kissalostsoul

Early yesterday morning Emma and I headed out for my a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,MN, for my sometimes annual physical check up.  After several frustrating moments the night before trying to upload the latest maps on my GPS, I was successful and it took me on a slightly different route this time to Rochester.  I guess the upload was worth it as it scooted me around all the construction that is going on in the Twin Cities. By about 3:00 I arrived at my oldest son Dan’s home, and was surprised to find his wife, Crystal, home.  She has been touring the country most of the summer as a sort of expeditor for a famous singing group.  I wish I could remember their name, but it’s The ‘something’ Brothers.  I hate it when I draw a blank like that.  I’m not familiar with them, but that’s not surprising.  It just came to me that it might be the Jonas Brothers? Anyway, she is often gone from home pursuing her career.  She is quite a good cook, so this road trip may have more of a culi

A couple of days ago, my blogger virtual friend Merikay wrote about Re-Learning to See .  It got me thinking.  I always try to see the little details around me during my days, but a reminder to stop, and look, and wonder, is always welcome.  So as I headed out to paint my 19 posts for the day, I kept that in mind.  I hope you enjoy what I found today. There was a pretty heavy fog around this morning as a result of the rain last night, and the abnormally high temps and humidity.  I just had to stop the truck and admire these delicate spider webs that were made so visible by the foggy dew.  Each of us creatures on earth make our own way through this world, but what beauty and symmetry I observed in the high branches.  Yep, it was one of those times to stop, and look, and wonder…  Of course, the guy in the Speedy Delivery van gave me on odd look, and probably didn’t appreciate me stopping in the middle of the road with my door open.  After I finishe

Yep, it was post painting time for me once again this morning after the staff meeting that lasted better than an hour.  The temps are up, the humidity is up, but I’m on a mission to paint all of these posts before I leave here next month.  When I can leave first thing in the morning, I generally get 20 various posts painted before I fizzle out.  By the time I got out of the meeting, gathered my supplies, and gassed up the refuge truck, it was 10:00 o’clock today.  That didn’t bode well for reaching a 20 post average. Of course I always bring my cameras along, and that meant I had a nice view of this young bald eagle today near the Chippewa picnic area.  A couple of weeks ago, this youngster’s constant screeching for food about drove me nuts for three hours as I painted all of the posts around the picnic area.  I was happy to see today that it has finally fledged off of the nearby nest, and wasn’t quite so vocal.  At this stage in their life, th

When I got back from running to town on Friday, the temps had risen into the 90’s.  I thought perhaps we were done with those hot humid days up here for this year, but the heat wave is supposed to continue until at least Thursday.  It’s not cooling down enough for my tastes at night either. So, I’ve pretty much spent the weekend indoors with the AC on.  Yesterday morning, Steve was scheduled to pull out of here and begin his journey to the Pacific Northwest.  As he was hooking up his toad, I mentioned that the wind seemed kind of strong.  He headed out anyway.  Personally, I would have sat still for another day.  The winds ended up being gale force, and some of my outside furniture and a rug took flight during one of the tremendous gusts.  I never even considered putting out my big awning to shade the rig.  It would have ended up in Canada, I think.  I even pulled in my small awnings over two of the windows on the driver’s side of the rig.  The wind was that strong all day. Then, t

Yesterday morning, I once again got ready to lead the “Refuge Excursion Tour”.  In the past, no one has shown up to take the tour on the days I’ve been assigned.  However, I was happily surprised to find three people show up for the excursion yesterday!  I was back in my element of imparting information about the history and purpose of Tamarac NWR.  I had a grand time telling them about how this refuge came about, and the work of the CCC Camp that was located here as the refuge was established back in 1938. We also visited the Chippewa (Ojibwa) burial ground and spirit houses that are located on the refuge.  The holes in the burial structures are where the spirits of the deceased left the area on their four day journey.  The first day was spent traveling the prairies, then on to the plains.  The third day they spent traveling over the mountains, and on the fourth day, they entered their happy hunting grounds.  I assume that since the spirits of the dead have long ago left, the Chip

With the weather guessers saying temps were going to be in the 90’s today, I set my alarm for a pre-dawn wake up so I could get out painting those posts in the cool (?) of the morning.  It was muggy and warm as I headed out to try to finish up the posts along Bruce Boulevard. As I stopped for this photo along the way, I wondered if any color would show up in the fogginess, and it didn’t.  I didn’t change this photo to black and white in Picasa; this is what it actually looked like this morning.  Kind of eerie.  My goal was to get 20 posts painted before the temps became too oppressive, and I almost made it. With the heavy water laden air, not many birds were moving about.  I spotted this young bald eagle perched on a dead tree waiting for things to dry out. This is not the best picture, but I wanted to lighten it up a bit to see if I could determine the bird’s age.  I think this is one of the youngsters from this year’s hatch of bald eagles.  If you look real closely, you m

Do you remember that annoying ditty called “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”?  Well, I’ve been singing it in my head all day.  I’ve changed the lyrics a bit, but sing along with me now: ♫ ♪ “71 Painted Posts are done,          71 Painted Posts,          Take one down, and pass it around,          Only 200 more Painted Posts to go…” ♪ ♫ Of course, I’m only guessing about the 200 posts to go, it could well be more than that, but you get the idea.  With the temps rising to the 90’s this week, I find myself about wiped out by 1:00.  Then it’s time to hop in the truck, turn the AC on high, and find some other chore to do.  In one of my former lives, I was a math teacher, and have always been plagued with counting things automatically.  Whether it’s counting how many steps up a fire tower or how many shrimp I’m peeling and deveining, my mind goes into calculator mode and tics them off.  It drives me crazy sometimes, but that’s how I know I’ve already painted exactly 7