Tag Archives: Auburn

March 10, 2013 · 9:55 am

Full House Week

Friday all the kids returned to the nest for Spring Break. I’m pretty sure Divine Providence aligned Auburn and Michigan Tech’s academic calendars this year to enable all the kids to be home at once. And as much as I do appreciate having them home, it’s not lost on me that I have to cook for 5 again, have to endure the television being on at all hours again (I don’t like to turn the thing on unless there’s something specific that I’m going to watch. I like the quiet), and enjoy bantering and what not.

I know, I’m never happy.

I think the Universe collaborated on this because I’m pretty sure this is the last time we’ll have a break like this with all the kids home. The oldest kid is getting ready to head off to Grad School, at best will be several thousand miles away from Minnesota, read “not coming home except for big holidays” and at worst might be in foreign countries, read “not coming home for anything”. I think these family reunions are close to taking on the look and feel of a real reunion, meaning once or twice a decade and or when someone dies. And since I’m probably first on that list I won’t even get to enjoy the time.

Because nothing good ever comes without a price, there is a downside to having Auburn and Michigan Tech aligning their academic calendars- graduation. Both sons have finals the same week and for the young man at Auburn that includes a final on Friday. Which means we have a clusterfuck of a logistics problem trying to figure out how to get him packed up and out of the dorm in Alabama on Friday afternoon, and into a seat for Pomp and Circumstance in Houghton Michigan 18 hours later.

Houghton BTW, one of the most remote places in the contiguous 48 states. No one gets there easily.

Actually it’s not the lad that we’re all that worried about, its how we parents are going to be able to do this. One of us will have to go down to Alabama and facilitate the evacuation from Lupton Hall. The other one of us will have to pick p Grandma at the airport in MPLS and get her to Houghton, a 7 hour drive.

At this point I have no idea how all of this is going to come together, I keep thinking about the fable with the wolf, the sheep and the sack of grain and how many trips the farmer will have to make across the river to get everyone over safely before the scorpion stings him in the back and they both drown because it’s what scorpions do… It is a situation that is that confusing.

And when my wife needs me to think clearly and come up with a solution for something like that I like to retreat into my basement hidy hole and eat tater tots and watch MASH reruns until the feelings of confusion go away or I fall asleep and nap for a few hours. Problem is there is a kid living in the basement this week so I’m stymied once again my this “full house” thing.

And.. for the 1,395th time there is water in the basement.

Mrs S and I were off at the Chanhassen Dinner Theaters for a little Lodge event yesterday afternoon. More on that even later, suffice to say while I enjoy the shows, I don’t like spending 5 hours on a Saturday in one place and the food sucks. I digress.

Water problem in the basement.. There are 11 identified conditions which can cause water to appear in our basement. Among them:

  • Drain pipes not glued together- shitty contractor there, but was fixed in 2010. We think. 
  • High humidity- we’ve had enough condensation down there to create pretty good sized puddles that soak the carpet. Dehumidifier in stalled in 2009, re-installed (backward condenser) in 2011. Seems ok for now.
  • Power outages- In the spring or when it rains the sump pump down there runs about every 20 minutes. If the power goes out… Installed a battery system in 2011. Installed moisture alarm in 2012.
  • Tampon Tidal Wave- flush enough high absorbency items down the stool; hygiene products,  entire rolls of toilet paper, old mop heads, kittens etc… and the main sewer line clogs which causes the downstairs toilet to explode which causes us to have to bring in Service Master which causes me to have to look up words like “coliform”.. Solution- remove all trees and shrubs between the house and the city sewer line and get the line rotorooted every year. If nothing else works please G-d let this one never happen again.
  • Fast Snow Melt, frozen drain pipe. BINGO.

 OK no one gives a shit about my basement issues, price I pay for living in a hole. This time around it was the fast snow melt. Good news is, both boys were home, saw what was happening and fixed the problem on their own, bailing out a flooded window well AND bypassing a frozen drain pipe thereby limting the water in the basement to the cement floor in the mechanical room.  

And in that one instance making 22 and 18 years of care and feeding all worth it. I can now recommend having sons, which up until then I was on the fence about, about children in general actually. Actually the best part of this whole affair was coming home and watching the boys having a great time together solving this problem. Kidna cool, Mrs S did a great job parenting these kids.

But Sank, you have a daughter.. jury is still out on that, she’s a teenager at the moment and wouldn’t be fair to judge.

Yet.

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March 3, 2013 · 8:05 pm

Weekend Update- Blake Lake Edition

Maple Tree in Winter

Another weekend at the Summer Palace, as it currently sits encased in ice.

The plan was to spend the entire weekend up there; fishing, reading, watching movies… big fun in the months before I hit 50. Was not to be however, I forgot the hated CPAP machine. I’ve become so dependent on it that I was dreading sleeping on Friday night. Dreading it enough that I thought perhaps some self-medicating would be in order. Not a bad idea really. This was the first time since I got the machine back in November that I’ve attempted to sleep without one.

Bad old days revisited. Aside from tossing and turning, I woke several times to gagging and choking. Finally after fighting long enough I got up about 5:15, made some coffee and tried to doze on the sofa. Won’t make that stupid mistake again. A mistake made even more stupid when I tell you that I had the thing packed and ready to go on at the door. Just didn’t pick it up for some reason.

Some lame reason.

I am a moron.

Despite being sleepless in Wisconsin I did manage a great day on the lake. The weather on Saturday was perfect with a capital “P”. Sunny, about 27 degrees.

The plan was to bypass my shitty little lake and head over to Big Round Lake, a lake that the guide books refer to as a “Tier 1″ fishery. I’ve certainly done well out there in the past.

The not so recent past mind you.

