minnesota

Breakfast in Minnesota

It is 7 below zero F today. We are on a warming trend.
Never mind things have been boiling hot for weeks.

It is a sad day

We aren’t terrorists.
Domestic or otherwise.
We are mothers and fathers
We are sisters and brothers

Poets and authors
Dancers and singers
Teachers and nurses

We are you
We are the faces of America
We love our country
We believe in our laws
We cherish our rights

What is wrong with us?
Are we the only ones to see?

1965
On March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed southeast out of Selma. The protest went according to plan until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they encountered a wall of state troopers and county posse waiting for them on the other side.
The county sheriff had issued an order for all white men in Dallas County over the age of twenty-one to report to the courthouse that morning to be deputized. Commanding officer John Cloud told the demonstrators to disband at once and go home. Rev. Hosea Williams tried to speak to the officer, but Cloud curtly informed him there was nothing to discuss. Seconds later, the troopers began shoving the demonstrators, knocking many to the ground and beating them with nightsticks. Another detachment of troopers fired tear gas, and mounted troopers charged the crowd on horseback.

1970
Four unarmed college students were killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970.
The shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. It increased participation in the student strike that began on May 1. Ultimately, more than 4 million students participated in organized walk-outs at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools. The shootings and the strike affected public opinion at an already socially contentious time over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
Eight of the shooters were charged with depriving the student of their civil rights but were acquitted in a bench trial. The trial judge stated, “It is vital that state and National Guard officials not regard this decision as authorizing or approving the use of force against demonstrators, whatever the occasion of the issue involved. Such use of force is, and was, deplorable.”

This is our history.
We have been here before.

Have we become so fat and happy
Are we so detached
We don’t believe our own eyes?

It is a sad day.
Say their names
Rene Good – Poet, mother of three
Alex Pretti – VA ICU Nurse

Shame Shame Shame

The Parking Ramp Hater
black and white indoor parking garage scene
Photo by Haberdoedas Photography on Pexels.com

I was going to meet a friend in the parking ramp. She was giving me a ride to a Friday night event. She was late. I was standing inside by the elevators and I watched a guy drive by in a white van and park in a space that was not a parking space. It was just off to the side by some pillars. People have parked there before and blocked my space and I had trouble getting my car out or could not get it out. He got out of his car and walked towards the elevators. When he tried the door, he found it locked but he had a fob and was able to gain entry. 

When he came in I said, “Just so you know, that is not a parking space. It could block my way.”

He seemed confused and said it was guest parking. 

“No, it is not a space. If you have guest parking, you should have a space number to park in. All the spaces have numbers.”

He fumbled around and then called somebody on his phone and that person was clueless as well. Then he went back outside. When he came back in he said,

“I’m not blocking anybody. I’m not blocking you. You are just a complainer. You just love to complain. I bet all you do is complain. You f**king b**ch. What a f**king b**ch. Complain complain. B**ch You f**king b**ch”

At first I tried to explain to him what I was talking about but he was having none of it.

“F**king b**ch you are a f**king b**ch all you do is complain, complain”

“Yep, I just complain. Complain.”

Then he really started to get riled up. He was carrying a very old mangey tiny dog that looked like it was on its last legs. This big guy with a big mouth and a tiny sad dog. I refrained from commenting on that. Thought better of it.

He got right up in my face, “f**king b**ch, you are a f**king b**ch, what a f**king b**ch” and on and on. 

I finally looked him right in the eyes and said, “Are you going to hit me?”

I thought he was going to hit me, he was so riled up. Practically foaming at the mouth.

There was a split second flicker in his eyes, an almost undiscernible pause. He stepped back.

“I’m not going to hit you. You stupid f**king b**ch. What a stupid f**king b**ch.”

“Yeah, and you are nasty”

“I’m nasty? You are a nasty f**king b**ch. What a f**king stupid b**ch …” this went on for a while longer and I just looked away and ignored him without making further contact of any kind.

Eventually he went back outside and called his friend on his phone and I could hear him telling the person what a f**king b**ch I was.

I gave up on meeting my friend and went back to my apartment. I was shaken. I just wanted to get someplace safe. Away from the crazies.

I thought maybe I should have tried to film him or take his picture or take a picture of his van. But after seeing how the ICE agents react to that behavior it was probably not a good idea. Who knows how he would have reacted to that. 

An hour a later a friend checked and his van was gone. After all of that, he moved his van.

It was strange that he didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. I thought he would just get on the elevator and go see his friend. But he didn’t. He just stayed in the parking ramp. Why? What was he really doing? 

I’ve come across some crazies in my time. I go into survival mode. I try to calm them down. But the vitriol hate this guy was spewing was something new to me. He was truly a hater.

Over a parking space?

