Suburban Crawl
4 hours in the burbs
Today was destined to be a day of errands. Why not make a mental note of the day, embrace it, and see how the day unfolds? It is a BEAUTIFUL and CLEAR Tuesday in late September. The sky is cloudless and light blue. Great to look at but would be a very challenging jigsaw puzzle!
I awakened early, knowing there were a number of must-dos on the agenda. The beautiful days of fall are not ones to spend inside my car but alas, real life intervenes sometimes.
I love the quiet of the morning. I attended to a few miscellaneous morning matters and mostly enjoyed my coffee while I read a bit and did the Wordle. I had a scheduled post go out this morning long before I woke up (5 am local). A few early birds taking a peek. It is fun to see that people take the time to read it. I decided to do a bunch of stretching this morning as my shoulder has been giving me some pain lately. Once that was done, I went out on the deck and continued reading “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger. Many of the people in my writing group enjoy his books and one of them kindly shared his copy of the book. This seems to be the one to “read first” to get a flavor of his writing. I like what I’ve read so far.
I put together some breakfast, not near as involved as what I described in Breakfastaganza but still a nice assortment of stuff including pineapple, raspberries, quinoa, pinto beans, a hard-boiled egg, a piece of chocolate, my stalwart bloody mary mix for a kick and of course coffee. I tidied up afterward and the day approached. Thanks to a gentle cajole from a fellow writer, I am now trying to use fewer dishes for my morning medley. I think I have ALMOST made this a habit. Mindfulness is a wonderful thing.
I enjoy a BROAD assortment of Newsletters and so many of my favorites paint a scene of what life is like in the place they live. I hope I do the same. Their lives, and the formative impact of the place they live shape how life unfolds for them as it does for me. While it is NOT THAT FAR AWAY, I do not live in the urban center. According to Google, I am 10.5 miles away from the urban center of St. Paul, MN, and 13.9 miles from the urban center of Minneapolis, MN. They are separated by the mighty Mississippi hence why we call them the twins. There is an approximate 80+ mile interstate ring around the cities and we are in the southeastern suburbs. Dakota County is one of seven counties in the Twin Cities metro area.
I knew I had a few errands and commitments. While it is POSSIBLE I could attend to these errands by bicycle, it was not a realistic plan today because of the locations and bulky items. After selling our near three-decade home, I have tuned up my bicycle and ride it for fun occasionally now but I am far from a Tour de France warrior just yet.
My dog did not move despite sounds in the kitchen and I began to wonder if something was wrong. I opened the bathroom door where he sleeps and he lumbered, stretched, and coaxed his eyes open to meet the day. Today held a number of things I MUST DO including:
Get my dog out for a nice walk so that he would be napping in the car during our array of errands. For Denny, 4,000 steps are more than enough to put him on the crash cart.
Meet an insurance adjuster who would assess the roof of one of our rental homes for hail damage in a town named Rosemount. Living in the Midwest exposes you to a realization that all forms of precipitation are possible and in fact common. I would posit that I may have seen hail 1-2 times in my formative first twenty years in Western New York. Here it is a common occurrence and the primary cause of roof damage where we live.
Pick up my tennis racquet which is being restrung by an in-house family business in a town called Apple Valley.
Pick up a couple of prescriptions at my neighborhood Walgreens pharmacy in a city name Mendota Heights.
Pick up some consumable items at a warehouse store in a city named Eagan. I do this for the non-profit business I work part-time at. Even if I was adept at bicycling, the combination of a tennis racquet and an oversized pack of paper towels made the bicycle idea a pipe dream.
The agenda for the day did not start out this way. I got busy last night with a meeting so I missed the pickup of my prescriptions. I knew about the insurance adjuster. I didn’t know about my racquet being ready. The extra consumables were mostly a result of my stopping at the office on the way home from my meeting last evening and noting what was needed.
While I did just fine without a mobile phone for decades, I love how much it helps. I believe it gives me time back in the day to spend on stuff I’d rather do. Today will be a test of that premise. A lot of piddly stuff to do. Will I still end up feeling great about a bit of time for fun? We shall see. While I hear the laments of many about how much time they waste, for me I think they are awesome. Our modern world IS AMAZING. The truth is getting this stuff done is easier with the modern convenience of a mobile phone. I got a message from the family tennis racquet stringing business that my racquet was ready and that I could pay for it with Venmo.