Big Round a massive body of water compared to lil’ole Blake Lake. It’s about 1000 acres or so, and as it’s name describes, quite round. Structure wise there’s really only a few places on the lake to fish. Most of it is a big shallow basin. Here and there are some decent rock piles. I found one of those rock piles years ago and entered into my GPS. I replaced my GPS and with that move lost the coordinates. That lake is so big that without it, and with 5 years since I was out there last, it’s difficult to triangulate with shore line references, and I’m not good with a sextant. Used to be a grass island out in the middle of the lake that I could use to find the rocks, they were about 1000 meters east and south of the reeds. For some reason the reeds are gone now and I was totally lost. Could just drive out to where everyone else was I guess, and there were a ton of people out there.

Note, as I write this I realize that the old GPS is in fact sitting on the counter at the lake, I showed to my friend. I’m quite certain that the coordinates are there, and had I had a decent nights sleep and 5 less bourbons the night before I might have thought this through. 

Well, I tried finding the magic spot and paid a price. Got the Durango stuck out there on the lake. That has never happened before. Usually that tank can get through anything. There was only about 10″ of snow on the lake, but some how the perfect combination of snowpack and ice had me dropping through the snow right on to lake ice and the result was spinning tires. Lots of spinning. Lucky I had a shovel and a good friend with experience in these matters, Californians don’t have a tremendous amount of experience digging cars out of frozen lakes. After a 1/2 hour of digging, pushing, rocking and so forth we got the truck rolling again and I was able to drive, at some speed mind you, to the hardpacked snow and we were safe. My friend has happy to report that he burned off a piece of bacon he’d eaten for breakfast. We are both doing weight watchers. I didn’t mention that we’d each eaten about 4 pieces of pork belly not to mention two cinnamon rolls  a piece. So, we could stand to dig for a couple and hours and still skip lunch, dinner and the following days breakfast to make up for it.

Food sucks.

With that experience behind me I declared, with some conviction, “Fuck this I’m going to where I know”. Which in this case is Big Blake Lake. And we did. Drove on the lake at the far northern access and proceeded to drive straight down the lake, observing the “No Wake” zone in the narrows, just like I do in the summer. I had a spot in mind, a spot I don’t fish much in the summer but seemed to me that it should be good in the winter, bottom is boulders mixed with some weeds.

This was the last weekend for tip-up fishing in Wisconsin, game fish closed Sunday, and I’m still in pursuit of some pike.

Didn’t get any pike but I did slay the sunfish. My guess is I caught about 25ish over the course of 3 hours. My buddy pulled up another 10 or 15.. great day. So good that at one point I stopped baiting the hook in a “catching avoidance” mode so I could warm up a cold index finger.

The Dog seemed to enjoy himself. He likes ice fishing. Chance to run around all over the lake. He also likes that hole, that amazing hole in the ground that fish come out of. Spends a lot of time watching it, that is until his feet get cold, then he climbs up in my lap. Dumbshit. Won’t sit in the car however, has to be on the lake and in my lap.

All in all it was a great day out there. Warm, fish biting, sunny weather.. chatted with some neighbors I’d never met, very nice day on the lake. Along the way caught some intel on Balsam Lake, big crappies coming out of that lake. Give me something to do next time I get up there, in two weeks.

Saturday night I got back in town in time to watch Auburn/Vanderbilt basketball with the Mrs. Good news is we saw our son in the crowd a couple times. The boy lives. Good news, and he looked good so they’re feeding him down in Alabama.

Sunday was reserved for work, home work like cooking and shopping and work work. Seems that since 2013 started I’ve not had a weekend that I didn’t spend at least half a day working. I don’t mind too much, just gets to be much when I try to fit in a play day and don’t make it to the store.

Househubandry is a pain in arse sometimes.

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September 23, 2012 · 9:12 am

Weekend Update- Friends, Football, Fall and Barflies.

IMG_1073

One of those weekends where we attempted to pack in as much as we could. And where I learned for the umpteenth time that moving past inertia can be a good thing. Mrs S made arrangements for us to go have dinner at friends house on Friday night, a lovely couple whom we don’t seen enough of these days. My first reaction, a very loaded “yes dear”. Loaded because I delivered in the most passive aggressive way possible. Not that I don’t like these folks, it’s just it’s Friday, I’m tired, I wanted to do nothing, and I had to be up early in Saturday, blah blah blah.

But I went, because she made me and other than a few yawns, I behaved and had such a wonderful time that I left asking her why we don’t do that more often. “I told you you’d enjoy yourself once we got there dear” I said to her. Good to keep them on their toes.

Saturday morning was a chance to preside over a Master Mason degree.  Another thing that feels like a lot of work until I do it and am rewarded  by the experience. I do love doing the degree work.

I got home from that even at about 1:00, exactly my forecasted time, to find the family ready to go to the lake. “You read Sank”, my slow response and lack of enthusiasm belayed to Mrs S that yet again my passive aggressive “I don’t wanna go” side was coming out. I was tired. I’d been up at 5:30, I hadn’t eaten all day, It’s cold, I wanna watch football, I have a hangnail, blah blah blah.

IMG_1072This is the time of year when I find myself starting to talk myself out of going to the lake. This year I had said it would be different, I like going up there, lets just go and worry about the consequences when we get there. So we did. And once again I was proven wrong. I’m always happier at the lake it seems, even when it’s 48 degrees in the afternoon in the middle of September. My daughter brought a friend with her and the four us spent the afternoon wandering down our road. Rather than think about it as cold windy day I framed it up as a gorgeous fall afternoon, crisp, colors just starting to turn and I was hanging out with the family in the woods. Doesn’t get a whole lot better than that to be honest.

Saturday night we headed over the local tavern, the Eagle Lounge the closest venue where ESPN is available. Goal to watch the Auburn LSU game. Eric had let us know Friday that he had secured a ticket in the student section and was going to the game. I told him to bring a towel to cry into as I expected that it would be ugly. We arrived at the War Eagle Lounge early to make sure we got the big screen, Minnesota had a night game as well and I was pretty sure we’d have to compete for the TV.

