With all the crazy, awful things going on in the world today, I’m not sure it’s really appropriate to daydream about material things that are so outside the realities of a worldwide pandemic. On the other hand, it does feel a little therapeutic to briefly escape from all the anxiety and think about a different, calmer life. The North Shore of Lake Superior has always been one of those escapes for me and I could easily envision spending the rest of my life on that lake:

• Design and build a not-so-big log cabin
• Stone fireplace and large picture window
• Screen porch to manage the flying bugs
• Heated floors for warm feet in the winter
• Fast internet (but no phones)
• Nice speakers to play the North Shore playlist
• Wooded lot with shoreline
• Wildflowers and hummingbirds
• Detached garage with exercise area/game room
• Guest cottages for SK and MK
• Family kayaks
• Access to the SHT and bike trails
• Golf at Superior National
• Skiing at Lutsen Mountains
• Gaming at Grand Portage
• Concerts at Papa Charlie’s

Ahh…

Acacia is so peaceful ❤️

It’s been two and a half months since I last posted to Instagram (and about two months since I officially deleted both my Facebook and Instagram accounts). It wasn’t that hard to give up Facebook – I really only used it to sync status with a couple of games, promote posts from this site and to communicate with more distant family members. Add to that all of the other reasons people don’t like Facebook and it became a pretty easy decision. Now I just need Two Dots to continue to improve the Facebook-free experience and I’ll be fine (LEADERBOARDS).

Instagram, on the other hand, was a much tougher decision for me. From what I can tell, it launched on iOS in October of 2010 and I posted my first image on Christmas Day 2010. The original pictures were 640×640 and I used Iain Poulson’s excellent Intagrate WordPress plugin for many years to automatically pull my pics from Instagram and create image posts on this site. Facebook purchased the service in April 2012, but largely left it independent (image sizes did increase to 1080×1080 in 2015).

Instagram is the de facto social media standard for restaurants and foodies, so that’s really what I used it for in the beginning. I don’t like accounts that post the same thing across all platforms, so I’d use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in specialized ways to help prevent overlap. Now that I’m only on Twitter, I initially tried to recreate some of that there, but I’m finding that I need to continue to prune my Twitter follow list and just move on from some things that I know I’m missing. Some examples: Instagram stories from Armon and Meredith, donut pictures from Erin and everything posted by my wife and daughters.

I finally finished merging all of the Instagram metadata they sent me in JSON format with the image files that I uploaded here. Also starting to get back to equilibrium on my main @kingsbury Twitter account (and will continue to use @7minutemiles to link to stories like this one). Really trying to get most of the politics out of my feed too – no real appetite for doomscrolling these days…

Cleaning up the Lombard bags

No Applebee’s down here

All three rings

As part of my recently completed online class, The Science of Well-Being, I took a survey that purports to identify my top character strengths:

• Love of Learning
• Curiosity
• Kindness
• Honesty
• Judgement
• Love
• Creativity

There were a couple I thought would be higher, but overall, that’s close…

Eric at James Irving Grooming, Uptown Minneapolis

Step 1 – Download my info
Step 2 – Deactivate my account
Step 3 – Permanently delete my account

Two out of three so far…

UPDATE:
And since Facebook owns Instagram:

Step 1 – Download my info
Step 2 – Deactivate my account
Step 3 – Permanently delete my account

This bin had a lot more than the first one – this project is going to take a long time. As I mentioned in the first bin post, please let me know if you are interested in any of these little beauties (pics after the jump).

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life:

Who is it, darling? It’s a Mr. Death or something. He’s come about the reaping. I don’t think we need any at the moment…

Nobody wants to think about death, but unfortunately our family has had a lot of experience with it the last few years. With the state of the world now, I thought it might be useful to write up a post on our experiences, what you should do to plan and how to make things easier for your loved ones when the time comes.

When I was younger, I can remember having an intense fear of dying (and of losing other people in my life). The funeral of my great grandmother was open casket and was very traumatizing for me. I also remember my next door neighbor dying after an ambulance pulled up outside – she was the first person close to me that died and I had nightmares about it for years. I remember going on a trip to southern California shortly after that and having an existential freakout in the backseat of the rental car as we drove from LAX to Anaheim. Sorry about that, mom and dad.

