My daughter was two weeks away from her fourth birthday and dressed as Cinderella for her Halloween Trick or Treating. She was so proud of that dress. She twirlled in it. She gazed at herself in it. She experienced enraptured joy in it.
About half-way through the night we met a girl twice her age, also dressed as a princess. My daughter watched her pass with wide eyes and mouth agape with a smile at this older girl's finery. After she passed my daughter looked down at her own dress, took hold of it to inspect it, and then dropped it with a huff and a pout of disgust.
Competition has its place, undertaken in its proper place and proper limits, it can even be a source of joyful exuberance. When injected where it does not belong, however, competition becomes nothing but comparison and joy quickly sours into envy.
After I'd been walking for over a year I bought a used activity tracker, a Jawbone UP. A new model had just hit the market. It was the week after the new year and between Christmas and flailing resolutions the used market was heavy with sellers, prices were depressed and eventually hit my trigger point.
My goal was both measurement and motivation. I had been using my phone's gps to get a general idea of how far I'd been walking but as my walks grew longer the battery in my cellphone did not prove up to the task. I also thought using the Jawbone might motivate me to move a little more between wooded wanderings or urban treks.
Both of those things happened but I soon discovered that measurement and motivation easily morph into score keeping. The first motive was measurement, how far am I walking. The second is inward focused, I want to try to walk a little more. Both would be challenged by an emerging sense of competition.
Thanks to the connection between the pedometer, my cell phone, and the cloud I could compare how far I was walking to my co-workers, a friend in high school, strangers on the other side of the globe. Yes, this became an external motivation to move more but at the cost of introducing rivalry into the activity. Competition is good in the marketplace but it became corrosive to my joy. I knew I was drifting from my intent when I began to mentally accuse someone I've never met of putting their activity tracker on their ankle while on a bicycle to inflate their numbers.
So when the Jawbone started to fall apart, I decided to replace it with something a little less networked, a little less easily compared or contrasted via automatic updates. I got a plain old digital pedometer. It sits hidden in my pocket and once a day I record that days miles in my calander.
If I choose to move a little more, I can still measure my progress. If it seemed like I went farther or faster than normal, I still have an objective measure of what I did or did not do. But remaining ignorant of what anyone else is doing, I am not tempted to exchange the joy of walking for the pursuit of winning.
The pocket pedometer also has the benefit of being about 90% cheaper.
Last week I discussed some helpful habits for your urban canine. Humans are creatures of habit too and our habits can add to or detract from our enjoyment of walking the urban enviroment.
Mind your bladder and your bowel.
Unlike Fido, we shouldn't just squat when the need approaches but need to plan ahead.
If my walk will be for five miles or more, I cut myself off of coffee, water, and any food which my loosen me up a bit three hours before I start out. It is a pain but not near as much a pain as breaking into a jog to get to the nearest restroom or ducking behind a secluded spot where the homeless men relieve themselves. Yes, we should be well-hydrated when we start out, but we should also be well-peed. Take water with you and use it as necessary but not more than necessary.
Some public bathrooms close in winter
Preparation is better than cure but among the first things I look for when investigating a new area of the city is the location of public restrooms.
Minneapolis and St. Paul both do a great job placing public porta-potties along public paths frequented by walkers, joggers, and cyclists. If you venture off the beaten path, however, your are more likely to be on your own. In the winter, some public restrooms will close because it is too expensive to heat them.
For liability reasons, construction companies don't like to share their porta-potties with the public, though if you plead your case and threaten to pee your pants in front of them, the average construction worker may relent. Still, it is better to not be in need.
Training dogs to wait patiently while you duck into a coffee shop to use the facilities is a valuable canine habit that I should have covered last week, but be sure your dog is safe to be left unattended if discovered by a curious four-year old. There are a few people out there who will make off with a dog or your dog might make off with herself if not secured well or in a place where patrons of the shop can keep an eye out for you.
Just be smart out there. That's all.
Know and OBEY your local laws.
Most urban municipalities insist on a six foot leash, that you pick up your own dog's poop, that your dog be licensed, and that dogs not be taken into establishments that serve food. They're not asking too much.
Don't make the poor barista ask you to remove your dog.
