Family Whereabouts

My sister emailed me this little ditty about the Minnesota Iron Range, where she lives with her family. However, my sister was born in Iowa, like myself. Most of my family has moved to Minnesota except for myself and my oldest brother who is a Lutheran minister in Texas. Two of my Minnesota siblings have their daughters in Iowa Universities. Interstate 35 sees much travel from the family.





I have a high school musical to attend to this evening. The acting will be mediocre, the sets (which I helped with my Advanced Studio Class) will not be anything special. But it is exciting for the students to have this opportunity to act..lights out, curtains open and State Fair (about the Iowa State Fair) will proceed.

Quotes from "A Thousand Days in Tuscany" by Marlena de Blasi

"Bring on the pain, because during those moments when I can neither see it nor feel pain, when it's quiet, I know it isn't really quiet at all but only gathering force. Better that pain stays where I can keep an eye on it. There's risk in comfort. There's comfort in risk. Risk, risque. It adds piquancy, that's what risk does. Repress the appetite. Give in to the appetite. Stay close 5to the edge. Stay away from the edge."
"o, life, by definition, is impermanent. All the energy we spend in trying to fix it, secure it, save it, protect it, leaves damn little time for living it. Pain or death or any other pestilence doesn't pass over us because we're careful or because we have insurance or, God forbid, because we have enough money. All right. So how does one come to understand exactly how one wants to live? How one wants to use up his time?"

Deepest mysteries.

My neighbor across the street passed away this morning. She went into the hospital for an operation, had complications and she couldn't fight it off. The finality of death is one of life's deepest mysteries. Birth, nature, love, hate, death. These are the true mysteries. Her funeral is this Saturday. A neighborhood will come together at this time.

Gray Day

Every school for miles around had a two hour late start today. That is all except us. So the students were hyper all day wondering if and when they would get out of school. Finally at about 1:00 it was evident that school was not going to get out early. But, it made for a long rather disruptive Monday. And it is definitely gray out. Gray sky, gray snow, gray trees. Daughter called to tell me her car was towed in Iowa City. She had been stuck in a drift rather crooked and couldn't get out of a frozen drift. This morning the car was gone. So, her day was rather disrupted also. Rain in Iowa City. Other daughter had no school today at NIACC. Weather related.

Roadside Park

This blog consists of thoughts from the roadside. As a child I use to drive with my family of seven in a station wagon to visit my grandparents in Minnesota. This required driving on a two lane road with little room to the ditch at 70 miles an hour or slower if a tractor was sharing the road. Occasionally, after what would seem like endless hours, my father would pull over to a roadside park. Here we could get out of the car, stretch our legs, and breath the air. There would usually be a few trees, a picnic table and hopefully a pump or some kind of running water. We would eat cheese sandwiches, carrots and cookies before piling back into the car and continuing on to the destination.
This blog is my roadside park. A place to get out, stretch my legs and breath the air. Maybe even to eat a cookie.