Monday, October 06, 2008

Cleansing UPDATED

I spent the weekend at a Minnesota resort/cabin with my book club, so I went 48 hours without having any internet/television/radio. It's very pleasant to disconnect from the nonsense and I'm hesitant to get hooked again. I wonder if I could just keep my eyes closed until after the election; it's going to be like watching sausage get made from here on in.

The resort belongs to the parents of one of the women in my book club, Kerry. Kerry's dad sold year books for a living, which was a school year job. He bought this little resort (a lodge and 7 cabins) when Kerry was young. Kerry has 8 siblings, and the kids all worked (and played) at the resort every summer growing up. How idyllic does that sound? The same families would come as guests summer after summer and made life-long friends with Kerry's family.

The resort is on the shores of Long Lake about 3.5 hours north and west of Minneapolis, very near Itasca State Park (where the Mississippi River begins, familiar to Michael). Her parents operated it as a resort until two years ago, though they are in their 80s. Her dad has progressing Alzheimer's, so the family is in the midst of the difficult task of figuring out how to divvy it up amongst the nine kids.

A bald eagle nests yards from the cabins we stayed in; many times a day we got to watch it soaring past the windows as it came and went from the nest and hunted for fish along the shoreline. Also saw trumpeter swans in a pond nearby. Had never seen one before.

Update: I meant to end with "GODDAMN those anti-DDT environmentalists. If it weren't for them, my view of the tops of 120-year old pine trees against a bright blue sky wouldn't have been obscured by that stinking eagle."

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