The game was much better than I thought it would be, Auburn’s defense was certainly looking good, even if the offense was not. As predicted the Gophers fans started rolling in and the poor barmaid had to keep answering the questions “Why are we watching this game?”, she pointed to us. “Hello”.

I did get a chance to meet some of my neighbors, explained about 10 times our connection to Auburn, answered the question “where is Auburn”.

I have the most interesting conversation with a barfly, whom I assume had had too much to drink as there is no other explanation other than perhaps a couple that he wouldn’t want hear-

“Why we watching LSU and Auburn?”
“I have son a Auburn.”
“Oh my sister and her husband live down Baton Rouge, they got LSU Football and nuth’n else. Where is Auburn?”
”It’s in Alabama.”
“Oh yeah.. LSU, is that in Alabama also?”

No answer to that question that doesn’t lead my getting my ass kicked, other than, “no I think it’s in Louisiana”.

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September 15, 2012 · 7:30 am

Lost in Alabama- and Digg’n it

Spent the day with the kid yesterday. Regarding the flights, it amazes me just how efficiently the airlines, in this case AirTran can wring every last bit of joy out of the flying experience. $60 for a window seat, pass. $75 for an aisle, pass. Free for the one middle row. Select. $10 to board early and get a shot at the overhead. And all this for flight that I would discover later was empty. How f’n pissed would I have been to be out $85 dollars for nothing.

Between AirTran and the Bates Motel I think I need to reconsider my sense of cheapness. I am a cheap SOB. Not sure that my desert heritage will allow it.

Speaking of which I just about went apoplectic at the Thrifty cheap ass car rental counter when I learned $22.00 a day car rental, which if I remember how math works shudda’ been in the neighborhood of $66 for three days, came out to $278 with airport fees, taxes, car rental company add ons, blah blah blah.

But some way, some how even this old crabby fat ass found his way to Auburn and couldn’t help but smile when reunited with the kid. Auburn’s a lot different in pre-game mode than it was the last time I was here, a month ago, when it was in drop of the kid mode. Pulling into campus it’s green fields were about half full of RV’s, people tailgating away. And this was the day before the game.

I’m going to have to think about the wisdom of institutions of higher learning because I have yet to find that one incorporated “parking” into their strategic plan. And after driving around for an hour looking for a place to park I came to the realization that this is just one of those things that is universal. On the other hand, while driving around the stadium, a very busy place on the Friday before a football game mind you, I found myself in a line of vehicles waiting to drive onto the field,  food trucks, band equipment truck, ESPN truck, anyway I did catch a glimpse of Big Gene, the head coach, being driven around in a golf cart. I was that lost.

I have no idea how I got into there, Yankee intuition and poor sense of direction,  I was simply going back to the parking ramp where I’d parked back in August, the only place I was confident I could find here in Alabama. Well, an nice older fellow, stocky dude with a marine cut jaw and matching crew cut, who sported Popeye arms and a neat Auburn polo with the word “Security” where “War Eagle” was supposed to be came running over and let me know that I was in the wrong place. A flash of my Minnesota drivers license and a plea to my stupidity and we were fast friends. Well sort of fast friends. I had no idea what he was telling me and by the look on his face, he might not have had much clue as to what I was saying.

There’s accents, there’s dialects and then there’s other languages.On the Sankary Scale of language diversion, which BTW I just invented here and now ‘cause that’s how I roll, never constrained by conventional thinking, this fellow was somewhere between “dialect” and “new language”, which puts him in the category of “intelligible”. You see the same thing from time to time in Wisconsin. New languages being born before our very eyes.

Anyway, when I asked him where I should go to park his answer was a symphony of musical sounds peppered by something that sounded like “lef” about three times. I interpreted that to mean Left and made three lefts and found myself on the lawn in front of Eric’s dorm. Not what I was planning but it worked out Ok, until another guy came over and let me know that unless I was unloading tailgate supplies or announcing the apocalypse I had better move.

Him, I understood. And we was not impressed by my Minnesota credentials nor my good looks and I had to move again. Finally found my way to McDonalds, parked there and contemplated my next move over a filet o fish and ice tea. Unsweetened ice tea because I have learned to ask for it that way as the first time I had ice tea down here it made my teeth hurt and damned near put me in a diabetic coma, and I don’t have diabetes.

But it all worked out and as I was sitting there contemplating the world we live in where 4 hours ago I was getting felt up in Minnesota by a guy who opens sentences with “A guy could” and says Sank-A-Ray and now I’m in Alabama hanging out with the land surrounded by people who say Sankary the way I was taught, “Sanka-rey”.

And I’m exited about the prospect of attending Eric’s first college football game with him and enjoying the weekend. Life can be good sometimes. 

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August 21, 2012 · 8:36 pm

College Freshmen Fun

Dorm Moving Day.

Team Sank-a-Ray on a road trip. We ain’t bad it to be honest. Destination, Ala-ba-mia.

We loaded down Mrs S’s 1996 Toyota Camry with the five of us, Sank, Mrs S, Heir, Red and Girl. In the trunk went a one suitcase, albeit one that you could have put a corpse in, a laundry tub, 4 overnight bags, a back pack, a CPAP machine and 3 laptops, 3 cameras, 3 tablets, 6 iPods and the unabridged version of “Bounce- how success happens”.

Bowling ball and dog would have stay home this time around.

Departure from Apple Valley was scheduled for 0530. Actual departure was 0630 because I refuse to factor in makeup time.. seriously some unnamed family members have been getting ready for shit for nigh on 50 years and you’d think they could get the process down to something less than 45 minutes. And hair time for the girl. Which includes 20 minutes of straightening time, yes she straightens her hair. This completely befuddles me; she has to be the ONLY Korean on the planet who feels the need to straighten what is essentially perfectly straight hair.

