Winter Camping

No skis. Snowshoes for this trip. Wed. night we went out for four miles across the lake with headlamps. Thursday we headed out and camped just shy of two miles out on the lake. We missed our intended camping area because of the poor visibility. We did find a sheltered area on a point near the entrance to Pikes Bay.
.Here's my pack full of warm goodness. I use almost everything I brought and was quite comfortable in some challenging conditions. The videos below show the windy trek across the lake. Some of the blizzard conditions in camp and the calm camp the morning after. There was brilliant sunshine. The foggy look is condensation on my lens. Thirty mile per hour wind and temps of minus single digits made for some cozy tent time. Ipod and phone kept me company.

Solstice Has Arrived

The winter and summer solstices are two of my favorite days of the year; they're like going over the top of the roller coaster. Equinoxes are boring; they're where we wait to get on and off.

This painting is the work of Bryce Herrington.

Basment's Soon Set

I hauled down 1,600 lbs of Quikrete to fill in my basement floor. About the same mass of material went up too. Studs are up, plumbing rough-in is about done, floors filled in.

Still need to get the electrician in, have my guys put up the drywall, have the plumber finish up; then I'll put linoleum down, finish the dry wall and paint. After that it will just be some trim jobs.

A lot of work, but, so far, we're under budget. I've also made sure that I have a good place to sit and watch the Vikes play at the Gopher's stadium.

부븸밥 bi bim bop

The family was invited to a bi bim bop dinner tonight. Bi bim translates to mixed-up and bop translates to rice. Meat, spinach, eggs, cucumbers and rice were all tossed together at the table and served with gochujang chili paste.

Bi bim bop is quintessential Korean cuisine; eating it is more than a meal. It seems putting down a bowl of this is like raising the Korean flag and pledging allegiance to ones heritage. It's like lutefisk, haggis, or menudo without the scary bits.

Korean gochujang chili paste (고추장)
Sweet chili and sesame paste sauce. A new favorite condiment

Number One Song The Day I Was Born.

Find the top song from any date here.

Something to Remember on a Hot July Day.

Issued by The National Weather Service
Minneapolis, MN
4:13 pm CST, Sat., Dec. 11, 2010

... BLIZZARD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY...

THE BLIZZARD WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY.

* TIMING... LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL DIMINISH THIS EVENING... BUT SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL CREATE NEAR WHITEOUT CONDITIONS.

* MAIN IMPACT... 9 TO 18 INCHES OF SNOW... SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES.

* OTHER IMPACTS... BLIZZARD CONDITIONS... ESPECIALLY IN OPEN COUNTRY. WIND CHILLS WILL PLUMMET TO AROUND 30 BELOW ZERO OVERNIGHT. WIDESPREAD BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WILL RESULT IN VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES.

====================================================\\-]o

I like my skier :)

Bath Project Moving Along

Minnesota Kind of Weekend

I've been working for the last several years to come up with trail grooming equipment for my middle school and high school ski team. Last year I procured the groomer, and Friday worked a deal to take delivery of a hold-over 2010 new Ski-doo Skandic Tundra like the one pictured above. Lots of wrangling, but I hope to be making corduroy tomorrow out of our new fallen snow. Got a great price from a local buisness wanting to help the students out.

My other ski team, Minnesota Youth Ski League Program, jumped from 11 people to about 30. We had our first meeting Sat where we issued 16 sets of skis, boots and poles to kids ranging in age from 4-13. Should be a blast.

Sunday the family and I drove to the Hampton Tree farm and cut our holiday tree. The conifers were layered with snow and the deciduous trees were coated in hoar frost making for a seasonally splendid setting. Kids and I managed to set down a few ski tracks in the park behind the house too. In the evening we set our tree up and added twinkling snow flakes and blue icicle lights to the front of the house.

Winter's fun and it starts getting lighter again in just over 2 weeks.

1972 & 1982

Troy and I are sporting dickeys under our disco collar velour shirts. Please note the horrible hair cuts on my brothers and me; dad insisted he cut it even though he had a job.

Here I'm only sporting a smile with a friend Verna out at the lakes.

Black Friday White Ride (pics&vid)

The 950 looks puny but did quite well on the trail today. Jared and I met at the Bloomington Ferry Bridge and rode east. The sun, trail conditions and pleasant temperature rocked.

Urban Bike Lock

Would it be foiled by a universal remote

Trunk-ated

Found this on National Geographic. The elephant drags the croc. from the water and the baby trips over it. Both elephants run away and the croc. heads back to the water.

Kids are signed up for Glacier Ski team!

Anti-matter does matter

Anti-hydrogen lives (briefly). There are times when the future seems to be here now. This is the stuff of Star-Trek.

Tires

Minnesota is a great place to live because of the little joys found in changing weather. The new snow this week behooved the kids to get up early and create snowmen, forts and a castle for toy horses. I too was excited to go ride around in the fresh white crystals. It's fun to make the first tracks in anything, peanut butter jar or new fallen snow. But, what came to mind first was the joy of clean freshly blackened tires scoured by the abrasive flakes.