As I’ve aged, my thinking about death has become less scary and more sensible. It’s still incredibly hard to mourn and deal with loss, but now I know it’s a part of the natural cycle in our world. That’s not an easy thing to come to terms with, though, after losing so many people in my family. I thankfully haven’t had a lot of friend funerals yet and feel extraordinarily lucky to not be one of the first after that fateful morning in 2018. And even though I never met them in person, I still get emotional when I listen to a Prince, Tom Petty or David Bowie song.

So, what happens when the reaper comes calling? A good funeral home can help immensely and we’ve had great experiences with Mueller Bies in Roseville. If you’re a fan of the HBO series Six Feet Under, you may have pre-conceived notions of what the funeral home business is all about, but a good funeral director can be a huge help in navigating what is usually an extremely difficult time for people. They will work to arrange cremation or embalming, assist with purchase of an urn or casket, coordinate any desired church services, host visitations, order flowers, help write and publish obituaries in local newspapers, submit paperwork to the state for death certificates and arrange for cemetery services (if needed). These services do not come cheap: expect it to cost $7,000 – $12,000.

So what should you do now to help out your loved ones later?

• Review your insurance and make sure you store all the information in a secure, easy-to-find location like a fire safe or safety deposit box. Keep your beneficiary information up to date and periodically review your coverage levels with a professional to make sure the people you care about get what they need. Term life is way cheaper when you are young and healthy, but whole life acts like an investment that may or may not fit in with your overall retirement and investment planning strategy.
• If you have assets to pass on, it’s a good idea to have a current will that clearly states your intentions so that probate can be avoided. There are free online options to assist with this, but I recommend spending the money to have a lawyer draw this up that is specific to your state. If there are limited assets, there are transfer on death deed and affidavit options in some states, but advice from a lawyer is still the best route for these situations.
• You should spell out health care directives now. End of life care decisions are never easy to think about or discuss, but so is having to guess what people want when they can’t decide for themselves. This is also a good place to talk about cremation versus casket burial, where you want to be buried, what type of service or memorial you would want (if any), what songs you want played, etc.
• Account information and passwords. Get a good password manager (I’ve been using 1Password for many years now) and make sure someone in your family knows where it is and how to access it. Create a spreadsheet that summarizes all of your accounts – checking, savings, investments, retirement funds, credit cards, utilities, loans, etc. Include website addresses, account numbers, login information and any contact information. This will be invaluable, but also needs to be kept as secure as possible.
• Social media and other online accounts. Your login information should be stored in your password manager, but it’s a good idea to think about how you want your online presence managed after you are gone. Facebook allows relatives to “memorialize” accounts, which involves providing a copy of the death certificate. It’s important to also think about things like AppleID, Netflix, Hulu, PayPal, Dropbox, newspaper, magazine and email accounts, which are likely tied to credit cards that will need to be closed (or transferred to someone else).
• If you publish personal websites like this one, there are many issues to address: renewal of web hosting services, domain names, DNS services and SSL certificates. I’d like to think I could keep this website online indefinitely for my heirs to access in the future, but that is not an automatic process by any means.
• Take lots of pictures of the ones you love and keep them organized and backed up (in more than one place). They are some of the most important digital files you will ever create.

In the immortal words of the great Buck Dharma, “Seasons don’t fear the reaper, nor do the wind, the sun or the rain…”

Cups and Wands

Keepin’ the move streak alive

Still waiting for the numbers

A few random Sunday night notes:

• The introvert in me is doing just fine, thank you very much.
• Started Yale’s free Science of Well-Being online class and I’m really glad I did (h/t Charles).
• Inspired by Ms. Rosner, I’m going to switch to unleaded for the immediate future.
• The scale is not my friend these days, but I’m still trying to close those three damn circles every day.
• Need to pick a day this week to run the virtual Get in Gear 10K and submit my (likely very slow) time.
• News and social media can be soul-crushing these days, but I just can’t turn it completely off. As the great Sandra Boynton said, don’t let the turkeys get you down.
• When this is all over, I want to buy drinks (in person) for all the cool people I follow on Twitter and Instagram.
• This weekend’s focus was deciding which physical CDs and DVDs we could do without. Once it reopens, Electric Fetus will be gifted the whole pile.
• The plan this week is to get the food page updated with those spots now offering great take-out. I don’t have an unlimited budget, but we should all try and support as many of our local favorites as we can.
• Finished all the taxes (ours and my dad’s) before the original April 15th deadline, but will hold on to those checks until July.
• Still can’t believe we are all done with Lombard – such a huge relief (thanks again Kary).
• Photos + iPhone + Catalina = fubar. All I want is to sync albums from Photos to my phone, but all I get is “Photos cannot be synced to the iPhone because your Photos Library is not yet available. Please try again later.” Never thought I’d yearn for iTunes.
• Starting week three with the CPAP and so far I’m not a big fan. Can’t sleep on my stomach or side, I don’t like breathing only through my nose and it hasn’t improved my sleep quality much. Definitey quieter for everyone else, though.
• Looking forward to my first socially-distanced round of golf this week at the always excellent Willingers in Northfield.
• Scheduled to see my long lost friend Eric at James Irving on May 4th. Fingers crossed…

Wishing you all peace, love and happiness ❤️

Needed some normalcy today

Highway 52 bridge over the Mississippi, Saint Paul

Thanks for the memories…

First Grade report card, Linwood Park Elementary, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Please let August be normal

Not many choo-choos these days

Always hustlin’

We were almost out too

CPAP for sleep apnea (and the snore score)

It’s blog birthday time again – the first 7 Minute Miles post appeared on this domain fourteen years ago today.

Current stats:

• 11,119 Posts
• 208 Pages
• 41,174 unique visitors in 2019
• 2,169,487 pages displayed in 2019

Currently running WordPress 5.3.2 with my custom theme and 19 plugins on the old Mac mini server colocated in Las Vegas. Favorite plugins: Wordfence Security, VaultPress, Intagrate and Really Simple SSL (with a Let’s Encrypt cert managed via Certbot). Still want to write some custom data entry forms for the golf, run and bike pages, but those (along with making the theme more mobile friendly) have still not made it off the to-do list. Also never figured out the solution to the weird SSL/emoji issue.

Haven’t changed the overall site structure much this year, adding only a new Concerts page that I’m experimenting with using the Vimeo hosting platform. I made some major updates to the Résumé page and just realized that the Biography page now needs a refresh too. After prepping photo boards for funerals in back-to-back months, I should also spend some time on updating the Photos section. I finally moved our Christmas samplers to online-only last year and might do a Hummel section soon too (hit me up if you need any).

As always, thanks for visiting and stay safe out there!

That’s still about right

Like many people around the world, the pandemic has been a difficult thing for me to process. I don’t have any particular expertise in the science behind it, but I’m married to the Corona Queen, I like to follow sites like this and I spent a lot of time last week getting our office configured and trained for an indefinite work from home scenario. Most of the things listed in my Twitter bio have shut down and it will likely be months before things return to some semblance of normal.

But we are very fortunate to still get outside to walk, run or bike, have money to order take-out from our favorite local restaurants and have reliable high-speed internet to cross off shows we always wanted to watch from our Netflix and HBO lists (and, of course, work from home). MK is doing the distance learning thing for the rest of the school year and SK has picked up some hours here and there helping out the Nive Man with take-out downstairs.

The Minnesota COVID-19 numbers so far pale with those in the hardest hit parts of the country (and world). The reports out of places like New York and Italy are terrifying and I worry about those on the front lines, like my Twitter friend @susanruns, who bravely works long hours to save lives in unimaginable conditions. My colleague was scheduled to start a new position in Hong Kong on April 1, but he is currently in limbo until the international travel and quarantine picture becomes clearer. I’m not sure what will happen with my work, but I’ve been trying to mentally prepare for all the different possibilities.

On the medical front, I had a 17-month MRI check-up this week at Hennepin Healthcare (which I thought might get cancelled under the non-essential procedure executive order). The new clinic building was empty – I was the only one in radiology and only saw one other person in the general waiting room. I never really had claustrophobia before, but now that MRI equipment feels like a torture chamber. Thankfully, the tech was done after two shorts scans (one 30 seconds, one four minutes). The resident that met with me pulled up the image and said everything looked great. Dr. Tummala will make the final call, but I shouldn’t have to go back for two more years. At that point, they will decide if it will be another MRI or a more invasive CT angiogram.

