• Tag Archives Vikings

  • Post-Op Pups

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                            Waxing Harvest Moon

    The need to constantly monitor our two post-op pups and Kate’s difficulty with her neck and back has made me feel trapped in the house.  If I leave one of the pups in the kitchen too long, they chew up and ruin something I’d rather have.  If I let them outside, they run the risk of opening their incisions and getting an infection.  Kate’s pain has made her less able than normal to help with them.  So, I stay close, listen for chewing sounds and rotate the pups, one inside and one outside.

    While Kate was here this morning, I made a quick run to the temple of the cost conscious consumer, Costco.  Got dogfood, dog treats, kitchen trash bags and two large jugs of Tide.  I discovered a while back that if you go right at 10 a.m. when they open, the chances of getting in and out in a reasonable time rise dramatically.

    OK.  That’s enough whining.

    How about that Favre?  He was in for two sets of downs, did a bit of this and a bit of that, nothing spectacular.  The paper claimed season ticket and jersey sales have almost made up for the money they spent on his contract.  Geez.  Here’s a bit of irony.  Tavaris Jackson followed Favre and played well into the fourth quarter.  He looked great.  His passes were crisp; he didn’t hesitate.  Seemed to know what he was about.  Then John David Booty stepped in and looked good, too.

    It made wonder if the coaching staff has picked Favre for an additional reason to the apparent one, that is taking an already good team deeper into the playoff season.  Maybe, just maybe they hope his play and presence will elevate the work of Tavaris Jackson and/or John David Booty.  Maybe, just maybe Favre plays a couple of years, these guys apprentice from one of the best to play the game and become our quarterbacks of the future?  If I can think of it, someone else can, too.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs Sport 📎and tagged

  • Wish They All Could Be California…Wines

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                                 Waxing Green Corn Moon (99% illuminated)

    Kate and I watched Bottle Shock, a movie about the U.S. Bicentennial year taste test between French and American wines.  California’s Napa Valley wines won.  The British oenologist who created the test redid it in 2006 anticipating that the French wines would win.  They did not.  Napa again.

    It’s a bit difficult for me to tell whether I don’t get it because I don’t drink alcohol, but the whole veneration of vinculture and its products seems overblown.  Just sayin’.

    Tonight the almost full Green Corn Moon is a yellow orb hanging high in the southeast sky.  It makes the evening enchanted.  The Japanese have moon viewing platforms.  Seems like a good idea to me.

    More medical visits tomorrow with Kate, trying to track down the elusive next and hopefully better treatment.

    Not sure whether I wrote anything about the whole Favre who-ha, but here it is:  thank god it didn’t happen.  Any superbowl won by the Vikings with Brett Favre at the helm would have tainted the experience and us long suffering Viking’s fans deserve a clean win, straight up with no cross state retired quarterback in the mix.  That said, it does not appear to me that either Tavaris Jackson or Rosenfels have the stuff, but I hope I’m wrong.


    📂This entry was posted in Cinema and Television Faith and Spirituality Sport 📎and tagged

  • An Existential Cry?

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    -8  falls 30.32  SW0 wchill-8 Winter

    First Quarter of the Wolf Moon

    The Great Horned Owl who lives in our woods calls tonight, right now as I write.  Whether he, or she, speaks to a lost love or wayward children I do not know.  On a night this cold it could be the existential cry of the world, proclaiming the season at its depths.  I often imagine this owl whose wingspan extends longer than my body and whose talons can lift a small dog or a young child with ease; I imagine this owl perched on a top limb of our tallest poplar.  The gaze of this fierce predator, the apex predator of our woods, rakes the Wolf Moon, perhaps blinded by the light, but looking just the same.  Because, like us, the moon attracts the eye.

    The Vikings lost to the Eagles.  I don’t feel as let down as I have when the Vikings have lost other playoff games.  Not sure why.  Maybe because they did not come into this game a prohibitive favorite, then give it away.  Perhaps because they played with heart and made some young team mistakes.  I don’t know.  But I’ll watch again.  Peculiar, eh?

    Writing Homecomer took up the writing juice today.  Little left over for this blog.  I’ll let it sit a day or two, then read it with a red pen in hand. Go back to the computer and revise it.  Then let it be.

    Now, back to The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.  If you have not read it, and enjoy period pieces with rich characters and real historical drama as I do, then you’ll find this a treat.


    📂This entry was posted in Faith and Spirituality Great Work Our Land and Home Sport Weather +Climate 📎and tagged

  • Half-Time

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    23  bar steep fall 29.90  0mph SE  windchill 22   Winter

    New Moon (Wolf Moon)

    Vikings played well the first half against the Giants.  67 yard touchdown by Adrian Peterson.  Yeah.

    Order in to Seed Savers.  Baker Creek next.

    A sunny, warmer than last week day.  Shadows from the south in early afternoon.


    📂This entry was posted in Sport 📎and tagged

  • I Do the Things I Should Not Do… Sigh

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    4  bar steep rise 29.72  4mph SW  windchill 0  Samhain

    Full Moon of the Long Nights

    Vikings came up big time against Arizona.  Yes, I watched it.   I guess you could say I’m conflicted about football.  I like it, but I don’t think I should.  Just like TV.  I like it, but something tells me I shouldn’t. Still, I do.  A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, said Emerson.  A rationalization for every situation.

    A day I was glad to be home with domestic tasks.


    📂This entry was posted in Sport 📎and tagged

  • Just Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    55 bar rises 30.09  0mph NEE  dew-point 54  sunrise 7:09  set 6:58   Autumn

    New Moon (Blood)

    More mulch.  Two more loads.  3 cubic yards.  4.5 total.  This is a lotta mulch, 3 trailer fulls.  The good news is the trailer has not exploded a tire since Wednesday.

