Last night I had a strange dream that the leaves falling off the trees in my yard were actually words. When I gathered them up they seemed to make an indecipherable mound of text, but when I allowed myself to fall into the crunchy sentences,
it all made a surprising amount of sense. In the spirit of autumnal thought collection and the pleasures of diving into a seemingly random word-pile, today’s guest post comes from that master raker of notions, the one-and-only tim.
Photo credit: HD Leader.
the trick to it is not to believe that you have any idea where you are going. the times i get into trouble is when i think I know something. i really do much better when i am aware that i am lost. my thinking brain goes to sleep on a regular basis and the difference between me in a new surroundings vs me at the kitchen table is night and day.it is not only perception, it is fact that the stuff that comes out of my brain in a comfortable setting is not nearly as creative as the stuff when i am looking at the surroundings and soaking in the environment at the same time as i am trying to function. i do love my rituals. the morning bath with the blog in front of me is much preferred start to my day vs the wake up grab a tea and hit the road for an early morning meeting on my way to stop 1 2 3 and 4 before the dust clears. but i am not convinced that comfort is the best mode to exist in. i am often times jealous when I see a person who takes no chances and knows how everything is going to come out in every situation they run into or put themselves in a position to deal with but I know for certain I can not be that person. I cant sit in a chair and enjoy the scenery or a thought for no more than a short stint before i start twitching and needing to find a different angle on my presence. computers are a blessing and a curse. i remember when i started on my computer side of life and i was reading about peter or paul of peter paul and mary and he was saying that he would get on the computer after dinner and get involved in a conversation with someone in a chat room and the evening go by unnoticed and by the time he looked up it was 4 am and he was cranked up and had a hard time getting to sleep. i am little bit that way although i don’t go to chat rooms. (yet) i do get on the computer and one step leads to the next and before you know it i am studying sleeping bags and the differences between down filled bags and the new space age materials. oh yeah space age… what was the date of the explosion that killed the school teacher and I wonder what henry bien is doing who I met that day and came back from lunch to discover the tragedy that had occurred as we walked back in to the land of cubicles….cubicles… oh yeah, dilbert cartoon receptacles. and before I know it i am so far away from the trip to the boundary waters I was contemplating i am looking up henry bien to see if he is still in texas where he was last time i saw him 10 years ago. not likely he moved around a lot. how do people who move around a lot do it? make friends, make a life, find the assets of the area and start over one more time. where would i like to visit for an extended stretch? iireland? new orleans? mexico? new zealand? wouldn’t it be cool to be able to just go? what would it take to make that happen today? and it goes on and on and on…. i used to have trouble reading a book because i would realize as i looked at the page in front of me that i had no idea when i tuned out but i had never seen or registered any of the words on this page before. i could go back 2 or 3 pages and still not recognize anything. i had been on a day trip while my trained eyes went from line to line and turned the page as we progress through the story in the book i am holding. i wonder sometimes if dementia is a ride that takes you away from the thoughts you are trying to get to or if it just is an out of control hodge podge that makes no sense to the victim as well as the helpless onlookers who get to deal with it.
is getting sidetracked a blessing or a curse?
Trail Baboon 
thanks for the wonderful intro dale. a marvelous way to introducr my writing style. a hodge podge of words falling into a pile that when raked up in various pile form paragraphs…sort of…
off to daughters first basketball tournament of the year, other daughters last writing class of the semester at open book and on to getting mombo moved into the new housing set up moving 5000 feet of accumulations into 1000 sq ft. . it will take today and tomorrow to make a dent. speaking of dents, bucky dent played in the world series and how bout them st louis cardinals, game 6 was unbelievable. the power of keepin on, get to it here in the dying hours of october. october what a month. the month to get ready for transition. ready gng. here we go……………..
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Game 7 was a bit of a yawner compared to game 6, I thought.
Good luck with Project Mom.
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yes it was but after listening to the announcers talk about how the rangers had already seen carpenter a coule of times and he was doing nothing sprcial in the top of the first it was nice to see him shut them up. i was hoping for texas to take it and let their coach bask in a little glory. its rooting for the same team as dubya but i do like the team.
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We’ll play little Tom Waits for Ron Washington
Well, God bless your crooked little heart
St. Louis got the best of me…
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“Mom, Dale made a title sequence!”
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I must be the only Phineas and Ferb fan on here.
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At this point in our lives, we just sit and wait to get sidetracked, except that would imply a main track in our lives, which, if there is one is just waiting for the sidetrack. Thus the sidetrack is our main track.
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I know what you mean, we were just talking about that.
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that makes too much sense. here is to finding interesting sidetracks.
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I think I may have just found a major sidetrack.