Lastly, the situation with my father’s estate made significant progress the past two weeks. With assistance from our friend John Schuster at Richfield Bloomington Honda, we were able to pay off his car loan and sell the car. Today, with the help of Kary Marpe from Edina Realty, we sold the house on Lombard. I thought that process was going to be challenging, given the hoarding nature of my mom (that would be one of my elementary school pictures above), various repairs needed and the pandemic’s impact on the economy. Kary was amazing, though, accurately pricing and listing the property, resulting in multiple offers by day two. If all goes according to plan, we will close on April 10. All that will be left is my dad’s taxes for 2019 (which shouldn’t be too hard).

Stay safe, y’all!

The revolution will not be televised

https://kottke.org/20/03/some-people

The ongoing saga of my double vision has now lead to a semi-permanent solution. I had always been the one person in my family without glasses, but one of the lasting side effects of my brain aneurysm has been diplopia at farther distances. Thanks to the treatment plans of Dr. Amy Chang and therapist Courtney Mitchell at Hennepin Heathcare, I can now read screens at most distances and watch TV without glasses. Even at farther distances, I can usually find an angle to hold my head to remove any doubling up (although Dr. Chang says that I’m cheating when I do that).

At the end of January, we decided that I’d stop using the 3M Prism inserts in the pair of non-prescription lenses I had purchased from Amazon. We started at a +30 strength in the beginning and dropped all the way down to +8 with the temporary inserts. Dr. Chang wrote a prescription for a permanent pair of glasses that included a +6 Prism for the top half of the lens and some magnification on the bottom half to assist with reading small letters close up (i.e. – cheaters). I’ve had 20/20 vision for most of my life, but age has caught up to me and some things just don’t work the same as they did before (regardless of the aneurysm side effects).

On the advice of a friend, I took the prescription to Warby Parker in the Galleria. Since I’ve never done this before, I wasn’t sure what my insurance would cover, but they had people in the store that seemed knowledgable about my situation and helped me pick out frames and make adjustments for this particular prescription. I paid for everything and was told the glasses would be ready for pick-up and fitting in 7-10 days. After two weeks of not hearing anything, I looked up my order on their website, which had a “please call us about your order” message displayed. No phone calls or emails during this time – WTH? The person I talked to when I called was very nice, but told me that their lab couldn’t produce my prescription, saying the prism strength couldn’t be higher than +5 and that they would just cancel the order. Ugh.

So in the end, I just went to Target Optical in West Saint Paul, which fitted me in a nice pair of Ray-Bans that they shipped in under a week for around $300. It took me a little while to get used to the progressive aspect of my prescription, but once I figured that out, they work really well. I do still prefer to not wear glasses when I can (like right now while I type on the iMac), but it’s nice to have them for driving and for reading the small type on menus in low-light situations. It will be interesting to see how they work for golf and biking later this spring…

My ribs hurt from coughing

Thanks, Gardens of Olive!

I wonder if that IIc in the corner will boot up

I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa. They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall. I bring them flowers about every day. But I just gotta cry when I think what they’d say…

It seems like I’ve written way too many “RIP” posts recently and unfortunately that now includes my father Mike, who died on Monday at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in downtown Saint Paul. With Colleen’s mom Jean passing at the end of 2019, we are now officially out of parents/grandparents, which is a really, really tough thing to process.

Dad’s medical journey started back in October when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He had surgery at Saint John’s Hospital in Maplewood to have his thyroid glands removed. That procedure went fine and the first few times I visited him out there, he was sitting in the chair next to his bed with his iPad playing video poker and could walk around the room. The surgery was close to his vocal cords, though, so he talked in a whisper-voice. Things seemed to be progressing nicely and he was transferred to Bethesda Hospital in Saint Paul, which is now an intermediate care facility in the Fairview system.

