Busily Wasting Time

I've been terrible about putting my thoughts on cyber-paper lately. It's not that I haven't had any thoughts. I've written several blog entries in my head while on my bike, but I've failed to type them up when I got home. And this entry won't be too thought provoking either. Just a catch up on what's been going on.

Spring started with the annual pilgrimage to the cabin with "the boycz." All nine in attendance, and I even took home the coveted Maroon Jacket. Such a great time.


Then it was off to the Boundary Waters with Curt and the two Toms.

As you can see, the weather was anything but balmy.


but we did have one beautiful day, with a raging Johnson Falls thrown in for good measure.


Neither snow, nor ice, nor dips in a 41 degree lake, can keep this intrepid foursome from having a great time.


Memorial Day bird watching with Barny - and Dan and Francine this year - is always a treat. Apparently Barn and I have photographic dyslexia. We saw 65 species of birds, not 56.


Our friends Tom and Kathy joined us at the cabin for a great long weekend.



Floyd biked through Saint Paul. He hasn't lost his speed.


Kate and I got two new dogs - just kidding about that.


But we have gone on some nice bike rides around our fair city.


Linda and I - particularly Linda - have been busy trying to ensure that our sweetie of a mother is in a good situation.


Until Train Party we hadn't seen Peter since Moab. It was great to get the family together.


And last weekend, 75% of the Gang of Eight gathered at the cabin.

I haven't been idle. Not as busy as Barack Obama. But not idle.

Urban Bird Watching

Kate was doing a little bird watching around the house tonight. The warblers are starting to come through. Goldfinch and woodpeckers too.

But, well-trained bird watcher that she is, she quickly deduced that in spite of the fact that we are within a mile of the geographic center of an urban area of two million people, the bird on our roof was in fact a wild turkey.


Kate was quick enough to get some photos so I could enjoy it too.

Amazing. We're staying home this weekend. Who needs to go to the cabin for a genuine nature experience?

Moab Marching Madness

We've made our way west to Moab for a spring break. It's good to have the family together. We flew out Saturday night to Salt Lake. Our first big choice, at the Alamo counter, was whether we wanted an HHR or a G-Six. It turns out that Chevrolet makes a car called an HHR and Pontiac makes one cleverly named the G-Six (or perhaps "G-6" - I'm not really sure). I had never heard of the HHR (though I've known about the number 6 for a very long time). I asked what it was like and the friendly Alamo rep said "a milk truck on wheels." How could you pass that up? Makes me wonder why American car companies are in trouble! That description and a clever name like the HHR? We took it.

Our drive to Moab was beautiful. A fun trip through a mountain pass. A lunch in Price at "Los 2 Amigos" - Peter and I differed on whether the name was a good one. When we reached our condo - which is perfect for our needs - we were faced with our second choice. Where to hike first? It was 4 pm, so we make the short junket to Arches (skipping without hesitation the NCAA selection show, which illustrates how beautiful this place is). We walked "Park Avenue" - which was stunning.


Then took a hike to Utah's post card - Delicate Arch - to watch the sunset.

It's popular for a reason. It's really quite beautiful.

It's on to longer hikes and more vistas.


Monday - Island in the Sky. A day of long views and lots of short hikes.

Mesa Arch, with 100 miles of the Colorado River in the distance.

Upheaval Dome - salt coming up or a meteor? The Oleson named family members favor a meteor explanation. Ms. Morton-Peters finds the salt explanation more plausible.

This looks like an album cover. With Kate as the bass player who the band had to put in the photo.


Pretty amazing spot to have lunch.

Needles / Chesler Park / The Joint Trail

Tuesday was a long 11 mile hike through just an incredible area. Whereas the amazing hikes in Island in the Sky were looking down over broad expanses, our hike in Needles was lower in the canyons, with more immediacy. Round every corner (or more accurately in most cases, through, around and over every opening between rocks) were incredible sights to behold. Peter and I couldn't stop photographing.

For hour after hour we just followed the cairns to the vistas beyond.



Eventually we came over a gap in the rocks to Chesler Park, a "green space" provided by the desert planner, surrounded by Needles.

The "band" took another album cover photo.

Then it was on to the Joint Trail, an amazing section of the trail in very narrow cracks in some very large rocks.

An amazing day.

Arches / Devil's Garden

We spent Wednesday in Arches, mostly on the Devil's Garden primitive hike. Arches is more heavily travelled than Canyonlands, but still beautiful. It was a day of arch viewing, beginning at Double Arch,

and, at least for us, reaching its peak at Double O Arch.

Some of the hike was breathtakingly beautiful and plain old breathtaking at the same time, like the gentle stroll down to our lunch spot.

We have survived unscathed though. I think our biggest injury occurred yesterday. As a considerate family member and sometime snorer, I've taken to wearing Breath-Right Strips to bed - they seem to reduce my offensive snoring somewhat. Unfortunately, the removal of the strip from a sunburned nose took a layer of skin with it.

Along the way, I tried to horn into the band.


