Category: Uncategorized
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View from the stump
At Itasca, there is a spot in the campground with a great view of the lake. I set my phone on an old stump and take these shots. There are a lot of changes as the summer goes by. In late July, the weeds are near their max and the lily pads blooms are mostly…
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S’mores are a waste of ingredients
I know, I know, the title is click-bait. Designed to get people to click and read some sort of lunatic ramblings. How could anyone not like s’mores? Well, obviously, there is no universally loved food, so clearly some don’t like it. Maybe they will click because someone also doesn’t like s’mores. The weird part is…
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View from Itasca
Today was a gorgeous day. The heat broke and there was no wind. We took a pontoon out and the lake was glass. Temps were in the low 70s so it wasn’t to hot in the sun. The heat comes back this weekend so we are enjoying the days outside as much as possible.
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Creating vs Performing
Music is, I believe, the only art that gets recreated over and over. When a band writes a song, they love playing it over and over to new people. Sure, they might get tired of it, but they have played it a lot before that happens. Painters don’t paint the same picture a second time.…
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Luna in the Sun
We’ve had hot weather the last couple of days, but today the heat broke. Mid-70s, no rain. It was glorious. Luna enjoyed laying in the sun. So did we.
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My youngest had a birthday
She is almost a third of a century old. My dad told me I was 2/3 of a century old on my birthday. Given that he is closing in on a century, it is appropriate. My youngest recently became a mom and that has been all consuming as it tends to be. Baby is doing…
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Solar powered garden watering
This is kind of fun. A buddy of mine has been using rain water for his garden for a couple of years now. He recently added a solar powered pump. The setup is a panel, controller, and battery he got for ~$50. The pump is a standard RV water pump. It sits there with the…
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Coffee: the science is settled
Came across this article when reading 1440. Excellent news for my coffee habit. I may have to reduce to get down to the 5 cups a day, but, hey, what’s a little sacrifice? (I know, I know, I’m not kidding anyone. I’ll keep drinking coffee by the quart. If some is good, more is better,…
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Plate-sized pancakes
Went to Emmaville for breakfast this morning. Its about a 40 minute drive, but there are many breakfast places around Itasca State Park. I enjoy going out for breakfast, probably more than any other meal. But I don’t get pancakes. I’m more of an eggs and meat guy. The place we went to, called Emmaville…
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Hawk
We had a hawk in our backyard this morning. Just sitting on the fence, chillin’. There was a squirrel on the ground snuffling for whatever it could find to eat. Neither the hawk nor the squirrel seemed concerned or interested in the other. They got within 5 feet of each other. The clicking you hear…
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Wildfires in northern Minnesota
The fires up north have been bad the last few days. Northern Minnesota, specifically in the Arrowhead, has been hit pretty hard. We live about 4 hours south of the fires and the smoke showed up a few days ago. Haziness and the smell of burning tires or plastic–which is weird because, for the most…
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Dabble V3: a major improvement
Dabble is the software I use for writing. For a variety of feature reasons, Word and Google Docs don’t work for me. Some of Dabble features that are useful to me are: They just did a massive rewrite and came out with Dabble V3. This is a major rewrite of an already awesome piece of…
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Updating Chalk & Memories
As I work through starting up a book layout business, it is time to go back and layout my short story collections for print. As one does before formatting, I reread the Chalk & Memories stories, looking for typos. For those who aren’t aware, typos are self-propagating errors in your text. Sanderson’s Law (if I…
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Moving neighbors
We live in a neighborhood that is filled with people who raised their kids there. We are one of the few that didn’t. People who lived in their houses for 30+ years and seen so many changes in the neighborhood and town. Things are changing. Last fall, a neighbor passed away and the house sits…
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Making Donuts
Making donuts is one of my wife’s family traditions. Her mom made them for years and today, the granddaughters are coming over to start learning. Not that they know that, they just think they are helping. These aren’t the fancy frosted donuts you buy at the store and regret about 3/4 of the way through.…