Weird Days

Friday, 24 September 2010

I gave up on a book today. But not because I thought it was a bad read. The subject matter was very intriguing, but the tales it told were too long and protracted, and I just felt like moving on to other things.

Way back in May, I put the book Merchants of Doubt on hold at the library. There were only a few copies, and several people were in front of me, so I didn’t get to check it out until earlier this week. It seemed right up my alley: the book discusses how the same handful of scientists have obscured the facts and confused the (Re)public(ans) about important topics like global warming and second-hand smoking. Pretty cool…but as I read the book, I began to feel like it was just telling me too much. In short, it’s 500 pages and I think the story could be told in 250.

So I plan to return the book to the library the next time I go. Some other library parton will be glad to get the book sooner than expected.

But by all means – please get the book and read it. Then just tell me the highlights.

Saturday, 25 September 2010

Kind of a weird day today. We did two things that we don’t normally do. First, we drove to Maple Grove and paid a visit to Edelweiss Baby. This is a really cool, really expensive store that was hosting a modeling contest for people under 24 months of age. The winner gets some fancy photo, money off a future photo shoot, a gift certificate to the store (which is about the only way we’d be able to afford anything there), and a savings bond (YES! College fund money!). Since one member of our family is under 24 months old, and is kind of cute, we figured we should go.

Isla performed adequately. She cooperated with the photographer, and she was awake, but not screaming. But she wasn’t wide awake, and whe was kind of holding her head in a funny check-out-my-double-chin short of way. So, we’ll see what happens there…

In the evening, we went to Minnehahahahahah Park in Minneapolis. We’re always looking for fun new places to explore on our walks, and Jennifer and I had driven past this park a few times on our way to the birthing class last summer. So, this evening, over dinner, we decided to drive there.

Getting there was easy, but parking was hard. Did I mention it’s in Minneapolis? So, I wasn’t sure where to park. A few parking lots were totally full, some were for “members only” and others required payment. Did I mention it’s in Minneapolis?

Anyway, we found a decent spot to park (albeit for 75 cents an hour), and we went exploring. I had visited Minnehahahah Falls one other time – when I was 18 years old. On a whim, my parents decided that we were going, as a family, to explore this park. That was absolutely the last time the four people in my immediate family ever chose to do anything social together. So tonight I went again with my new and improved immediate family of four.

We had a good time, and I’d like to go again – earlier in the day so we have more daylight. If someone else would like to drive and drop us off there, that’d be great.

Sunday, 26 September 2010

Another weird day.

First, we tried going on a Happy Trails nature walk this afternoon at Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings. It was scheduled to begin at 1:00. We were going to leave our place at 12:30, but Isla’s ill-timed hunger meant we didn’t pull out of the parking lot until 12:42. Jennifer asked if we were going to ba late, but I pointed out that, several times before, we’d be on time for these nature walks, and then just end up waiting in the the visitors center while other people arrive late. “So we’ll be those late people this time,” I said.

Well…there was a detour on one road, and lots of construction. We parked at the nature center at 1:15. It then took a few minutes to get the moby wrap wrapped. We walked into the nature center and discovered the group had already left. We went outside to look for them (along with another woman with her son that had arrived late), but saw no sign of them. So I went back in and asked a staff member. She said she didn’t have anything to do with that group. I said, “Yeah, but do you know where they went?” I pointed out that the email said they’d be taking some stairs down to a ravine. The woman pulled out a map and proceeded to tell us more than we wanted to know about three sets of stairs. The other woman chose her set of stairs and took off. I had to wait for Jennifer to use the bathroom.

When she came out, we ran off towards the stairs, they led to a treaturous ravine. I started off through the ravine with Owen, but it was slow going because he didn’t have good traction, and Jennifer had Isla straped to her. I saw a goup in the distance, and hollared for them to wait for us, but they didn’t (it probably wasn’t our group). So we cut our losses and went back.

I know what you’re thinking: couldn’t we just go for a walk by ourselves, without a group? Well…kind of. BUt it’s a akin to meeting up with some friends at a restaurant, only to have your friends not show up. Sure, you could still eat there, but you’re disappointed, and now you don’t feel like it.

I swear, this sort of thing always happens to us, and this is why we are so anal about puntuality. To illustrate: I try to show up at theaters in plenty of time to find a seat and get settled. Whenever I do, there’s plenty of seating, and I end up sitting through a half hour of advertisements before the movie begins. Every once in a great while, however, unforeseen events transpire to cause us to arrive at, say, 2:10 for a 2:00 showing. We run in the door, buy tickets, and then get intot the theater to discover there’s no good seats left and the movie’s already started. 

“Why is the movie already playing?” I whine to Jeninfer.

“Well, the showtime was 2:00,” she says, trying to be reasonable. 

“Yeah, but there’s always a load of commercials,” I complain.

“They must not have played them this time,” she says.

“Dammit,” I say.

Anyway, after checking out some of the animals at the visitors center, we took off for some thirft stores. We made a stop at Wal-Mart, which marks my first time ever spending money at that shit hole. I didn’t even go in the store: I waited in the car with my kids, while my wife ran in. I’ve been inside a Wal-Mart on three occassions, but always becuase other people dragged me there, and I’ve never spent any money when I’ve been there. But, today, my wife spent ~$8.00.

I knew this day was coming. After all, we received a gift card for the store last week at the baby shower. So, when we approached a Mall-Wart on our drive this afternoon and Jennifer said we needed diapers, it seemed only reasonable to stop and let her go in and spend the gift card on some necessary item.

Ugh.

Anyway, I felt bad for Owen today. He was expecting to go for a fun nature exploring hike, and he ended up sitting in the parking lot of a crappy corporation. While waiting in the car, I asked him why he didn’t want to go for a walk after we gave up looking for our group. “It was different,” he said, and when I asked him to elaborate, he added: “I was afraid we would get lost without them.

Yep. Probably.