right (your left) and me in a green shirt with a white hat. Both of us appear to be looking down. Anyway, that's us.
It was a beautiful day for a run there, and I enjoyed the heck out of the entire event. I ran smooth and easy enough, with little niggling things that didn't amount to much in the way of sore legs, tender feet, and all. Carrying some extra pounds was no help. But that's the way she goes, right?
We'll see about next year.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Change is in the Air
There's no time like the fall. Early fall, when the leaves still hang greenly from their treelimbs. When each day grows shorter so sunset comes nudging up against the end of the day like a puppy who loves you more each night. When morning too comes later and later, night expanding so darkness seems as though it might swallow the day. It is the end of things. It is the winding up of the season, the end of growth and the reminder that all things come to a close.
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