My Hobby..., A Metallica Workout.


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Emptying the nest, Taking Flight

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  Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay I have lived in three states in my adult life. Geographically physical parts of the United States, I’m sure I’ve lived in many more emotional/spiritual states (sometimes more than one at once) but that’s a different story for a different time. Most of my time away from Minnesota was in my mid-to-late 20’s; Northern California for graduate school and Maryland/DC for my postdoc. After 7.5 years away, and having had two kids, an opportunity to move home presented itself and we took it. Now, 16 years after moving back to the land of 10 kilo-lakes (order of magnitude estimate), the wanderlust is re-emerging. I’m finding myself tied to my exact location less and less and am becoming more curious about living in the greater world. While tourist-type travel may satiate some of that, I’ve grown fond of the idea of spending extended time elsewhere. By that, I’m thinking of the order of three to six months; something on the order of a sabbatical. This w...
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End of Season

Here I am in Appleton, Wisconsin preparing to watch my son play in his final game of his sophomore year. This has been a challenging season for the Vikings, with an 0-9 record so far and no indication that today will spell victory for the team. In reality we knew that this season would be one of adversity and change. The offseason, late in the offseason, saw a head coach change. This was frustrating as organizations that make such changes usually do so right at the end, or just before the end of the season. I really think this was poor form for the university and is hopefully being taken as a learning experience.  The change was sad as, despite the lack of success in the wins column, we really liked the outgoing coach. We felt that he took the effort to connect with the players and be supportive of their University experience. Fortunately, it appears that that coach landed a respectable assistant coaching position elsewhere.  Coaching can really be a metaphorical meat grinder....
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Fuzzy-Focused Time in the Sonoran Desert

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The desert outside of Scottsdale while enjoying an ATV tour. And so here I am. Sitting at an oasis in the Sonoran desert. I'm in Phoenix, AZ at the Arizona Grand Resort (& Spa), sitting on the patio just outside the resorts golf pro-shop. The coffee is tasty as I watch the upper middle class (does that still exist) play the high handicap version of golf that is probably still way better than my game.  Along the patio are a good, but not overly crowded, mix of mom's with their kids, non-golfing dads and the occasional youth baseball player who looks like they just received gear from the bat armory and has their marching orders for the day's tournament. The speakers are playing some motown, funk and classic rock/folk classics. I'm finding myself frequented by birds, namely a precocious sparrow hoping to find some dropped crumbs. Sorry, I've only got coffee at the moment. So, this is my spring break. It's a small escape from the stress good people in MN had to,...
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