News Of A Fictional Nature

I may have missed today's non-issue story through rampant apathy except that it happened to come on as I was getting ready to head out for my morning bike ride. Apparently, Archie Andrews has finally made the choice.

Archie, that man-about-town who has been dating both Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge for the past sixty-five years, has finally decided to legitimize the relationship with one of them – but which one? The world holds its breath!

Honestly, I haven’t thought of the old Archie Comics in years, and certainly wouldn't this morning either but for the story on the "news" program that happened to be on the television. But the talking heads were chatting about the virtues of Betty and the money in Veronica's account.

But I think that they missed the story here…

They were prattling on about how by choosing to marry Veronica (yes, he chose Veronica and Betty is in tears) he was selling out; that he was choosing the private jets, vacation homes, and fast cars over true love.

I think that they really missed the point. He'll need all that money and all those ways to get away. He'll need to get away from the wrath of Ms. Cooper whom he has been stringing along all these years and has now dumped like last week's trash. Talk about a woman scorned…

Of course, Archie has a history of being fickle… He's been dating both women for over a half-century. Am I the only one that thinks perhaps there is a chance for Betty yet? Can anyone else see Betty in the role of mistress? (Ooh! How European!) With all those houses, cars, jets, etc. how easy would it be to slip off for a night of passion with one of his old girlfriends while the wife is at a charity fund-raiser?

Veronica, I have two words for you: "Prenuptial Agreement!"

Wherever you are today, I hope that you're having a great day!

Don Bergquist – May 28, 2009 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Personal Best

Okay, I admit it, these are not from this trip, but one I made a couple years ago. The moon was not full last night but the sunset over the Nebraska wilderness was stunning! As was the lightning storm I saw in the rear-view mirror!

You really could not ask for a better day to drive home! (Well, I guess you could, but you would have no right to expect the request to be granted!) It started with a lovely breakfast at the hotel my brother and his family were staying at and the conversation and camaraderie were wonderful.

I broke off around ten to pop back to the house to load the car and get ready for the trip, and then around eleven I was off. The "Minnesota Long Goodbye" pared down to about half-an-hour of parting banter and Saga and I were headed Southwest by shortly after eleven.

The roads were dry and clear and except for a bit of a headwind through South Dakota, it was a great day for a drive. The books on the iPod helped the miles pass faster. As a matter of fact, the first even slightly adverse road conditions I faced were the wet roads just east of Valentine, Nebraska; still wet from a thunderstorm that had just passed over.

There was a bit of drizzle as I got into Denver proper, but apparetnly, I missed a stronger storm earlier in the day. My flowerbeds look to have been hit by some hail and there are leaves and branches down.

I have now unloaded the car and it is time to get things put away... but at least, according to my GPS I have set a new personal best. I am not sure how long this one will stand!

One way distance Kensington, Minnesota to Lakewood, Colorado: 931.8 Miles (door-to-door)

• Moving Time:                  11:55:30
• Moving Average:             78.1 MpH
• Stopped Time:                 01:05:12
• Total Transit:                   13:00:42
• Average Transit Speed:   71.6 MpH

Well, back to the laundry and clean-up after the trip!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you have had an excellent day!

Don Bergquist - May 26, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Editor's Note:

Before he has a chance to ask, I will answer Michael's question.

The Homebound Listening List was:

A BBC7 Radio Adaptation of Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
A BBC7 Radio Adaptation of The Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein
Notes From A Small Island By Bill Bryson
An episode of X Minus One called Chain of Command
And a Tim Minchin Album called Dark Side

editor

Happy birthday to my Dad

Greetings and a very happy birthday to my father!

From me and all the family!

Happy birthday to my Cousin Levi

Happy birthday to my Friend, Kevin

Happy birthday to my Cousin Callista

Knackered!

What a trip!

I have made it back to Colorado and I have schlepped in the laptop to write my blog entry. Other than that, I have power to do little else. I'm off to bed; more tomorrow!

