The Blog: Spellbound by our own imperfect lives...

I've had some mental health issues lately. I know usually people don't want to know the details of a guy's mental health problems anymore than they want to know the details of the colonoscopy but I look at this blog as a kind of mental floss, a way to unburden myself of things that get into my head and burrow around like mice. So I will only say this: There have been three or four issues that have plagued me for months. I tell myself that I am done with them and will let them go, but then I go back and ruminate on them again and the whole process starts over...trying to figure out what and why and what next. I haven't been able to let it go. The whole process has gotten so wearisome that I have to do something. Yesterday I made a couple of last ditch efforts. I drank some wine, I cried, I called my mom, I talked to Regis and now I'm really done with it. If peace is what I want, I can have that if I change the way I think about these things. I'm changing t...

Monday was about as welcome as usual. I woke up at 4:30 and went to the Pulse. I was able to ambulate in of my own accord so I guess that's a good sign. I did my usual, then started on the summer challenge but decided quickly that I was going to opt to drop out. Fitness challenge drop out, I am. It was starting to feel like a big drag and I would prefer to enjoy my exercise as much as possible. This is better. I had a lunch meeting with my friend, Gayle. I told her I was afraid she would want to talk about work and frankly, I am out of work marbles. She asked three quick questions and we went on to talk about things more interesting like Patrick's anniversary party Thursday night, the 4th of July, Tucker and Ella, and her new furniture. I learned in the previous meeting that it's important to have some down time from work so this was mine. We took Ella to the Living Land Farm with us this afternoon. She met Adan and they had a wonderful time. That little guy is three y...

Waiting for bad weather.

There were tornadoes and thunderstorms in the area again last night. Regis and I had gone downtown to meet a friend and we had checked the weather radar. It didn't look too bad, at least not ominous. All of a sudden, the televisions started blaring storm warnings, then the television would lose the signal. Anybody who lived in St. Peter in 1998 remembers that we lost contact with KRBI and Bruce Davis right before the tornado hit. The bar was silent as people watched the black screen. They had a plan to lead everyone to the basement and serve them warm Coors Light but as tempting as that sounded, Regis and I waited until things let up a little then headed home. I'm glad we did because the sirens sounded soon after and we headed to the basement. We were in touch with all kids by text to make sure they were safe. Peter was working at Subway and they had closed so he was hovering close to the walk-in cooler. Tiffany and Elliot were safe in a basement in Eagle Lake. Everyone was ...

We celebrated Midsummer Day by cooking the best beer can chicken ever. I rubbed him all over with olive oil and a paprika spice mix, stuffed him with fresh herbs from the garden, and set him on a can of Schell's Deer brand beer. We kept the fire hot, about 375, and cooked him for an hour. Oh my. Also cooked a pan of butternut squash cubes. Heaven on the grill. Peter's phone broke necessitating a new phone. Instead of remaining on our family plan, he moved to his own plan! Hurray and hallelujah! It's our standard for independence...your own cell phone plan. Now 75% of our off-spring are on their own plans and we're happy! It's Friday, June 25 and I have some major things at work that have to be done by July 1st. I've procrastinated and have a plan to do them all today. Let's see how that goes. I'm not leaving there today until these things are done. Happy Friday!

Now, here is a holiday I didn't know about until right now. I wish I had...I would have planned a party. All over Europe, from Scandinavia to Spain, and from Ireland to Russia, Saint John's Day festivities are closely associated with the ancient nature lore of the great summer festival of pre-Christian times. Fires are lighted on mountains and hilltops on the eve of his feast. These "Saint John's fires" burn brightly and quietly along the fiords of Norway, on the peaks of the Alps, on the slopes of the Pyrenees, and on the mountains of Spain (where they are called Hogueras). They were an ancient symbol of the warmth and light of the sun which the forefathers greeted at the beginning of summer. In many places, great celebrations are held with dances, games, and outdoor meals.  In Scandinavia and in the Slavic countries it is an ancient superstition that on Saint John's Day witches and demons are allowed to roam the earth. As at Halloween, childre...

So, I'm thinking last week that I would like to eat crab legs again. Real ones. In the last 25 years, I've eaten crab legs one other time and it was wholly unsatisfying. They were about as big as a pencil and it took a mighty effort to dig out any meat. What do you expect off the Schwann's truck? Monday morning, Regis bought a pound of crab legs from our favorite market, not wanting to wait until the Crab Deck opened. These crab legs were a tiny bit bigger than a pencil but a pound of crab legs doesn't go too far. If we had a bunch of hungry guys, I figure we'd need abut 18 pounds of crab legs. In my opinion, they were a conveyance for butter and that's about it. Yesterday was so hot we declined to cook on the grill. Today about noon, a big wind came through and left fall-like weather in its wake. Seriously, it feels like early October. I prefer this to that so I'm not complaining. We've been drowning slugs in our spare time. We planted canna lilie...