After only a few days at Bethesda, I got the first of many calls that said they needed to transfer him to the ICU at Saint Joe’s to deal with more serious complications that they couldn’t handle at Bethesda. These included a chyle leak, heart and breathing issues and the eventual installation of a tracheostomy tube, connection to a ventilator and installation of a pacemaker. Unfortunately, his condition continued to weaken even after these steps were taken, leaving him bedridden and unable to talk. My brother and sister traveled back to Saint Paul last weekend upon the recommendation of the palliative care team at St. Joe’s and we all got to say our goodbyes before he passed away peacefully just before 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon.

Like my mom, my dad loved being a grandparent to our daughters. As I’ve gone back looking for the photos posted below, I remember that he really liked combining his interests with Sasha and Marisa, whether it was a Twins game, a visit to a Disney park or the annual trip to Grand Marais and the North Shore. He loved playing video poker on his iPad (with fake money) and at many of the Minnesota tribal casinos with me and other family members (for real money). He visited me during my time at Fortune Bay, we made many round trip drives from Grand Marais to Grand Portage, used our free spin coupons at Treasure Island, stopped in at Grand Casino Hinckley on the way to Duluth to play the nickel poker machines and occasionally I would even get him to step out at the ritzy Mystic Lake.

The Twins were a huge deal for my dad. I’m super proud of him for going on the team trip to Seattle last year solo. He had partial season tickets for many years and we all liked to attend games with him (or stop by and visit if we had our own tickets). He’d participate in Twins Fest every year, would go to spring training games in Florida with Brian and Patti and had a great time at the bigger events like the All Star Game and last year’s playoff game (stupid Yankees). His man cave is full of Twins bobbleheads and signed baseballs and it will be bittersweet if they have a great season this year – although he did get to experience both 1987 and 1991. I still have the foul ball I got on 9-5-79 at Met Stadium sitting on my desk that he went and had signed after the game by the Twins hitter (Jesus Vega: Twins 8, Royals 3). If I remember right, the KC pitcher was the Mad Hungarian himself, Al Hrabosky.

Thank you to everyone at Mueller-Bies Funeral Home, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and Acacia Park Cemetery for your help in arranging the events scheduled for next week (please see the obituary below for details). Thanks also to everyone who has expressed their condolences and reached out to our family in this time of grief.

Love you, dad. ❤️

Obituary from Mueller-Bies and photo gallery after the jump.

Michael Alvin Kingsbury. September 7, 1946 – February 10, 2020. Age 73, of St. Paul, died on February 10, 2020. Preceded in death by wife, Karen; parents, Alvin & Evalyn; & brother, John. Survived by children, David (Colleen), Brian (Patti), & Lynn; grandchildren, Sasha & Marisa; siblings, Charles, Caroline (Robert) Anfinson & Richard. Mike retired from New York Life. He loved the Twins, the North Shore, Disney, bowling & video poker. His smile & laugh will be missed. Memorial service 11 AM Friday, February 21 at GLORIA DEI LUTHERAN CHURCH, 700 Snelling Ave. S., St. Paul. Visitation 4-7 PM Thursday 2/20 at MUELLER-BIES FUNERAL HOME-ROSEVILLE, 2130 N. Dale St. @ County Rd. B and also at church on Friday from 10-11 AM. Interment Acacia Park Cemetery.

Published in the Pioneer Press on February 16, 2020

Getting all my old person stuff done now

Back at St. Joe’s (again)

Happy birthday to me ❄️

The Smith Family December Curse has now carried over to the Kane side, as Colleen’s mom Jean passed away on December 30. Add this to my uncle Greg last year, my mom Karen in 2017, my grandfather Donald in 2013 and my grandmother Helen in 2007. January may be cold, but it’s nice to be done with another December.

Grandma Jean had Huntington’s disease, a genetic degenerative neurological disorder that she fought valiantly for many years. Unfortunately, there is no cure and her symptoms eventually forced her out of the house where Colleen grew up in the Midway area of Saint Paul. She moved to assisted care living last summer and had a nice corner room with a view at Sunrise of Roseville.

Jean was a Christmas Eve baby, so we always celebrated her birthday along with the Kane Christmas on the 24th. This year we were fortunate to have Colleen’s brother Dan pick up Jean from Sunrise and bring her over to his house in Oakdale for dinner and cake. She had caught a bit of the flu earlier in the month, but was doing better on her birthday. Thankfully, Colleen and Dan both got to talk to her on the phone earlier on the day she passed, which by all signs was peaceful and without pain.

