March 10, 2010
Coming back to a dreary Minnesota March from sunny Tucson is usually a bump in the road, and this time is no exception. When in Arizona, you get up a head of steam from all the sunshine and think you're going to tackle the world when you get home. Often, however, whatever chemicals are released by the sunshine wear off and I find myself back in Minnesota in a quagmire of just getting by, at least until things warm up. I mean, you can't even go for a walk. It is muddy, icy, wet, everything. This time was a little different. I had a whole stack of things I was eager to do when I got home. But I got too hyper. I have been cleaning the house, doing projects, pacing around like a caged animal--until two in the morning! Then I pop up at eight in the morning ready to go again. Sounds great, but I would like some sleep. Eventually, you get a little shaky. In Arizona, I slept like a kitten and took at least one nap per day to boot. In between times, I got a lot done. Suddenly, the nap is out the window and sleep is hard to come by. ( This is one thing I have been working on.) I need sunshine, both to be productive and to sleep. Thank goodness, I have stayed on anti-depressants all through the winter so the effects of the climate change are mild and completely manageable. The years I have come home from Arizona unfortified by happy pills, I have hit the skids. By the way, this latest news article that says anti-depressants are the same as a placebo doesn't fit with my experience and with that of many, many people I know. They work. I went off them for a year once six years ago and it was a mistake. The entire year was rough. For me, anti-depressants are like eyeglasses--what sense does it make to grope around without them? Even with happy pills, this time of year is often characterized by a vague sense of unease and an inability to relax and quit thinking about stupid stuff that could go wrong but won't. I have to sit down frequently, take a deep breath and realize that all is well. When fortified by anti-depressants, I can pull out of it in minutes and get busy. Without them, sometimes I get in a cycle where I'd rather hide under the bed for a week.
Today I am headed to Morris, MN for an appearance at their public library from 4-6 p.m.
Gleeman talks sense about the loss of Joe Nathan. In short, the Twins are probably going to be fine. Their bullpen is strong, and it might be a good idea to rotate the closer role around for awhile to see who shows the most dominance.
March 09, 2010
Well, nothing ever goes according to plan. The Twins' ace closer Joe Nathan's season looks to be over before it started. This is a blow, but the Twins have a good history of turning middle relievers and starters (Nathan, Guardado and Aguilera) into solid closers. The only time it really failed during Gardenhire's regime was with LaTroy Hawkins, who just didn't have the mental make-up for the role. He then became an excellent eighth inning guy for two seasons. In addition starters such as Liriano, the Twins also have a full bullpen of potential candidates for the closer role. No team wins a World Series without a world-class closer these days, but remember: As superb as Nathan has been during the regular season, he has faltered in the playoffs several times.
 Nursery employee Ken has a habit of showing up at work with the drawings he did the night before. Today, he handed me this one of Willie Nelson and said to keep it. I think it is just excellent. He also had drawn pictures of three local people who I was able to identify right away.  Ken gives all his drawing away. I think he should keep them, give away copies, and eventually do an exhibition.
Nothing quite like seeing a legend honored in grand style.
March 07, 2010
When I was visiting Aunt Olla in the Hilton a couple of days ago, we pulled out her old scrapbook of clippings from her second grade students in Las Vegas in 1970. I have posted some of the clippings here, and will do so again. Apparently Mrs. Burton, as Aunt Olla was known to her students, had been ill. So the students drew pictures of her and get well notes. They were very cute, of course. One particularly articulate kid named Steve had a unique last name, so when I got home, I looked him up on the internet and sent him an email. I just heard back this morning: What a surprise to hear from you. Mrs. Burton is my all time favorite teacher from Las Vegas. I found your note very touching so thank you for sending it. Please tell her hello an she made a huge impact with her work effort back in the 70's. She was a terrific teacher. I also keep in contact with my best friend who I met in Mrs. Burton's class. So, I just called Aunt Olla to read her the email in its entirety. Of course, she was thrilled but a bit mystified how I got ahold of him so fast. And she wishes she could place his face and she is convinced that her memory is going, so she's going to order some memory pills this very week. "Two years ago, I would have remembered him right away." Of course, she probably had over a thousand students in her decades as a teacher. She shed some light on her teaching methods. She gave the kids ample free time to draw or do whatever they wanted, and they worked so hard and Olla never gave them grades. "Can you imagine grading those beautiful drawings?" she said.
Here's a map which puts a red dot on towns which have more bars than grocery stores. An interesting pattern emerges.
March 06, 2010
A great blog entry by the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip.
Check out these amazing pictures of the construction of the bridge at Hoover Dam. Didn't have the good fortune to meet the photographer, but he was the next guest in the guest house in Tucson where we spent the winter.
March 05, 2010
Friend Al writes that he happened upon the accident scene on I-10. It was a terrific mess. Five helicopters hovered. One was a Medivac, the other four were news copters. You'd think the newspeople would stay away for a bit, but of course you have to get that sacred footage.
On the way back, I listened to a lot of NPR. One one show, they had three earthquake experts. Some of their more fascinating points: •The earthquake in Chile was 500 times stronger than the one in Haiti. The Richter Scale is logarithmic, which means that for every one digit it rises, the strength of the earthquake measured increases many, many times. •The areas they are most worried about in the world are Teheran and Instabul. Teheran is on such an active fault line that the Iranian government has considered moving the city. Seattle is the biggest worry in the United States. •The great earthquake along the Mississippi in 1811 or thereabouts could repeat itself. Seismologists have no idea what subterranean activity caused the quake. There is no fault in the region. It killed hundreds then at a time when the Mississippi valley was nearly vacant. If it were repeated, it would be catastrophic. •There is no evidence that there is any more seismic activity now than at any other time in history. The plates move. They occasionally need to slip. Earthquakes happen. If people weren't in the way, and if people weren't so prone to gather along the oceans, and if people weren't stacked in such poorly built housing, nobody would notice much. So, the world isn't ending. It is just moving.