Wherever you are today, I hope you have passed a pleasant day!

Don Bergquist - May 25, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Memorial Day

We'll Be Right Back...

Saga and I are headed out today. No blog entries until we reach home.

Have a great day!

Don Bergquist - May 24, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Aftermath

The party is over, the yard has been cleared of all the paraphernalia, the borrowed chairs and coolers have been returned. All that remains now is to have a nice beverage or three in the cool of the evening and then a good night's sleep.

Probably a dozen-or-so people had left before we got the chance to take the group photo, but at least we got one in. It was a big party and I think everyone had a good time. But just now it is time to take a moment to enjoy the stillness and the quiet of this beautiful Minnesota evening.

Tomorrow, it is time to pack the car (after a breakfast with the family) and head west.


Wherever you are today, I hope that you have had time to spend with family and friends - or perhaps just to relax.

Don Bergquist - May 23, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Party Time!

Well, the preparations have all been made and the family and friends will start to arrive soon, today is the big family open house and everything is in readiness.

Of course, Flo is running around making last minute adjustments and making sure that everything is spotless. and this means that all of us who are here are busy making last-minute cleaning projects disappear. But all-in-all it is time to relax and party with friends and family. What a lovely way to spend a lovely spring afternoon.

Whereveryou are today I hope that your day is as pleasant and that you can spend it relaxing and enjoying the company of those you love.

Don Bergquist - May 23, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Livestock

Since I was a tiny tot I have been around animals; okay, so mostly it was on summer vacations as I visited my uncle and his family on the family homestead, but still...

So now that I am here visiting with my parents, their dog, a few puppies, down to one now, my brother and his family (who brought their dog) and my dog, well... It is definitely a menagerie around here!

Saga, of course, is used to being queen of all she surveys so she is trying to get used to having all these other dogs around as well. It is not easy as the puppy wants to play all the time, even when Saga does not particularly feel like playing. But it is all good. We keep the dogs to their own little areas when things get a bit tense, it is off to neutral areas of the house. I can't wait to see how saga takes it tomorrow when she has to share the house with the other dogs where there are dozens of people to beg from!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you're having a great day!

Don Bergquist - May 22, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Happy birthday to my Pseudo-Nephew James

Happy birthday to my Cousin Kate

Project Day

Today is the day that we're starting to gather in earnest. My siblings are converging. I have a niece and nephew already in town and all primed and ready to help out.

Today is going to be busy. We've got to get the garage ready (the rain venue for the party) and we have to head into town for groceries, and we have to pick-up the banner. It will be a busy day once it gets started... but right now, it is time for a snooze in the sun.

Wherever you are today, I hope that you have a great day!

Don Bergquist - May 21, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Quiet Day ~ Busy Day

What's the difference, really?

I guess I would prefer a busy day on vacation to a quiet one a the office!

And today is going to be that busy day on vacation. We have to start pulling things together for the party today. I Have a banner that I need to get from the printer for the party and there are things to get from stores all over the region. Oh, and my niece missed her flight yesterday, so it is another pop down to St. Cloud to retrieve someone from the airport today! (Yeah!)

It is a good thing I still drive the hybrid. Gas prices are creeping up again. This past weekend I refueled in Denver for $2.099 before heading out. Last night, I filled it at $2.399. Which is still nothing to what I was paying on the rare occasions I had a car while living abroad... but still!

Today we have to hit this bakery dad particuliarly likes, and we're going to have breakfast while out, and then it is off to the printers and then into town for the groceries. Finally, I will gas up and head down to the airport. But none of this will happen if I don't post this thing and head out. So I guess I had best do so. There is a long road ahead today... time to roll.

Wherever you are today, I hope your day, if busy, is at least filled with things you want to be doing!

Don Bergquist - May 20, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Hangin' With The Family

Visiting with my family in Minnesota is certainly a change in pace. Instead of being up and about each morning before four, I sleep in 'til seven or eight. Instead of a quite dinner and a walk with the dog at the end of the evening, it is a few games of cards and conversation late into the night. It is great spending quality time with the folks! I do not get enough time to do that!