You are sharing the environment with lots of other people. No one wants your dog to jump in front of their bicycle or break their stride because you weren't fast enough with the flexi-leash. If you do cause a problem, they'll remember if the issue of dog access a park ever comes up for public debate.
This week I came across a Great Dane sized turd in the middle of the busiest pedestrian bridge in Minneapolis. This calling card will be remembered by people who show up at city council meetings.
Regularly I am reading stories about people sneaking their dogs into places they are not allowed. All of this works against dog owners in the long run. Where different stores have different policies, see if your urban area has a web service like Sidewalk Dog in the Twin Cities, which details which local businesses or patios are dog friendly and patronize them, but if a store has a policy, you're hurting the reputation of all dog owners when you attempt to manipulate the rules for selfish benefit.
Yes, sometimes we all forget the doggie bags, but develop a system where that is rare. When you do buy a newspaper or pick up some litter to use to pick up the waste or at the very least, come back for the poop.
Frankly, we should build an ethic where we pick up the poop of other people's dogs when we find it, share poop bags when we someone without, or disown/shame repeat offenders.
As dog owners we are looking after our own interests when we demonstrate a commitment to good citizenship first by policing ourselves, then by looking after our own, and where a law or regulation needs to be changed, seeking to have it changed rather than looking for a loophole to exploit.
Take care of your feet and shoes.
I walk in high quality boots, but I go out in all kinds of weather conditions, frequently after working a job where high quality boots are a good idea anyway. Use what meets your needs but don't skimp on shoes, inserts if necessary, and good socks. The last time I bought new boots I ended up buy a whole new collection of socks because the old socks, which worked fine with the old boots, had a way of sliding down to my toes in the new boots. Find stuff that works well together.
Nothing cuts more long walks short than blisters so if your shoes start to rub, take a break, figure out the problem, and fix it. If you do wear boots, take the time to break them in correctly and waterproof/treat them as required. I use Doc Martens shoe polish and Foggy Mountain Bearguard waterproofing once every two weeks. To break them in, took about four months and required using some of the shoe polish on the inside of the boot to make it more pliable.
Replacing shoelaces every couple of months is an unnecessary paing. Replace your store bought laces with laces made of paracord. It comes in any color you could desire and they last much longer. Merely cut it to length and use a match to seal the ends and the laces will out last the shoes, maybe multiple pairs of shoes. A good pair of store bough laces will last me three months or 200-300 miles. I've yet to wear out my first pair of nylon cord laces and they've gone at least two years of heavy use.
The only catch, they are slicker than regular laces and require being tied in a double knot.
Go places you enjoy/find new places to enjoy.
It is easy to fall into a rut. Familiarity is not a bad thing but balance it with exploring new areas and seeing new things to keep your mind engaged in what is around you. Take a look at a map. Talk to friends. Urban areas are filled with new things to see: new sculptures, new architecture, new neighborhoods, new businesses, new insights into the challenges of living in the world.
Though my experience is limited to the Twin Cities, even questionable neighborhoods are empty early on weekend or holiday mornings. I grant that I see the world through the eyes of a 180 pound male and you should not go anywhere you do not feel safe but part of the joy of walking is seeing and trying to understand what life is like in places I normally do not travel.
Coming soon: how inequality is evidenced in the light rail stations of the Twin Cities.
But I do have my favorite patios. My favorite coffee shops and my favorite venues. Enjoy the places you love. Don't be afraid to find new favorites. Don't be afraid to try something very different and grow as a result.
New shoes in the original laces. They needed to be replaced before the boots were broken in.
I am not quite sure what the term means. I live with dogs so I habituate them to life with me in such a way that they can exist as reasonably self-actualized, while I remain sane, and my wife doesn't leave me. If that makes me a dog trainer, than that is what I am, though I do it for love, not money.
I am, also, a walker and I have opinions about the canine habits of behavior necessary to keep walking enjoyable for canine, walker, and society at large.
It is a small distance between being just as excited as the dogs to go outside for a stroll and dreading it. Weather is one factor, a factor outside our control. The habits our dogs learn to exhibit while on a walk, however, are a more constant source of joy or dread and they are well within human influence.
