For Services Rendered circa 1964

About 1/2 in in totoal length. This pin was given to me by Holy Trinity Catholic Church in South Saint Paul. I was one of the smallest Altar Boys, weighing in at a weight nearly superceded by the weight of the cast iron pedestal and bible I was required to move to the pulpit duing the Holy Mass. So to avoid the appearance of uncertainty, I was relegated to the 5:30 am mass. It was a solemn ceremony attended only by the priest, 2 altar boys and a handfull of elderly Polish women in babushkas. Happy Easter.

Rabbits on Tonka

Rabbits have spread through this blog throughout it's blogspan. Here are a few:
Waiter there's a hare in my soup! Bunny Bingo in Bonifacious. Shake your little tail! Cheshire Bunny

Gray's Bay @ 6:25am

The morning light reveals a thin mist hanging over the ice on the lake. To the west was a full moon, and I waited patiently for it to rise for a better shot. My knowledge of astronomy kicked in, and I realized it was setting. The shot would not get any better... and it was too late.

Lost in Wayzata

A leaflet displayed in Wayzata on a utility pole. The flyer is from a California based non-profit, and states that Cargill's hometown is Wayzata. And this orangutan is lost in Cargill's hometown.

1 year ago in March

Jake O'Connors Luck O' the Lake 5K

Slipping and a sliding all the way. I walked the tenuous, icy streets of Excelsior to catch a glimpse of the runners as they began their race. They came over the rise running gingerly as they tried to find their footing on an icy 5 K run. The way is cleared by our Lake's Finest. The leader @ the first 100 yards. Of course there is aways a contrarian wearing Orange.

Walking in the daylight savings

As we began our morning walk we lamented daylight savings time, which has thrown our mornings back into the darkness. I had thought that "Daylight Saving Time"  was an American concept, but discovered that the Europeans invented the concept often described as: "cutting one end of a rug off and attaching it to the other in order to make it longer".

  "Daylight Saving Time has been used in the U.S. and in many European countries since World War I. At that time, in an effort to conserve fuel needed to produce electric power, Germany and Austria took time by the forelock, and began saving daylight at 11:00 p.m. on April 30, 1916, by advancing the hands of the clock one hour until the following October. Other countries immediately adopted this 1916 action: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Tasmania. Nova Scotia and Manitoba adopted it as well, with Britain following suit three weeks later, on May 21, 1916. In 1917, Australia and Newfoundland began saving daylight.

The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. 'An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States' was enacted on March 19, 1918"

- From a blog on the history of Daylight Savings Time.

The Big Thrill Factory, Minnetonka

The Big Thrill Factory on is on Hwy 7 and 101. Old K-Mart blue light specials still haunt the pot holed riddled parking lot. The Big Thrill has an entrance reminiscent of the Charlie Chaplain movie “Modern Times”. My suggestion to the owner(s) is: “More Thrill/ Less Factory". But just the fact that I am familiar with the vintage silent movie shows how close my fingers are to the pulse of the times. Inside the BT Factory it is dark and abstract,like the final episodes of the original Star Trek. It is lit with colorful flashing lights and wallpapered with visually redundant video monitors. There are bowling lanes. A food court. Mock gambling. I wander through a maze of arcade-like games and contests with State-Fair Midway-like prizes. It was Sunday morning. The crowd had not arrived. I think it would be fun on a gloomy day for parents to get the kids out of the house. Good unhealthy fun.

Rolling back the orange fence

Just before at the General Store

A little gray and washed out. Closed. I wandered down to the General Store to take a peak, just before the winter storm. Just before the Spring. Just before St. Patricks Day and The ides of March. The seasonal crossroads that can assume the winds of Winter, and hours later awaken the crocus blossoms.

 

Not always a linear path.