Thank you to everyone at Mueller-Bies Funeral Home, Saint Columba Catholic Church and Oakland Cemetery for your help in arranging the events of the last two days. Even though funerals are difficult emotionally, it was wonderful to see the outpouring of love and support from family and friends – many of whom we only see at events like this.

❤️

Obituary from Mueller-Bies and photo gallery after the jump.

Jean Carol Kane. Age 75, of St. Paul. Beloved Mom and Grandma Passed away December 30, 2019, after battling Huntington’s Disease for six years. Preceded in death by loving husband, James T. Kane; and parents, Francis and Esther Reith. Survived by children, Colleen (David) Kingsbury and Daniel (Alicia) Kane; grandchildren, Sasha and Marisa; siblings, Mary Ann (William) Pozarski and Frank (Jean) Reith; other family and many dear friends and neighbors. Jean loved talking with her friends and family, crossword puzzles, and watching Channel 2. She was loved so much and will be dearly missed. Mass of Christian Burial 11 AM Monday, January 6 at THE CHURCH OF ST. COLUMBA, 1327 Lafond Ave, St. Paul. Interment Oakland Cemetery. Visitation 1-4 PM Sunday at MUELLER-BIES FUNERAL HOME-ROSEVILLE, 2130 N Dale St at Co Rd B, and at the church from 10-11 AM Monday. MUELLER-BIES 651-487-2550
Published in Pioneer Press from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, 2020

It will last a lifetime

As Minnesota awaits the first big snowfall of the season, it seems like a good time to ponder:

• Never had them before, but really ready for the nosebleeds to stop (it’s been 1-2 times daily for 12 days now).
• This website was running slow for a bit and it seems that it was due to a memory leak in ARDagent, of all things.
• End of the year free time goal: mobile-friendly theme programming.
• Got our first 16-inch MacBook Pro in the office today: keyboard is nice and the speakers are unbelievable.
• Baby Yoda and the Mando character are worth getting Disney+ all by themselves.
• Today I paid off my last ultra-high interest rate credit card from the old days (and it feels great).
• I’ve stayed away from casinos for a long time, but that all changes for Black Friday Bingo.
• Speaking of Black Friday sales, kid one will be upgrading her phone this weekend (getting a red iPhone 11).
• My dad had thyroid cancer surgery at St. John’s hospital and was transferred to Bethesda before having breathing issues. He’s now been in the ICU at St. Joe’s hospital for two weeks and we can’t wait to get him back home.
• My mother-in-law’s house has been cleaned out and will hopefully be listed for sale this week.
• I haven’t run or biked in nearly two months and I’m pretty OK with that, to be honest.
• Plan to start weight training over the winter, but I need some PT on my right rotator cuff (12/3).
• Still have the +8 prism lens, but I’ve been spending more time without glasses (and visit the eye doctor again 12/24).
• Hoping to get back to skiing this season: Banff/Lake Louise, Lutsen, Afton, Welch and maybe Colorado.
• Get to shadow a game at Soldier Field next month in Chicago (vs. Dallas on TNF).
• The new Star Wars Card Trader app update is nice, but I still can’t figure out how to trade the way I used to.
• Perfect stars in Two Dots might be my greatest gaming accomplishment ever – love that game.
• Both kids doing great in school: kid one at Metro State and kid two at St. Paul College.
• They are also learning a lot at Nive Man University (aka Saint Dinette).
• Wilco was great at the Palace and I have three more shows in the next week (POLIÇA, Lydia Liza and Dead Man Winter).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good thing they didn’t give me one of those boards

Aging sucks

I’m not sure there is a better place in the entire world to reflect on life than in a boat on Lake Vermilion…

It was a year ago today when a blood vessel in my head decided it had enough, resulting in a ruptured aneurysm and subarachnoid hemorrhaging on the train platform outside U.S. Bank Stadium. It was a humbling experience to see the outpouring of love and support from my family and friends throughout my recovery and I will be forever thankful to the good Samaritan in the pickup truck, the first responders that treated me on the platform and the entire staff at Hennepin Healthcare for extending my time on this little planet we call home.

