by jphilo | Mar 16, 2010 | Out and About
After a winter of blizzards and icy roads, traveling weather has improved greatly in the last few weeks. The arrival of sunny days and calm winds coincided with a speaking engagement in Minneapolis one week and a spring break trip to Morgantown, West Virginia the next. Though the destinations were widely different, the aftermath of winter’s fierceness left an undeniable, common danger in both places.
Potholes.
Now, I’m not talking about small, avoidable blips in the concrete. I’m talking about across-the-road, swallow-the-front-axle, did-I-miss-the-earthquake gaps. The Minneapolis and Morgantown we traversed make our little gravel road, complete with teeth-rattling ridges and washed out edges, feel like a walk in the park.
Though I’m an Iowan, eager to refute the innumerable jokes Minnesotans tell about my home state, the pothole prize doesn’t go to Minnesota. It goes to West Virginia, a state with potholes so frequent and deep they make a short drive to the grocery store a crash dummy obstacle course.
For those planning a trip to Morgantown in the near future, consider the following options. Either postpone it until the road repair crews have time to do their thing or get a four-wheel drive with monster tires. Or change your plans and go to Minnesota instead.
If you choose option three, give me a call before you head out? I have a bucketload of Minnesota jokes to send with you. Scatter them with abandon, and they’ll turn your trip into an adventure that will leave you yearning for a pothole to swallow you and your car whole. I promise!
by jphilo | Jul 14, 2009 | Family
The purpose of this blog is to show the world what a good sister I am. To do so, I am honoring a request from my oldest sibling. We stayed with her this weekend after moving Allen from her house into his apartment. Her house has a wee bit more room than Allen’s hobbitesque digs and she has mattresses, two plusses we couldn’t ignore.
Anyway, she suggested I post a picture of the view from their deck in suburban Minneapolis on my blog. She sent it by email Sunday evening, complete with the subject heading “the view off our deck in **** *******.” And even though I don’t remember the view looking like this, I’m posting it because she is my much older sister and since birth, I have believed everything she told me.
So if this view has you thinking “Rome” instead of “Minnesota,” keep those thoughts to yourself. Remember, the purpose of this blog post is not journalistic accuracy, but making me look like a wonderful, trusting, loving and much younger little sister.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a coincidence that Sis and her family just returned from a trip to Rome. My much older sister would never lie to me, now would she?
by jphilo | Sep 10, 2008 | Out and About
This past weekend I was in a Kansas City suburb, Lee’s Summit, for a speaking engagement. I was plenty smug as I drove south, glad to trade an Iowa early fall weekend for a Missouri late summer one. In my way of thinking, the gig was an opportunity to pretend winter isn’t on the way.
Unfortunately, nobody told Missouri what I was expecting. When I got there, fall greeted me. The next morning on my walk – without a coat or sweatshirt because I was in Missouri in early September which should still be summer four hours south of my usual morning walk – the weather was damp, cool and undeniably fallish. You might assume I’m exaggerating, but this picture squelches that idea. Looks like fall, doesn’t it?
After Missouri’s nasty weather deception, I’m worried about the future. Next weekend, I’m attending a conference in Minneapolis, about three hours north of here. I’m thinking I ought to take my winter coat. Maybe even my long underwear and Hiram’s cross country skis. Definitely the winter survival car kit, complete with candles, blankets and a couple Hershey bars.
Make that a couple dozen Hershey bars, and I could learn to cope with winter. As long as it doesn’t snow. Watch out Minnesota, I’m on my way.
