Boxing Day

We now almost always have bananas, blueberries and raspberries on hand.  None of these keep extremely well so the most common item on our grocery list is "bananas, b's, and r's."

For raspberries I have come to prefer Driscoll's, they seem to keep the best.

There are several brands of blueberries that seem OK but perhaps because of the raspberry preference we often end up with Driscoll's for them too.

So here is the current batch of blueberries.

As you can see they are a product of Mexico and this particular box is of a limited edition, sweetest batch.

Well, I don't know much about blueberry farming in Mexico at this time of year but I do know that if I was in West Michigan in August that these would be "Blue Crop".

While searching my files for the above photo I came across this beach view 

Happy Boxing Day.

Gino's Christmas card

Merry Christmas to all.

At her Mama's company Christmas party.

Hockey weekend in Duluth

We missed last year but we don't miss very often and this weekend we got this year's trip to Duluth.

Friday afternoon Minnesota 2, UMD 2, UMD takes the extra point in the standings by scoring in a 3 on 3 overtime period.

Saturday afternoon Minnesota 4, UMD 3.

So a pretty successful weekend from a hockey perspective.

We enjoyed what definitely qualifies as very nice weather for November in Duluth.  Here is the view out the window of our motel room.

Duluth calls that part of town Canal Park.  We were down on the lakefront about a long block from the Aerial Lift Bridge which spans the ship canal into the inner harbor.

Visible on the horizon is a lake ship, lining up for the passage through the canal to a loading facility in the harbor.

Much like Lake Michigan, Lake Superior is at all time record high levels.

We traveled out onto Park Point where we found the lake is high enough that even small waves are high enough to bring water into the parking lots.

GRider for scale.

One of the things we like about Duluth is that it is a smallish place.  If you go out at all you have a fairly good chance of bumping into your hockey heroines.  In the past we have shared hotel elevators with both the Minnesota and Wisconsin coaches.

This time on Friday evening at OMC Smokehouse (which we enthusiastically endorse) we were at the table next to the Olympic gold medal winning goaltender (and her family) from the 2018 USA women's hockey team.  She currently plays for UMD.

And then this morning we were at a breakfast table in our hotel next to one of our favorite players (and her parents) from this year's Gopher squad.

We had fun.

Just because this is fun, a repost from last July, "Kid from Minneapolis in a red hat"

Lots of good stuff here, a tribute to the late George Harrison, an all star band playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

Prominent in the first half of the video is the late Tom Petty.

The second half of the video is dominated by the not gently weeping guitar genius of a kid from Minneapolis, Prince Roger Nelson.

Andy wrestled him when they were both in junior high.

George Harrison's son plays guitar and is prominent in many of the camera shots.

Armistice Day (repost from November 11, 2010)

The final of the photos taken on Monday, this is the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the Capitol approach. The inscription is a quotation from the poem, "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak", by Archibald MacLeish. The inscription reads, "We were young. We have died. Remember us."Here is the complete poem:

The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.

The Minnesota memorial follows the pattern established by the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington by listing the names of the dead in the order in which they were taken from us. Minnesota's memorial lists the names of the 1,072 Minnesota residents who were casualties of that war.

Here is a closer look at line one, the casualties from 1962.Robert D. Larson, a Captain in the Air Force, home of record Moorhead, 309th Troop Carrier Squadron, 464th Troop Carrier Wing, 13th Air Force, pilot of a fixed wing aircraft lost over Bien Hoa Province, South Vietnam, on February 2, 1962. Captain Larson was 28 years old. His death occurred while I was still obliviously strolling the halls of my small town high school.

Here are a couple more, selected not exactly at random:

Daniel K. Welin, Private First Class in the Army, home of record Bloomington, a member of E Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Wounded on March 24, 1970, the record indicates "burns". He was declared dead on April 4, 1970 at the age of 20. He was the first Minnesotan to die in Vietnam after my arrival there on April 3, 1970.

Anthony J. Mensen, Chief Warrant Officer in the Army, home of record Sauk Centre, a helicopter pilot for the 54th Medical Detachment, 61st Medical Battalion, 67th Medical Group, United States Army Republic of Vietnam Medical Command. CW2 Mensen died in a helicopter crash on October 22, 1971, in Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam. He was 21. He was the last Minnesotan to die in Vietnam before I left country on October 28, 1971.