Health-wise, things are almost back to normal. I’m still wearing glasses with a 3M Prism lens on the left side to correct the remaining double vision. The strength of the lens has dropped from +30 to +8 during the past 11 months and the hope is still that I eventually won’t need them at all. I can read most screens without glasses, but the “bilateral 6th nerve palsy” and resulting diplopia at further distances is really the only major remaining issue from October 8, 2018. I’ve been off all of the additional medications from my time in the ICU for a while now and have returned to most physical activities with no issues. In fact, my bike mileage in 2019 sits at 1,058 miles and I’ve played 21 rounds of golf (both of which are a little more challenging with glasses).

I won’t lie, walking past that spot nearly every day is unsettling. It can feel frustrating to not be 100% yet with my vision. And all that weight I lost in the hospital came back with a vengeance. But I am so thankful for having access to high-quality healthcare that didn’t bankrupt our family. This full year of bonus time had some amazing memories: an extra special Thanksgiving with family, the NCAA Final Four, MK’s graduation, Las Vegas with SK, lake visits to Vermilion and Superior, Rib Fest, Summer X Games, another epic State Fair, a quick day trip to Los Angeles, the Saints championship season, more Vikings football and lots of concerts and restaurants. Life at fifty has been good.

So where to from here? I’ll be seeing my eye doctor again soon and I need to get back to my “regular” doctor to start all of the normal old guy things that need to be tested and monitored. Colleen and I head to Maui later this month to check off the second milestone birthday trip that was postponed due to the incident. Hopefully we’ll get the third and final trip scheduled for January. This week I’ll find out about the 2020 London Marathon ballot, which would immediately kick-start a return to running. Quick trip next week to Milwaukee to visit the Buck’s new arena. After the Vikings-Eagles game this weekend, the football season will already be half over. And you know what Steve Miller said about flying eagles…

This artwork is so great

If you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror…

Is it, punk?

Surprise visit from the SK (and my closet needs a cleaning)

Hide yourself until dawn…

Nothing else quite like it

She was truly one in a million – sincere condolences to Paul and the family

Construction season is everywhere

So proud of our graduate

Who let the guy with the TBI win?

Add in Star Wars and it was a great time to be a nerdy kid

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/twincities/obituary.aspx?n=gregory-alan-smith&pid=192923075

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry…

Still haven’t figured out this whole grieving thing

Some stuff from a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon in Minnesota:

• I feel like generational labels like Gen X and Millennial are a lazy way to stereotype, blame and criticize groups of people that would never be allowed based on traits other than birth year.
• On a related note, publications and organizations that use “X Under X” awards are really just ageist money grabs for additional advertising revenue.
• We really enjoyed BlacKkKlansman – MK couldn’t believe some people are actually like that in real life.
• Wasn’t sure the Falvey/Levine/Baldelli regime with the Twins would ever take hold, but wow, what a start to the season.
• Thought we’d be empty-nesters soon, but I’m starting to think you never really get to be empty-nesters.
• Looks like the WordPress 5.2 update might be secretly breaking things behind the scenes for some websites.
• The Black Course at Bethpage does appear to be Extremely Difficult.

Vegas next week – prepare for a wave of food and gaming pics here soon…

In honor of Ride To Work Day, I passed 300 miles for the month (and can’t feel my fingertips)

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-night-the-lights-went-out-1834298070

It’s been quite an off-season

Mom at Disneyland

The way it goes is this: your mom has you, and then you have her. And even when she’s gone, you still have her. Magic. Have a happy day…

As promised, a quick health update from the halls of Hennepin Healthcare. I’m still wearing my prism glasses to treat double vision, but ophthalmologist Dr. Amy Chang is happy with the progress so far. She has reduced the strength of the lens twice now and said I can stop bi-weekly occupational therapy after my next appointment later this week. The hope is still to get to no glasses by October, but surgical options remain available if it takes longer than that. I can read my phone without them now and my left eye is really good at seeing far away, while my right is better close up. This has been mildly annoying, but my first attempt at golf while wearing glasses went much better than expected.