Stepped outside today to hear the honking of the trumpeter swans. They're back early! I can't imagine what they are eating, as the swamps are covered with two or three feet of ice. There's nothing within miles of here, unless they find some corn fields. Usually they show up about March 11th. One year it was the fifteenth. Perhaps they know something we don't.
Another sad disaster on I-10 south of Phoenix. I am telling you, that has to be the most dangerous stretch of highway in the United States. A couple miles away, three people were killed in a dust storm in December. A couple of years ago when I was trying to get through, two semi-trailers flipped, one carrying hazardous chemicals, right about at the same mile marker. The highway was shut down for six hours. Lance tried to get to LA a couple of weeks ago and waited three hours due to yet another accident, and earlier in February, visitors from Fertile who stopped to see us in Tucson ended up stopping in Casa Grande because of semi had flipped and traffic wasn't moving. I wonder if there are statistics to back up the anecdotal evidence. It is a perfectly flat area with no ditches, as is the custom in Arizona. It would seem that you could get by with some pretty big mistakes.
March 03, 2010
After driving 1975 miles in three days, I arrived home late tonight. I am shot! My eyes are blurry. It is good to be home. There is an unbelievable amount of snow here, and it started to show up just north of Kansas City. Very unusual. Most of South Dakota is completely covered with three to four feet, even in the middle of the fields. I could tell because the fence posts at times just disappeared. I have never seen that much snow there even when I returned in early February. Satellite radio truly made the trip go fast. Decided to stop in KC last night. Got a great old downtown hotel on Priceline. Beautiful place called the Phillips. Wish I could have stayed there longer. Once you get on I-29 heading north, all driving drama is over. You have a moving mile of road to yourself. The restrooms are all clean up north, unlike at the DQ in Texas yesterday where one stall was unoperational, the sink had no water, the soap dispensers were both out, as was the hand sanitizer––and there were no paper towels. I began to wonder why I had come in there in the first place. Again, if they bother to clean the restrooms down there, they state the fact in three-foot high lettering painted on their back wall and visible from the freeway. If they don't brag about their clean restrooms, assume the worst.
March 01, 2010
On paper, this Twins team is the best in years. Of course, that means precisely nothing until they start reeling off winning streaks in the regular season, something they didn't do last year until the last possible moment in September. Baseball is so unpredictable. Teams that seem loaded at the beginning of the year can just implode. Teams that seemed to have no hope can end up in the World Series. I am absolutely uninterested in spring training. The games mean nothing. The statistics mean less than nothing. They sometimes are misleading. Gardenhire and Anderson are pretty good at sorting things out. Their hyper-conservative attitude towards younger players has more often than not paid off, as irritating as it is to fans who always prefer possible rookie phenoms to plodding, dependable veterans. It starts with starting pitching. You can't do much if you are down 5-0 in the second inning two nights out of three. If the starting pitchers fail, the bullpen gets worn out and demoralized. The fielders get lazy. And the hitters start trying to win it with one swing. A few comebacks are a good thing, but in between those comebacks should be a whole bunch of clockwork 7-2 victories. Last year, those routine victories came only once or twice per week. Only the weakness of the Central Division allowed the Twins to sneak into the playoffs at the end. This batch of starting pitchers hasn't really lived up to its potential. For the past three years, we have been told not to worry about the starting pitching. Each of those years, the starters haven't lived up to the hype. Of course, injuries didn't help. The Twins have always been looking for one veteran starter to anchor the rotation, like Bert Blyleven (and Viola) did in 1987, and like Jack Morris did in 1991. This year's candidate is Carl Pavano. However, Pavano isn't an ace. He's injury prone and psychologically tender. Nick Blackburn has the best psychological make-up of the starters. He's a bulldog, kind of like Brad Radke, who I miss more than I ever imagined I would. However, Slowey, Baker, Liriano, Perkins, as well as Pavano, are all prone to lose their confidence. They're talented, but they just plain lack the grit of the great aces like Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris, Steve Carlton and the like. If the Twins' starters grow up, this year could be fun. If not, the writers and Dick Bremer will bore us with endless silliness about the occasional good performance being a possible "confidence builder." Drives me nuts. Nolan Ryan never needed a confidence builder. Losses just made him angry. Woe to the next team in his way. Maybe the Twins should hire each of their starters a life coach or something. Brian Duensing, who isn't really being given much of a chance this spring, has a better head on his shoulders. I wouldn't be surprised if he replaces Pavano come June. Swarzak will be at the ready as well. He isn't afraid of anything. If the starting pitchers grow up and show some old time grit, this team will go places.
Drove 578 miles today. Cut through the center of New Mexico, which was beautiful. Ended up at Tucamcari, NM, in a hotel with dozens of Minnesota plates in the parking lot. I got the last room. It is in the pet section. Dogs are presently barking at each other through the room walls. I am glad to have earplugs. Would like to make it to Omaha tomorrow, but that's a pretty long pull. A long day on the road doesn't feel so bad until you get into the hotel and try to wind down. I can't sit still!
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