We had a successful wine tour yesterday. Scheduling was good, we stayed on course, and the weather was gorgeous. Couldn't ask for more.

These are mammatus clouds as seen from our front yard. The top photo has been enhanced by Regis with his newly developed photoshop skills. The link will take you to the wikipedia page for mammatus clouds. They're often seen during times of tornadic activity. Here's one more picture that gives you a good indication of where they get the name mammatus. I'm giving myself until 8:00 to sit and drink coffee and piddle around with my blog and facebook. Then I have to get up and do something. (I've already been to the Pulse to exercise so I'm not a complete slacker this morning.) Jane and Dick are arriving later this afternoon. We're going to make crab cakes and stuffed peppers, our new bests, on the grill for dinner. We have a good bottle of wine and some cold beer but it will be a quiet night as we get ready for the big wine trip tomorrow. Here we go.

Tonight we had to turn off the oven where the jerk chicken legs were baking and and hustle to the basement because the tornado sirens were blasting. We're not much for taking chances with that kind of thing. Daughter-in-law, Amber, had some scary health issues yesterday that meant an emergency trip to pick her up at work and a trip to the clinic and then to another specialist today. They think they have it diagnosed and it's not serious or life-threatening so we're very relieved. Iowa friend, Dick had some health problems yesterday. For a while, we thought it was related to his congestive heart failure but it wasn't. We're greatly relieved about that, too. It looks like they'll be able to come for the weekend. The wine I tasted at Olives last week came in Tuesday at MGM and wasn't Emily kind to order it for me? Regis has suggested tapping a bottle to taste it and write a review but so far, I've held him off. It's for special occasions. We had som...

Seared ahi tuna with lemon oregano marinade Grilled salmon Salad with beet greens, lettuce, kale, and baby spinach Braised radishes Grilled focaccia bread Too busy eating to take a picture!

This year, we bought a half share of a community supported agriculture project in St. Peter. For 260 dollars, we get a box of vegetables every other week. Yesterday was our first pick-up and here it is! It was so pretty I cleared off the table in the porch so Regis could take some pictures. There's beet greens, kale, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and garlic scapes. At least one of those, I have never eaten before. We had a wonderful dinner with a variety of new vegetables, one of the best I think we have ever made. The garlic scape pesto was a little strong for our taste. I think next time I would throw in some parsley instead of making it with all garlic. I have a recipe for kale chips that I tried in the afternoon. You tear the kale into bite size pieces, rub it with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt, and bake it until they're crisp. One of our neighbors stopped for a visit and a beer in the afternoon and I served him kale chips. They're not the kind of thing that w...

This is the back side of Lamont Cranston . We had a great time at the blues festival. Friday night we had friends for a glass of wine and nachos before heading down to the Redmen to hear Ross William Perry who I had confused with Brandon Scott Sellner. You can see why. Their mothers named them to be blues singers. Regis Howard Fritsch just wouldn't work. It was a good time but the wine was really bad. There are box wines I like but this wasn't one of them. This would be better used for window cleaning than human consumption. There was a golf tournament (or whatever you call golf things) yesterday and it must have started in the morning with a beer swill breakfast because some of the participants who came to the bar later were more than comfortably numb. Our table was by the men's john so we started doing a little research: How many men carried their drinks into the bathroom with them? Results: Almost 100%. One guy took us up on our offer to set his drink down on our t...

I told those people I didn't want to attend my 40th class reunion because it would be a bunch of old people. Haha. No kidding and here's the proof. I get a picture via email today of two of the characters I graduated with and what do you know they're old dudes. I used to ride to junior high football games on a school bus with David, on the right. Heck, that was in the early 1960's which is more than a few years ago. We thought we were pretty funny and we probably were. Holy crap. How does it happen that you get old right before your own eyes? We made fajitas on the grill tonight and has some pico de gallo with it. Delicious. I made a sugar-free key lime mousse for dessert that tasted like a chemical waste dump. I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners and would rather just do without. I liked the taste of the key lime but the truvia was nasty. The birds were crazy in the yard tonight and were all over the peanuts and sunflower seeds. We bought a new feeder for pean...

