A sheltered sunset

Looking out to Big Island and Orono. A humid wind was blowing in from the West. The lengthening shadows and thick warmth seemed unusual for late August,and soon early September. I had not ventured down to the end of the block for quite a while. I could hear the roar of boat engines, but I didn't seen any cross the open expanse.

The Corn Days are here

Masa, a dough made from wet corn processed with lye or wood ashes, is always used to make all but one of these Mexican foods:
* Tortillas
* Tamales
* Tostadas
* Tacos
The oldest known kind of corn is:
* Popcorn
* Dent corn
* Maize
* Golden Bantam

The Egg recall - unsafe at any speed.

Prepared by author. Do not click on links.

Uncontrolled eggscelertion.
"Dates and codes can be found stamped on the end of the egg carton. The plant number begins with the letter P and then the number. The Julian date follows the plant number, for example: P-1946 223.
Consumers should not eat the eggs and should return recalled eggs to the store where they were purchased for a full refund."

On other fronts: Wear a #15 sunscreen, place your floor mat in the trunk, close cover before striking, and always sneeze into a Purel hand sanitizer.

Par and Cover

Apple days

The Wealthy Apple.

It wasn’t easy. Peter Gideon moved to Minnesota, and the Minnetonka area in 1853. In 1868 Peter Gideon selected, (and named after his wife, Wealthy Hull), the “Wealthy” apple from hundreds of thousands of seedlings he grew on his farm near Excelsior. 15 years of frozen failure. 15 years of marginal living. But finally a sapling survived. The “Wealthy Apple”became the first apple variety of commercial quality to be grown in Minnesota.

In 1870 Col. John H. Stevens said: “True, we were under a cloud for a long time. We planted but did not harvest. Our trees withered and perished. Whether it was the frosts of Winter or the sun of Summer that caused them to prematurely die, no one has been able to determine. Plant as we would, the trees sickened and died. No wonder, then, we became discouraged. Orchards to the third and fourth planting failed, a constant drain on the pocket without a ray of light in the future, influenced us in abandoning the enterprise. But those days, and their trials, have passed.”
* Credits to Minnesota Harvest Orchards.

Turns to be breezy

Not exactly windy, a little more than breezy. It is early Sunday morning. The sail boats take it easy.
ABCB.

Hang on - in Waconia

A mix of male hormones and light antiquing rushed through my veins. Dissonance. Such dissonance.
I intend to go back and buy this comic book, so hang on. I want to and tell the story never told.
Why was the victim called "Dum dum"? Why was he hanging on the back shelf in the Bobsy Twins book section?
How does commando cammoflage work in the urban office space?

Scene from a humid lens

This is what one gets when the humidity takes over. When I reviewed my shots from Wayzata, most were blurred - an not in an artistic way. But I will post one for a morning effort.

It not the heat. From a weather website:
"Soupy air is an actual weather term used when the dew point hits 75° because at that point a person can feel the water vapor in the air they breathe. At this point about 2% of the air is water."

109 @101 near 7

New banking regulation require accurate reporting of all financial transactions.

Tour De Tonka 2010- from the wet seat

The morning rain gave the Tour De Tonka Riders an early shower, so our clothes were wet for the ride. The distinctive mud trails up the backside marked the riders whose courses took them on the clay covered trails. Longer distance riders -65 and 100 miles, of which I was not one, were treated to an outbreak of sun and steamy heat. I can only imagine the chaffing that ensued.
But, it was a great ride for me, and I thank all the volunteers, police officers and spectators for one of the best run bicycling events I have participaed in. Great job!


And finally:

Stuck in the middle

Tour De Tonka August 7

My bike is tuned. I have been riding, but the heat and humidity are always a concern. Heat exhaustion, dehydration, road conditions, cosmic allignment, solar flares, are all concerns. This is the time frame when any experienced biker, runner, or tri-athelete established his credible excuses. Only a rookie approaches the starting line saying, " Hey, I feel fantastic, gonna kick butt". No! Better to use a knee brace even if you are healthy. Then when you finish, you grunt and say - "It was tough out there, but I rode through the pain". Then off to eat a whole deep dish pizza.

The Glass Bead Game

The writer Herman Hesse revisited @ The Frontier Antique shop in Mound during "Crazy Days". Crazy. Well, I thought about the book "The Glass Bead Game" during my visit to Mound, MN and recollected my thoughts of my college German with Herr Kramm, at St.Thomas College. We read the book in German.. for me, very poorly. St. Thomas was a "Catholic College" then. They were Catholic, strict, and they had a language requirement of 3 semesters of a foreign language- and I took German, on account of my Swiss heritage and all. They also had a math requirement, and a requirement of 3 semesters of Theology. Many other requirements have been long since abandoned or undermined.
"The Glass Bead Game" was about private language and detatchment. Intellectual language, and the ensuing madness it incurred when attempting to interact with the commoner's world.
Today -no problem.