Drawing Games

Sometimes the girls like to do a little drawing game I read about somewhere. One of us will scribble on a blank sheet of paper for a few seconds (two or five is more than enough), then another will try to turn that scribble into something – anything. Here are my favorite two transformations from the last time we played:

"Reclining Lady" by Julia
A Picasso-esque “reclining lady” (with a bottle of pink nail polish) by Julia.
"Bug" by Genevieve
A cuddly bug by Genevieve.

Stationary Bikes

This weekend I finished a little project: a stand for my bikes.
Bike Rack

I fabricated the stand itself a few months ago from 2-inch PVC piping. I had to reconfigure the vertical divider a few times to best accommodate the Beast’s unusually wide tires and Giddyup’s unusually wide handlebars, but I finally got that sorted out a couple weeks ago. This weekend, I fused the pipes with PVC cement and then spray-painted the whole thing. I’d still like to figure out a way to make the stand heavier, or otherwise fix it in place, but for now it does a good job of keeping my bikes from either leaning against one another or, like, falling over.

Growlering

Growlerecycling

After our vacation two summers ago, I brought two growlers of delicious beer back from Houghton, Michigan. In spring 2012, I bought another growler of beer in Madison while on a trip there. Since emptying the growlers, they’ve been collecting dust and waiting for the day that I’d have some way to fill them here in Northfield. Today, I recycled them, figuring that we Northfielders still have a long wait for a microbrewery in town. I wish someone would fix that problem.

Bike Racing Up the Wazoo

Goodness gracious, but Saturday, the 10th of August is a great day of mountain bike racing in North America, including such events as

The Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic in Marquette, Michigan (the “capital” of the Upper Peninsula) is a 48-mile race with a net elevation loss, O2S attracts a lot of the best MTB racers in the Midwest.

The Leadville 100 in Leadville, Colorado, is a high-altitude century which annually draws quite a few of the world’s best marathon specialists.

The World Cup cross-country races in Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec, are the fifth stop on the UCI MTB World Cup circuit. Most most of the world’s top XC racers will be competing here, preparing for the World Championships in South Africa next month.

I wish I had the legs, bike, money, and time to do either of the first two races – or just the time and money to be at the last one. Thank god for the internet!

TGIF Forever

It’s been a hell of a summer, in just about every way. On the cusp of the middle third of August, I’m utterly spent – about as worn out as I’ve ever been when I’ve not been parenting a newborn.

Work accounts for a lot of my current spent-ness. The grantwriting “day job” of at Carleton has been unusually taxing (often in frustrating ways) this whole summer – the one period each year when I can usually count on a lull to recharge the metaphorical batteries. My online-teaching “night job” at Metro State too has been surprisingly demanding, and I’m only midway through three straight semesters with a class that I need to squeeze in between regular work, family responsibilities, and downtime.

Not that I’ve had much real downtime. In fact, I really haven’t had any meaningful “time off” since Christmas. I’ve taken some half-days off here and there, most evenings are mostly “free,” and we did take a short (but not exactly relaxing!) vacation in early July, but I’ve had no sustained time away from work. And yeah, I’m willingly working out – often pretty hard – more days than not, but honestly, I think I’d be even more drained if I couldn’t count on the straightforward physical exertion of the workouts.

Third and maybe most importantly, this summer has included plenty of challenges to the heart and mind (not to say the soul). One must be necessarily vague about these challenges, but they have played havoc with my sleep, among other habits that contribute to health and happiness. In short: 2013 is reminding me that being a grown up is a pretty complicated business.

Mountain Bike Races and Lusts

Somewhere – I suspect Twitter – I discovered that a certain energy-drink maker is webcasting all of this year’s World Cup mountain bike races, both live and on-demand. I’ve devoured all of the cross-country races, which have so far taken place in Europe but which will shift to Mont Ste. Anne, Quebec, this weekend. The racing is spectacularly engrossing, the athletes are stupendously strong, and my binge-watching has stoked my lust for a mountain bike like this one.

Wishful Riding

I had a nice, slightly too hard bike ride tonight, one of our usual outings on gravel roads around Northfield. The corn smelled sweet, the gravel was solid, and the weather was good. But every Tim’s we dipped into a hollow and the air got ever so slightly chilly, I found myself wishing for this:

January 6, 2013

School Supplies

It’s the character of our family that my life burbles along pretty much the same, week in and week out, month in and month out, while Shannon’s and the girls’ lives change markedly at least a couple times of year, according to the school year, and vary quite a bit daily, as they do run errands, do fun stuff, have playdates, and so on.