This is a picture of the crab cakes we made on the grill last night. They're topped with mango salsa and served on my new dragon fly appetizer plates. And that's the tiny fork next to it. The crab cakes were delicious. Maybe you know Billy Collins' poem Another Reason Why I Don't Keep a Gun in the House . It's worth a look if you live next door to a small constantly barking dog. Too bad the snakes didn't get him. I met some friends for lunch at Olives in Mankato. Karen is moving to Bangladesh to teach at an IB school. IB always makes me think of irritable bowel syndrome but I think that has an extra letter. The food was wonderful. I had the schwarma chicken salad and a glass of the best pinot noir. I'm afraid to look it up...it has to be expensive. Well, here it is and twenty bucks a bottle isn't too bad. Not your every day kind of wine but something for a special occasion. Here's what the website says: Seductive sun-warmed rose and forest lo...

Here is a picture of my sister-in-law, Helen, and her daughters Rachel and Amanda. Rachel is the happy high school graduate. They had a nice party at the coffee shop downtown in Luverne. Mom was there and it was fun to see her. Regis and I left St. Peter about noon and got back to St. Peter at 7 so it was a lot of butt time in the car. I love the landscape down by Luverne...that's real prairie. As my grandma always said, "It's a good thing to see from horizon to horizon". I think she meant that nobody can sneak up on you in a place like that. I planned to sleep in this morning since I don't have to go anywhere but I woke up at 4:00 like I always do. Damn. I might try to go back to sleep. Maybe I feel a nap coming on today.

It cost us 150 dollars to find out that the dog has a back problem (nerve and disk) that old dogs get. He is on strict rest for 4 weeks which is ironic since all he does is sleep and bark at an occasional squirrel. He is not supposed to jump on furniture or go down stairs. We only have a couple steps in our whole house so that isn't a problem but keeping him from jumping on the furniture will be impossible. They gave him a RX for some pills that are mostly chondroitin. Chondroitin costs about $1.99 at Walgreen's, but apparently more at the dog pharmacy, so you can see they didn't read his chart where it says "this dog has exceeded his out-of-pocket maximum".

I woke up at 4 this morning. I'm sad today. Our little dog is having trouble with his back legs and I have a feeling this won't end well. Regis is very sad and upset. Poor Kramer. We'll take him to the vet this morning to see what they say. I'm also sad about some of the people in my life. I cried twice this week. Maybe it's just end of the year fatigue. I don't think I work that hard that I should be fatigued from it but what the hell. Maybe as you get older it takes less to beat your ass. I vacuumed my office yesterday and got the worst back and shoulder pain from it. The lesson is that I should avoid that kind of cleaning activity. I haven't seen Elliot since Peter's graduation and I haven't seen Ella and Alex since Mother's Day. You'd think we lived in another state instead of across town. The gnats have been so bad lately that we don't sit outside so much. I miss it. Maybe I have nature deprivation disorder. I planted the...

The Pulse sent out an email about this a couple weeks ago saying that June 2 nd was National Running Day and they were having three runs: a 5 a.m. 5 mile run, a 6 p.m. 2 mile family run, and a 7 p.m. 7 mile run. I didn't give it much thought because I started thinking about all the things that can go wrong when you run outside...big dogs, potholes, rocks, falling down and hitting your head, and more bad things that I haven’t even thought of yet. This morning, when I realized today was National Running Day, I thought, "I can do this." Even though the furthest I have ever gone is a little over 3 miles and I walk one minute for every three minutes of running, I thought it’s time to stop being ruled by fear. I can do this. I went down and talked to Rachel first, apologizing already for being slow. She said they would be happy to take me and would match my pace and stay with me through the walks. She was encouraging and laughed when I said I had a cell phone so if I fell d...

Forgot what day it was there for a minute. The weekend went fast and it took wild horses to get me out the door this morning. On Monday, we took our annual road trip with the Hynes-McGraws. Here are Betty and I with a be-shorted and sun-glassed bear at the Bear's Den in Elysian. We look so scared, not because of the bear, but because of the bad food. They should change their grease, man. And maybe buy some fresh lettuce. Here we are in front of the White Front Saloon in Montgomery which turned out to be the highlight of our trip. What a spanking clean and friendly place. They even had free hot dogs and the bartender made a special trip over to tell us to help ourselves. I'd had enough hog parts and sodium for the day so I passed, but Tom said they were good. Someone in that place is a sports fan because they had more memorabilia than you could shake a stick at. It was such a nice place that we agreed it would be worth a trip back there and not by way of the Bear's Den...