• Oh, Dear

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    31!  bar steep rise 29.62 2mph S dewpoint 27 Spring?  Snow

                           Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    OK now.  That’s enough!  I woke up, looked out the window on April 26th, just 5 days before Beltane, the beginning of the Celtic summer, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but snow, snow, snow.  Oh, dear.

    To season the irony, I leave in a few minutes for the Arboretum and a day devoted to the Natural Rhythms of Time.  I guess if it happened, it’s not unnatural, but the snow feels like it has come outside the natural rhythms.  I don’t know what to expect from this day, but the notion of natural rhythms and a cyclical view of time are important to my own, still evolving sense of the cosmos.

    No wonder the moon of growing has begun to wane.  It’s retreating before the Hawthorn giant as he takes a return visit, stomping around and shaking his shaggy head.  I can just hear him laugh.

    My hydroponic setup continues to evolve.  I’d say I should have edible lettuce by the end of next week. The tomato plant I put the under the light first is over 8 inches tall and leafing out more and more every day.  The morning glories and cucumbers have begun a stretch toward the light, which means I need to reposition the megafarm under the light and move Emilies over.  This is addictive.  I can tell because I’m already planning how to  make my own setup out of parts I can buy at Interior Gardens.

    The piece that gets me is the growth and maturation of plants from seed.  It never fails to excite me when I see a seedling appear.  Not quite the same as that cute Gabe, but the principles are very much the same.  DNA works its magic. 


    📂This entry was posted in Garden Weather +Climate 📎and tagged

  • National Day of Silence

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    40  bar falls 29.48  1mph NNW dewpoint 39 Spring?

                    Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    Two more Weber tours.  Teenagers.  I had’em both times.  They stayed with me, asked questions, made observations.  Edina kids.  Two girls had on free mind buttons.  I asked them what they were and they said today was a national day of silence.  It supports GLBT students.  I also asked them why they studied Japanese.  I expected to hear manga/anime, but no.  These kids wanted an experience of a non-Western culture, since so much of their education focuses on the west.  Wish I’d had that insight when I was a teen-ager.

    Got a ping today off someone interested in hydroponics.  One of the first comments from a reader I don’t know that relates to something I’m doing.  That’s fun.

    Back to the ol’ treadmill.  It’s that time.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture

  • Boring

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    38!  bar steep fall 29.62 8mph N  dewpoint 37  Spring?  drizzle

                  Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    “The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.” – Robert Frost

    A few years back, quite a few actually, I got acquainted, briefly, with one of Robert Frost’s grandsons.  I don’t recall his name, he and I dated sisters of a Grand Marais family.  Seems that grandpa was a hard guy to like.  Curmudgeon all the time.  Hmmm, come to think of it that could describe me, too.  Oh, well

    Anyhow, the quote above gives a flavor to Frost that fits with what I learned.  I’m with him in the first sentence and I’m with him up to the dependent clause of the second.  Our best rises out of our uniqueness, our realization of the potential in our Selves.  I don’t know about the best people part, hard to sort them out from the scoundrels in my opinion. A homogenized society, the dream of Nazi’s, skinheads, Aryan race purists and other assorted nutjobs has a flaw prima facie without regard to its abhorrent racism.  It would be boring.  God, can you imagine a world where the rules were made Goebbles?  By David Duke?  By swastika waving baldies?  Abhorrent and boring.   A terrible combination. 

    The elitist implications of the cream rising serves as negative a function in society as those who would eliminate everybody but those they consider the cream. 

    Two tours today, Japanese language students again, this time from Edina.  We’ll see how it goes.

    38 is the temperature today.  It was 77 on Wednesday and I chose to work inside.  A poor choice on my part given Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s predicted weather.

    On Saturday, though, I head out to the Arboretum for an Institute for Advanced Studies day long seminar on natural time.  It focuses on a topic near and dear to my heart. 


    📂This entry was posted in Politics 📎and tagged

  • A Cheap Lesson Overall

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    58  bar falls 29.68  0mph E  dewpoint 57  Spring  rain

                   Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    I have crossed a threshold today.   A while back my treadmill started to not shut off when I turned it off.  The treadmill kept going at a speed of 1.0 to 1.5 mph.  After calling NOW Sports in Arden Hills, where, it turns out, I bought the machine (when they were in Maplewood), Mike the repair guy called Landice.  They recommended replacing a harness that connects the dial to a rheostat and the computer board that controls the displays.  I looked at it, and it didn’t look  too difficult, so I ordered the $100 part.