    The pitchfork is a useful tool and I’m glad to have occasion to use one.

    My chicken noodle soup always has a slightly different recipe, but the result tastes good.  Today I left out the carrots and peas (we didn’t have any) and added garlic.  This is a hearty soup, great for cool weather.

    Swapped out the nutrient in the hydroponics while watching the Vikings under perform.  It’s weird to me that so many different combinations of players and coaches can yield similar results.

    Kate had a busy, tough weekend.  But she’s on the flipside now.


    📂This entry was posted in General 📎and tagged

  • The Vikings. Hmmm.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    46  bar steady 30.11  0mph WNW dew-point   sunrise 6:45  set 7:36

    First Quarter of the Harvest Moon  rise 4:06   set  none

    The Vikings.  Well.  Near the end they had a chance to win.  A good chance.  They stayed in it and did not give up.  Tavaris still looks a bit stunned, but his passing improved in the second half.  Do not why they did not give Peterson the ball more.  Anyhow.  Could have been worse.  The defense did not look as good as the hype.  Roy Wolf at sheepshead last Thursday called a score somewhere in this ballpark.  I took the rosy picture.  Oh, well.

    Tomorrow is a physical labor day.  Later in the week, more horticulture.

    Started Arthur Machen’s novella, The Great God Pan.  I’m feeling some kind of work with Pan on the horizon.  In addition to gardening, that is.


    📂This entry was posted in Sport 📎and tagged

  • Football and Iris, an Excellent Saturday

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    57  bar rises 30.06  0mph N  dew-point 50  sunrise 6:26  sunset 8:05 Lughnasa

    Last Quarter of the Corn Moon

    The weather has gotten cooler and dryer.  A taste of autumn today.  Most Minnesotans enjoy fall the most with winter second.

    Read my lily culture book this evening and got the information I needed to dig up the lily bulbs.  They will go in amongst the iris. Later this fall I will plant daffodils in amongst them, too.

    Paula Westmoreland from Ecological Gardens got back in touch with me today.  We’ll connect on Monday.  Kate and I want her to come out and help us with a site plan and assessment of our potential for permaculture.  She can give us concrete next steps to take:  plant lists, landscaping advice, energy conservation and capture ideas, perhaps even some modest income producing possibilities.  This will give us a set of goals and objectives against which we can work.

    I can do much of the work myself. What I can’t do we’ll hire.  Exciting.

    The Vikes looked pretty good.  The defense did a great job.  The offense sputtered, chugged, then hit on all cylinders for a few beautiful plays, then sputtered again.  The announcers made a good point.  At this time in the season the defense has its act together better than the offense.  Offense relies on split second timing.  Frerotte is our second string quarterback so in spite of a good game from him, the offense played with out its key player, Tavaris Jackson.  His year will probably end up being our year, so here’s hoping he comes on strong after the knee injury.


    📂This entry was posted in Garden Great Work Our Land and Home 📎and tagged

  • The Pre-Season

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    66  bar falls 29.87  0mph S dew-point 59  sunrise 6:07  sunset 8:30  Lughnasa

    First Quarter of the Corn Moon  moonrise 1326 moonset 2226

    The Vikings.  Tavaris Jackson looked improved, just as the pre-season hype has it.  The first string defense failed to impress, though Jaren Allen showed his quickness.  Pat Williams did not play tonight, so that made the run defense a lot weaker.  Berrian, Wade and Rice showed some promise as receivers and Maurice Hicks as a running back.  It’s true.  I can’t hide it.  I enjoy watching football.  There, I said it.

    Talked to Kate.  She had Gabe and he cooed over the phone.  Ruthie was asleep.  Humphrey, as Ruth calls her, had a lump, had it biopsied and it came back cancerous.  That meant oncologists and surgeons today, so Kate got to watch Gabe and Ruth while the daycare lady went to the hospital.  Kate was ready.


    📂This entry was posted in Family 📎and tagged

  • Violent and Elegant

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    73  bar steady 29.86  0mph NNE dew-point 68  sunrise 5:50 Sunset 8:49  Summer

    Last Quarter of the Thunder Moon

    Ever wonder about people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water?  Try spelling Evian backwards.  George Carlin, RIP.

    Ancientrails will go dark for two days, Friday and Saturday, with a probable posting late Sunday.  Unless, that is, I find a spare computer in Texas and get a chance to post, but I’m not counting on it.

    The reason?  No computer on this trip.  Three days away, minimal luggage with the fees for checking baggage, and the old laptop we have is too heavy.  Also, the time frame makes for a compressed week-end with family, the focus.

    A Few Seconds of Panic by Stefan Fastis recounts a sportswriters time as a walk-on place kicker for the Denver Broncos.  This book at least seems to present a detailed picture of what life is like for the players.  It is a hard life, filled with psychological and mental challenges as well as physical ones.  It is also well-remunerated if you can make it into a starting role and addictive emotionally.

    Football and I have a strange relationship.  On the one hand I want to understand it, understand it as the intellectual, chess-like strategy game it is for those who manage it; on the other hand, I feel weird about liking football, as if I violate the intellectual’s code of honor (necessary to staying in the secret club) by my interest. I know, this is my problem for sure.

    The players also fascinate me, violent and elegant, they have an archetypal presence, athletes who risk it all each week for as long as they play. They are, too, spoiled children, at least by report, dependent on a phalanx of specialists who handle everything from dalliances to drug charges for them.  There is, also, the often hidden, but apparently real, physical downsides of life after football: early dementia, constant pain, physically abusive behavior and sometimes drug dependency.

    With the trades the Vikings have made in the offseason at least 13 Sunday afternoons will have a familiar activity.  God, I’m glad we bought that big TV.

    See you on the Sunday flipside.


    📂This entry was posted in GeekWorld 📎and tagged