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these Bing commercials remind me of tim
trying to embed
really fun stuff, tim – thanks!
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That’s funny!
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dang
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Good morning to all,
As some of you might have noticed, I tend to leave words out of some of my sentences. I get wrapped up in thinking about what I want to say and fail to type in words needed to make complete sentences. When I try to proof read my writing my mind keeps jumping over the errors and I don’t find all of them. Is this the same as getting side tracked? Maybe not exactly. Maybe I am just kind of scatter brained when it comes to writing. I guess being scatter brained is sort of like getting side tracked. I am tempted to use tim ‘s let it fly writing style where a few errors aren’t important. I do like tim’s style. However, I am trying to improve my skill at writing so I think I will keep trying to find my errors and get them corrected.
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Jim, I think the leaving out of words is a result of thinking a lot faster than you type, I do it too. Most often you can figure out what was intended, unless of course the omitted word is a “don’t” or a “not” in which case you’d understand the opposite of what was intended.
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nobody can proofread their own writing…it’s because you know what you are trying to say so your eyes just don’t see any missing words or misspellings, etc. the only way i can proofread my writing even a little is to let it sit for a good long while and then look at it with fresh eyes. then i can see mistakes (some of them anyway) and also i can change things to make it say what i want to say better than i did at first try.
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Nice intro, Dale; fun topic and good job, tim. Getting sidetracked is a bit of a mixed blessing, I think. There are times when it’s fun to go with the flow, other times that lack of concentration or focus gets in the way of accomplishing what I’ve set out to do. Obviously, everyone on the baboon trail has a great deal of fun traipsing down the sidetracks that invariably pop up on the blog.
tim, I can related to reading pages of a book only to discover that my brain has not been engaged in reading and I have no idea what I’ve just read! While that’s annoying if I’m reading for pleasure, it’s a nuisance if it is work or related, and it’s a real pain in the posterior if you’re cramming for an exam.
Dale, I watched the link from to yours and Tom’s presentation at St. Olaf, what fun. Made me miss the good old days. I had forgotten the April 1st off the air episode, made me laugh out loud.
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Getting sidetracked is the best way to travel. When on vacation, I avoid reservations ands agendas. You end up in the most interesting places if you have the freedom to just say oooooh, THAT looks interesting and turn off or stop.
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I wouldn’t usually feel free to completely avoid reservations and agendas because I think the kinds of trips I often take require this kind of planning. For example, some vacation locations, including big cities and well know tourtist areas, may have all of the good places to stay reserved and you would be out of luck if you didn’t make advanced reservations. I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to some locations without booking a room in advance.
I think you can find a lot of good things to do or see on a trip without an agenda. I usually do some agenda planning because I like reading travel books and I will probably end up seeing more of what I would like to see if I check a place out in advance. I’m not good at doing planning so there will be plenty of room for getting sidetracked and I also
find interesting things that way.
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It once took me a full day to make it 30 miles down the road in Montana… but the side ventures along the way made for the best travel day ever!
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Yep, that’s why I prefer car trips if time allows…
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Being a somewhat rule-bound and linear person, getting sidetracked while traveling is pretty uncomfortable for me. I am not patient and that only makes it worse. I wish I could allow myself to get sidetracked more often.
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I hate being sidetracked that way when it happens at work. Otherwise I love it! I don’t care what they say about google and my short little attention span! Nice intro, Dale. Great topic, tim! Lots of fun.
I enjoyed the KSTO thing. It was a trip down memory lane. It sidetracked me for part of the morning. Glad it didn’t happen when I was at work because I laughed and cried again – just like the old days! Thanks Dale.
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I am not sure everyone knows that they can now look at the video of Dale and Tom Kieth at St Olaf by going back and clicking the right place on the blog a few days ago when Dale told us the show from KSTO would be streamed live. I did it and really enjoyed it.
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I enjoyed it as well… thanks for sharing with us, Dale!
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Thanks for the kind words about the KSTO event. It was a treat to get the invitation and a stroke of luck that Mr. Keith was available to come along for the ride. We had fun with the people in the audience who are in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s – long-time listeners all. And some of the St. Olaf students were nostalgic too – they had been “forced” to listen to the Morning Show as small children and we were a reminder of those early days – like finding a favorite binkie in the corner of a closet!
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I think we are all aware of your great skill, Dale, at writing and reaching out to the public. Mr. Kieth is someone that is very well know to all who followed The Morning Show, but someone who never told us much about himself. Seeing him explain his work and give a little background information was very nice. He obviously takes a lot of pride in the skill he has at what he does and seemed to be happy to show it off and talk about it under what seemed to be a good setting for drawing him out. I think the combined efforts of you, Dale, and Tom Kieth produced a show that was one of the very best of it’s kind..
