Nothing

It’s the middle of winter. Life is boring and we are not doing anything other than going to work and occasionally going to yoga.

We did have a recent spell of weather where humans could actually survive outside for more than a few minutes. It was almost 40 degrees for a couple of days. But alas we are back in the deep freeze again with zero and below temps.

I spend a lot of time on the computer… (you guessed that huh?)

I read many Blogs: financial, travel, computer, futuristic, etc. Many of these folks make money from their writing. It seems that when that occurs these folks that write have to do so every day, or their readers go away and then their money goes away as well.

So in order to write something every day they start to make up stuff. Sometime boring stuff! Sometimes everyday life kind of stuff! Sometimes they even let you deep into their minds and their deepest darkest secrets.

I don’t get paid for writing. I write when I have something interesting going on. Which I haven’t had for a while. I could tell you about everyday stuff, but that would be truly boring and a waste everyone's time.

I could open up my mind and let you in on the deepest darkest secrets in there, but then you would be truly scared of me and never read my blog again!

So I guess your just going to have to wait until I have something interesting going on for a good Blog entry.

A January Weekend

It’s winter in Minnesota! Not the wimpy winters that Minnesota has had the last few years, but real winters just like when I grew up. There are piles of snow everywhere. In some of the smaller communities with smaller snow removal budgets they are piling snow in the middle of the streets between lanes of traffic rather than haul the snow away.

Of course with all the snow on the ground comes the COLD deep freeze. The last few weeks have struggled to see an occasional high above zero, and nightly lows in the 20 to 30 below zeros.

A person forgets year to year how cold 20 below zero actually is. If you forgot or have never experienced it let me refresh your memory! It’s kind of hard to breath! You get an ice cream headache just running out to your car. You can throw a hot cup of coffee out the car window and it never hits the ground because it evaporates in mid air, and you certainly do not want to put your tongue on that tasty looking frosty metal pole!

After a few weeks of being holed up inside unable to go out you start to go a little crazy. Cabin fever sets in and going to the gym and yoga can only do so much. After a while you have to find a way to get out of the apartment and do something or you can lose it.

If you remember last year when it got cold we did a sanity outing to the Como Zoo green houses. On our last trip to the Minnesota Zoo I noticed that there was an IMAX theater on the property there, that showed a variety of movies. We have visited the IMAX at the Minnesota Science museum several times and it was always entertaining so maybe this would be a good winter diversion?

A quick check of the WEB site show that the new Movie “Avatar” was playing at the IMAX at the Minnesota Zoo. The bad news it was $15 a ticket to attend. Outrageous! but what’s your sanity worth? I purchased 2 tickets online for the 2:00PM showing on Saturday. That would give us time to go to yoga in the morning and have a quick lunch before dashing off the the Zoo in Apple valley. ( the site of my bogus parking ticket)

Arriving at the IMAX theater with previously purchased tickets in hand the line was still very long to enter the movie. What have I gotten us into? I don’t stand in line for anything! This had better be good! I hadn’t noticed when I bought the tickets but this was going to be a 3D version of the movie and we were going to have to wear glasses to watch it. THIS HAD BETTER BE GOOD!

After standing in line for 1/2 hour we finally filed in to the theater. The theater it is not exactly like the IMAX at the Science Museum but it seems like a good theater. The screen is not curved like Other IMAXs I have seen, however the screen was 6 Stories tall.

The screen was huge!

This screening was sold out so everyone had to pack into the center while the rest of the people flowed in the doors. The theater quickly filled up and there we all were sitting with our cute little glasses on waiting for the movie to start.

I’m not sure if it was the IMAX experience, the movie, or the 3D aspect of the film, but WOW!

Double WOW WOW!

Its been along time if ever that I have ever seen anything like this! The movie plot was good the, the scenery was literally out of this world. The special effect were truly amazing! The best I’ve ever seen. Normally I never think what I have to pay for something is worth what I have to shell out, but I had no complaints with the $30 this cost Margaret and I for an afternoons entertainment.

Avatar has my recommendations especially in 3D on an IMAX screen!

The Big Christmas Storm

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse ……..
Even the mice wouldn’t go out anymore! You see the National weather service has been predicting the worst storm since the Halloween blizzard of 91.
A giant low pressure system was destined to sit in Iowa and pump moisture from the Gulf of Mexico into the winter air over Minnesota for days on end with a prediction of up to 20 plus inches of snow in total.


