Book 30 – Northwest Angle – William Kent Krueger

So you know I love books that take mw to places I’ll never see or teach me things I didn’t know and Book 30 of 2011 Northwest Angle is one of them. Author William Kent Krueger set this book the 11th in the Cork O’Connor series in the area of Minnesota known as the Northwest Angle. This pennisula juts into the Lake of the Woods and is the farthest point north in the lower 48 states. You can not reach this piece of the United States by land without going through Canada! It can of course be reach by air or water, and by by water is how the O’Connor clan got there. As the novel begins Cork O’Connor has brought his family together daughters Jenny and Anne and son Stephen and his sister-in-law Rose and husband Mal to the Lake of the Woods on a houseboat for a restful family vacation. On the day Jenny’s boyfriend Aaron is set to arrive, Cork takes Jenny on a side trip to an island he once visited with his spiritual guide Henry Meloux. The island has pictographs of Ojibwe children on the cliffs of the island. But soon the day turns tragic as an unexpexted “Derecho” hits the area. A derecho is another thing that I didn’t know about. It is a powerful storm a bowed line of thunderstorms with wind speeds of a hurricane and causes massive destruction. A derecho hit the Northwest Angle area in July of 1999 you can read about it here. Soon Cork and Jenny are seperated and Jenny lands on an island and finds shelter after the storm she finds a cabin that has been mostly destroyed by the storm a young mother lies dead in the cabin a search of the cabin reveals Read More

Tuesday Running Ramble to Flogging Molly!

Flogging Molly

So while I know that the weather has a lot to do with it, I do think I’ve crossed some kind of Rubicon in the last several runs. I’ve gone from a 60 year old jogger who is just trying to finish his four mile run, to a 60 year old runner who actually can pick it up over the last mile and finish with a little kick at the end! The last two runs have ended with the last mile being the fastest and my heartbeat being less than 100 after 3 to 5 minutes after stopping! Last night’s run was the second fastest over my Creek – out and back four mile course but the great thing is that I feel good through the whole run! So the next run will be at the track to see how I do with some intervals and one fast mile! Read More

Old Edward!

ok so today I’ve passed the old greezer line and enter geezerhood at 60! The above is from a t-shirt my wife ordered for my birthday.  Initially, as always on these types of birthdays 40, 50, etc, I was a little depressed so on came Jerry Jeff’s album Navajo Rug. The first three songs “Navajo Rug”, “Just to Celebrate” and “Blue Mood” in some inexplicably way always make sme feel better. So on my trip to the bank I put on a bunch of songs with OLD in the title here’s the soundtrack I got: Read More

Sunday Night -“An Evening with Tom Russell” in Vienna Virginia

So with the lights low at the Jammin’ Java in Vienna Virginia on Sunday night the announcement came “Ladies and Gentlemen, Tom Russell” and one of my heroes Tom Russell took the stage, with lead guitarist Thad Beckman, and thoroughly entertained me for the next two plus hours! The show opened with Tom telling abbout his trip to Duluth Minnesota and then to Hibbing birthplace and home of Bob Dylan and then the Mesabi Range. From his notes Russell describes his trip like this: Read More

Weekend: Running and Reading! Book 28 They’re Watching – Greg Hurwitz

So here is the me part of the weekend….. it started Sunday morning when I was going to go for a run. Opps! Forgot to put the running shoes in the clothes bag! I was a little frustrated but Kathy said go buy some shoes! So I headed over to Target and bought some cheap running shoes, figuring I could use the later for everyday and save running shoes for running! So on my way back I decided to check out the course that I had created through the residential neighborhood near our motel. Ah, the maps on Runners World are flat, but I forgot that we were in the rolling hills of Northern Viriginia not flat New Jersey! The course had some major climbs in it but I said let’s go for it! So I took off taking it slow. I forgot how hard it is to go up and then down several times in during a run. Anyway I modified the 4 mile run a little and it ended up being a 3.6 mile run instead completed in 35:57. But as I approached the end of the run I told myself that 3.6 miles with several hills is equal to at least 4.5 miles maybe 5!! Here’s the route. Check out the elevation part!! Read More

William and Mary Parent’s Weekend Goes To Washington

Tom Russell

So this weekend is Parents Weekend at The College of William and Mary, but daughter Elizabeth decided that it would be a better idea to go to Washington DC. Why you ask, see the Braves are playing the Nationals. So today we are going to the game, arriving early so she can get some autographs on the ball that she got from Eddie Perez at the last Nationals-Braves game we went to! Hopefully, any rain will hold off. Tomorrow if it’s nice we may trek to Mount Vernon. But the best part is that Tom Russell will be at Jammin’ Java Vienna, Virginia tomorrow night! Read More

Rant and Run Ana Popovic – Unconditional

The Rant

The American Prospect: Robert Kuttner: Land of the Free, Home of the Turncoats

Ok so I know I keep saying that all these bloggers are describing how I feel till you’re sick of it…. but THEY ARE and Robert Kuttner outlines it well!! IT’s mind boggling that out of one side of their mouths come statements about America;’s exceptionalism and out of the other so let’s destroy it?? Am I missing something? Read More