couple things

Friday night, Kassie and I went to a "before party" at the Healy House. That place is crazy. It reminded me, on a much smaller scale, of the Winchester House in San Jose. The interior has been reworked a lot, and it's kind of a big, strange puzzle. The HH is just on the other side of 35W from us. I've long admired those houses- at least the ones that have been renovated. We got there at about the same time as the Bungalow '23 folks. We chatted with them all evening. I think there were some MNspeakers around, but we only said hello to Max, as he's the only one we recognized.

We went to Art Attack yesterday. Whether we're at the Northrup King Building for Art Attack or Art-a-Whirl, we always stop in to say hello to Karen. Dean wasn't around... One of our favorite artists in that building is a guy named eddie. Yesterday, the temptation was too much for us and we made a purchase.

I really like it.

uptown art fair

I'm going to the Uptown Art Fair this weekend. I always kind of enjoy the crowd. I like art, even if I can't afford it, and I haven't been able to go for a couple years. I decided to check out the program to see if Tim the Iowegian was making the trip this year. He's not. But as I looked through the program, I was struck by the inclusion of the following article. I assume it was deemed necessary based on conversations and comments made in the past. Wow. I know the Uptown Art Fair draws a lot of people who may be more interested in the spectacle than the art itself, but I really have a hard time imagining anyone saying some of these things to an artist.

the last few days

Kassie and I went to Art-A-Whirl this afternoon. As usual, we went to the Northrup King Building and saw a bunch of art that we'd love to take home with us, but can't afford to. Also, as usual, we stopped in to see Karen and Dean.

We also ran into Emily, who came to our wedding and local man-about-town and Bottle Gangster Max Sparber.

I had a pretty decent day on the 21 yesterday.

The weather looked promising when I woke up. The forecast said 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms. It rained ten minutes after I got in the bus. Excellent. That would keep traffic to a minimum and little old ladies in their houses.

Alas, it was not to be. The clouds cleared up, the sun came out and it was a lovely day. The traffic and the little old ladies came out in force.

It was so nice that the Minneapolis cops and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents thought it would be a good day for a raid. That was quite the circus for a while. It slowed me way down on one westbound trip.

I picked up a guy on Friday morning and almost immediately experienced déjà vu. Maybe it's because he told stories about grabbing a cop's gun and stopping a jewel thief at Dayton's, how a shelter bus arrived at a fire scene before the fire department did, and how bad the Scientologists are. It was the same conversation I'd had with him a few months ago.

But this time, he had someone else to talk to. After someone briefly mentioned the weather forecast, the woman with whom he was speaking pointed out that no one can control the weather! Only God can! AND GOD IS GOD! And Barnes and Noble is owned by Satanists.

Later that day, a lady got on my 23 at the Uptown Station. She wondered if I knew how to get to the intersection of Edgcumbe and Randolph. I didn't. I knew it was somewhere in St. Paul. I travel on Edgcumbe on the 46 line, but I had no idea where Randolph is. She told me she had to get to a wedding there and that she was late. But she knew she could walk a few blocks from where I went. So I called Control. As soon as I got them on the line, she pulled out a map! Um, that would have been helpful. Control gave me instructions for her to catch two more buses. The second would take her right to where she needed to be. I looked at her map, trying to figure out how she was supposed to go, which corner she would catch the buses on, etc. Then she pulled out a notebook on which she had written instructions from Transit Information! Um, it also might have been nice to see that right away! Unfortunately, the instructions she had received earlier were not the same as the ones I had just gotten. Then she started talking about catching a cab. She asked me what I thought she should do. When we got to my terminal in Highland Village, I called Transit Information. I talked to our neighbor Josh and he was extremely helpful with the information regarding where the bus stops would be, etc. I walked her across the street and between the two of us, we got her on her way. I hope she made it in time for the pre-wedding cocktails (?), although I'm not really sure she needed anything that would help her think less clearly...