Friday, August 22, 2008

Minneapolis


Started out my first (only) day here going out with my sister to Firestone to get those new front tires. Dropped the car off, it'll be ready in an hour, so we walked downtown, walked along Hennepin and Nicolet to find someplace to have a bite. In the bagel place, I tried to tune in to the energy level of the customers and servers. SO laid back, like: what would you like, I think I'll have that, no hurry, smiles all around. Contrasted it to the equivalent scene in NYC: Next! Next! BLT Down and coffee! Right! Next! Next! Anxious feet shuffling on line, cell phone chats being broadcast live, vibrant (frantic) vibe.

Back at the house, I formed a wood block and taped it inside the fender to hold the fender skirt tightly against the body. Put away the tape, left the keys in the trunk. First time ever, it had to be now. Pop-a-lock sent a guy out, who, after exhausting the efforts with all sorts of picking tools, removed the glove compartment to get at the back of the trunk release switch I'd never known was there. Ran a wire from the battery (+) terminal, touched a switch terminal, and voom, the trunk popped. A $135 reminder to Put The Keys In Your Pocket Immediately After Opening Trunk.

I drove over to St. Paul to spend some time with my nephew Wolfgang, at Luther Seminary. In serious preparation for his career as a pastor. We drove around, grabbed burgers at the seminary bar on Como Ave.; I heard of many "famous" Lutheran pastors of past generations who drank at this very bar decades ago (names strangely familiar to me from my early life as a Lutheran). We got into our respective analyses of the various dynamics between various members of our largely dysfunctional family. He's been doing counseling, learned something about family matters, filled a napkin with triangular dynamics diagrams involving various triplets of our family members. Kinda surreal, and it all came back to the Wolfgang-Bobby-Michelle relations and the question of whether I'd return to my sister's house alone or with him for family hangout time. I went back alone, his mother called to invite him, he didn't really wanna come anyway, but he felt wanted - "It's all good" as they say out here an awful lot.

Gotta head outta here early tomorrow, make it as far across North Dakota as possible. It seems like a dream to think the car will make it with no new problems. But it's all good.

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