I am similarly refreshed by new weather patterns. A different bike to commute on and the start of ski seasons help me. As each season ends I'm excited to make some old toys new again.

Some thoughts on Veterans Day.

According to the Center for Military History, when first adopted Veterans Day was called Armistice Day in memory of the soldiers who served during the Great War (Later WWI), a horrible war where 37 million people world wide were injured or killed.

WWI had several causes; one of which was nationalism, or feelings that ones country is better or more deserving than other countries. Nationalism can take the form of sacred displays of flags banners, slogans and national identities. I think of nationalism as being arrogant or as being excessively prideful regarding ones country to the detriment of others.

Holding these two thoughts, I plan to be historically mindful of and grateful for the services and tremendous sacrifices of those who have served and of those who are serving in the military, while rejecting displays of nationalism. Veterans day is a time to remember war's savage cost to nations and cost to individual people; it's not a time to romantically beat the drums of nationalism.

Bike Season Continues

Saturday I hooked up with Q and Sean to mountain bike at Salem Hills just a couple of mile from home. Thanks for playing guide Sean. Fun place to ride with good flow.
,
Then my neighbor John and I did a quick overnight trip to Afton State Park. About 18 mile from home to campground. left shorty after 4pm, so the last hour or so of our ride was in the dark, blinkies flashing. Grabbed a Subway sandwich at the last sign of civilization, enjoyed a starry night and a fire. Woke up early to watch the sunrise over the St. Croix valley. The photo above is of the Trucker bathed in this light. Trip wasn't far but had some big climbs up Baily Hill and out of the park. Granny gear felt some love.

Today I rode to and from school in shorts. Not bad for the second week in Nov.

I'm posting this with my new micro laptop. Just picked up a little Acer from Costco for $299. So far I'm very pleased with the purchase. 1gig ram, 250gig hard drive and an Intel Atom processor N550. Puny 10" screen and very light. I'm digging the truly portable nature of it.

Getting Ready to Ski

Super busy lately getting my two ski teams going. One is a Minnesota Youth Ski League team for kids K-6. Claire and Harris love this. The other is my High School Team. I'm ready for snow.

Water Boils at 207.1 In Twin Cities Today/ New Record Low Barometric Pressure = Cat 3 Hurricane

(Image and Text Stolen from MPR's Updraft Blog)

The deepest low pressure system on record continues to rage with fury over Minnesota.

The storm has already smashed the all time state record for the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in Minnesota Tuesday.

The new final low pressure record will be subject to verification by climate gurus, but reliable observations of at least 28.20" were recorded by NWS weather stations in Orr and Big Fork in north central Minnesota during the 5pm hour Tuesday. As posted here earlier, these pressure readings are what we would expect to see in Category 3 hurricanes!

The previous record low barometric pressure in Minnesota was 28.43" in Austin & Albert Lea on November 10, 1998.

One of the local weather people spoke about pasta taking longer to cook today because of the low barometric pressure. I used this calculator to figure our our boiling temperature by entering both barometric pressure and elevation above sea level.

Send in Jackson

A New Word For The English Language

I submitted a word I created to the Urban Dictionary. Upon review by the editors, it was accepted.
Blingaling is now part of the language.

"Church of Heath" Made NPR Talk of the Nation

My sister emailed one of my quotes to NPR's Talk of the Nation hosted by Neal Conan on Oct. 6th. Conan was speaking with Michael Kransy, an agnostic, on his memoir Spiritual Envy. Below is the transcript of how they closed the show.

CONAN: We'll end with the Church of Heath. This is sent to us from Christine(ph) on email: Don't be stupid. Be polite. Sometimes it's stupid to be polite. So those are the rules that she came up with, her code. [here's a link to entire transcript]

They erroneously thought I was a women, but that's ok 1/2 of the nicest people I know are female.

At or Above Posted Speed

Rode to a workshop in St. Paul today. Highlight of the commute was ripping down the Wabasha Bridge. I hit the two lights at the bottom green, so I could let the Trucker roll. It was lovely!

"There's ... something on the wing. Some ... thing!"

"A Nightmare at 20,000 feet" A 1963 Twilight Zone Episode. He wasn't Captain Kirk yet.

dinning el fresco

Using car gas in the Whisperlite International to heat water for Aeropressed caffeinated goodness. I highly recommend both the stove and the coffee maker.

Beans, chicken and asparagus roasted to perfection over campfire coals. Not pictured are several types of sausage and other sweet goodies. All made for a memorable meal.
George, what seasoning mix did you bring?

Luce Line Trip

George's 700 pulling NOB trailer

Pugsley, Trucker, Fit

Bucolic Trucker sporting truncated Woodchippers

Loads of fun

Notice the full size camping chair on the rear rack

Mind Running Luce

The Long Haul Trucker loaded up.

My bike and tent, the morning after.

A group photo of the riders on the trip.