Star Island 2017, Days 1-3
Jun. 24th, 2017 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI got up at 4:00am EST on Thursday, so as to shower, eat breakfast, finish packing, and set up my apartment before heading outside shortly before 5:00am to wait for my cab. In the event, the cab was about ten minutes late, but I still got to the airport and through security in plenty of time. The flight from Ithaca to Detroit went smoothly, and I made my transfer with several minutes to spare even though they were slow to unpack the plane-side checked bags. (These are bags that would be carry-on items in larger planes, but small jets have small overhead compartments so they basically wrap a tag around your suitcase handle, stash it in the cargo compartment with the actual checked bags, and then hand it back to you at the end of the flight.)
The flight from Detroit to the Twin Cities was VERY full -- I think there was only a single unoccupied seat in the entire plane -- and we also hit several patches of turbulence (or 'rough air,' as they are now calling it?), but still made pretty good time. I had a longer layover there, so I made the mistake of walking into an airport bookstore and wound up buying a paperback copy of The Three Musketeers. Ah well, I suppose that can be my summer reading project for next year. *wry*
The flight from MSP to Bemidji was delayed both by weather (rain, some lightning) and by waiting for people to transfer from incoming flights that had themselves been delayed. We waited a good ten or fifteen minutes, but eventually had to leave without the luckless transfer passengers. :( Once we got a few miles north of the cities, the weather cleared up beautifully and we actually landed early at Bemidji.
I met my parents, whereupon we bought some groceries at Lueken's, bought lunch at McDonald's, and headed east to Cass Lake. I drove us over to the island, since one of my goals for this year is to practice driving the boat a bit more than I have in the past.
So, about the boat...
Dad had suspected a problem for a few days, but Thursday was the first where it was both warm and sunny enough for him to get into the water and take a look at the bottom... and sure enough, there is a crack in the hull. *headdesk* Anyway, he called the marina owner, who said he could probably fix it (and if not, could arrange for someone else to fix it), so as of Saturday we have dropped the boat off for repairs and are using only the little rowboat/fishing boat with its dinky 15-horsepower motor and no roof or windshield. We devoutly hope the weather stays good for the next several days, and that the repairs go well and quickly.
I took a nap Thursday afternoon, after which we had corned beef for dinner (I dried the dishes) and then I went to bed.
On Friday, we had apple-raisin-bran muffins for breakfast, after which I washed the dishes. Mom and I took a walk along the south shore, then came home by way of Lake Windigo. Later we applied contact paper to some of the kitchen drawers, which either had no covering, or were covered in badly peeling linoleum or 1970s newspapers. O_o For dinner, we headed over to the mainland (through quite choppy water) and drove to Trapper's Landing, a bit southeast of Walker on Leech Lake. En route, we drove past the Moondance Jammin Country Fest, which we had never heard of but which is apparently in its 11th year as of this weekend.
Mom had the walleye, Dad had the kebabs, and I had half a roast duck because why note. These all came with very tasty wild rice, vegetables in a sort of tangy not-quite-pickle sauce, and salad bar. We had a slight mix-up with the wine, but the wait staff sorted it out quickly and professionally.
Today Mom and Dad drove to Grand Forks to visit Mom's cousin Anita and her husband Albert, who spend every summer there teaching at the Summer Institute for Linguistics at the University of North Dakota. (Basically, they are serious linguists doing serious research, who are also evangelical Christians training missionaries in how to translate the Bible into various languages. As one does. *wry*) I stayed on the island to walk and comfort Dottie, who as always pined in the absence of her people.
They returned around 5:00pm, whereupon we had happy hour, and then I helped Mom make white chicken chili for dinner. (Dad made the salads.) And now I am going to try to get some writing done -- I'd meant to be writing for most of the day, but Dottie looked so forlorn that I wound up reading downstairs instead, where I could sit next to her and pet her while she quivered miserably.
As for my reading: I got through the entirety of C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain, which was one of my "I am not entirely sure where I picked this book up, but I should probably read it before donating it" books, and another several sections of Religion in the Japanese Experience: Sources and Interpretations, a textbook composed of various themed excerpts from other works and brief explications thereof.
Lewis is, as always, infuriating because I disagree vehemently with a number of his assumptions, with most of his theology, and with a bunch of his implicit politics... and yet he keeps coming to conclusions about human experience and what a good life should look like that are unnervingly close to my own in some respects. So it's a constant swing between, "yes, exactly, that was beautifully put!" and "but HOW can a reasonably intelligent and well-meaning person be so WRONG?!?!" Some other day I should probably quote one of the passages I thought was most apt, and also take a stab at analyzing one point where I think he went most terribly awry.
(Also science has marched on and Lewis's chapter on animal pain and consciousness is consequently even more awful and wrong-headed than when he wrote it, though I think I would have considered it awful and wrong-headed even decades ago because he's arguing from a foundation of theological assumptions which I utterly fail to share. But that is something where I could point to actual science to prove that he is talking through his hat, whereas the other point is more of a philosophical/ethical thing, and thus less subject to hard proof... though one could probably cite various studies on criminal justice and prison reform which I believe tend more toward my side of the argument than toward his. Hmm. *makes note to look into that* But anyway, I'd want to do more research and marshal my arguments in logical order before venturing into that particular alligator swamp.)