    It came.

    Last night I took off the old harness and installed the new one.  No joy.  It didn’t work at all.  That was a step backward, but, it was not an unusual outcome when I set out to repair things, so I called Mike.  He said he’d call Landice and see if replacing the whole panel was the way to go.  After I hung up, I started to go upstairs and I noticed lights on the display panel.  Electricity!

    That meant I might not be as far off as I thought.  I went back at it, jiggling wires.  It went off again.  Jiggled and moved some more wires.  A click.  A good sign.  Then, I found the right position for everything, turned the treadmill to on and it worked.  The elevation worked.  I turned it off.  It still ran.  At this point you might think I was unhappy, but I wasn’t.  This just meant that I had replaced the old harness with a new one and both were good.  The important thing here is that I replaced the old one with a new one and the damned thing still worked.  If that had been the  solution, it would have worked.  As it is, I spent $100 to prove to myself that I can work on things electronic.  A cheap lesson overall.


    📂This entry was posted in GeekWorld 📎and tagged

  • And the Soothsayers Predicted Snow

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    55  bar falls 29.79 0mph SE dewpoint 54  Spring   light rain

                    Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    And the soothsayers predicted Snow.  Oh, no.  Really, not a big deal.  Slush is more likely.  The precipitation now is all good.  As the weather continues (generally) to warm, the combination of rising soil temperatures and moisture puts plant life on the quick track up.

    Randy, from Randy’s plumbing, called.  He will come out Friday am to install the gas piping to the generator.  Center Point will come out on Tuesday afternoon to give us the bigger meter necessary to provide adequate gas to the generator when it works.  Soon we will have protection against power outages.  One more block for the retirement security perimeter.

    Membership in Permaculture in a Cold Climate is another one.  As we make the transition here to more and more home grown produce and hopefully some home captured energy, we will reduce our need to leave the property for grocery trips.  All this moves us toward a smaller and smaller carbon footprint. Although, I have to admit, the steam room probably eats up more than we’ll balance for awhile.  Gotta figure that out one of these days.  When we get that Prius two years from now, our balance sheet will look better.

    Allison has asked me to consider a short article on astronomy for the summer Muse.  She wants me to focus on the moon since there’s enough written about sun cults. (her language)  Made a quick survey of objects in the MIA collection.  If you thrown in those with stars, there are over 100 objects that have either a moon or star connection.  Finding a good 8 or 10 for a Moon and Stars tour would be easy.  This plays to an interest I developed in archaeoastronomy while I belonged to the Minnesota Astronomical Society.  We’ll see what she wants.  More later.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Great Work Weather +Climate 📎and tagged

  • A Vocabulary for This Age

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    69  bar steady 30.11 2mph SSE dewpoint 35 Spring

                    Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    On the way home from taking Kate to the airport I listened to an NPR interview with choreographer/dancer Patricia Brown.  Her company dances Friday at Northrup and she has some kind of an exhibition at the Walker.

    Here’s the takeaway for me.  She is 72+.  A newspaper announced she was about to retire.  She said, no, I haven’t said that.  Instead, she said she was “…looking for a vocabulary for my body at this age.  When I find it, I will perform again.”  This is a great strategy for aging.  We do not look at our deficits, rather, we assess our capabilities and design a vocabulary that uses them, then we get on with our life.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Faith and Spirituality 📎and tagged

  • Morning Glories in the Lead with Cucumber Right Behind

    Posted on by Charles 1 Comment

    52  bar rises 30.13 0mph S dewpoint 39  Spring

                 Waning Gibbous Moon of Growing

    The moon of growing has fulfilled its role.  Daylilies have popped up everywhere.  A few magnolia buds have popped open.  I found a couple of daffodil’s with flowers still furled around the stalk, but visible now, where they were still hidden a day ago.  No tulip flowers visible yet but the plants themselves are in full leaf.  A few aconites bloom in the front, hidden by the asters of last fall.  I have to cut them down so we can see the blooms.  Leaves to rake.  Last year’s perennials to cut down.  The growing season outside is slowly getting underway.