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I’m sure that Gus must have had a lot to do with making the arrangments for giving us another change see Dale and Jim Ed in action. Many thanks to you, Gus, for making those arrangments.
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Very well said, Jim.
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Well, I got side-tracked by Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and now I don’t have time to finish this! Later, Baboons…
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I have entire days at work that start in place A and get me sidetracked through the entire alphabet by noon…my little team at work refers to these as “squirrel” days (as in the dogs from the movie “Up” who are so easily distra…..squirrel!). Sometimes this gets me through a bunch of stuff I need to do, and sometimes I just wind up feeling tired. When this happens at home, I often wind up at the end of the day with a bunch of stuff done except that one thing I have been forgetting to do for the last week.
Getting sidetracked while traveling – well, sometimes that’s been the way I have done entire trips. I usually need a home base to work from (hotel, B&B, whatever), but once I leave home base, I can wander all day without an agenda (maybe a vague sense of “let’s get there sometime today”). I have a friend who I make occasional road trips with, and one of our “rules” is that if there is a historical marker, we must stop and read it; this often leads to additional side trips and sometimes some serendipitous finds (and memorable moments like the tear-inducing giggles we got when we realized both of us were staring at the totally hot Amish guy in the buggy who probably noticed we were staring and grinned and waved at us…and was it sacrilegious for us to think he was fabulously good looking…and we are grown women and should not be acting like teenagers…but he was hotter than Brad Pitt and…oh dear…).
Both BBC and my other book club, however, would be sadly lacking if we stayed on task the whole meeting time. It’s all about being side tracked and that’s the fun. And were we supposed to talk about a book? Weren’t we just talking about Louis Armstrong?…
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http://www.stolaf.edu/multimedia/play/?e=633
dale and jim ed at st olaf
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thanks, tim – i was just going to ask where i could find. unfortunately, our Wild Blue just feels slow today and won’t play it for me right now. i’ll try again, for sure!
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got to watch the whole hour waiting for my daughter at writing class. what a treat. dale we need to talk.
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thanks, tim. i don’t have time to watch it tonight, but i will as soon as i can.
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When I was younger, the main track was the money-making track, and it felt hazardous to stray too far from it because there was constant pressure to make a living wage. But that train doesn’t run any more. Now all tracks are sidetracks, all interconnected like spider webs linked three-dimensionally, and it is easier to wander those brachiating threads than to try to blast a path in a straight line. The trip diminishes in value while the scenery assumes primacy. It was once a temptation to dither, but now dithering is the whole point. And all these connections are connected to other connections to form something like the universe: infinite and endlessly inventive. We cannot distinguish between tracks and sidetracks (and maybe it was only an illusion when we thought we could). When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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nice stream. nice way to go trough life. enjoy
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WWWWOT – but Steve iSP said “fork” and that means eating and that takes me to the menu for dinner on sunday afternoon when we are having some of Steve’s cronies from UMD out to the farm. i think they always feel sorry for him – stuck out here. wanted to impress them, so i decided that there would be something made from our Girls’ creamy milk in every single course. so.
appetizers: fresh chevre with olive tapanade and apple-wood-smoked scamorza with crackers and baguette.
entree: turkey lasagna (they don’t eat red meat or it would be cabrito lasagna) this is a “Barefoot Contessa” recipe but made with our mozzarella, chevre, ricotta, and grated cauliflower cheese (instead of parmesan – only VS knows what that is)
dessert: frozen coffee goats’ milk yogurt with cajeta and chevre chocolate truffles.
if i were 20 years younger, we would have monthly dinners (like they have at Harley Farms, Clyde) that would cost an arm and leg, ha, ha.
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biB, that sounds fabulous.
While we’re on the topic of food, sometime back someone mentioned that there are no Scandinavian smorgasbords in the Twin cities. Well, IKEA is having a one, a one day only affair with two seatings, both of which usually sell out way ahead of time. The Julbord is on Friday, December 9th with the first seating from 5-6:30 P.M., the second seating from 7 -8:30 P.M. Some of the menu items are:
Assorted herring
Gravad lax with mustard sauce
Smoked salmon with Horseradish sauce
Whole poached salmon
Hard cooked eggs with shrimp
Swedish cucumber salad
Red Beet salad
Swedish potato salad
Christmas ham
Liverwurst pate
Assorted cheeses
Meatballs and Lingonberries
Prinskorv Sausage
Red Cabbage
Boiled potatoes with Dill
GRATANG Jansson
Assorted dinner rolls
Assorted desserts
Assorted beverages
Much more
Tickets are $9.99 for adults, $2.49 for kids 12 and under
Don’t know if this is of interest to anyone, but husband and I plan to go, probably to the 7 P.M. seating.
