Quinn is 18 today. Last night she was talking about the tradition of going to the casino, getting tatoos and whatever else you can do at 18 to celebrate your birthday. She said that there was no rush for her, “After tomorrow, I’ll be over 18 for the rest of my life.”

Last night I had dinner with my High School sweetheart , whom I haven’t seen for 30 years. She knew how long because the last time I saw her was when she was pregnant with her first child. They were going through some very rough times at that time. But it all turned out well. He picked up a job in Seattle building cabinets for a coffe shop. The first Starbuck’s. Then the next fifty. They parlayed their little cabinet business into what they call retail theater. They work for Microsoft and Xbox and are about to build a 40,000 sq. ft. building to house their business. 

Tonight I was walking around the back yard in the dark, enjoying the beautiful spring weather we’ve been having. We have one of those cheap wrought iron fire pit things, I tripped over it. Hit it square with both shins and went over the top. Thank God the ground was soft! I hope the neighbors didn’t see that one.

The garden is at least a week ahead of last year. Several plants are coming up that I’d written off as failures last year, they look great. Won’t be long and there will be daffodils and tulips blooming. That’s right I live in a cold climate. But it hit 80 today! Part of me loves it, and another part is thinking, this isn’t right.

Some critter, I’m guessing a bunny, grazed down the crocuses that were blooming in my front lawn. I think we’ll be serving hassenpheffer for Easter dinner.

Most of you know that I’m a big fan of the U of MN Women’s Basketball team. I’m so bummed out. In the last couple of weeks 5 players have quit the team. No one seems to know what’s going on, but there are a lot of fingers pointing at Pam Borton, the coach. I always thought she was a great coach, but perhaps things were going on behind the scenes. Obviously the girls didn’t like her much!

There are three people and a cat in our fairly small house. The humans are all awake on a rainy gloomy day. The house is silent. My wife and daughter are engrossed in their books and I’m working away at sorting out images for my new portfolio. Every hour or so a riff gets in my head and I pick up the guitar briefly to mess around with it. I sometimes, purely by random chance, even find the notes.

The mystery crocuses under the gas meter on the side of the house are blooming. I saw a bluebird land out in the cemetery while I was the binoculars on the couple who were passing a joint out there. I wonder if they know a Minneapolis cop lives two doors down from us.

I’ve been doing this for over two years now. I’ve gotten into the habit of going back to see what I was up to or thinking on a given date in ’04 and ’05. My ’04 entry for 3/30 says I would never own a car with an automatic transmission, My ’05 entry announced I just bought a car with an automatic transmission.

Just now, as I wind down my 12 hour shift, I was walking as briskly as a person with a petrified bratwust for a toe can, when, as I was absentmindedly playing with a button on my sleeve, it popped off onto the floor. It’s a small plastic button and it must have hit perfectly on it’s edge on the carpet, so it came off the floor high. In stride, I bent down and scooped it out of the air with my right hand. And just kept on walking.

Still got it

Yesterday was my first day of putting a shoe on my left foot. Walking hurt like hell at first and I was determined not to go back to the boot. Mountain had given me some Tylenol with codeine (did you know you can buy them OTC in Canada) but I’d left the last two back at my office. I decided I’d drive over and pick them up, figuring if I could just walk on it for awhile it would loosen up and I’d be fine.

So I jumped in the car and headed out. I made my right turn at the end of the block onto Boone avenue and started to accelerate. I tend to drive a little too fast and I was probably up to 40 two thirds of the way to 42nd Ave, where I turn to get to the hiway when I saw movement in the corner of my left eye. A brindle colored dog who might as well have been wearing camo in the gray and brown Minnesota spring was sprinting across the street at an angle that put him on a certain collision course with me. I hit the brakes and he just made it by, I was sure I was going to nail him until the last instant. I didn’t get a great look at the dog, but I think it was a pit bull. It was charging a young kid on a bike. I couldn’t tell if the kid was terrified or if he knew the dog. The people on the other side of the street, who I assumed were the dogs owners were yelling at the dog and it stopped and came back. There was no other traffic so I was going slow and watching in my mirrors. Words were exchanged between the kid and the dog owner. The kid didn’t get back on his bike but just stood there. Maybe he didn’t want to get back on the bike with shit in his pants.

This dog was very lucky. That I have great peripheral vision. That I wasn’t lost in a day dream or distracted by the kid or the natural beauty in the cemetery on the other side of the road. That I still have very good reflexes. That I was driving the Mazda that has incredible brakes and big fat grip the pavement tires. That it was a dry road, no ice. That I hadn’t left the house, say a half second earlier. Any one of those factors changes, the dog is dead. Come to think of it, if those folks were walking around my neighborhood with an unleashed dog that’s that out of control, scaring people like that, maybe I should have accelerated to make sure it was a clean kill.

Speaking of the Mazda, I was blown away by it’s stopping ability, I’ve never driven a car anything like it. I really pounded the brakes. It didn’t squeal and didn’t skid and didn’t break out. At all. It just smoothly and quickly took the speed out of the car. Like a big cat pouncing silently. I love that car.