Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: Sign saying: (trans) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

This morning, in my inbox, was a notification from "Women's March Minnesota" reminding me to generally be political. Among their various suggestions was a rally TODAY at the State Capitol at 2 pm to protest HF12, which is a piece of legislation aimed at trying to restrict trans women and girls from participating in sports in Minnesota. OutFront MN organized it to happen in front of the House Chambers as they were going into deliberation (we started at 2 pm, the legislature started their talks at 3:30 pm). I actually couldn't stay for very long as I had to pick Shawn up from work just down the street at the History Center. But I showed up and hung out as long as I could. It was delightful to watch people from all over show up, unfurl trans flags, rainbow flags, and nonbinary flags. 

At least one (obvious and fursuit wearing) person from the furry community showed up and I could not have been more pleased. I fucking LOVE Minnesotans.

There was an absolutely DISTURBING number of heavily armored, armed State Troopers at the Captiol, however. I presume they were there for us, because the folks protesting right before we were where homeless foster kids who were trying to save their program's funding and (sadly) there weren't nearly as many of thos folks.

At any rate, the police presence seemed like overkill. 

Still, for a Monday afternoon, I thought it was an amazing showing.  Here's a shot that gives you a small sense of the crowd. We filled the second floor of the rotunda and spilled down into the first floor. 



Image: Doesn't look nearly as impressive as it was. Most of the signs say "Let Kids Play" (in trans flag colors)

I don't know what good it will do, but I do think the MN Legislature now knows we will turn out in force when they threaten trans folks. There was not a single MAGA hat in the crowd. Hopefully, soon, we will get our majority back (in Minnesota) and we can block crap like this from even being discussed.

But, until then, we FIGHT.

 
Image: Virginia bluebells 2024 garden

I took some pictures of my garden today, but they are all EXTREME close-ups because if I zoom out at all, you see leaf litter, bare patches, and the kinds of crap that master gardeners seem to be able to turn into compost, but which, in my yard, just rots and becomes slimy. 

On the other hand, I managed to frame this picture just at the right angle so that the garden visible behind the bleeding hearts doesn't manage to reveal the rest of the garden crap.


Image: pink bleeding hearts, well-framed.

Today has been a bit of a crazy day. Shawn woke up feeling terrible from a lack of sleep. but I managed to get her to work on time. We have a house guest for a few days, our dear friend John Jackson. I had INTENDED to pick up Diet Pepsi for him at Kowalski's on the way home, but I did all the rest of the shopping and completely forgot the soda. I got home, did a bit of writing on the new book, but then when I was out in the garden my dad called. He and I did a feature for his vodcast Talking Smart and he needed a better biography and I noticed that the list of my books that he'd gotten off Wikipedia was... weirdly wrong.  Like, the citation was to my Tate Hallaway blog, but somehow there were a bunch of things out of order. This sent me into a tizzy, because, of course, authors aren't supposed to edit their own Wikipedia pages. So, I enlisted John's help, but that was a hitch in the day that I wasn't expecting. 

I went back outside with the intention of trying to rescue our front garden... and I got pretty discouraged pretty quickly. I was outside muttering under my breath, "Buy a home, they said. It'll be fun, they said. You can plant your own gardens..." :-)

But at least my ONE jack-in-the-pulpit keeps coming back.


Image: Jack in the Pulpit

 
Image: laser-eyed loon on St. Paul Public Library card

So, I don't always love living in St. Paul (don't ask me about the snow plowing situation), but occasionally my city is EXCEPTIONAL.

For my international and out-of-state friends, what you see before you is the new St. Paul Public Library card. You need to look closely to see that the loon (which does, in fact, have red eyes, in nature,) is shooting lasers from said red eyes. This may seem just funny on its own, but it is made even better by the fact that recently Minnesota had a contest to replace its racist and outdated state flag and at least one of the entries was a loon shooting lasers out of its eyes.

And, you know, let's be honest. There are a surprising number of people, had we had a chance to vote on it, would have probably CHOSEN a state flag with a loon shooting lasers from its eyes.

Also, in the case of ranked voting, I would have picked the one that was just a picture of some guy's dog.

I love Minnesota.

The flag we ended up with is, as my grandmother would have said, "nothing to write home about." Although, it is made better by the people who assume that, if you can squint, you can imagine the laser-eyed loon spewing, kaiju style, an electric outburst. 



Image: The only thing I accept as the truth. Minnesota flag explained via insane laser-eyed loon cartoon.(not my art.)

I mean, I really can't unsee it now, so that's just what our flag is. If I bought a MN State Flag, I would totally put a little red dot in the center of the star.