And that is what I have been up to for the past three days. :)
The flight from Detroit to the Twin Cities was VERY full -- I think there was only a single unoccupied seat in the entire plane -- and we also hit several patches of turbulence (or 'rough air,' as they are now calling it?), but still made pretty good time. I had a longer layover there, so I made the mistake of walking into an airport bookstore and wound up buying a paperback copy of The Three Musketeers. Ah well, I suppose that can be my summer reading project for next year. *wry*
The flight from MSP to Bemidji was delayed both by weather (rain, some lightning) and by waiting for people to transfer from incoming flights that had themselves been delayed. We waited a good ten or fifteen minutes, but eventually had to leave without the luckless transfer passengers. :( Once we got a few miles north of the cities, the weather cleared up beautifully and we actually landed early at Bemidji.
I met my parents, whereupon we bought some groceries at Lueken's, bought lunch at McDonald's, and headed east to Cass Lake. I drove us over to the island, since one of my goals for this year is to practice driving the boat a bit more than I have in the past.
So, about the boat...
Dad had suspected a problem for a few days, but Thursday was the first where it was both warm and sunny enough for him to get into the water and take a look at the bottom... and sure enough, there is a crack in the hull. *headdesk* Anyway, he called the marina owner, who said he could probably fix it (and if not, could arrange for someone else to fix it), so as of Saturday we have dropped the boat off for repairs and are using only the little rowboat/fishing boat with its dinky 15-horsepower motor and no roof or windshield. We devoutly hope the weather stays good for the next several days, and that the repairs go well and quickly.
I took a nap Thursday afternoon, after which we had corned beef for dinner (I dried the dishes) and then I went to bed.
On Friday, we had apple-raisin-bran muffins for breakfast, after which I washed the dishes. Mom and I took a walk along the south shore, then came home by way of Lake Windigo. Later we applied contact paper to some of the kitchen drawers, which either had no covering, or were covered in badly peeling linoleum or 1970s newspapers. O_o For dinner, we headed over to the mainland (through quite choppy water) and drove to Trapper's Landing, a bit southeast of Walker on Leech Lake. En route, we drove past the Moondance Jammin Country Fest, which we had never heard of but which is apparently in its 11th year as of this weekend.
Mom had the walleye, Dad had the kebabs, and I had half a roast duck because why note. These all came with very tasty wild rice, vegetables in a sort of tangy not-quite-pickle sauce, and salad bar. We had a slight mix-up with the wine, but the wait staff sorted it out quickly and professionally.
Today Mom and Dad drove to Grand Forks to visit Mom's cousin Anita and her husband Albert, who spend every summer there teaching at the Summer Institute for Linguistics at the University of North Dakota. (Basically, they are serious linguists doing serious research, who are also evangelical Christians training missionaries in how to translate the Bible into various languages. As one does. *wry*) I stayed on the island to walk and comfort Dottie, who as always pined in the absence of her people.
They returned around 5:00pm, whereupon we had happy hour, and then I helped Mom make white chicken chili for dinner. (Dad made the salads.) And now I am going to try to get some writing done -- I'd meant to be writing for most of the day, but Dottie looked so forlorn that I wound up reading downstairs instead, where I could sit next to her and pet her while she quivered miserably.
As for my reading: I got through the entirety of C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain, which was one of my "I am not entirely sure where I picked this book up, but I should probably read it before donating it" books, and another several sections of Religion in the Japanese Experience: Sources and Interpretations, a textbook composed of various themed excerpts from other works and brief explications thereof.
Lewis is, as always, infuriating because I disagree vehemently with a number of his assumptions, with most of his theology, and with a bunch of his implicit politics... and yet he keeps coming to conclusions about human experience and what a good life should look like that are unnervingly close to my own in some respects. So it's a constant swing between, "yes, exactly, that was beautifully put!" and "but HOW can a reasonably intelligent and well-meaning person be so WRONG?!?!" Some other day I should probably quote one of the passages I thought was most apt, and also take a stab at analyzing one point where I think he went most terribly awry.
(Also science has marched on and Lewis's chapter on animal pain and consciousness is consequently even more awful and wrong-headed than when he wrote it, though I think I would have considered it awful and wrong-headed even decades ago because he's arguing from a foundation of theological assumptions which I utterly fail to share. But that is something where I could point to actual science to prove that he is talking through his hat, whereas the other point is more of a philosophical/ethical thing, and thus less subject to hard proof... though one could probably cite various studies on criminal justice and prison reform which I believe tend more toward my side of the argument than toward his. Hmm. *makes note to look into that* But anyway, I'd want to do more research and marshal my arguments in logical order before venturing into that particular alligator swamp.)
And that is what I have been up to for the past three days. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-06-25 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-06-25 05:22 pm (UTC)Also he tilts his playing boards something awful and either doesn't realize or won't admit that he's doing it... even when he untilts them later IN THE SAME BOOK because an untilted board helps him make a different point more effectively. *headdesk*