Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

  That's the mantra, yes?  It's on signs, towels, plaques, although, as a member of POEM (Professional Organization of English Majors), my preference would be to list the words alphabetically.  Blessed, Grateful, Thankful. Today, Thanksgiving, our various social media feeds and text messages will overflow with images and words defining what we are thankful, grateful and blessed for.  I'm right there with you, regardless of what you post.  Our lives overflow and it's fitting we put one of the 365 days a year to give recognition to what makes us thankful.   There's a very nice editorial in today's Star Tribune which encourages us to count our blessings and reflect on the responsibilities they bring.  Well worth the read. Yesterday we participated in Special Grandparents and Friends Day at Millie and Ethan's school, City of Lakes Waldorf School.  I don't know which impacted me more--the light in the children's eyes when they spied their grandpa...

Like many people our age, we've been talking about downsizing. Now, there is NOTHING about our current home that I don't love.  About nine years ago, when it seemed as if the adult children had left for good (following some grown, gone, launched and returned as they found their sea legs in the world), we gave thought to what we should do with this five bedroom house that served our family extremely well but, as we looked forward, had probably outlived its utilitarian usefulness. At that time, we landed on three possibilities: 1. Sell the house in its 'as is' condition, which was to say, would require a fair amount of work.  As in our master bathroom was Pepto Bismol pink, appliances were dated, etc., etc. 2. Do some updating a la Home Depot to see if we couldn't up the asking price above Fixer Upper status. 3. Remodel and turn the house into the dwelling we had always wanted, but were otherwise previously financially obligated, preventing the depth of work necessary...

  Our Republican candidate for governor, Dr. Scott Jensen, has a new campaign ad on the airwaves.  You can see it here , if you'd like.   I'll set the scene for you.  It's Dr. Jensen, sitting on a couch, a burp cloth over his shoulder, holding a pretty brand new baby like it's a rabid badger.  (The baby, in actuality, or, as my granddaughter, 1st grader Sloane Marie Mastroianni might say, LITERALLY, is his new grandson, so I apologize to the Jensen family for the snarky remark, but am not taking it back.)  Dr. Jensen, a documented opponent of abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, PRE AND POST DOBBS, now wants us to believe that he really didn't mean what he said.  He's not out to change abortion rights in Minnesota, a state where, by the way, a woman's right to choose is constitutionally protected.  No, Dr. Jensen now wants women to pretend that, as his running mate Matt Birk has basically (not literally this time, Sloaney) promote...

  Day Eight: Driving Across Montana We drove from West Yellowstone up to Columbia Falls, Montana, just outside Glacier National Park.  We both were impressed with what a beautiful state Montana is--remote and rural for the most part, mountains, plains, valleys, lakes, creeks.  I had thought I would either read or crochet on the drive but ended up taking in the scenery.  Time well spent. Once we arrived, we basically took care of creature comforts.  Walked over to a recommended restaurant, had dinner, walked back, went to bed.  Good choices all around. Day Nine: Problem Solving Not Having a Park Reservation I'm guessing some time in February I received an email from the National Park Service informing me that Glacier was going to a reservation required for entry through its primary gates, those that lead directly onto the famous Going to the Sun Road. I ignored said email for a couple reasons. a) In February, we were pretty much occupied with the aftermath o...

  Day Seven Mother Nature Is Coming and Boy, Does She Sound Pissed Since the most recent giant ( caldera-forming ) eruption 631,000 years ago, approximately 80 relatively nonexplosive eruptions have occurred. Of these eruptions, at least 27 were rhyolite lava flows in the caldera, 13 were rhyolite lava flows outside the caldera, and 40 were basalt vents outside the caldera. The most recent volcanic eruption at Yellowstone, a lava flow on the Pitchstone Plateau, occurred 70,000 years ago. ( source: United States Geologic Service).  Also according to the USGS: Yellowstone is not overdue for an eruption . Volcanoes do not work in predictable ways and their eruptions do not follow predictable schedules. Even so, the math doesn’t work out for the volcano to be “overdue” for an eruption. In terms of large explosions, Yellowstone has experienced three at 2.08, 1.3, and 0.631 million years ago. This comes out to an average of about 725,000 years between eruptions. That being the case,...

  Day Six: The Birthday Boy Almost Bails When we woke up this morning, Dan complained of "lethargy" and expressed concern regarding his ability to engage in the day's planned activity: viewing the Grand Prismatic and a subsequent hike to Fairy Falls. What did he think it was, his birthday?  As a matter of fact, it was. But after a hearty breakfast, he rallied, and we headed out to the intended sites. Previously, I commented about the perceived poor signage at Grand Tetons.  Our experience at Yellowstone was that signage there was far superior to the Tetons, including very nice blaze orange metal pieces fastened about seven feet above the trail onto trees so you can see where you're supposed to be headed.  With that in mind, we set out believing that we'd see the sign for Fairy Falls (identified in our hiking map as a popular destination).  No problem.  Ha, ha.  Joke's on us.  But once again, the detour was worth it.  Even when we recognized w...

     Days Four and Five Let the Photos and the Captions Do the Talking   We arrived in Yellowstone on Saturday, after a very short drive from the Tetons. Both Parks in one trip is eminently doable.  We're adding Glacier at the end of this trip, which requires an at least seven hour drive from Yellowstone, so we'll see how that all works out.  As I've already noted, cell service is virtually non-existent and connecting to WiFi is about as good.  You'd be surprised how much you say, "Oh, let's Google that" only to remember that there's no access to The Google. Beautiful hike to Storm Point.  We're staying at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Cabins--we're in the cabins, a significant step up from the cabin in the Grand Tetons.  Lake Yellowstone is beautiful. Give me sunshine and water, and it's Om Shanti Shanti Om When you read about Yellowstone, inevitably you will be told to expect that you will encounter bison.  On our way to dinner the fi...

  Day Three: Floatin’ Down the River For today, I had planned ahead and booked a float trip down the Snake River.  No rapids or anything crazy like that, a promised leisurely 1 ½ hour float where we were likely to spy wildlife as well as view the Grand Tetons all the way down. Now I am not a fan of hyperbolic language.  In fact, I previously blogged about it (see).  However, isn’t it so nice when a planned event exceeds expectations?  And in this case, our guide, Jim, was the major contributor to this. If you’ve been on any sort of guided tour, you’re aware that the guide can be the make it or break it to your enjoyment of the event.  Perhaps you’ve endured the guide who clearly would have been happy to be anywhere but there; who kept looking at the cell phone; whose disinterest in the job led you to provide this non-monetary tip at the end of the journey: “You might want to consider another line of work.” To our good fortune, Jim was none of these....