After a bit of a struggle (I don’t use Venmo that much), the bill was paid and the pickup I could work out later. As I thought about my route, I realized I had a snowblower that had been serviced and needed dropping off where it will be used. I decided I would add that to my loop today. Denny was going to get a long ride in the car which he always appreciates.
As I mentioned, my dog unexpectedly was still quiet, so, quite unusually I went in to wake him up! Denny is getting old and enjoys his sleep. Dogs are more adaptable than humans it seems. I had no doubt a complete change to schedule was something he would roll with as long as he had a companion. I had decided to take him for his morning constitutional and then a walk to tire him out and then, instead of going up to eat, we’d get in the car and run errands. Today was going to be a bit of “intermittent fasting” for Denny!
A bit over 4000 steps later we headed for the insurance adjuster appointment at 10 AM. Without much fanfare, State Farm approved a new roof for our rental home!!! Hooray for us. We sure have paid a lot of insurance over the years and it is welcome when things work out. I am excited as a new roof will definitely make the house shine! The roofer advised the new shingles he recommends having a fifty-year warranty that is transferable. As a healthy 61-year-old man, it sucks to begin making purchases with warranties that will long outlive me.
In the last three weeks, I have had four family members deal with circulatory loss in a leg, prostate cancer, a mild heart attack, and a hip replacement. Amongst my friend group, there are additional maladies. I have to stop complaining that my shoulder hurts after three sets of tennis :)
From there we went to Rosemount Tool and Saw and made arrangements to get the snowblower delivered. It is READY for the new season. Despite all of the talk of global warming, Minnesota is far from in the clear. Snow will come as it always does. I got the delivery set for Thursday of this week in the morning. I messaged the details to the renters who will have a snowblower this year to ease their lives a bit. Two tasks down and everything is coming up roses so far!
I had brought snacks in the car for Denny and he was making good headway with the cucumbers, radishes, and carrots. Since this was a rare experiment of him skipping traditional breakfast, I was happy he had not had a meltdown. Anything is possible with an oldish curmudgeon of a dog. Here is a photo of what he did to a pineapple I left in the car for a few minutes with him. I think the Tik-Tok crowd calls this hangry.
I used my George Jetson hand-held device and arranged to pick up my tennis racquet next. So far everything was going smooth. It is GREAT to deal with a family business! Since my next stop would be Costco, it was nice to stop in a residential neighborhood and pick up my racquet. I also got a little protective tape for the top of the frame and we were on our way. When I got back to the car, Denny was pretty animated. It seemed the realization was setting in that he was in the middle of an imposed intermittent fast.
We started heading back and stopped at Walgreens to get a couple of prescriptions. They had free dog biscuits available and he did not miss the opportunity. I had intended to go inside and survey how many products were locked up at my neighborhood Walgreens. An AWESOME Newsletter that I recommend to ALL had a fun story about her local Walgreens in Brooklyn. If there were referees for light retail, a flag would be thrown for excessive use of lucite and barrel locks at her neighborhood store. Take a look to see what I mean.
From there it was over to Costco to get a few items for the non-profit, fill my tank with gasoline, and back to the apartment. Denny was happy to get home and inhaled his breakfast dog food in record time. I wonder if his “internal clock” will try to shift back to his expected “2nd dinner” time? We shall see. In the meantime, I tidied up a bit, applied the protective tape to my racquet, and then pulled out “This Tender Land” on the deck to salvage the day. Even after recording all of this, it is now only three pm. A pretty good day despite my original outlook of “suburban crawl”. I never expected to write a post today. All in all, a pretty nice day with an awful lot of time left to go!
The Poll & Music
Here is a song from the Minneapolis band “The Suburbs”. The video is a little long but is about how local bands come to be.
What’s Next
Next up is “One of my Faves”. This is a reprise of an older post that ALMOST ALL OF YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN. I have freshened it, corrected some egregious grammar, and added an absolutely great speech that should be remembered and an earworm of a song that will be hard to forget. I enjoy my genealogy hobby. I gained a new perspective as a result of it. Hope to see you next time.
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. :)
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!