Happy Sunday

Summer is back and it is a hot day but the leaves are already starting to turn. Fall is coming.

I had a small flood in my house due to a faulty shut-off valve on my furnace to I spent most of this week entertaining various workers who removed my old floor and then installed my new floor. It is an improvement. I like it.

My son came over and helped me move all my furniture back and then we went to a good Kurdish restaurant not far from my place – Babani’s Kurdish Restaurant. We started out with Kurdish bread with feta cheese and olive oil. I had a delicious lentil soup (my favorite food) and then I had Sheik Babani – Named after a distinguished man’s striped trouser, this Kurdish delicacy is cored eggplant peeled in decorative stripes and filled with spice meat and vegetables serviced with a red sauce over basmati rice.

I read a couple of books. One I read for book club – A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. Now this book won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name. I personally hated the book. I don’t often hate books but I had a very negative reaction to this one. Maybe it lost something over the years and is now dated. I did read the whole thing. I usually just stop reading if the book doesn’t hold my interest but this one I read all the way to the end and after I read the last page I wanted to just throw it across the room (it was an e-book so couldn’t really do that…). Okay, what was so terrible. There was not one character I cared about. They were all terrible people. It dragged on and on and on. People did things that made not sense. If your father raped you every night when you were a little girl would you really just nonchalantly mention it to your sister and have to convince here that he did the same to her? All very odd. Anyway, yuck.

The other book I read was Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams. This one was published in 2021, and is, obviously, a spy novel. It had some interesting twists and turns and the characters were very well developed. I found it easier to read than LeCarre. It wasn’t so convoluted. Not a lot of rabbit holes. Easy to read and held my interest. Hey, it’s a spy novel, what’s not to like?

Although I am still trying to slog through LeCarre’s Agent Running in the Field. which I think is the last book he wrote. It has a lot of rabbit holes but I will finish it and hopefully everything will tie together neatly.

I met an interesting artist this week who travels the world and makes very cool art. He gave me this print of one of his pieces.

Daniel Kerkhoff
The Pros and Cons of Manipulation (the Least Among Us) 2021
http://www.danielkerkhoff.com

This week my social calendar explodes. I’m looking forward to going to see this art exhibit:
https://z.umn.edu/human-condition-umncal
“Though we come from all different walks of life, what binds us together is our humanity. “The Human Condition” explores the feelings, experiences, and connections that are uniquely human through myriad mediums and styles. Come look through someone else’s eyes, or find your own looking back at you. Works by University of Minnesota students and local artists.”

Now…. now to get a visa for New Zealand….

Alebrijes on Raspberry Island

From the Minnesota Latino Museum: “Alebrijes are a Mexican folk art of colorful and fantastical creatures, often the combination of multiple animals (for example, the head of a fox with the body of a goose, fish fins, and horse legs). “

These creatures are made from papier-mâché and/or wood. When I visited Oaxaca in January I saw a lot of these but they were much smaller. These are giants. They are here for the summer located on Raspberry Island in the middle of the Mississippi River just south of St Paul.

In other news….

I read the second book in the Chara series, Ocean. You will remember I read the first book, Atmosphere a few weeks ago. Ocean is the second book in David Scott Moyer’s Chara series. It continues with the original characters from the first book and adds more humans from Earth into the mix. However, they have a very different mission and threaten to destroy all the first mission was able to accomplish. This book is full of tension and suspense and surprises. Again, I found it hard to put down. I recommend it and look forward to the third book in the trilogy.

I also read and enjoyed The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I found it kind of predictable but it was an overall “feel good” novel with good insights into human relationships and self discovery.

It is has been super hot here and my air-conditioning decided to quit working at the peak of the heat so have been a bit stressed lately. Was told I have to wait a week for service. Plus I just bought a new unit so not happy. Plus plumpie just started a war so am dreaming of foreign shores….

Have a great day! 🙂

Minnesota State Capitol

I learned something interesting recently. There are only four self-supporting marble domes in the world and the second largest one is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul. It is made of Georgia (US State) marble and weighs more than fourteen million pounds and has a diameter of 87 feet.

The largest is St Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome. It has a diameter of 138 feet. The other two are the Taj Mahal in Agra, India with a diameter of 58 feet, and the Rhode Island State Capitol with a diameter of 50 feet.

The building was renovated in 2017 and the interior is impressive.

The Many Colors

Drove to Wyoming, Minnesota yesterday. We were speculating on why it was called Wyoming. Maybe people were headed to Wyoming and only made it this far? Maybe they came from Wyoming and missed it. Turns out it was originally named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. This Minnesota town has a population of about 7,800. Its claim to fame is The Barker-Karpis gang kidnapped William Hamm of Hamm’s Brewery and released him in Wyoming in June 1933.

They do have some beautiful woods…

Happy Fall!