Loose leash walking: the key to it all.
I mostly walk in the morning, frequently after I have worked the night shift. I am over-tired and easily annoyed. I am walking one to three terriers, dogs whose instincts don't generally align with walking quietly in the heel position. Yet the morning walks are, more often than not, enjoyable. How is this possible? Responsive dogs with a good loose leash walk.
A good loose leash walk does not need to be Crufts-perfect. I'm not interested in competing in an obedience trial where the expectation is that the dog will prance around looking at me glowingly. I don't care if the people who watch us walk are impressed or not. I want to be able to walk comfortably.
I like my terriers to have a good strong prey drive. In other circumstances we hunt rats, other rodents, and rabbits. It would be a little too much to ask for these high-prey drive dogs to turn off when on a leash and ignore every impudent squirrel that does not know its life is in danger. If I am in a mood where I just can't handle the dog being distracted, I can always avoid those walking paths with an abundance of squirrels.
I. Decide whether you want the dog to treat your right or left side as a default but so long as their behavior is not disruptive and and they are not pulling on the leash, consider letting the dog decide their comfortable space in relationship to you.
I was taught to always keep the dog on my left and I have no reason to change but Moses did not bring this command down from Mt. Sinai. What matters most is the dog knows which side of you it is expected to hang out on. Whether that is on your left or right is a matter of personal preference.
Having a default location frees your dog from confusion of knowing where she is expected to be. Untangling your feet from a leash is annoying and potentially dangerous. Until your walking habits are well established, keep the dog on one side and occasionally throw in an unexpected figure 8 or turn at an unexpected time or place to ingrain the habit. Teaching them to stay on one side of you is just good communication and if they are practiced at handling the unexpected, they will be more likely to respond as you expect when something happens to surprise you both.
Letting the dog wander in front or behind does not have to be a problem as long as the dog tends tp your preferred side and knows the limits, ahead or behind, which she must not cross.
II. Use the leash to communicate how far away from you the dog is allowed to venture.
When I taught Musket to heel nearly ten years ago, I taught him to stay at my side at all times when on lead. He is a rock star at it and I have no problem putting him on an off-leash heel anywhere it is legal. I have more trust in his heel than any dog I have every owned but why is the off-lead heel important?
A privilege, not a right.
Beyond the three miles of road I live on between a state highway and a county highway, I don't go anywhere where a great off-lead heel is practical, necessary, or safe anyway. I've seen off-lead dogs in the city but that is not only illegal but unnecessarily dangerous.
I don't need the younger terriers stay right beside me in order find a walk enjoyable. I need them to not pull on the lead. They can have some freedom to sniff, move, and take a position slightly ahead or behind without my appreciation of the day being impacted at all.
I teach the limits they are allowed to wander using the least restrictive method necessary. It was difficult to find that threshold with Sparta. She isn't bad. She doesn't pull, but she was always at the exact farthest point that I would allow. The problem could not have been more than two inches but keeping her two inches closer took longer than anything I've tried to teach her.
After numerous approaches using positive and negative re-enforcement without result I bought a Command Collar.
What I found annoying was not her location but the amount of pressure she would put on the leash so our training has focused on that variable. On our training walks I purposefully change up the length of the leash from two to six feet so she would learn to respond to the tension on the leash as opposed to seeking out the same relative location. Whatever length the leash was at the moment I'd wait until immediately before she'd reach my annoyance threshold and I'd give a sharp tug on the leash along with the command "slow."
The tug had to be sharp enough to get her attention. Stoic and Musket will respond to the smallest tug. Initially Sparta required significantly more force to get her attention, but I am already able to tone that down. Once we hit our stride in a walk the verbal command is sufficient to get her to lay off those couple of inches By spring, I hope we can retire the command collar.
Stoic and Sparta on a loose leash walk. Picking their own location without pulling.
III. Develop a strong "leave it" protects the dog, allows you to better enjoy the walk, and is just good manners.
Good city walking etiquette requires a good strong "leave it" and I use it all the time. It is basically a call to pay attention to me and our pace and ignore that thing distracting you. It is the same command if Stoic is a little too interested in another dog, when Sparta wants to get attention from a child, or either one of them finds a doughnut on the ground.
