Susan: June 2005 Archives

Yesterday I was treated to my first scary Minnesota weather episode, if you don't count the twenty below when I was here in January, which you probably should.

The gist of it is that a massive blackish-green wall of doom stretching for miles in either direction advanced on my humble office. I went out and took a couple of pictures, and while I snapped away the air was completely calm, but moments after I went back inside it hit like a giant leafblower (us being the hapless leaves).

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Apologies for the radio silience, so to speak. Been madly busy finalizing arrangements for my new home in the Minneapolis area. To celebrate the move, and the fact that for one brief moment the weather here in Minnesota (80 degrees, sunny, low humidity) is actually far superior to the weather I left back in Northern California (raining, in my hometown, even pouring), I took a lovely walk around Lake Harriet. Let's get down to business:

Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis offer some of the loveliest walks you'll find in a city, beautiful lakes, lush foliage, and a wonderful arrangement in which the bicyclists and roller bladers are on one dedicated path, and you're on another one, so you don't get run over. Someone give the genius who thought that up a medal, please.

There is only one drawback to these idyllic settings, and that's the air traffic. Yesterday the drone of landing planes at nearby MSP was deafening. But perhaps different wind patters would have them coming down over a different part of the city on some days.

Bathers didn't mind, as kids splashed in the water, the bandshell stuck out like a fairy castle in the background, and the whole thing seemed like a different universe from the Minnesota I saw at twenty below in January.

The bandshell looks like it needs an army of elves to guard it.

But the other castles loom in the distance, and the tops of their towers are one of the only landmarks you can use to discover at which point on the very round lake path you have landed. I got lost at one point and ended up driving around it twice, even after I had walked around it once.

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Tip for at-home printing photographers out there--there is something dearly wrong with the Costco house brand photo paper. I printed a number of photos on it--at some expense in ink--and within TWO WEEKS they have all faded beyond recognition. Yikes!

I've now bought a package of HP Premium Photo paper. I have an HP Photosmart 8150 printer (also purchased at Costco). I'll update you all on how long it retains color. The prints were being kept out of the sun under basic flourescent lighting.

Driving up by Ohlone College in Fremont today, I met one of the institution's students, a wild Turkey.

Update: That was one big bird. A good 20 pounder, maybe more. She was strutting at the edge of the the very large Mission Peak regional park, near an academic building at Ohlone College. The question we must now ask ourselves is, what does a turkey major in? My money's on business. Or maybe culinary arts, and her thesis will be a stuffed human with honey glaze.

After almost two years, it's time for me to say goodbye to my current city of residence, Fremont, California. A job transfer takes me to Minneapolis later this month. So let's take a moment to consider the gloriously clear and beautiful evening we had here last night, and to consider that if Fremont were in Minnesota, it would probably be a major ski resort. As a native Northern Californian, it will be quite a big change.

The hills (those would be "mountains" to midwesterners) have turned from green to gold--finally, after a rather wet and cold spring.

The lone remaining farm in my neighborhood is starting its yearly corn harvest.

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