But 0630 is better than 0730, the time the boys figured we leave so I’ll take it.

As we backed out of the driveway we bottomed out on the curve, foreshadow of the ride ahead.

Saturday morning was Auburn Freshmen Move-In Day. This is our second college kid, we know about move in. You get in line, drive across a sidewalk to the proper dorm, open the hatch and move your stuff inside. Easy Sneazy.

The line on Saturday morning in Auburn Ala-ba-mia started where the interstate exited into town, a distance of about 7 miles. It wasn’t a solid line mind you, but let’s just say the traffic pattern was all headed to one place, the Dormitories at Auburn University.

Which are quite lovely BTW, they were exactly what I expected them to be, fantastic brick buildings with white pillars in the shadow of football stadium that dwarfed many NFL stadia. I could just image Neidermeyer sitting on the porch with a cig in a holder saying “What did he say?”

The cars in line, lots of massive SUV’s, some pulling U-Haul trailers behind them. “You know” Mrs S remarked at one particularly large truck and trailer, “there’s only one girl in there.”

I know. Remember that from Michigan Tech’s move in weekend. One girl can bring up to 1100lbs of assorted shit to college, and that’s on the first trip. I pride myself that our family is able to get a years worth of crap into a trunk and still have room for a CPAP and 5 overnight bags.

We waited patiently in line making our way forward to the lady in charge, she had on Parking Lot Power Vest, which is basically any dayglow yellow or orange vest. Don one those and stand in any parking in country can you can get people to do anything you want, regardless if you actually belong there or not. Put a wad of cash in your hand and stand at an entrance to the grocery store and be amazed at how many people will give you $10.00 with asking “who the hell are you and when did they start charging to park at Piggly Wiggly?” Don’t ask me how I know this.

Our turn. I opened the window and spoke to my first Alabamian. “Hi” I didn’t know the local word for hello, in California it’s “hey” but I don’t think that works here. She replied in perfect English with a delightful twist “Hey there, what hall y’all head’n too?” “Lufton” I responded. You know how in Church, and I haven’t exactly spent much time in a Church, there’s that part where the Priest or Pastor, and I get confused on what’s what there, says something on cue and the entire congregation responds in unison. Except the Jewish guy who jumps a bit because he wasn’t expecting it.. that’s kinda what happened in the car. “Lufton” to which Mrs S, Heir, Red and Girl screamed “LUP-Ton.” And the woman, who acted like she couldn’t understand me because I used the soft P which is an F in Wisconsin, where beer influences speech sometimes, responded with “Ohhh Y’all are goin’ to LuPton hall, great welcome to Auburn, jus’follow that guy up there, he’ll show you the way.”

That guy BTW, if he wasn’t a lineman on the football team I’d be shocked. “Right HERE, an ya’ll have 10 minutes to unload and go park ya’alls car.”

Yes Sir.

We parked next to several piles of crap, piles that by my estimation were about 2 inches taller and 5 inches wider than any dorm room I’d ever seen. And each pile was being guarded by a Mother and Daughter team.

We, had nothing. One trip out of the trunk and one of us didn’t even have to carry a thing.

The kids will be living in a suite, to lads one room, two lads in an another room and a bathroom and shower between them. Note to self, I I have to use the can do it now ‘cause by about 3:15 I ain’t no body but these kids are going to want to use it until the University Hazmat Tam comes in April to decontaminate the place. The shower had no curtain, something Mrs S picked up on right away. The oldest kid picked up the potty which by his estimation would open a sinkhole. I think you could flush a corgi down it. I’m sure it’s designed to handle beer cans and Chic-Fil-A.

Off to Target.

We more than made up for our having light load at the Target. $375 and two carts full of stuff. Fridge, towels, matching comforter, shower curatin. Mrs S bought a shower curtain. Mistake in my mind.
“three other mothers have looked in that bathroom, I guarantee there’s going to be several of those things.”

Fridge.

The fun I was having at the expense of folks trying get 10 cubic feet of shit into a 6 cubic foot dorm room was quickly compromised when Mrs S told me put the fridge in the Camry. Apparently she would like for me to “just go with the flow” and not respond to simple requests with an f-word sandwich, “no” and “way” being the bookends in that deal. We got the thing into the front seat of the car, “so who am I going to leave here?” No one. 4 in the back seat. Thought we were bottoming out before, we left a trail of sparks from Opilaka to Auburn. And when we got back to the room, I took the shower curtain into the bathroom where I found, sitting on the sink, three other shower curtains.

A man doesn’t get the opportunity to say “told ya so” too often.

And having as much experience with marriage as I do, well… some victories are best enjoyed vicariously.

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August 13, 2012 · 8:25 pm

Direction Unknown

Direction Unknown

The drive back.

Ok, I’m not going to lie, it’s a long-ass drive from Minnesota to Alabama and back. Long-ass monkey butt kinda drive. At least it’s an interesting drive, at least the first 2/3rds or so, last 2/3rds are through Iowa and southern Minnesota, where ”interesting” and “scenery” is a far more acquired taste. Unless miles of corn and soy with nary a single variance on the horizon to break the appearance of complete and total flatittude.

Not as flat mind you as southern Illinois, specifically the area around Nashville Illinois where we stopped for the night. My father-in-law once told me, when I suggested a visit to HoyletonP1000221 and the surrounding countryside that I should stand on the cab if his dad’s pickup and do a 360, and then go somewhere else. He’s right, but you’d miss an awful lot, namely the hardworking people who have populated this area for generations, even though they haven’t lived there for 50 years, her parents still had great pride when talking about Hoyleton and Nashville and where the Grandparents returned every year from Arizona until it was physically impossible for them. And where, in death they wanted to be buried. In the same church yard, in the same ground where there parents and grand parents were buried.

