Well well, that was fun. Seems like with the coming end to summer, everyone’s packing in boatloads of excitement in a generally short period of time. In all fairness, the entire summer’s been pretty busy, so perhaps it’s just a recent surge. But it’s definitely reason to start keeping a calendar.
I was never big on calendars, simply because I have historically been the epitemy of disorganization. IF you know me, then you already know this. If we are close, and I haven’t yet lost something when we were hanging out, then we are due, because trust me, I won’t let you down.
Friday
So back to this weekend. Friday was a halfday as usual at the new 9-5 … er … 8-5:30 (summer hours) and by 3:30 I had plans to go help a friend fix her computer. Really it’s a kick back to the college days, when I’d be that one guy in the dorm making room calls to fix an HP or Compaq, sometimes a Dell. Back then, had it been a mac, I’d be shit outa luck. I grew up on Windows, and last Friday, that was what what earned me a free lunch.
But beforehand, something a bit strange happened during a run down to Harriet and back. Because I had to make it to the Common Roots for the aforementioned tech support and beers, I decided to cut my run short and head back as I was trying to be punctual for a change. But on the way back I looked over the river and saw what one would normally take for campfire smoke. The only problem was it was early afternoon on a Friday, and this was a public park with no firepits to my knowledge.
So I slowed down and walked over a nearby pedestrian bridge, to witness an apparent random act of combustion all across a ten by three foot span of tall grass. With no end in sight, and nothing on me to put this thing out, I did the first thing that came to mind, and simply started stamping out the grass. It was a little toasty, but it seemed to work for the short term. After getting the span to a smoldering pile of ash, I looked around for something to get water out of the river, and for the first time was actually grateful for litter in the park. An old powerade bottle did the trick, and after a couple rounds of water, I booked it back home.
What was the most unnerving about the experience is I have no idea how that grass caught on fire. Based on how far it was from the trail, its very unlikely that it was a cigarette or similar, but there wasn’t say glass that I could see starting a fire based on optics. So I definitely came back to check on it again a couple times later on that day (its still out).
So after work, running 9ish miles, putting out a fire, and hitting up beer good times and tech support, I then booked it out to Lake Elmo, MN to make a wedding reception a little more pleasant for Rachel. In retrospect it was a great party, and she probably could have fared fine without me, but it was a great chance to meet the parents, and explore little town Minnesota. There’s something to the midwest when you can get out of the city limits and get a full sky of stars on a warm breezy night.
After the reception, we chilled at my place, had a couple of drinks and watched ‘In Bruges.’ Great flick by the way, I recommend it, although the ending was a little predictable.
The Day After Friday
The next morning, we decided to pass on the typical breakfast selections, and found this new place not far from The Lakehouse called Hot Plate on Bloomington and 50th-ish. The place almost looked like a converted home, but it had plenty of seating and a patio with great service, even better food, and adorable menus (just go, it will make sense). Afterwards I had roughly 2 hours to run some errands, grab some biking shorts, and get my ass over to Alanna’s place for the rightfully hyped Minneapolis Pedal Pub.
The story can really only be told in photos, so if we’re buds on Facebook, be sure to take a look, but the contraption was awesome, and a repeat is undeniable. I definitely don’t remember portions of the night, but thankfully I was in good company, so there were no serious concerns. I passed out right early too. I mean you can’t start that early and not be obliterated by 12. That night I pounded tons of water and the standard 2 ibuprophens, and woke up Sunday feeling like gold (this is my cure for a hangover, some have found success with dramamine).
The Day After The Day After
Sunday I was up by 9. Which given the early-to-bed situation wasn’t a surprise. But what was moderately surprising and mostly annoying was a constant flicker of power in our house. It’s not unusual for me to toy with the workings of my residence, but when it comes to electrical, I’m usually a little lost. Based on the fact, however, that both units of the duplex were cutting out, I called the Excel. By 2:30 the power was solid, and I was late for a pool party with the same gang as the night before. Again my punctuality needs work.
Party included volleyball, a large body of water, and dairy queen cake. That’s all anyone really needs for a great summer party. So the results were predictably well rounded and a great way to recover from the pedal pub. I gotta say that looking back on those two days, they really couldn’t have happened without the planners in that group. And all was definitely appreciated.
To avoid being late again, I tried to give myself some extra time to make it back from the party, and out for dinner and the Dark Knight, which wound up working out great, and the weekend came to a pretty relaxing end. Sometimes I feel like everything around me goes through ebbs and flows, but I’m sure its that way for everyone. And I cant wait for another ebb. More later on, for now its late. I’m out.
Tags: Festivities, Oddities, Outdoors
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 12:23 am and is filed under Entry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.