 
Image: the Kettle River, at a guess

Normally, Mondays are out for State Park driving (unless we stick very close to home) because Shawn goes into work. Shawn has been battling some stomach issues for the past few days and so stayed home sick yesterday. Her bad fortune, however, opened up an opportunity for Mason and me.

I looked down my list of State Parks and decided on St. Croix. Mason and I had been here several years back and greatly enjoyed our hike, though my strongest memory of that particular hike was JUST HOW MANY ticks we shook off out body and then continued to find all the way home. I was reminded of this when I checked the Trip Adviser reviews of St. Croix State Park in the hopes of divining if there was something, in particular, we should set as a quick destination. The consensus (including, if I recall correctly, people here) was to give the fire tower climb a go. As I was reading through the reviews I noticed what seemed to be a funny trend: BUGS. There seemed to be almost a kind f argument raging between the people who posted TOO MANY BUGS and those that replied BUGS ARE PART OF NATURE. Being firmly of that second camp, I packed our extra-strength bug spray, lots of water this time, and we headed north.

I was not prepared for the Biblical proportions of bugs, however.

I am talking A-POC-A-LYP-TIC levels of horse flies and mosquitos. Like, at one point as we were driving towards the Fire Tower, Mason casually says, "Do bees follow cars?" I looked out my passenger side window and, after one landed on our car (which was traveling at least 15-20 miles per hour) we determined these were not nice, fat bumble bees, but HORSE FLIES. Giant-ass horse flies!  And they were, seriously, keeping pace with our car in a way that felt ready-made for a Stephen King horror movie.

We did not let this deter us. however.

We stopped first at the Fire Tower. I will confess to you all that I was fine going partway up, but my fear of heights is strange. I'm okay with climbing things if I can't see open ground through slats. The stairs were open and so I tapped out after only the first platform. Mason made it all the way to the top and took some photos of the spectacular view.

My view was mostly from the ground, looking up.


Image: Fire Tower at St. Croix State Park from the safe, sweet ground.

Other than the end-of-the-world level horseflies, it was a great driving time. I think Mason put in a full hour just going around the various roads. He even agreed to drive out past the ranger station where the posted speed was 50. I don't think he cracked 45, but he gave it a go. AND managed to stop in time for an indecisive deer in the middle of the road. 

However, we didn't make it home until very late. 

Still a good time was had by all.

 
A colorful fallen oak leaf.

On Sunday, Shawn and I decided that we wanted to go see if we could catch some fall color before it faded completely. The MN DNR color tracker told us that just south of us was at peak or just past, so we decided to take a trip down to Frontenac State Park. Frontenac State Park is just between Red Wing, Minnesota and a natural widening of the Mississippi called Lake Pepin. I have never understood, despite growing up in this area, what makes Lake Pepin a "lake." I tend to think of lakes as bodies of water that are, you know, separate from a river, or at least much, much larger than the river that feeds it? But, somehow this fat section of the Mississippi gets to technically be a lake. 

No matter how you define it, the view is gorgeous:


Image: the view atop the Frontenac State Park bluff towards Lake Pepin/the Mississippi River

Before leaving for the State Park, Shawn and I did a bit of reading in all the various books that we've collected on Minnesota state parks over the years. One of them recommended the self-guided interpretive trail and so we planned to walk that, as well as maybe the pine circle trail. I also really wanted to see the rock with a hole in it, called In-Yan-Teopa. 

We decided to drive down in our new-to-us Toyota, in order to test drive it. We are, for the first time in our lives, a two car family. There is a used car shortage and so we actually got this second car in order to hold in reserve for when our current Ford dies. I'm glad we test drove it because there was some concerning creaking that I'm going to have our mechanic look at when I take it in on Thursday, but we kind of forgot that our state park pass was actually affixed to the window of our OTHER car. So, when we got to the park, we had to stop in and get a day pass. Shawn managed to find a sweatshirt and several other things, so it was worthwhile. Plus, the ranger who was staffing the front desk was very helpful. She stamped my passport and gave us a great overview of places where we might see some good fall color.  She had just hiked everything in the last couple of days herself. 

She did also warn us, like all the books did, that there was "some elevation." I have come to understand that "some elevation" is the geological equivalent of "some weather." When Minnesotans tell you there's been some weather recently they don't mean a bit of rain, they mean a tornado ripped through yesterday. I now know that when a Minnesota park ranger tells you there is "some elevation," she means HOLY SH*T YOUR KNEES WILL KILL YOU CLIMBING ALL THOSE F*CKING STAIRS.


A blurry shot of stairs ascending the bluff.