The plain fact is we have more opportunity to take our dogs with us to more urban locations than any other time in history. This is a privilege, not a right and a privilege can be revoked if we piss enough people off. No one loves your dog as much as you do. Few people want to understand when he shows anti-social behavior, whether that behavior be sticking his nose in someone's crotch or lunging at a child holding an ice cream cone. When non-dog people worry about your dog's behavior in the park or are just annoyed by it, a case begins to be built to exclude dogs from the area. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. We don't want to give people a reason to squeak against dogs in public places.
There are plenty of tools to help you teach your dog to respond to your "leave it" command. Gentle Leader is one such product, I have already mentioned the command collar. I am sure there are others.
If necessary, pick a less stimulating environment to train before moving on to more demanding.
Entertaining marathoners and spectators while we walk.
IV. Commands to move faster, slower, to the right, to the left make walking easier and safer.
Commands to move to my left ("Scoot!" to move away from me) or to my right ("With!" follow me in this direction) are valuable in areas where there are joggers and cyclists using the same paths or trails, or when multiple turns must be made in quick succession, when moving through a hospital on the way to a therapy dog visit.
Most of the time the dogs can read my body language to know where we are going next but when there is a crowd to navigate or the environment can become too chaotic for ordinary measures, verbal commands clear up the confusion.
When I need dogs to pick up the pace (Stoic) I use the command "walk" and I already mentioned teaching Sparta to "slow." The idea is to remind the dog to keep a proper distance relationship with me. It is a reminder to pay attention to what we are doing.
I start to teach this on our very first walks when the paths are empty and the world appears ours alone and I teach it through mere repetition. When moving left I say "scoot" and when I shift to the right "with." The dogs pick up on it and once they've picked it up it stays in the toolbox. Once they reliably respond to the commands they only need to be sporadically reinforced to remain fresh.
V. Watch the dog and only expose the dog to disruptive sights and sounds slowly, purposefully, and strategically.
Sometimes you get surprised. This last week I was caught off guard by the number of garbage truck drivers speeding through the streets like Mario Andreti and poor Stoic was balanced near freak out mode for the good five minutes it took me to move him to a side street. Generally, however, we can make choices to expose dogs gradually to new stimuli.
At the end of a good walk.
Bicycles, joggers, other dogs, garbage trucks, construction sounds, and a hundred other things you may not have ever noticed can distress your dog. Watch them. Learn from them and then respond. You are the sapien. You are responsible for choosing the timing and direction of the walk.
Be smart, start small, take your time, and don't expect your dog to know what you know. I think there is nothing more enjoyable than sitting at a patio or in a bar with my dog and I hope everyone can share that joy, but you have to work up to it.
Next Monday: Walking dogs in the City: Sapien Habits
I was going through my phone deleting pictures and videos when I came across this gem.
I do a lot of things to try to keep walking fun and engaging, both for myself and the dogs. Some times we stop and talk to homeless men. Other times we stop and do tricks in the park. Still other times we do a little balance beam work.
This trick requires Sparta to jump up on to concrete barriers and then walk along them. Some things to point out:
I only order her up there when there is no traffic on the same side of the road as we are walking and I order her down before any traffic appears.
I only do this when she is wearing a harness I can clip into. That way if I need to grab her quickly or if she falls in the direction of traffic I do not have to worry about an injury to her neck.
We only attempt this after having mastered the commands "up," and "off," and have experienced walking on concrete beams in unoccupied work sites apart from any distractions.
A cheap farm store leash, two carabiners and a figure 8 loop knot
A second 'biner attaches the leash to my belt or backpack.
With a few simple modifications a cheap leash can become an adaptable tool. While a well-trained dog is more fun to walk than an untrained or poorly trained one, good tools make the experience more joyful regardless of the team's skill level.
Needs can change many times in the course of a walk, especially in the city. Maybe I encounter an unexpected crowd leaving a concert. Maybe we come across some unexpected work site. Sometimes, I just want to carry a cup of coffee and eat a cinnamon roll was we navigate the city streets. Cribbing off of the Kurgo "Quantum," and the European Six Way my current go to set up is a farm store leash modified in a manner that allows me to quickly adapt to circumstances.
