Miscellaneous Missives

from internet Last night as I was coming out of the grocery store, a man who appeared to be homeless asked me if he could use my phone.  I told him no.  He said, "Please give me your phone."  I hesitated and asked him who he needed to call.  When he replied that he needed to call Julie to help him, I said I'd call for him.  Julie answered the phone, and I told her I was with Derrick in the parking lot.  She told me I needed to call this other person to help him, so I called Justin who said he'd be there in an hour. I had already seen this guy kicked out of the grocery store.  As I was driving to leave, I pulled over and asked him if I could buy him a large coffee, so he could wait inside the adjacent coffee shop without being kicked out.  He came in with me, and I asked if he would also like a muffin.  His gratitude showed as I left him with a place to sit and wait as well as coffee and a muffin.  Although it wasn't a lot, I felt s...

Another year of the BRR (Bloody Rectum Ride) is in the books.  I feel a bit of a badass to ride approximately 200 miles in two days.  The seven riders and two hosts (support vehicle) quickly became family, and we had a wonderful time. Although I could tell many stories, I'll stick with two. First we found this puppy, so malnourished, on the side of the road standing by a stick.  We gave him our power bars and any other food we had on our bikes.  After minutes of yelling and trying to find its owner, a guy appeared over the bridge.  We were probably 800 feet above the river which was, at max, three feet deep.  This guy said he was going to jump yet decided against it and wanted help.  As D and I were paying attention to the dog, I asked if it was bad that I cared more about the dog than the man.  D replied, "No!"  Caring for the dog, we tried to figure out how we could get the dog to the next town which was at least five miles away....

Picture Flinched from the Interweb Yesterday as soon as I walked in the building I LEARNED something that bothered me.  A colleague asked if I had heard that a judge had overruled the changing of Bde Maka Ska (lake, its Dakota name back to Lake Calhoun.  The name was originally change since Calhoun was a strong advocate of slavery.  I think this is a huge loss for Minneapolis.   It was also a crappy way to start an already exhausting Monday.  All is well, Monday's over.  Plus, this makes 30 of 30 days blogging in April about something I learned.  Thanks LH!! Did I also mention I completed #30daysofbiking? I biked all 30 days although some rides, like today's, were super short.

Today I finished reading Serving the Servant:  Remembering Kurt Cobain .  Although I knew a lot about his life, I LEARNED things that I never knew or forgot.  First, I didn't realize the majority of Nirvana's fans were female which makes sense since Cobain was a supporter of women or at least was against many sexist bands.  The other major thing I didn't know is that Cobain was a support of the LGBTQ community.  Finally, I didn't really know that Heart Shaped Box was written for/about his daughter. If you like Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, you should read it. 

Over - Under is something in betting.  I'm not sure exactly.  I feel like it's a bit of a prediction.  The weather people make predictions.  If I was a betting person, I'd rarely bet on their forecasts being accurate.  This morning I set my alarm for 5am, based on last night's forecast, to ride before the rain.  When I checked the forecast at 5am, it looked like I could sleep for another hour because the rain was coming at 8am.  My ride was a bit cold, but the trails were fairly empty.  Of course, I made sure I was home before 8am, so I would miss the rain.  I LEARNED that I could have slept in a bit more.  It's almost 8:30 and there's still no rain. Speaking of over/under, last night I asked a group of folks at happy hour if the toilet paper should go over or under.  It's something I never put much thought into until my dad's girlfriend was insistent it was over (makes sense), so now I make sure it's always over.  It's be...

During yesterday's ride I LEARNED that spring is showing itself in the trees.  It was glorious to see the green buds on the trees.  Although it was a bit windy, it was a glorious ride.  I also learned that I'm not sure I learned anything yesterday.  Maybe I'll learn a bit more today.  Trying to blog about something I learned every day in April is becoming a challenge, but at least I'm posting something every day even if it's frivolous.

It's that day of the year when I get out my pink fishnets and knock Chuck Taylor's for Day of Pink .  Yesterday I gave an introduction, and we talked a bit about bullying and the Day.  I was explaining that we don't celebrate our day on the actual day due to our crazy testing schedule. The students were interested enough to look up the actual day.  Thanks to them, I LEARNED the actual day is April 10th.