Of course, this afternoon, the dynamic changes as people start arriving for the big party this weekend. this afternoon, I drive into St. Cloud to get my niece and nephew from the airport there. My siblings start filtering in later in the the week.

Then, of course, the real work starts, the cooking and cleaning and entertaining. 

Wherever you are today I hope that you will have a great day!

Don Bergquist - May 19, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Young At Heart

There is something about puppies that brings out the kid in you!

Dad still has a few of the puppies his bitch whelped a few weeks ago around and they are just at that fun age where everything is an adventure and a challenge. We took a walk in the woods yesterday and they found the woods full of things that were irresistable!

One even decided to "fetch" a "stick" she found that was bigger around than she was. The pictures were not very good on that one, but if you piucture this little guy trying to retrieve a branch that was twice as big as her mouth... it was too cute!

I am having a very relaxing time spending time here with my folks. If only I had brought a bow tie it would be just like when I was a kid! Wait a minute! I HATED that bow tie!

Wherever you are today, I hope you're feeling like a kid!

Don Bergquist - May 18, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

A Slow Morning

Ah!

What a lovely morning here at my parent's place in the woods. Dad and I went out and played with the puppies in the yard at the border of the woods, and then Saga and I played in the yard for a while.

This afternoon, my folks and I are going to get started on some projects that they want to get acheived but for right now, it is just a lovely morning to sit, look at the lake, and sip my coffee.

Saga has just come and put her head on my leg, demanding my attention. How nice to be wanted!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you are having a lovely, relaxing morning!

Don Bergquist - May 17, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Rolling East

At "butt-ugly-early o'clock" this morning, Saga and I started rolling. A fine rain was falling and the streets were wet in Lakewood as we set-out. Pink Floyd was playing on the stereo (just a little traveling music to get me into the spirit of the road) and Saga and I were heading off into the morning.

The rain tapered off and stopped about the time we were passing Roggen the rain had tapered off and before we were in Fort Morgan, the roads were dry and clear and there was nothing left of the rain but the cloud-cover. Which was fortuitous as it meant I never had to into the sun.

Once I had turned north at At North Platte, Nebraska, the day had shaped up to be just lovely! The road was clear and mostly open, the entertainment on the iPod was good, and the trip passed without incident.

Well, almost. Somehow, even though I have no stored destinations in South Dakota, the GPS insisted that my parents lived somewhere near Aberdeen. I had to reenter the destination in South Dakota to get an accurate tracking. Not that I actually need the GPS to find my way here, but it is nice having something to alert me to alternate routes in case of road closures.

All-in-all, it was a lovely day on the road! Saga and I made it here in about 14 hours, 13:10:00 moving time and 55:00 stopped to get gas, snacks, and "necessities." It was not a bad trip! But now Saga and I are off to bed. I will leave the emptying of the car until tomorrow.

Wherever you are today, I hope you have had a wonderful day!

Don Bergquist - May 16, 2009 - Kensington, Minnesota

Preparations

The spring travel season is upon us!

I am about to head out to the first road trip of the season. I have my iPod loaded with a collection of audiobooks and music for the road. I have the car all packed and the house all cleaned and neat. (I just hate coming home to a mess.)

So the car is packed and I am all ready to roll. Time to hit the sack and get some sleep before I get behind the wheel. Tomorrow I head for Minnesota.

Wherever you are today, I hope that you have a lovely day!

Don Bergquist - May 15, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Happy birthday to my Niece Heather

Happy birthday to my Friend, Stephen

Aromas

If a picture paints a thousand words, what about a smell?

This morning a lovely, misty, foggy day dawned in Lakewood. I headed out early for my bike ride and had a lovely ride in the murky light of the early dawn. But the reason that it is memorable is that at one point along the ride I chanced upon an aroma that nearly knocked me off my bike as I was transported back in time. The smell was bacon.