With nearly any leash the first thing I do is saw
Two leashes, two dogs, two fingers.
off the clip on the dog end and replace it with a carabiner. There are two problems with the typical bolt snap fastener found on most dog leashes. The first is that they start to fail in relatively short order. Secondly, they fail a little bit at a time and it is easy to ignore it as it comes loose. More than once I have had a dog pop off the lead unexpectedly. Luckily each time the dog remained under my verbal control until I could refasten it. If the circumstances or the dog had been different, the result could have been a lost dog.
Taking a hacksaw to the metal cut the fastener while being careful to avoid damaging the leash. When removed a carabiner will slip into the loop already sewn into the leash to hold the earlier fastener.
If you don't replace the fastener immediately, I highly recommend replacing the clip at the first sign of deterioration.
I prefer carabiners are superior because when they start to fail, the failure is obvious and the can be quickly switched out. Even a cheap farm store 'biner will last me six months or more of heavy
Rabbit!
use. I've yet to have to replace one designed to be weight bearing. They are also easier to use when wearing gloves in cold weather. Just make sure it will fit the loop on your dog's collar before buying.
A second carabiner is attached to the loop end of the leash so it can easily lashed to your backpack or belt, allowing maximum freedom to you and your dog. Personally I keep a large locking carabiner on my belt (yes, carabiners are among my favorite tools) which allows for quick attachment/release of the leash. This is especially valuable when walking more than one dog when one leash can be quickly released, the leashes can be untangled, and then quickly re-attached.
I can haz roll too?
When walking one dog, the leash can hang loose attached to the belt while you drink coffee or a roll. If walking more than one dog the easier dog can be walked attached to the belt while the other leash is kept in the hand.
Most the time I keep the leashes in my hand but attached to my belt so I can drop them when there is a need.
Finally, I tie a Figure Eight Loop knot into the leash about 2/3 up from the collar end of the leash to the handle. This is the key to the leash's flexibility in use.
While walking down the street with the leash attached to my belt (allowing both the dog and me a maximum amount of freedom) I can quickly reach down and use the knot to gain tighter control when a cat crosses our path or when a cyclists comes unexpectedly around a corner.
At other times I can slip the loop onto the 'biner on my waist, making the leash shorter and keeping the dog closer while continuing to keep my hands free.
Conversely, removing the leash from my waist, I use the leash's second carabiner to attach to the loop in the leash. This can be used to secure the dog to post when I need to use a porti-potty, enjoying a beer on a patio, or running into a bakery for a second serving of cinnamon roll and coffee or to just create a larger loop for ease of use.
The most important ingredient in keeping walking fun is a dog that shares your expectations but proper tools can help you educate your dog on those expectations but also make the difference when those expectations are upturned. The proper tools do not have to be expensive tools.
Between time on the road, in the forest, and on snowshoe, I walk between 600 and 1000 miles a year. I started to walk as a way to add some activity to my life and to make sure the terriers in my life did not drive my wife insane. I have found in walking, however, unexpected benefit and unexpected joy. I continue to walk for a whole other set of reasons than I started.
The sapien who moves at an automobile's pace sees almost nothing. The cyclists can manage little more. Not only does the scenery pass too quickly, the mind must remain occupied, at least partly, on keeping the car on the road or the bicycle in its lane. Driving and cycling are about reacting to the world as it speeds toward you. Walking allows a person to actually analyse and start to understand what they see.
When we walk, devoid of distractions, we have the freedom to think. Walking allows me to consider if my life is moving in the direction I would choose. Walking gives me the opportunity to explore new parts of my geography and see old geographies in new ways.
While walking through a landscape you get the opportunity to see how the world works. I get the opportunity to flush grouse and understand their habitat. I wander into areas less traveled and understand how our urban, suburban, and rural infrastructures work, how it is maintained, and where it is failing. I find bones, plants escaped from domestication, birds outside their normal range.
I've found stolen copper dumped in the woods. I've met some nice game wardens and local police. I've witnessed drug deals and police officers acting, unnecessarily aggressive. If you want to see the world, you need to get out in it. If you want to understand it, you need to look at it slowly.