Visible here is the final line, the final casualties, the year 1973.Keith A. Christopherson, a Lieutenant junior grade in the Navy, home of record South Saint Paul, assigned to the USS Ranger, a Forrestal class aircraft carrier, VAQ-130 (Electronic Attack Squadron-130), Task Force 77, 7th Fleet. The record says he was pilot of a fixed wing aircraft lost over the Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnam, on January 21, 1973. Based on his rank, Lieutenant junior grade, a rank for a very newly commissioned officer, I am guessing that Lieutenant Christopherson was the co-pilot. During the time when we were both alive I was 11 days older than Lieutenant Christopherson, he was 26 years old when he died.

Richard D. Wiehr, an Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class in the Navy, home of record Mankato, also assigned to the USS Ranger, a Forrestal class aircraft carrier, VAQ-130 (Electronic Attack Squadron-130), Task Force 77, 7th Fleet. AT2 Wiehr was crew on a fixed wing aircraft lost over the Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnam, on January 21, 1973, quite probably the same aircraft loss that resulted in the death of Lieutenant Christopherson. Aviation Technician Wiehr was 22 years old.

I didn't find statistics indicating average age at death but I did find a table indicating that of the reported 58,193 American deaths, 35,198 were 21 years old or younger at the time of death, 25,493 were 20 years old or younger, 12 were 17 years old. 40,775 reported a marital status of single. 8 were female.

Average is not the same as median but in a number of casualties as large as 58,193 I believe that it is very likely that the average is very close to the median. The median age of all American casualties in Vietnam was 21. I think it is safe to say that the average age of those individuals was 21. The people we ask to die in our wars are, for the most part, barely more than children.

Columbus Day

Everyone will agree that it is way too early for this.

Definitely not a bicycle ride day.

Almost gone

Today was a very nice late season day for bicycling.  The temperature peaked into the 60s and the winds were quite light.  I got in another ride through the Fair Grounds.

The Fair is gradually disappearing into winter storage.  Today I discovered that all of the galvanized steel benches have been removed to winter storage.  There are still some of the wooden benches out but for the most part the benches have left the premises.  Our bench is in storage.

Except.

The State Fair Foundation building (the former administrator's residence across from the Space Tower) has eight of the metal benches in the yard.  There are two of each color, I assume they are keeping a display to show potential donors what their bench might look like.  I looked at the two green ones, they are not ours.

And then there is the 4-H building.

Four benches and two picnic tables.  The benches are sponsored by 4-H, one of each of the H's of the naming organization (head, heart, hands and health).  I assume that one of the reasons they are not in mass storage is that they will be stored inside the 4-H building and reappear next year in that same spot outside the door.

That's my LOOK leaning against the building.

The picture does justice to the day.  It was a very pleasant, wonderfully beautiful early October day in Minnesota.

A few miles here, a few miles there, there is always some milestone rolling around.  It seems awfully late in what has been a disappointing ride season but something seems still just maybe possible.

From across the street.

So I was confident that I had made the final sanctioned visit to Norah's bench this year but this showed up on social media yesterday courtesy of our former neighbor and still active bicyclist John.

I had no choice really.  I rode over there again today.

I didn't want to post the exact same view so today I got a photo from the far side of the street.

Fall is happening as is evident from the leaves in the gutter in front of the bench.  Today I had one of those classic fall moments as I experienced my first of the season dry leaf stuck between my front wheel brake pads and the wheel rim.  This makes a very distinctive sound.

It was a very pleasant day for a bicycle ride.

LOOK at our bench

Today just barely missed the OOTNDITHODs category.  The temperature peaked into the 80s and although that is a really pleasant interlude in mid-September I now reserve OOTNDITHOD designation for days topping out in the 70s.

But it was really, really nice.  I rode my bicycle.

The Fair has been over for nearly two weeks.  The post-Fair clearout has advanced far enough that the grounds are now almost completely reopened to the public.  There was one gate closed that did cause me a little concern but I got in and out without big problems as did lots of my fellow citizens.

Clean up is proceeding but they have not yet reached the stage of returning the benches to winter storage locations.

LOOK at our bench.

And as long as I am here here are the other photos that I especially like from this year's exposition.

My two favorite girls with Babe, Paul in the background.

I missed them while they were on the slide but here they are just after finishing the slide.

Again, mommy.

That corn dog place across the street provided the best corn dog I have ever had.

Bench, bench,

and only bench.

Completing my personal collection of photographs of me with the state university football team's big trophies.

That's the axe, I already have the jug and Floyd.

BD and friend.

On our way home.

A new tradition which we just became aware of this year.

A nearby vendor informed us that the roof had already been cleared four times.  The new tradition is for young women to discard items of underwear on this rooftop underneath the sky glider.