Now, it's not as if I never smell bacon, it's just the combination of the fogginess of the morning, the opalescence of the light of the early dawn, and the smell of bacon brought me back to the days of my youth in south Florida.

There is a really good book by Jack Finney called Time and Again in which a unique time travel method is proposed. In a nutshell, we are tied to our current time by the myriad threads of memory that constantly remind us that we live in the present. If we could manage to forget these threads, get ourselves onto a state of mind where we are convinced that the present and the past both exist side-by-side (like the pages of a book) and then use some memory trick to convince us that we had stepped across the infinitesimal distance between the "now" and the "then," it would be possible for us to step across the void into yesterday.

If there is anything to this, then for just a moment this morning, I was in the past! The aroma of bacon just hit me and I swear I could have heard the crackle of a camp fire, the metallic clunk of a spatula hitting a cast iron skillet, and taste the acrid bite of inhaled wood-smoke.

Granted, those days were all in central and southern Florida and not in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. It is also true that a foggy morning in Miami is a portent of a hot and muggy day, unlike Lakewood where it will be dry and warm this afternoon. But for a moment, I was camping in Ocala and not cycling in Colorado.

I remember camping with my family at the Juniper Springs Campground. Early mornings (especially those mornings after a wet, rain-soaked day)were often foggy if not rainy. I would head out and stalk the campground in early mornings seeing who was up early. I have always been an early riser and was often up before the family.

Being a social animal and not one who enjoys disturbing the sleep of my family, I would dress and slip out of the camper and before anyone could miss me, I was off exploring the campground, chatting with the other early risers and seeing where everyone was from. The early morning smell was wet earth, wood smoke, coffee, bacon and toast.

Ah! The power of the sense of smell!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you will have a great day and that all your memories are pleasant ones!

Don Bergquist - May 11, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Mother's Day

 

Love You Bunches!

Happy birthday to my Sister-In-Law Allyn

Happy birthday to myFriend, Mary Dawn

Cinco de Mayo

Happy birthday to my Cousin DeeAnn

What are the ethics of panhandling?

I was pretty sure that the guy was lying to me, but does that justify my lying to him? This morning, as I was out and about running errands, I decided to stop at a little place with tables outside. (The place was packed inside, but because the weather was cold-ish, I was almost alone on the patio.)

Sipping my coffee and waiting for my breakfast, I was working on my morning's itinerary when I suddenly heard the voice. "Excuse me, sir…" he said this as he approached through the mostly vacant tables. Due to the breeze, I didn’t catch whiff of him until he was almost up to the table.

The tramp was of indeterminate age, in definite need of some hygienic overhauling, and dressed in clothing that looked as if they had been previously used to clean-up a beach after a major toxic waste spill. He was listing to one side and walked with a limp.

He was half-way through his sob story about needing a couple bucks for bus fair and being stranded here in Denver, and just needing to get home when he reached the table. "Can you help me out and give me a couple bucks?" he asked.

"No, sorry." I said and returned to my attention to the list.

But that leads me to the question here. In all likelihood, his premise on which his request was based was almost certainly false. So the fact that I could have given him money, I just wouldn't! Am I a horrible person for not wanting to "help him out"?

I give money to charities, I pay taxes, am I obligated to do more? (Heck… I sound like Scrooge here: "…are there no prisons, are there no workhouses. ") But seriously, where does one draw the line? I would love to hear your ideas on this...

Wherever you are, I hope you are free of ethical quandaries!

Don Bergquist – May 03, 2009 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA

What To Do On A Rainy Afternoon

The weather has been cold and foggy all day. It is the kind of thing they call "mizzle" back in the UK; a cold, misty drizzle. So I have been doing laundry, running the dishwasher and updating my website.

Frost Lake has been completely reworked and I would love to know what you think. Please take a look and drop me a note telling me your thoughts.

Wherever you are today, I hope that if your weather isn't great, it is at least conducive to getting things done!

Don Bergquist - May 02, 2009 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

May Day