Today was one of those days where the daily routine reflected a big seasonal change: the start of the new school year in just about a month. Shannon took the girls to Target this morning to buy every last item on their school-supply lists – plus some new shoes and backpacks. It is quite a haul, and the girls are hilariously excited about pretty much all of it.

School Supplies

The Family that Bikes Together…

Riding Along

For a long time now, I’ve really, *really* wanted my girls to see “riding bikes” as a fun, happy thing to do. The past several summers have been pretty much consumed by, first, helping them learn to ride and, then, getting them to think of riding as just something to do (rather than, say, a painful experience over which one should cry before, during, and after).

This summer, though, things have come together beautifully. Especially in the last month or so, both girls are jumped at the chances to go for short bike rides after dinner, to ride to the pool or downtown, and to ride to and all around campus. Their cycling personalities have come out, too: Julia is definitely a *rouleur* who likes to keep a steady pace all day, while Vivi is a sprinter who zooms around but needs to stop and rest. And they’re both good, attentive riders, too: stopping at intersections, watching for cars, riding in the appropriate spots when we’re on a road or street. It’s pleasing, satisfying, and just plain fun to ride along with them. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I don’t think I’ve hardly ever been prouder of them.

Rafting the Cannon

Rafting the Cannon

This afternoon, our friend K organized a rafting expedition on the Cannon River, the very tame waterway that runs through these parts to the Mississippi. Along with three other families, we took about five hours to float eight miles downstream from Cannon Falls. Except for a couple dicey moments involving “rapids” and sandbars, the trip was quiet and relaxing. We picnicked on an amazingly sandy beach and later took another break on a rocky island that supplied us with dozens of skipping rocks. The river is gorgeous. I’d love to do this again in the fall, when the leaves have changed. Perhaps a beer would also be good.

Farm Dog

Musti on the Roof

When my mom visited a while ago, I scanned a bunch of old family pictures that she’d brought down. One of them is this (rather bad) shot of one of the dogs my grandpa had when we lived with him on the farm in North Ironwood, Michigan. This scruffy mutt’s name was Musti, which we understood to be Finnish for “Blackie.” He was a good dog, but a farm dog through and through. I’m sure he came inside sometimes, or maybe every day, but he spent most of his time outside. He must have smelled awful, but you can see the intelligence in his face. My recollections are of him trotting protectively after my grandpa as he did farm chores or, alternatively, lying on the roof of the entrance to the cellar – which is where he’s standing here. Rain or shine, sun or snow, Musti would lie there, just the other side of the kitchen window, where he and Grandpa could keep an eye on each other. The second he saw Grandpa get up from his chair at the kitchen table, Musti would scramble up and jump down from his perch to go wait by the front door.

Summer Ride

I spent this afternoon on my fatbike, doing a simple out-and-back route to the longest nearby hill. The ride was hard and good, a really solid outing. The fatbike is a heavy monster, but it loves to roll fast and it can grind up any slope.

Blooming Stumps
Summer riding is especially good for seeing interesting stuff along the roads.

There are always dozens of empty cans of cheap beers scattered on the shoulders, but that litter is offset by little magical moments – a pebble turning into a grasshopper and leaping away, an unperturbed butterfly slowly fanning its wings – even a strange dark butterfly or moth flying up from a giant pile of horseshit.

The oddest thing I saw today, though, came at the end of my ride, as I turned onto a tight forest trail in Carleton’s Arboretum. Just past the corner were four young guys, one holding a gun, standing over a fifth person, lying under a black sheet. I’m used to odd sights like this on campus, so I just braked and said, “I won’t even ask!” The standing guys laughed and the “dead” guy sat up just as I inched past.

Changing One Thing Changes Another

As she was getting ready for bed tonight, Vivi came up to me with a funny look on her face. “Daddy, sometimes I like to think about what if I did something different during the day, and would the day be different? Like, I put on my summer jammies after the pool, and I’m really hot right now. What if I had put on my winter jammies? Would I be even hotter?”

I was amazed. As long as I can remember, I’ve wondered the same thing – not about wearing jammies, but about how doing one thing differently in the course of a day would alter all the subsequent events of that day. A lot of people must do this same kind of wondering, but it was amazing to hear my own kid saying it back to me.