Nashville is part of the Nashville/New Mindon/Hoyleton metropolitan area. This is Ground Zero for Mrs S, her parents, grand-parents, great grand-parents et. al. were all born and raised within a few tens of miles of the second booth on the right at the Little Nashville Diner along US 24 there between the cities. If you haven’t been there before, I wouldn’t recommend a special trip, but if you find yourself driving between St. Louis MO. And Paducah KY and are hungry.. well keep driving, there’s probably something better to eat in Mount Vernon. But don’t head up before you look around the surrounding countryside. Note that when kids ask “where does food come from?”, Washington County Illinois would be a very viable answer.

In all seriousness for a moment I do have to report on the drought conditions in Central Illinois. Holy SHIT is an understatement. It is almost apocalyptic, miles and miles of dead corn fields, dried up cattle ponds and streams, dried out lawns and everywhere you look, cracked dry earth. Scary to think about what will happen to these folks, and to our food prices come winter.

When we went into the Little Nashville Diner for dinner there was just a hint of an Animal House moment where the kids walking into the bar where Otis Day is playing and everything stops as the patrons, band and staff check out the interlopers. In our case substitute young black folks for old white folks and you’d just about have the same idea.

I couldn’t help but wonder if these folks were friends of my in-laws parents. In fact they’re a lot younger than my in-laws parents… but they’re about the same as the in-laws parents were when I last saw them in Nashville and Hoyleton. It’s one of those time warp things where you remember people and events in the same time and place where they were when you last saw them. I haven’t seen my friend Sam in like, 35 years, and I’m sure I’ll be quite surprised when I run into him again and see that he doesn’t look 17 anymore.

Anyway…

I made the mistake of ordering off the ethnic menu at the Little Nashville, I ordered a quesadilla. BTW the “ethnic food” menu has quesadillas, stuffed manicotti, and sauerkraut and sausage. Chicken quesadilla. In my mind, tortilla’s, cheese, some chicken, maybe a jalapeño pepper. What I got was culinary mess with onions, green peppers, cumin, sauerkraut, weird sauce, and almost no chicken or cheese. These things should be a grilled cheese on tortilla, not some kind of German/Mexican fusion food. Matter of fact the entire parking lot smelled like sauerkraut. Processed sauerkraut.

The drive this morning took us through St. Louis, Hannibal Missouri, Cedar Falls Iowa, Albert Lea Minnesota, Faribault and finally, the Twin Cities. According to the Google about a 10 hour drive. Now here’s where things broke down a little bit this morning. I had an idea in my mind of how I wanted to navigate the trip, Google had suggested a route, and Google and I were in agreement of how to get home. The problem was the chick in the GPS, “the girl friend” as Mrs S calls her routed us through rural fucking Illinois up to US 70, across to Des Moines and on up to the Twin Cities, about a 12 hour drive.

Not my first choice.

The unit has a “Calculate alternative route” button, which I tried. There is more than one way to get there from here. The next route had us driving through St. Louis, all the way across Missouri to Kansas City and then up I-35, about a 16 hour drive. After about a dozen tries it occurred to me to try to do a route with a stop in Hannibal, which worked and which delivered a solution that was 3 hours shorter than anything the stupid thing had proposed up to that point.

So, is that a GPS Tom Tom problem or is it a user error? Or is the chick just bat shit nuts?

And they ask why men don’t ask for directions?

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August 5, 2012 · 11:00 am

Change is in the Air

Nothing ever changes for the better
- Walter Mattau, Grumpier Old Men

Which includes, the seasons sometimes. The current season, Summer… it’s starting to wilt pretty badly.

The end is nigh. I can see it coming. Like a train in tunnel.

I’m in the last two days of my two week vacation. Two weeks of bachelor living while the family has been working in Hawaii. True, I’ve been working at my usual vocation, but they’ve been working on interpersonal relationships, and “close” living. I’ll take the office over that any day, especially given that I’ve come home every night to a quiet empty house. Fact is I only left the house twice to run errands for Mrs S.

I think I’d be perfectly happy observing the world from behind my windows. Too bad I consume so much shit and have such exquisite taste in cameras and computer equipment. But even there Amazon.com. Try to keep to a box a week.

I haven’t been as good a bachelor this time around as I have been in previous years. For most of the last two weeks my dinners have alternated between a bagel and peanut butter, a bagel and cream cheese, a bagel and Laughing Cow Cheese and then a bowl of Malt-O-Meal Faux Cheerio’s. I ran out of bagels.

I had a house guest one night, the brother of the bride for this weekends affair. I picked him up at the airport and he stayed at my place, given the hour that he arrived (1:00am) and the time we wanted leave (8:00am) didn’t make sense to take him home.

I made coffee in the morning and as he reached for the milk in the fridge.. the two fingers of milk left at the bottom of a gallon jug. The same jug that Mrs S and the little S’s used for their cereal right before they got in the car about a fortnight ago to go to the airport,  I had to suggest to the lad, much like Walter Mattau would, “you might want to smell that…”.  Been in there a while.

I’m kinda outta of uh.. well I’m out of food. Kind of general statement, but pretty accurate. Unless you want tomato paste or canned olives, your outta luck around here.

BTW, the only thing in the fridge; said milk, 8 bottles of coconut life water (love that stuff), a quivering mass of red liquid that used to be a tomato at one time, the remnants of it’s skin the only clue to it’s former life, a bowl with saran wrap covering something brown and green that I think is last weekend guac that no one ate, I’ll be depositing the entire bowl and contents into the trash soon,  a pile of Greek yogurt, and about 6 packs of shredded mexican cheese, all of them open and all of them missing several handfuls of content. Seems I open one before I look for another. I make quesadillas sort of alot. Tortilla, handful of cheese, and hot cast iron.  Haven’t had one in while though, ran out of tortillas about a week ago.

