Football Epilogue

The desert outside of Scottsdale while enjoying an ATV tour. And so here I am. Sitting at an oasis in the Sonoran desert. I'm in Phoenix, AZ at the Arizona Grand Resort (& Spa), sitting on the patio just outside the resorts golf pro-shop. The coffee is tasty as I watch the upper middle class (does that still exist) play the high handicap version of golf that is probably still way better than my game.  Along the patio are a good, but not overly crowded, mix of mom's with their kids, non-golfing dads and the occasional youth baseball player who looks like they just received gear from the bat armory and has their marching orders for the day's tournament. The speakers are playing some motown, funk and classic rock/folk classics. I'm finding myself frequented by birds, namely a precocious sparrow hoping to find some dropped crumbs. Sorry, I've only got coffee at the moment. So, this is my spring break. It's a small escape from the stress good people in MN had to,...

Here I am in Appleton, Wisconsin preparing to watch my son play in his final game of his sophomore year. This has been a challenging season for the Vikings, with an 0-9 record so far and no indication that today will spell victory for the team. In reality we knew that this season would be one of adversity and change. The offseason, late in the offseason, saw a head coach change. This was frustrating as organizations that make such changes usually do so right at the end, or just before the end of the season. I really think this was poor form for the university and is hopefully being taken as a learning experience.  The change was sad as, despite the lack of success in the wins column, we really liked the outgoing coach. We felt that he took the effort to connect with the players and be supportive of their University experience. Fortunately, it appears that that coach landed a respectable assistant coaching position elsewhere.  Coaching can really be a metaphorical meat grinder....

  Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay I have lived in three states in my adult life. Geographically physical parts of the United States, I’m sure I’ve lived in many more emotional/spiritual states (sometimes more than one at once) but that’s a different story for a different time. Most of my time away from Minnesota was in my mid-to-late 20’s; Northern California for graduate school and Maryland/DC for my postdoc. After 7.5 years away, and having had two kids, an opportunity to move home presented itself and we took it. Now, 16 years after moving back to the land of 10 kilo-lakes (order of magnitude estimate), the wanderlust is re-emerging. I’m finding myself tied to my exact location less and less and am becoming more curious about living in the greater world. While tourist-type travel may satiate some of that, I’ve grown fond of the idea of spending extended time elsewhere. By that, I’m thinking of the order of three to six months; something on the order of a sabbatical. This w...

Time has a way of moving both fast and slow. Any day can feel like an eternity or an eye blink depending on any number of factors. The future, for me, almost always feels so far off but then looking back the past seems like everything happened so quickly. Now here I am, pushing ever closer to whatever reckoning awaits. I'm not writing today to talk about what might come. I work to be in the mode of "Que sera, sera". That is whatever will be, will be. That's not to say don't plan and all that but also I'm in no rush and try to have little worry about what the future might bring. This is more challenging currently, however I leave that to another blog.  Similar with the past. There's no need to worry or dwell on what might have been or what could have been. Instead the past is strewn with learning opportunities and ways to live more fully. An array of facts that can be leveraged into growth.  So here I am in the present, feeling at a summit of sorts. The pri...

Probably but we are, as a people, more distracted with the TikToks and Reels of the world. It's the modern day equivalent of flipping channels. It's mostly a lot of garbage with people stitching in their own reactions to various things. There's still a lot of entertainment value and a little bit of mindless scrolling can serve to unwind our stressed-out selves. A lot of it is "same $h!t, different day". Oh well. So what role in all this high paced scrolling: doom, learning or otherwise, does blogging have? Honestly, I think it makes a move in a direction that is sorely needed in the frantic pace of post-covid life. For me, the writer, it helps collect my thoughts. It even helps get nagging ones out of my head, leaving me a little less distracted. It slows me down and while I think much of what I write is as meaningless all those tiktok stitches, it helps get me into a form of flow. Flow is a term I discovered in reading "Drive" by Daniel Pink  (I highly ...

Travel has perked up for me again. I'm currently averaging one trip per month over the last few months and I don't see that slowing down any time soon. The trips are multi-modal, ranging from regional automobile travel to international long-haul flights.  Along the way I have found that there are a few items that really up the comfort and convenience of my travels. These are beyond the usual collection of various chargers, sunglasses and enough socks and underwear for my trip (plus an extra pair).  A Breast-pocket shirt Oh hail ye, keeper of the pocket protector! While the time of fountain pens ending shirts is passed your need is still great!  This may be a little "old dude" of me but having a breastpocket shirt, at least on the days where I am in transit, is extraordinarily convenient in terms of ease of access to stuff. The two main things I keep in them are my phone and passport.  For the latter, when traveling internationally, it is good to just have a sound hom...