I picked “something else” as usual and the something else here is it depends who is doing the living. I bet you could live anywhere and find it fascinating.
Something else is the BEST this time. I try to stay connected with positive people. They seem to exist EVERYWHERE as you describe.
Errands are great. I LOVE sort of creating the loop. I wanted people in the story, to realize that sometimes your plan will change and that is great! Pulling up to a suburban home and they have a little room off the entrance where they are running a tennis stringing business? Who cares if you play tennis or not, the cool thing is a his and her team with a little side biz -- I would bet they meet 50+ new people a year just by having the biz! I will never string my racquets anywhere else.
I have found it necessary to reduce the # of Newsletters I read. Yours is one I never miss as I always get a laugh and a slice of life. That's a great bargain and you ALWAYS manage to do it without being crass. That is a good formula IMO.
Don't know if I mentioned this before, but I went to college in St. Paul. I am very fond of the Twin Cities and still have a lot of friends there -- nice to get this "day in the life" of a place I like so much!
You have. I love that section of St. Paul. When I first moved to MN I spent some time in St. Paul. It was so SIMILAR to my hometown of Buffalo with durable ethnic neighborhoods and a bit more blue collar. Having seen the last 30+ years unfold, it is clear to me that Minnesota chose a very different approach than Buffalo to preserving and supporting the urban centers. Today St. Paul and Minneapolis are remarkable great places to be despite what the media might focus on. It seems to be that most every city in America has largely abandoned their core cities in deference to suburban development and a few specific neighborhoods. That is sad. I think somehow supporting two very different cities separated by a river has been a conscious and good choice.
I haven't written her back yet but recently there was a crazy story about Target. Since Target HQ is Minneapolis they serve the Cities in all sorts of ways but are definitely challenged. There was a recent story of how much of the store shelves in the anchor store in Downtown Minneapolis is now under lock and key. We just sold our home of about 30 years and figuring out what's next so something different than the suburbs perhaps. A few years ago I had to laugh because the challenge was theft of shopping carts. For a while they made berms to make it hard to take the carts outside a certain perimeter. Eventually they installed software controlled wheel locks kind of how drones are prevented from going outside of a certain location. It seemed ridiculous that geofencing a shopping cart was the only viable solution. Once the cart gets a small distance away from the store, a lock engages and the wheels just bind...so silly. Thanks as always for reading and commenting.
Enjoyed reading about your suburban adventure. Give me suburban life over city living anytime. Better yet, rural living. Maybe not as convenient, but the peacefulness and small town community is great.
Thanks for commenting John. What has been so remarkable for me relocating to the Midwest has been the idea and access of two bustling cities, a state capital, a ring of suburbs, lots of water and nature interspersed and only 15-20 miles from the urban center the sprawl of the woods and agriculture in lots of directions. We are spoiled in some ways. When I think of the majesty of where you live at the edge of nature, we can get the best of all worlds if we choose carefully. My interview post gets into the idea of that a little bit I hope.
A day in the life of Mark, and it sounds like you had fun with it. Sometimes it's the small and inconsequential things that give us the most pleasure. Throw in a book at the end and that's my kind of a day. :)
It is so true that life is what we make of it I think. I've already forgotten but believe the rest of the day was great! Reading a book is always fun because it focuses your mind and takes you someplace else!
I picked “something else” as usual and the something else here is it depends who is doing the living. I bet you could live anywhere and find it fascinating.
Also, aren’t errands the best?
Also, thanks for the shoutout!
Something else is the BEST this time. I try to stay connected with positive people. They seem to exist EVERYWHERE as you describe.
Errands are great. I LOVE sort of creating the loop. I wanted people in the story, to realize that sometimes your plan will change and that is great! Pulling up to a suburban home and they have a little room off the entrance where they are running a tennis stringing business? Who cares if you play tennis or not, the cool thing is a his and her team with a little side biz -- I would bet they meet 50+ new people a year just by having the biz! I will never string my racquets anywhere else.
I have found it necessary to reduce the # of Newsletters I read. Yours is one I never miss as I always get a laugh and a slice of life. That's a great bargain and you ALWAYS manage to do it without being crass. That is a good formula IMO.
Don't know if I mentioned this before, but I went to college in St. Paul. I am very fond of the Twin Cities and still have a lot of friends there -- nice to get this "day in the life" of a place I like so much!
You have. I love that section of St. Paul. When I first moved to MN I spent some time in St. Paul. It was so SIMILAR to my hometown of Buffalo with durable ethnic neighborhoods and a bit more blue collar. Having seen the last 30+ years unfold, it is clear to me that Minnesota chose a very different approach than Buffalo to preserving and supporting the urban centers. Today St. Paul and Minneapolis are remarkable great places to be despite what the media might focus on. It seems to be that most every city in America has largely abandoned their core cities in deference to suburban development and a few specific neighborhoods. That is sad. I think somehow supporting two very different cities separated by a river has been a conscious and good choice.
I live in a city and often crave the peacefulness of suburbia. Also -- I loved that post of Anne's. NYC's Wallgreens really are crazy!
I haven't written her back yet but recently there was a crazy story about Target. Since Target HQ is Minneapolis they serve the Cities in all sorts of ways but are definitely challenged. There was a recent story of how much of the store shelves in the anchor store in Downtown Minneapolis is now under lock and key. We just sold our home of about 30 years and figuring out what's next so something different than the suburbs perhaps. A few years ago I had to laugh because the challenge was theft of shopping carts. For a while they made berms to make it hard to take the carts outside a certain perimeter. Eventually they installed software controlled wheel locks kind of how drones are prevented from going outside of a certain location. It seemed ridiculous that geofencing a shopping cart was the only viable solution. Once the cart gets a small distance away from the store, a lock engages and the wheels just bind...so silly. Thanks as always for reading and commenting.
Enjoyed reading about your suburban adventure. Give me suburban life over city living anytime. Better yet, rural living. Maybe not as convenient, but the peacefulness and small town community is great.
Thanks for commenting John. What has been so remarkable for me relocating to the Midwest has been the idea and access of two bustling cities, a state capital, a ring of suburbs, lots of water and nature interspersed and only 15-20 miles from the urban center the sprawl of the woods and agriculture in lots of directions. We are spoiled in some ways. When I think of the majesty of where you live at the edge of nature, we can get the best of all worlds if we choose carefully. My interview post gets into the idea of that a little bit I hope.
A day in the life of Mark, and it sounds like you had fun with it. Sometimes it's the small and inconsequential things that give us the most pleasure. Throw in a book at the end and that's my kind of a day. :)
It is so true that life is what we make of it I think. I've already forgotten but believe the rest of the day was great! Reading a book is always fun because it focuses your mind and takes you someplace else!
Denny is a cocker spaniel. He weighs about 23 1/2 pounds. He's a great dog.