Other than that, not much else consumable around here. Even the butter was gone thanks to the dog swallowing a stick when it fell out of the holder last week. I didn’t notice until it was too late, about 11 nanoseconds is too late in that situation. He moves pretty darned fast when motivated by dairy products.

Piles of Stuff

One nice thing about living alone, stuff remains exactly where you put it. This is great when it comes to keys and wallets and leatherman tools. This is especially great when the place you leave it is the kitchen table. Nice to be surrounded by familiar things when you’re eating breakfast. Like the last 10 days of the newspaper. Mostly still in the original plastic bag. This is not so great when it comes to stuff like laundry. There’s no one here to pick up the clothes, wash them, and put them back in my drawers. I’ll have to ask Mrs S how that happens when she gets back.  Yeah, this blissful carefree lifestyle is fast coming to an end. Gang gets back Tuesday, but only for a while.

Going South

 

Come on baby drive South, with the one you love.
Windows open on the rest of the of the world, all the way to Dixieland
- John Hiatt

Thursday Team Sank-a-Ray pile in the car and following the lead of America’s least appreciated, and probably worst paid, great songwriter, John Hiatt we’re heading south.

Two days of driving to get us to the Great State of Alabama- my middle kid’s new home away from home. No fucking Kentucky weak ass transitional southern experience for him, no Texas like western south either, nope. M’boy is going deep into the heart of Dixie. Alabama boys. Auburn University here he comes. Lest you forget where we are, Auburn’s old union was a Confederate hospital back in the day.

And there he’ll stay, in the hands of the fine folks at Auburn University. Whirlwind trip for us, 36 hour driving for 36 hours on the ground.

Since I haven’t taken a vacation this summer I was thinking we were going to be there a week or so, maybe go to the Gulf. Well no luck. This summer at the office is the summer of no vacation, I can’t figure out how to get away more than a few days here and there and the gang coming back from Hawaii’s beaches don’t want to go to Alabama’s beaches for some reason.

And finally, the real issue… Auburn sent us a very nice invitation to a breakfast for the entire family on Sunday morning. A Good BYE and we mean it breakfast. I counted three places in 6 lines of verbiage where they essentially say, but in a nice way, GET LOST. Since it is Alabama I’m pretty sure they can shoot parents for less than helicoptering so.. we’re gone.

Going North

Oh, every year hath it’s winter
And every year hath it’s rain
But the day is always coming
When the birds go north again
- Ella Higginson

And before you know it, the oldest bird heads north, really far north. He’ll be spending the next 4 months way up in the northern environs of British Columbia where he’ll be part of a team of Canadian and British researchers evaluating ground water and it’s impact on salmon populations. Now, the Horsefly River doesn’t sound like a place I want to go, but looking at the pictures online of some of the fish the folks at the lodges up there are catching I’m inclined to be impressed. Nice to see him doing something he loves. Not as nice to know he wants to leave 3 weeks early. I’ve heard he wants to go back to Houghton when he gets home from taking his Brother to Auburn. He really wants to see Auburn. He also wants to go home, which isn’t where home once was for him.

“why?” I asked my wife, “would he want to go back up there.. he’s always complaining that it’s kind of slow.” She responded “Used to be slow, I think it’s not as slow now, he’s got someone to do things with these days and he, might be a she.”

Minor tectonic adjustment needed in my world.

*sigh*. “But I’ve seen him for three days summer” I started to complain, and I caught myself. Screw it, I don’t want to be the buzzkill on this deal. One going North, one going South and one still to young to decide. Summer 12 moves to Autumn and change is afoot.

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes

Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
- David Bowie

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May 28, 2012 · 7:21 pm

Weekend Update- Memorial Day Edition.

Split time this weekend- the lake place and the home place.

Started the weekend in the Dermatologists office, my annual brush with mortality. I came away from that pretty much unscathed for a chance. Actually that makes  two a row, which pleases me to no end.

Friday afternoon Mrs S and headed up to the cabin to work on the pontoon boat. We got the furniture reattached and by most accounts the boat, which will be renamed the SS (Sank Ship in case you were wondering) War Eagle. She’s resplendent with navy carpet and some orange trim the only thing missing a giant AU in the front carpet and the “Beat Bama’ logo on the back.

Personally I’d like to see the youth do well in a couple classes at Auburn before we go all in on the family watercraft if you know what I’m saying. Or rather, Just say’n.

Friday evening we had the first bonfire of the year. Not so much for the bonding effect of a lovely campfire on a summer night, the motivation was rather um, to destroy about 4 years of back checks and documents Mrs S had accumulated and didn’t want to feed through her $8.99 POS shredder that chokes on two ply toilet paper much less more than one piece of paper at a time.

By the time we were done the fire pit was one gigantic pile of ashes which magically were completely gone in the morning after a thunderstorm and some rain.

IMG_0010Saturday Giggs had a friend up for the day, Riley the golden lab from the next door in Apple Valley. Riley hitched a rid up with some of the family members and they had a splendid day, Riley chasing shit around the yard for hours on end and Giggs attempting to herd Riley. They have a great relationship because each dog gets what they want. Giggs did have to draw line however at lake entry. Giggs, having no legs is a bit of wader in the lake, definitely not a swimmer. Riley being a  lab enjoys the water. Giggs had to patiently wait on shore for other dog to swim back, and like a true herding dog waited in the down position like a sheep dog waiting on the next command. Breeding for traits is very interesting.

Then again, no corgi like the water, and Giggs certainly enjoys a good wade when it’s hot outside.

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Saturday dinner I whipped up Lebanese style. Some kabobs which had been marinating in olive oil and spices all day, I attempted my mothers baba ganoush, roasted eggplant puree with tahini, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice. Having no recipe I winged it from a 27 year old memory of an observation of my mother making the stuff. It was decent enough but needs some tweaking. Since nothing as measured I’m not exactly certain how I’ll I do that.. but I will enjoy figuring it out.