But, so, Shawn and I took the interpretive hike, which did not have a huge amount of signage. But, it led to the lovely, flat pine circle trail which we enjoyed. It was very much Shawn's speed as it was a loop, had benches at every turn, and was under a mile. The hike back up to the picnic area, however, was where we first encountered "some elevation." This set of stairs was just one of MANY. We did get to hike along the old quarry site, which was fascinating, and there was an iron ring still pounded into the ground where a rock was going to be taken but was abandoned for some reason. 

At this point, even though we arrived fairly early (an hour or so after the park opened at 8 am), we started to encounter a lot of other hikers on the narrow trails. The trails were so narrow that we had to press up against the rock face in order to let people pass. 


This path is actually not as narrow as some, but you can see how there is just a wooden plank bridge over some areas. Now imagine that, only with the other side being a rock cliff.

The weather could not have been more perfect, however. We did see a bit of fall color here and there, too.


image: sunlight through yellows leaves

After the steep interpretive trail, Shawn tapped out. As she said several times during our walk, "Do not mistake me for a hiker," and so I left her at the picnic area with a good book (the newest Longmire) and waved goodbye as I headed off to see the rock. 

A good portion of the way out towards the rock was paved and perfectly flat. I missed a turn, however, and ended up tromping through the very busy campground (people were packing up to leave) until I found my way back to the upper bluff trail. That trail was slightly more rigorous, if only because the ground was uneven and the path narrowed significantly again. I got excited when I started to see signs for the rock...



image: a sign!!

But, I was disappointed by what I saw when I got to the observation area....


image: Yep, the uninteresting top of a rocky outcropping....

As I was staring at this very dull rock for several minutes a couple of other hikers came up and explained to me that if I wanted the view of the actual stone arch, I would have to hike down to the lower bluff trail. The ranger had been actually very clear (for a Minnesotan) that the lower bluff trail was steep "but do-able." Given that all we got for the stairs that nearly killed us was "some elevation," I figured this warning should be headed. Also, I was on my own. Shawn was waiting patiently in the picnic area, but it was after one o'clock and I still had to make my way all the way back to her. I decided that this was the view I was going to get. 

I did look it up, however, so if you're curious what I WOULD have seen, this is it::


Image. the view I should have gotten. (Yanked from the wikipedia entry on Frontenac State Park.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontenac_State_Park

We spend a good portion of our day on this little trip and it was very fun, though my knees ache a little today?  The ironic thing, of course, is that for all that walking not a mile of it counted for the Minnesota Hiking Club, because I never walked the official trail to get the password. At some point I will have to come back to log those miles, but not any time soon. Maybe I'll walk it next spring. 

Shawn brought along her old film camera, so it should be interesting to see if any of her pictures turn out. Also, as we were leaving we caught sight of trumpeter swans in the Mississippi. So, that was very nifty.

All and all, a thumbs up.

 
Image: The bridge heading to Pike Island (Wita Tanka)

I have been having a tough re-entry into urban life. I miss the routine we got into up north, and I really really miss being able to shove everything aside because "I'm on vacation."  Responsibilities suck, man. 

I decided that what I needed was a good walk in the woods. A plaintive Google Search for state parks near me turned up Fort Snelling State Park, which is... really near me. Like, it's as close as I am to the airport, which is to say five minutes away by car. I guess I knew the park was there? I think someone even took me there, once, on a New Year's Eve hike. But, I had never really explored it as a State Park.  I did my usual studying of maps and decided to take the Pike Island Hike. 


Image: A slice of the Mississippi, I believe, as it comes around the island. 

The trail was flat, though I found my knees aching in a new way thanks to some sections being somewhat soft sand. Most of it is paved? I met a bit of wildlife, even, coming across this TINY fellow in the road.


Image: toad in road

I was pretty sure I saw deer tracks, but otherwise the main fauna I ran into were other people. However, given that we were literally in a spot surrounded by three million people, not THAT many. I've honestly run into far more people at Minnehaha Falls, since that's a "destination" spot. 

Anyway, I figured I'd better check out the state park today since there's a chance that the MN Legislator will fail to meet a budget agreement and the state will shut down. That means state park closings. Shawn, who works for the Minnesota Historical Society, figures they will pass the budget, or at least the bits that keep her job safe, so fingers crossed.


Image: Another stretch of the river--could be the Minnesota River, actually?


As I walk, I always stop to see where I am on any maps that the trail provides. This particular trail had excellent signage, although the one that was at the intersection between Pike Island and the Fort Snelling Historic site had been defaced (?) by the words "This is land was stolen from the Dakota Nation." Which of course, all of it was. However, this particular site is a spot where two rivers meet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_Island and the spot of an internment camp during the Dakota War of 1862, where at least three hundred people died of starvation and cholera. 