Peter invented the "Barkless Lounger."

and, as we were hiking to Navajo Arch, a pun contest ensued. The upset winner was Madeline - with the name for a Native American junk food snack, the "Navi Ho Ho". As a person who honors the pun, it is a gratifying moment to hear my three family members firing off puns one after the other. I know, as I always have, that my life has not been wasted.

Potash Road / Corona Arch / Center Cafe

We spent our last day in Moab driving out the Potash Road by the Colorado River to make the hike (a fairly short and reasonable one) to Corona Arch and Bowtie Arch. Early on the cliffs along the river are sheer and rugged, and attractive to climbers.

The river was cold, fast and beautiful.

We particularly loved Corona Arch. It was a beautiful day, and for much of our time there we had it mostly to ourselves.

Kate is the tiny blue dot beneath the arch. It's just a stunningly beautiful place. We finished our week with a couple of wonderful meals. The first was at the Center Cafe in Moab.

And finally, a great Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake City - the Red Iguana. Less elegant but lots of fun.

The trip was exceptional. We got along well (with just enough bickering between the kids to bring back memories). The places were great. A wonderful week.

Morning of Living Dangerously

We're off to Moab, Utah tomorrow for a much anticipated hiking trip with the kids in Canyonlands and Arches. Watch this space for photos. When I awoke yesterday it was 5 below zero here. Since we are off to Utah next week, it's reasonable to assume that yesterday was the last really cold morning of my winter - so dammit I'm going to ride my bike. I'm not a particularly macho guy. No "man's man." But I do have a Y chromosome. And, though the conditions have been worse on my path this year than the three previous years, I really enjoy riding in the winter. So I wasn't going to miss this last cold ride. I remembered I had an 8:30 videoconference meeting, so I went into scramble mode. Forgot that the recycling needed to go out. Did that. Shorted Greta on her walk (she didn't complain - it was cold and she lacks a Y chromosome). I was cutting it a little close but I'd make it.

I didn't ride the previous day. Really cold and really windy. In fact, when I last rode Tuesday it was 34 and a little wet. Too wet, it turns out. My front derailleur was stuck on the middle chain ring and the rear stuck on the lowest gear I have. Perfect for riding up a steep hill. Not so good for the entire ride to work when time was of the essence. But "Bob Scoular" (the name I and some others use to personify The Scoular Company) needed me, so I did a quick maintenance job, getting the rear gear to the second lowest gear, and pressed on with now frozen fingers to my meeting. I upped my cadence, tried to be a bit more aerodynamic down the hills, and kept plugging away to do my corporate duty. I dramatically shortened my daily ablutions and scrambled through the front door of the office at 8:32. I rounded the corner in a harried state only to see my friend Jann, who was also a participant in the videoconference, working away at her desk. She informed me that at 8:18, while my legs were churning at 100 revolutions per minute in a ridiculously low gear, the meeting had been cancelled. The now freed up hour and my early arrival at the office gave me the opportunity to dash off a witty and sarcastic email to the Cancellers of the Meeting (one of whom is Scoular's version of the Chancellor of the Exchecquer) and put my work in good order for a guilt free vacation. And on the way home, after a day in the heated underground parking lot, my bike was once again in good order too.

And now for something completely different . . .

It occured to me the other day that the baby boomer generation is probably done having presidents. And the two we produced were Bill Clinton and George Bush. I find it hard to imagine two more different presidents. Pick any spectrum you want, and it seems to me that they would be on fairly opposite ends. Conservative / liberal. Likelihood to produce "great moments in presidential speeches." Moral / amoral. Need for the approval of others. On almost every level they are nearly opposite.

Their fundamental division perhaps is reflective of our somewhat polarized generation. A generation of protesters against "the man" and those who just wanted to be "the man." It seems to me that we were and probably still are a little too good at staking out our positions and not good enough at building bridges. Compromise for us, was "selling out." Flip-flopping. So we have failed to do what we should have to solve problems. Preferring to yell at each other across our own Grand Canyon (clearly, my mind drifts to the desert these days)

President Obama has tried to change that tone. Or at least I see it that way. I know some will say, with some justification, that the leftward direction he is trying to head the country is anything but leading from the middle. It is what he was elected to do. The result of these attempts so far seems to be lots of carping from Republicans on the right and even some from Democrats on the left. I hope he keeps trying. Because we need to realize that solving our problems will require give and take. And probably some sacrifice. And certainly consensus.

Madeline has just graduated from college, and is therefore no longer eligible to be covered under our health insurance. She has a minor medical condition which, while not serious, should be monitored. The result, she can't get Blue Cross or similar coverages. A rational economic decision by Blue Cross. So the default is Cobra coverage at $460 per month. Our family has the economic horsepower to deal with this. But it's come home to me as we have worked with Madeline to muddle through this that many families just can't afford this sort of thing. So they have no coverage. And when something goes wrong the results are disasterous for the individuals and on the health care system itself. It's a problem we have to solve. But it will have to be solved with compromise. Not with yelling at one another across a Grand Canyon.