The endless babble about the weather started on Tuesday morning several days before the approaching storm. It’s been snowing off and on for most of December and there is already no lack of snow on the ground and roads. After several years of warm temperatures and little or no snow, this year appears is going to be a good old fashion Minnesota winter.
I was so counting on that whole global warming thing to solve this Minnesota winter problem, but I think I’m going to have find another solution.
For those of you who have been fortunate enough to have forgotten how this whole snow and blizzard thing works let me refresh your memory!
Remember when you had to dig your vehicle out of the snow banks?
Remember those last minute runs to the grocery store for those supplies just in case you can’t get out because of the storm?

But there is good things about snow storms. The big heavy snows usually requires warmer temperatures, and this one is no exception. Christmas Eve on the street in the snow its 27 degrees.

Either the snow or the holiday has reduced the traffic on an otherwise bumper to bumper car filled 50th street. The theater is open for Christmas eve!

A walk around the downtown 50th and France area reveals Margaret’s favorite store in the snow. “ Live Laugh Love”

As always whenever there is a snow storm you find little kids out playing in the snow piles!

Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) in Minnesota!

I know its hard to believe but just the other day an improvised explosive device went off in the Wendy’s in Arden hills! I thought we were safe from terrorist here in the heartland.

It was one of those days where Margaret and I went out for lunch together while we were both in the office in Arden Hills. We have a small selection of fast food restaurants around the area. There is a Subway that we often frequent, a new Mexican place in the same strip mall, an Arby’s, and down the road a ways, a Wendy's.

This day we went to the Wendy’s. The food is not that great but its a big open air restaurant with large windows that let in the sunshine (on the rare Minnesota days that the sun shines). If you have never been to a Wendy’s it is one of the few fast food places that you can get a baked potato a healthier alternative to the normal French fries.

Along with the baked potato you can get butter, and sour cream. That is what Margaret ordered along with a chicken sandwich. After we collected our food and sat down to enjoy the feast Margaret started to apply the condiments to her potato. That’s when the improvised explosive device went off!

I suspect most IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are made of fuel oil & fertilizer, old artillery shells or plastic explosives, but this one was made of sour cream. You see when Margaret started to open the sour cream packet to apply to her potato it exploded in her hand. I don’t mean a little pop, and it runs onto the table, but a high powered stream of white sour cream jetting into the air several feet. Fortunately for me it didn’t go in my direction. Unfortunately for Margaret that high speed stream of sour cream was aimed right at her glasses and hair.

Have you every tried to wipe sour cream out of you hair with a napkin in a Wendy’s restaurant? Take it from me its not a pretty sight and it doesn't work so well. But it sure is humorous. After a quick trip to the restroom the heroine of our story Margaret retuned uninjured by the IED and finished her lunch!

Watch out for IED’s they show up in the strangers of places!

Strange things about Memories

Have you every noticed that sometimes old memories pop up out of nowhere? I don’t mean memories from last week or last month, but from 40 or 50 years ago. Memories from when you were a child. Usually these are pleasant memories and nice to revisit having had long ago forgotten about them.

Some months ago rather than properly manage individuals that were abusing some company rules about break time and duration the company Margaret works for implemented a company wide rule that you could no longer leave the property during break.

Now that in itself isn’t a big deal, because how far can you go on a 15 minute break, but Margaret and a few others me included use to take that 15 minute break and walk around the industrial park that out company's building is located in. With the new rule that would no longer be possible.

Since people are endlessly resourceful some started walking in the parking lot, others Margaret and I started walking around the building. Its a big building and directly behind it is a railroad tracks.

The path around the building is not particularly nice. Its not even OK. It kind of dirty and you have to climb a steep trail to get around the back, Then you have to walk along on the railroad tracks to keep out of the mud. For the most part along the tracks there is a fair amount of garbage. At one end of the building there is a small muddy pond often with a few ducks in it.

In spite of all that for some strange reason its a pleasant walk! Why is that?

I think I might have an answers! In some small part the company tried to take something away and a way was found to continue the walks while sort of following the new rules. But I think that the real reason might be how those really old memories might get evoked. You see the trail around the building on the railroad tracks smells slightly of creosote. All railroad tracks do. That smell of creosote dredges up times and memories from long ago when walking and playing along the railroad tracks in the summertime with friends were fun. So even today that smell of creosote seems to make things pleasant.

So now from time to time you find us, on nice days playing again on the railroad tracks.