    Kate’s getting ready for her Gabe trip.  She’ll probably head straight to the hospital to see the little guy.  I’ll feel better when she’s there.  She’s got a lot of experience with infants.  A lot.

    I’ll take her to the airport, then return here and probably work in the garden for a bit.

    The morning glories have begun to rocket up.  I only planted them four days ago and they’re already an inch and a half above the plug.  The cucumbers race right along behind them with, for now, the cylindria beets.  I can see evidence of seedling’s emerging from most of the other plugs, too.  The vegetable garden has begun to grow, right here in our house.  Meanwhile, the lettuce and tomato up top with the halide bulb and the hydroponics continue upwards as well. 


    📂This entry was posted in Family Garden 📎and tagged

  • The Mohel Is In Israel

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    63  bar steady 29.99 1mph W dewpoint 29 Spring

                     Full Moon of Growing

    Interior Gardens, where I buy hydroponic supplies, has two Australian Heelers, a dingo related herding dog.  I met Lili and her buddy.  They were friendly and happy to see me from their perch on bags of stacked potting soil.  I bought some more pots so I can make the megafarm a bit more versatile and some trays so I can start more seeds.  So far the hydroponics seems pretty straight forward, but I’m sure the future holds challenges.

    The bris will be May 4th.  The mohel is in Israel.  Little Gabe has some respiratory distress. Jon and Jen will be glad when Kate gets there.

    Today or tomorrow morning is repair the treadmill day.  I have a harness to replace and it demands matching colored wires with the right sockets.  It seems straightforward, but I confused three colors on the back of the TV.  


    📂This entry was posted in Family General

  • An Earth Day Baby

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    54  bar steady  29.98  2mph WSW dewpoint 38  Spring

                     Full Moon of Growing

    Gabe is an earth day baby.  To have a grandchild born on earthday is auspicious.  His generation will bear the full brunt of the policy decisions now taking place in homes, cities, states and the nation, in fact, all over the globe.  We have the chance to mitigate and in some instances reverse the earth damaging human footprint, but if we don’t, Gabe and his demographic cohort had better learn to swim early, though he resides in Denver, the Mile High city, so ocean rise would have to get severe to reach his front door.

    He’s in  a level 2 nursery with oxygen, an IV for fluids and possibly anti-biotics. Kate says if he has trouble it will come within the first 24 hours.  She doesn’t think he will.  He weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz and is 19 inches long.  Lean and long.  Just like his dad.  This is a good weight for a 35 week baby.

    Kate spent this morning in whirling dervish mode, controlled but rapid, making phone calls and deciding how to wrap up stuff around here so she can fly out tomorrow.  I’ll stay through Monday AM when I’ll drive out in order to be there in time for the bris on Wednesday.

    We had a solid rain last night and though the temps are not as high today we’re still warm enough to encourage growth.  Several of the seeds I planted on Sunday have already sprouted.  I’m not sure what will happen to them left to their own devices for three days, they’re still vulnerable in these first few days, just like Gabe.  Got to think on it.


    📂This entry was posted in Family

  • Oil and Gas Operator

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    76  bar steady 29.79 0mph ESE dewpoint 53  Spring

                     Full Moon of Growing

    This land baron business creates decisions.  Just got an offer in the mail, unsolicited, for our land in Texas.  On one level it appears to be a generous offer for 40 acres of mesquite, sand and rattle snakes.  On the other hand, how did somebody in California whose business card reads Oil and Gas Operator decide to send us an offer?  Gonna check out the oil and natural gas situation in Pecos County quick. 

    The reporter for the Ft. Stockton newspaper who wrote up the scam that sold off a 5,000 acre ranch in 40 acre allotments said to me when I spoke with her,  “My biggest hope is that oil or natural gas will be discovered under that land.  Would serve’m right.”

    My siblings and I got this land as an inheritance from a ne’er do well step brother.  We still don’t why.  He died and we got the land.  He bought it on e-bay.

    Gosh, I hope we have more suitors out there.  The ideal situation would be for us to lease our land to an oil company so they can put in a well.  Who knows?


    📂This entry was posted in Family