We evolved to walk and to see the world at a walker's pace.
Socrates was a walking man, so were Nietzsche, Rousseau, and Kant. Hippocrates recommended it as the best form of exercise. Only the domestication of the horse made any other pace possible and even that was limited to short bursts. Those who rode on horseback as they traveled the American West, viewed that land at the pace of a fast walk.
The automobile has only been around for the last five human generations. It is a wonderful way to get from point A to point B. It is wholly inadequate way to see what lies between.
Walking allows you to make fewer assumptions, to set aside the cartoonish world inside your brain and be confronted by how it is in textured detail. The hard working half-crippled mother walking from the bus so early in the morning and the realization that more goes on in this neighborhood than the crime which makes the news. The moment in the woods you wish you had a gun. The ATV damage done to public land, the overheard gossip between jogging med school students, the difference in light rail stations based upon the socio-economic neighborhoods they are located.
There is an element of escape in the regular walk. Any healthy dog would love to be your companion. A well trained dog is a joy to have along.
It is a difficult hobby to criticize. If I were at the bar or bowling alley every day at noon, the bride would be right to complain. Perhaps she'd also be right to complain about how much time I spend in field and forest, but she also sees how it has improved my own mental health.
The truth is, she's usually pretty happy to get me out of the house. I might be a more likeable person when physically tired by a walk but I am also less weary of life in the world. Its all good, I like her more after I've walked a good 5 to 8 miles too.
I walk for the same reason a diabetic eats whole grains or the constipated man his oatmeal, I have developed the chronic illness of the speed and power available in the Anthropocene and am seeking the relief of a more humane pace and a more human way of looking at the world. My physical health has improved but more than my physical health has improved.
Found: pigeon raising was still a thing? Thanks to the internet, I was able to inform the owner of the final disposition of his bird.
Found: a field of lupine, food source for the endangered Karner Blue butterfly.
Found: one man's littering is another man's artful image.
Found: sometimes we walk to bring joy to others and other times we bring sustenance home.
Wisconsin's public lands are never more crowded than during the nine day whitetail gun season.
They're rarely so barren as the week following that gun gun season.
I try to take the dogs out for a walk in that week as we look for unrecovered deer. It became obvious that the area was much more heavily hunted this year than years past, but it was still fun to get out and continue to work on Stoic's field manners.
Only ten minutes out of the car and Stoic yelps and runs back past me as if he'd been nipped by a coyote. A short investigation led to the only carcass we would find. After a few seconds of checking it out, Stoic was ready to rag on it. Once he was exposed for a few moments he started to get the idea that maybe raccoon isn't so scary afterwards.
Three brand new deerstands, shooting lanes, boxes to hold gamecams and scent lures. There was a lot more human sign on this bit of public access than previous years.
Stoic checks out a den near the river. Sparta and he left it on command, but I thought I was going to have to pull them out.
We found to gut piles, relatively untouched by carrion eaters. I took that as a good sign that they'd been eating meat and fat off of a unrecovered deer somewhere. Maybe they were, but we didn't find it. I let both dogs take a nibble before moving them on. I don't care to clean vomit out of my car.
It feels as if there are more spaces along the river where willow saplings are growing larger and denser than years past. If true, this has to be a good thing. The river's cutting edge, seen in the background, is replaced by the growing edge. Trees speed up the process of growing. The Red Cedar moves so fast I might just live long enough to see an oak sapling growing on this GPS coordinate before my spark goes dark.
I have a whistle I use which all the dogs learn means "check in with me." It isn't a hard "come" it is a "put your eyes on me." I use it if I've gone a little too long seeing or hearing one of the dogs or when I am making a sudden change in direction or turning around.
Stoic ventured out a time or two but stayed close most of the time. It was the perfect set of events for him to learn the meaning of that "find me" whistle.
A tree falls in the river, the current slows behind it, an island is born, grass can grow.
Every time we're out here, I cross down tree to a large grassy island that I'm sure ought to hold something interesting to see.
Every time the dogs believe me to be nuts.