Grizzly Bears are Really Big!

Last Sunday a late weekend in November we slept late. When we woke up the sun was shinning in the bedroom windows, as I rolled over and looked out the window there was a HUGH GRIZZLY BEAR looking through the window!

OH WAIT! That window was at the Minnesota Zoo a little later in the day at the new Kamchatka Peninsula’s Grizzly Coast display.( I’m getting old and a little forgetful). You see after breakfast and a little milling around we went down to the zoo to see the bears.

There were three Grizzlies in a realistic recreation of the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia where the bears hang out. You could stand in a window and watch them swimming in a pool of Salmon. (I think the bear was looking for a salmon to play with.)

You can see them below the water as they hunt for the salmon swimming back an forth with just their ears out of the water. During the time we watched he didn’t catch one, but I suspect that I wouldn’t want to be that salmon he was looking for.

There are three bears in the enclosure. Here one of the bears is scratching his back on the dead tree.

After the bears we moved on to the Siberian Leopards. They were incredibly beautiful creatures, but not willing to pose for a picture, so we will just have to settle for a picture of his tail.

The zoo has a couple of Tigers as well. Here you can see Margaret in the cage posing with the tigers.

Just across the walkway was a more animated version of the Tigers.

Brave Margret with the wolves!

She wouldn’t pet this one though!

As we walked around the zoo we saw sharks, monkeys…

red pandas, and sea creatures……

But here you see the most dangerous creature in the entire zoo having ice cream!

I’ve Been Pardoned!

The governor came through! It was a close thing. It was down to the last minute and then the call came thought. “You’ve been pardoned!”

The celebration was immediate! We stopped on the way home from work at the Granite City brewery for dinner and some micro brew beer.

(Forgive the quality of the pictures they were taken with the camera on my phone. Convicts are not allowed to carry real cameras)

OH Sorry: I forgot you missed the part where I became a convicted criminal didn’t you!

Flash back to Saturday Morning November 7th:

Nothing special was happening this weekend and Saturday was a beautiful day so after an early lunch at 11:00am we headed out to the lakes to hike around the trails in the last remnants of nice weather. After the hike and a trip to REI to get Margaret some “Life is Good” socks we returned to the apartment later in the afternoon to relax for the evening.

On the way up to the apartment we stopped at the mailbox to check the mail. A strange letter was in the mailbox. A plain white window envelope with a bright yellow sheet showing through the window, with a return address of “ District Court” Oh Shit! I thought I've be called to jury duty.

After getting into the apartment we opened the envelope and it wasn’t a jury summons at all it was a” Failure to Appear” notice from the Dakota County Court.

In short it says you have failed to appear in court on your appointed date and have failed to pay the fine you received for parking illegally on September 24th at 510AM in the morning at some obscure intersection in Apple Valley, MN Dakota County.

What!! I haven’t been in Apple valley in years and the only place I was at 5:10 AM on that Thursday morning was in bed! I didn’t get this ticket. There was a phone number to call in case of any questions. I called the number but of course it was Saturday and there was nothing but an answering machine. Please call between the hours of 8:00AM to 5:00pm Monday through Friday.

I started packing! I’ll leave the country they'll never catch me! I can cross over into Canada and make my way to Europe and live there. I was ready to retire anyway.

Well it is only a parking ticket, and the fine is only $35 maybe I should wait until Monday and call to see what is going on before I flee the country.

Monday morning at 8:30 I called the number on the yellow sheet. After a brief conversation with a rather rude public employee of the Dakota County District court I got the name of the issuing agency and called the Apple Valley Police Department. There I spoke to a helpful young lady and explained that I couldn’t have received this ticket because I have never been in the lovely city of Apple Valley. She gave me the details of the ticket and explained that it would have to be waived by the issuing officer. Unfortunately he was on vacation until the 18th of November. She said she would have another officer look into it and get back to me.

Great! this is starting to look like a convenient way to extort money from me. I may have to move to Europe after all because there is no way I’m going to pay this. These people are never going to call me back!

At 4:00 as we were walking to the car when my cell phone rang. It was the young lady from the Apple Valley police department. She explained that there had been a clerical mistake and the wrong license number was keyed into a computer. She would send a letter to the District court to correct the erroneous citation.

The governor called I have been pardoned! I won’t have to move to Europe anymore. Oh and I get to celebrate at the Granite City Brewery on the way home.