IMG_0013 IMG_0014

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After chow Saturday night Mrs S and the kids all bailed with our neighbors and it then got really quiet up there. If it wasn’t for the thunder and lightning I’d have had to start talking to myself.

Sunday I got up with great expectations of watching the Indy 500 and doing some work. New role at the office has me bringing home a lot of stuff these days and I was pretty sure at least one day of the weekend would be devoted to project work.

As it was we literally had no reception on Sunday. No TV reception for some reason. Now Blake Lake is on the far periphery of Twin Cities TV coverage, and all we have is an antenna, but we had been getting decent TV. I’m blaming sunspots.

After weaseling myself on invite to a friends for breakfast I managed to extend my visit through the morning and enjoyed a gratis bloody Mary while watching the race. Actually one of the best bloodies I’ve ever had. Full meal, marinated tomato juice and vodka. Good times.

After the race I invited the gang over to my place for more feeding and drinking and so it was.

Never mind that work thing mind you.

Sunday night we had a massive thunderstorms all around us, but someway, somehow we managed to avoid a direct hit and only had to suffer through the power going out. For 6 hours of so.

Monday I was home by 9:00. Mrs S met me at the door with a list. Somehow it had slipped my mind that my mother in law is coming to visit on Wednesday, which in my mind was three days away, but wit the holiday is actually only two days away and since we want her think we live in a model home for some reason, there was a lotta shit to do, which we did.

And now I have tiredness.

I did take a moment and think about the men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line in the service of our country. The meaning of the day was mentioned at dinner. I did not forget, like I did about my Mother in Law.

Or that we are about to have a high school graduation this week, my son of all people. Now since he’s the middle kid I figured we could ignore it all together and go to the lake, but on further reflection have decided to stick around and congratulate him, and all his class on their great achievement, they have met the most basic educational requirement of our society and have earned themselves the highly coveted Meeting Expectations.

I don’t get the bid deal on high school  graduations.

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October 21, 2011 · 2:18 pm

War Eagle!

War Eagle everyone.

If you happen to see the middle kid it would be entirely appropriate that you greet him with War Eagle, the official greeting for members of the University of Auburn family, also happens to to be the rally call for the schools athletic teams.

All this means good news at the Casa this week, middle kid has been accepted to Auburn University. We thought we’d wait to see where else he got accepted before we commit, to make sure he selects the school that’s best for him. The kiddo however, was waiting to see if he got accepted to Auburn to see if he had to apply anywhere else. Not exactly my advice to be totally honest. But.. it worked out for him. He applied for early admission. The university web site said early admission kids would notified between October 15 and February 1st.

I explained to him that the letter would probably come later than sooner, that’s kinda how this stuff works, and that he should buckle down and work up the essay he needed for some of his other choices; Oregon, Cal, Minnesota, and St. Thomas. I think Illinois was on that list at one point as well. Write up the essay dude, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The letter came October 17. Way to go Auburn, way to screwup my plans. Still you want to make sure dude, lets follow up on the other schools and make certain you have some choices, you want to make choices. He had me send in the deposit October 18th.

So, basically it’s a done deal. Auburn here we come, or rather “he” comes, I won’t be going down except to drop him off, and if it works out, maybe to catch a football game at some point. That’s a long drive. But to his credit there is a method to his madness, apparently he gets priority for housing based on how early you begin enrollment. I can’t imagine there is anyone earlier than our guy, I’m thinking he’ll get the penthouse room on the Quad.. something called the Quad being his choice.

So as of this time next year, we’ll have one kid in Michigan, one kid in Alabama and one kid upstairs on an iPad.

Before we look forward to reuniting the family here in St. Paul, oldest kid is starting to look at Grad Schools. Grad School!! Kid has good taste believe me, but he also has the grades to back up his dream, which at this point is Leland Sanford Junior University in Palo Alto California. That Stanford. Second choice BTW, The Colorado School of Mines in Golden Colorado followed by the University of California in Berkeley California.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about all these schools, The mean distance between Minneapolis Minnesota and all of these places, about 12oo miles. In other words, the long term prognosis for Sankary kids in Minnesota is poor. I don’t know what the future looks like, Mrs S and I staying here and Minnesota being the central point for family visits and summers at the lake? Will the kids wind up somewhere near each other and we go there, will Mrs S’s disdain for Winter finally predicate a move to warmer climes, will the lure of California and family draw us back, the future is not clear at the moment.

I’m seeing change in the wind folks, the future will be exciting, hopefully not too exciting, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Or something like that.

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August 9, 2011 · 5:32 pm

Where to start… A Mixed Bag Of Stuff

Mixed bag for you today-

Bus Rider- Revisited

This morning I finally ran out of excuses and got my sorry butt back on the bus.

Since getting back from Florida a week ago Wednesday I’ve been driving downtown every day, paying for parking, paying for gas, getting behind in my reading, on and on.

Some of the excuses I’ve employed of late:

-        Too hot. When I’m wearing a suit the LAST thing I want to do is walk four blocks in 80 degrees with 70% humidity. Makes me a little moist by the time I get to my office where I find, more times than not, the office is hot and humid because they haven’t turned on the AC early enough in the morning to get the temps under control. I don’t like sweating in a suit. Nuff said.

-        I need my car. Mrs S is out of town, she’s been out of town since last Thursday. When she’s gone I might get a call from the school or something and need to go pick up a sick kid. School is not currently in session so that argument is a little thin. Plus, two of the kids drive so in the unlikely event, or maybe the likely event since she complains about being ill 3:1 times over the two boys combined, they could in fact, pick her up.

-        I’m late. Since returning I’ve been running late. Perpetually late as a matter of fact. I’ve been late to EVERYTHING, which is quite unlike me, except… I wasn’t late to last week’s Masons deal down in Montgomery MN, that would have a fine event to be a few minutes late, instead I turned up an hour early and sat around outside feeding mosquito’s, it was awesome.