Last week’s big news was a successful third cerebral angioplasty to assess the stent and arteries in my head. The procedure had more risk than I realized before getting there (about a 1% chance of the catheter breaking something loose that would cause a stroke), but vascular neurosurgeon Dr. Adam Khan calmly explained everything before I signed the release form. It really amazes me that they can run a tube up the 8mm-wide artery in my leg, past my heart, up to my brain, inject contrast and take an x-ray of the blood vessels in my head. Science, for the win!

With the stent looking good and no signs of other aneurysms, they took me off the blood thinner. Neurologist Dr. Ann Hoang-Tienor has been managing my seizure care, which consists of anti-seizure medication and a review of activities that may be dangerous. At our last appointment, the doctor reduced my dosage a second time (with a goal of eliminating it altogether). She also gave the green light to all outside activities (with the exception of swimming alone), so I purchased a new bike helmet and ordered a new bike that will hopefully arrive in time for the bike challenge at work. Still haven’t returned to any alcohol yet, but she said it would be OK to take it slow and see how my head reacts. I’ve never been a big drinker, but these six months have really revealed what a huge part alcohol plays in fine dining and in many social situations.

Continued thanks to the staff at Hennepin Healthcare and everyone out there who has supported my recovery (and our family).

The 2019 Get in Gear 10K was to be my first race since the TC 10 Mile (and all the fun stuff that happened after that). It was the only thing I had registered for all year and race organizers had reached out to all runners who had done the race for more than ten years in a row (I had a 17-year streak going and had run it one other time too). Unfortunately, my rock star neurosurgeon had other plans and scheduled me for a third angioplasty two days before the race (more on that coming soon in another post).

Regardless of my surgical state, I decided to visit Minnehaha Park on Friday during my lunch break to pick up my number and shirt (I paid for it, right?). I felt pretty good on Saturday morning, so I decided to give it a go (nobody said anything about no walking). The changes to the 5K and half marathon races made for an interesting morning. The half marathoners start at the same time as the 10K runners and their course now goes north to Gold Medal Park in downtown Minneapolis before looping back to reconnect with the 10K finish. The 5K runners started 20 minutes after everyone else, then turned around near Minnehaha Academy. So most of my walk was fairly peaceful and laid back, but it was fun to have the rush of the 5K runners passing me towards the beginning and the half marathoners dashing by at the end.

It was somewhat humbling to be last in my age group for the first time, but as my wife pointed out, it’s likely I was the only one in that group with a brain injury in the last six months. To be honest, I was quite pleased to be under two hours walking (my official chip time of 1:34:47 was good for a 15:16 Minute Mile). Looking back at all my Get in Gear races, my 10K PR would still have only placed 16th in 2019, so major props to the old guys that can run at a sub-six pace.

Registration for the 2020 Get in Gear opens tomorrow and the annual bike challenge starts on Wednesday. Let summer begin!

Part I – protect the brain

Growing up, there were two things we never talked about: politics and religion. I’ll leave the latter for another day, but the former is something that I’ve really come to dislike as I’ve grown older. I mean, politics are everywhere, of course, whether it be at work, in the news or at a family gathering. But as far as traditional Republicans versus Democrats, right versus left and conservative versus liberal, I’ve had just about all I can take. I’ve never been a fan of political parties – why can’t all elections be like those for mayor, school board or judge? I don’t need to see an “R” or “D” behind your name – tell me your qualifications, what your positions are and how you came to those conclusions. Party platforms are an intellectual cop-out, in my opinion.

We all form our key values as we mature and I find it interesting how these can change over time (and how they are shaped by our individual experiences and environments). I’ve always held the Golden Rule in high esteem and try to follow the “Thumper Rule” online (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”). Some of my other favorites?

• Love and kindness
• Knowledge, expertise and dedication
• Fairness and equality
• Civility and respect

Closely related to these values are other things important to me: family and friends, culture, education, science, history, nature, fitness, sportsmanship, fine food, live music, good writing, silence. I used to think that I hated rules (especially those seemingly arbitrary ones created by “the man”), but really I just hate dumb rules (i.e. – this).

Shot 91 from the whites, Ridges at Sand Creek, Jordan, Minnesota