This beaver lodge has been occupied for at least the last four years. Usually I can get them to come out, look me over, as slap their tail on the water in disgust at my rudeness of standing atop their lodge. This year I heard them leave the go underwater from inside the lodge but no protest was forth coming. Stoic was really, really, interested in the smell of what lived in there. Yes, they're rodents but we're gonna learn to leave them alone.
A few years ago the I35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. Thirteen people were killed and one hundred and forty-five were injured.
This photo was taken from the east bank, underneath the new bridge that replaced it and you can see a retaining wall failure on the west side of the Mississippi River. It looks as if the ground underneath the roadway is giving way as well.
These are the kinds of things you notice when you move at a walking pace.
I had just begun to ask myself who I would call to notify of the erosion when I noticed the orange safety barrels at the bottom; someone already knows about the problem. I decided to trust that someone was monitoring it.
A couple of days later I got a better look from the other side.
This is not the first landslide along the improved banks of the Mississippi. Why just last year the hillside gave way just outside my workplace. They still haven't re-opened the roadway beneath it.
The thing is the Mississippi, and all rivers, are not stationary. They move over time but the things we build do not. There is a Sapien hubris at work when we build a structure to last two hundred years where the river will want to be in seventy-five.
We may call this era the Anthropocene, but our power is not totalitarian. Our actions may move the planet one direction or another but the laws of physics are not suspended.
Today we made a ten mile urban loop through some appreciating neighborhoods of Minneapolis.
Our urban walks take us by or through the University at least two dozen times a year and it is always enjoyable. I confess I enjoy it more in the winter and more so on a Sunday morning. Yes, there might be a little vomit in the bushes or on the sidewalk but the grounds keepers have been out and the ice has been removed.
Besides, where else am I ever again going to hear a twenty something girl say the words, "Well, aren't you a handsome boy!" I could care less that she is staring at the dog at my feet.
Learning is line a never ending staircase. Sometimes, as in this case, sections of the staircase are covered in goose poop.
Cyrus Northrop Auditorium
The Cyrus Northrop Auditorium was built in 1929 and renovated in 2014. I haven't been inside since a friend too me to hear Desmond Tutu speak in what must have been 2003. That was a good day.
The inscription reads,
The University of Minnesota
Founded in the faith that men are ennobled by understanding.
Dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth.
Devoted to the instruction of youth and the welfare of the state.
Maybe the first statement is true, maybe understanding just makes us more efficient and effective bigots. I'm agnostic on the topic. The second two statements, however, are great values on which to build a good life or a good society. Those are the values that did, and could again, unite a diverse nation.
I vote for a return to those values as the foundation of our education system.
Bronze doors on Walter Library. Completed in 1923, it was the primary library of the university for many years and now houses the College of Science and Engineering Library.
The building itself is in the Roman Renaissance style that dominates the U of M quad, so much so that I first thought of them as "square and non-descript, a testament to the utilitarian values of the upper mid-west of the late 19th and 20th century." The truth is my high school was in the Roman Renaissance style, and there is a fair chance that your's was as well.
Architecture, just one of the many everyday things we take for granted and must learn to see.
The bronze doors and metal work, as recognition to the value of what lies beyond them. A small force armed with spears could also defend the library against a riotous mob of ideologues, if it ever came to that.
Saturday mornings tend to be slow for tracking calls. Sundays tend to be busy.
If I want to be fresh for a busy Sunday, the odds of a good day sleep improve if I can get a good walk in on Saturday. The sun was out this past weekend and the temperature at dawn was a perfect 40 degrees. Our last best chance to have a snow-free stroll until March.
Thank you El Nino.
This really is my favorite spot in downtown.
Dogs dig sculpture.
Squirrel!
"Child!"
"What exactly are these things anyway?"
Winning: great coffee, off-street patio to tie off the dog, and a corporation that utilizes existing buildings.
Barista: You look like the outdoorsy type.
Daniel: You're right about two things.
B: Two?
D: I am the outdoorsy type. I am also the "leave a bigger tip for the barista who looks at me close enough to guess my type" type.
B: (blush)
This boy needs a dog.
"Fo-Shay!"
Hatched too late: Chick the size of a pigeon laying on Nicollet Ave.