Image: A beautiful place, but an ugly history.

There is a memorial here and the site is interpreted to include this history, but it's funny how the graffiti spoke far clearer to me than any of the rest. 

 Woke up to temperatures this morning of 42 degrees F (5 C). 

This weekend was cold and rainy. I did do a few hikes, despite the drizzle, mostly to try to figure out what my next destination will be. On my way out to explore Bear Cub, I discovered that the National Forestry Service is doing "fire suppression" work... which, looks a lot like clear-cutting and setting up giant bonfires??

'

In fact, by chance Shawn and I ran into Bob (one of the owners of Bearskin) on our way back and asked him about it. That is precisely what they've been doing. They have been cutting out pines that are six inches in diameter in width, piling them up, and setting them ablaze. This method got away from them (NO SH*T) and they burned a huge section of Ox Cart Ski Trail by accident. Bob has been spending a lot of his time at various meetings trying to get them to stop this nonsense. 

I feel like this is about on par with Tr*mp's big plan to "rake" the forests to suppress fires.  

It is both heartbreaking to see and deeply angering. 

I did manage a bit of this trail, but it is a ski racing trail for a reason. This hills are MASSIVE, and so I hauled myself up a couple before giving up. Plus, with the rain, it seemed actually dangerous.

. 
Image: Bear Cub World Cup, please note the elevation indicator blow the sign. It looks like a heartbeat.

Today, the big plan is to head back for another grocery run and take a detour out to see Devil's Kettle waterfalls. We are state park members, so we can spend as much time exploring there as we like.

Today was a day when we planned on a grocery run to Grand Marais. Since a trip to town is a half an hour away from the cabin, Mason and I decided to see of we could also squeeze in a hike somewhere. 

 Yesterday I complained about the lack of visible sunshine and lo, I woke up today to a burning ball of fire in the sky! Hooray!

Less fun, I also woke up to the sound of the City of St. Paul removing a tree near the end of our block. I panicked because there is a gorgeous, healthy maple on the boulevard at the end of the block and I would be devastated by its loss. However, after quickly dressing and grabbing a mask, I ran outside to ask the city workers if they knew what had happened to the tree.  When I got to where the workers were, however, I could see by what was left in the ground that what they'd removed was one of the ugly trees that we have a ton of on our block. These trees are awful. I wish I knew what they were called, but they are stunted and unhealthy looking and are constantly sending up little shoots of themselves near their main trunk that are really hard to keep under control.

Here is a picture of a similar tree in front of our immediate neighbor's house. 
'
Image: Okay, so this looks like a decent tree, but see how badly it fills out? This not a nice tree. Don't let it fool you.

But, whatever it is called, according to the city workers, it toppled in the night. I never saw this happen, but apparently the earth just heaved  up and pushed the tree over until it fell into the street. We speculated that it MUST have been sick because the earth very rarely just rejects trees (I mean, these ARE butt ugly, but Mother Nature loves beetles, so...) It's been wet, but normally trees are still heavier than the wet ground. You'd think maybe the wind took it out, but the constant rains have been very gentle. 

I hate to say it, but if any of the trees on the block had to go, I will not miss that one. If you have seen my weed filled yard, you would have to wonder how I could call any plant ugly. But, I have long disliked these particular trees. I think because I am jealous of all the other neighborhoods that have these lovely canopies of tall, broad trees and then there's our block with it's spindly, runty trees. 

Anyway, that was SOME EXCITEMENT as we say around these parts, this morning. 

I am now settled on the sunny porch, hoping to feel inspired enough to write a bit. If not, I'll go play around in the dirt. WITH THE PLANTS I LIKE. 

 Yesterday,  when I was out driving around, I came across our neighborhood gang of wild turkeys. I sent a video to rachelmanija who failed to be suitably impressed with Minnesota's mega fauna (because APPARENTLY California *has* wild turkeys, because California has everything as it is nearly the length of the entire United States and has like a zillion biomes in it,) I started to think, okay, does Minnesota have something that is so truly unique that a jaded, world-traveling Californian* would be impressed?  

Do you know what I found?

The grey tree frog, whose salient feature is that it can survive being PARTIALLY FROZEN.

OMG, Minnesota. You're a walking stereotype!!










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*I don't actually think of Rachel this way, I was just very grumpy that Minnesota doesn't appear to be as inherently (and easily photographed) unique the way that California certainly seems to be.