-        Road Construction- OK I’m not sure how this works, tilt in the universe of some kind, maybe I squashed a bug that was someone’s recently reincarnated great Auntie who always wanted the gift of flight I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just that I live in Minnesota and it’s summer. BUT, somehow some planners somewhere have managed to start serious long term road construction projects on just about every road that your kind loving writer here drives on in the course of the day, starting with the feeder road outside my neighborhood. Seriously. Everyone. Even the roads I use for a shortcut to get home when I’m driving myself, as I’ve been doing, my secret short cuts through South Minneapolis, torn up and some cases flat out closed. Roads the feed on-ramps, closed. The main road between my abode and the Park’n Ride- closed. Not conned off while they work, flat out closed. So I get in the car, late, hot and looking for an excuse and by the time I negotiate the endless construction projects.. I’m no where near the park and ride and give up and drive in to work. Where, BTW it costs me about $15.00 a day to park. Vs, a buck a day if I used the buss pass I PAY FOR. Stupid eh?

Today I got up early, negotiated the gauntlet of orange barrels and got to the bus stop. An move that was more than 3 minutes out of my way. Yeah.. shameful.

 

 

Can tutoring help when kids are slow as mine?

Interesting conversation with the Daughter. While Mrs S is out of town I’m responsible for getting to some of the many places she needs to be in a given day including Hunntington where she’s getting some tutoring in writing. Personally I think too much texting has impacted her ability to express herself in words longer than 2 letters and a character. In our discussions for some reason Phy Ed came. BTW, in Cali, Phy Ed is P.E. Phy Ed sounds to me like something from Leave it to Beaver, same goes for Pop. Never heard Pop used as slang for soft drink except in old Disney Movies until I moved here. Here, everyone thinks they’re Dean Jones or something with these terms from the 50’s. I digress.

Daughter announced that this last year in school in she was able to complete the 7th grade mile run in a stellar 21 minutes.

21 minutes.

That doesn’t feel very fast. Middle kid announced that he was able break the 17 minute barrier pretty easy. Did it with 8 seconds to spare.

16:52 for a mile run, if that can be described as running.

Doesn’t feel too much better. Sprinters can complete a there own mile in the difference between these two.

Oldest kid. He was the family athlete, years of hockey in his past. Mile? 15 minutes. Explains why he was a goalie I think.

Back to 21.. “dear” I said in my most loving voice “that’s barely walking, did you sit down half way through and take a rest?” apparently not. Chatted with her friends while walking I’m sure. At that speed they could easily maintain a conversation with no worry about being outta breath.

I’m now wondering if the fine folks at Huntington Learning Centers have a tutoring program for PE. I think we have some candidates.

I should talk, at least I’m smart enough to get in a car when I need to travel a mile or so.

Parenting Sank Style.. or How not to do it.

Interesting discussion with some youths this weekend, made me wonder if we have the whole thing wrong. In conversation with other kids I learned that other families have things called uh, what’s the word, “limits” or “rules” or something like that. Apparently there are parents who monitor what their kids are watching on TV. Saturday Night Live for example. Some of the kids haddn’t seen it before because A) they’re not allowed to watch it and B) they’re in bed when it comes on.

I struggled thinking about our kids and wondering of we’re just total failures at this parenting thing. Our daughter has never missed an episode of SNL. Matter of fact she wrote up her 6th Grade presentation project on SNL. She also watched Criminal Minds, all the assorted CSI’s and any R rated movies that I happen to be watching. When something saucy comes up I tell her to “cover up” and she does.

Hmm. Bed times are strange to me as well, we’ve never really had one for the kids. Really only a problem for the middle kid, he’s a night owl and can stay up really late. Problem with bedtimes of 10 or 11 or later on weekend, the old man probably won’t be up to enforce it.

I, am going to bed early these days. Street light early some nights.

I suppose it’s too late for us now, the kids are almost grown and the damage of being raised by yours truly has been done. We’ll have to see how it works out in the end.

College- Two in better than one.

Speaking of the end- college application season is here. Middle kid is cranking out the apps now. So far

-        Auburn. He’s hot on the Tigers and has reconciled spending four years of his life in Alabama. Good for him.

-        St. Thomas. Safety school. He can get in but it’s inside my 300 mile exclusion zone for college. I like the idea of kids really going away, but that getting to school trumps exclusions. Then again, at St. Thomas we could still go to Timberwolves games.

-        Oregon. He’s applying to the University of Oregon. Didn’t see this coming.  “Son, is this because they were also in the National Championship game?”  Apparently not. He’s very interested in Biology/Pre-Med or something, I have to listen better (See the above on parenting skills) and he’s read that Oregon is a top school for that sort of thing. Hadn’t thought of that one, but I’m supportive if that’s where he wants to go. Feels like we should do a visit. Feels like I should go on that one, Oregon is one of those places I love even though I’ve never been there.

Authors note- You can develop feelings for places you’ve never been good and bad. I don’t have to visit Port Arthur TX or Pierre SD to know I don’t like them. I’ve never been to San Simeon  and I know, if offered a house and chance to move there I would jump at it.

Since the Middle Kid is doing college, Oldest Kid, not wanting to feel left out, has declared his intention to go from Michigan Tech straight to Grad School. Which makes me happy. We knew that in his field a BS wasn’t good enough. “BTW father,  I intend to apply to Stanford”

Stanford? Gulp.  “Is there a Stanford other than the one in Palo Alto CA?”  “No Dad, that’s the one. They’re top in my field.”

“super” I said, with a quaver in my voice.

Stanford.. we’ll see how that goes, but should he get in, and his grades at Tech are certainly good enough, well looks like I’ll be getting my last Starbucks Latte for a few years. Looks like the limits I was hoping to impose on my kids are going to imposed on me, right in the pocket book.

 

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