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wow – and way cheaper than Harley Farms – $150 per person and bring your own wine.
i bet some of that cheese is gjetost.
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I’ve been to this a couple of times – they have one in December and one around Easter time. My sister organizes our family for it and gets tickets – usually first seating. Gratäng Jansson, in case anyone was wondering, is a potato dish with a creamy sauce (like a béchamel sauce) and anchovies. You can’t really taste the anchovies, though. Maybe just barely. My favorite.
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I think it is called Jansson’s Temptation in English
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Linda, I know that dish as Jonssons Frestelse (jonsson’s temptation), and I agree, it’s delicious.
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You say Jonsson’s, I say Jansson’s….let’s call the whole thing off.
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You need their dining room, too. And the ocean nearby.
But I will; sneak in the back door for your meal.
My son did inquire about the Harley Farms meal but decided it was just too pricey right now.
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i’d take that dining table any day, Clyde – put it out in the pasture and we’d dine under the stars. no ocean – would the pond do?
tim, could you make the Morning Show happen again? i almost never yearn for the good old days, but in that one case, i so do.
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I also so do.
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Linda, I wasn’t quibbling about Jansson versus Jonssons, I just wasn’t sure that what appears on IKEA’s menu as Gratang Janssons was the same thing as what I think of as Jønssons Frestelse. Glad to know that it is. By whatever name, I love it.
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Quibbling wasn’t my intention either, honest! I was just singing to myself. As I often do.
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Humming along with you, Linda!
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i wiould love to get me some of that
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Go Gophers!
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i woud have lost a dollar on that one
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I’ve been sidetracked all day… but I’m back now.
As to the blessing or curse question posed earlier (nicely written by the way, tim)… Doesn’t it make a difference which state of sidetrack we choose to live in at any given moment? There’s inability to sidetrack, willingness to sidetrack, and wallowing in sidetrack…. and they ALL have their time & place. The trick is to recognize that time & place. I DO know I wouldn’t feel entirely alive without some sidetracking in the mix. As quoted by John Lennon… “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” My fear, however, is that our society is becoming more & more consumed with being sidetracked… techie gadgets, multitasking, virtual worlds & relationships, constant “connection”… staying on a main track & seeing the big picture hardly seems to matter anymore. Okay, enough focusing for now. I’m off in search of another sidetrack!
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Well said, mn firefly! I’m having a day when I’m destined to sidetrack, and can’t seem to stay on topic long enough to answer the question. Must be willingness to sidetrack – I’m distracted right now by thinking about how to get to IKEA for that meal! Linda, are the tickets hard to come by. Maybe I should go to their website (another sidetrack).
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I think tickets are usually available if you order in advance. Just showing up at the store on the day of the feast is pretty iffy. Order early if you’re willing to commit.
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There is also a bar with wine and beer – not included in the ticket price, but reasonable, as I recall. I think the wine is four or five bucks for a generous pour.
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Thanks, looks like it’s really worth doing!
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Very often I get sidetracked while reading the blog and never get around to answering the question. That is probably a blessing, since it’s not really important that I answer the question, the point is to be in the conversation and there are other ways to do that. Side tracks are usually good tracks to follow. “Wallowing in sidetrack” has a certain appeal.
When I’m cooking, though, all it means is that I’ll be scraping something scorched off the bottom of the pan and that’s never good.
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When I get sidetracked while cooking, the result is usually a dish completely different than the one I envisioned at the get go (and not because I’ve scorched it!). I’ll set out cooking something Mexican and end up with something Indian because, on a whim, I’ll decide that coconut milk, cardamom and cilantro go really well with whatever other ingredients I had in mind. Thankfully, husband will eat almost anything so long as it’s not fish!
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I like this way of cooking – stay flexible!
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BiR, I’m fine with it for our daily dinner. It makes for one hell of a challenge when I’m trying to put together a menu for a dinner with guests.
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if you promise the guest mexican i can see a problem. the problem is you need to quit telling them about the preconceived mexican idea and let them bask in indian or whatever.
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hey to sidetack you, the 11 11 11 game board evening is semi in place, do we have any takers. also the folks at open book are having an open house with free food and drinks 4-6. andy interest in starting there (i can invite a few guets) andheading for board gaming from there? i also like the idea of having plainjane give us an intro at danish gameboard and soup night
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tim, and anyone else who is interested, here are the details about the next Danish soup and board-game night: Friday, November 11, 2011: 5:30 pm
Our first Hyggeaften of the season will be held on Friday, November 11. Come and enjoy a soup supper and dessert. After supper, we will play games. Bring your own game. Social hour at 5:30 pm, dinner at 6:00 pm. Cost is $7. Please call the DAC office for reservations at 612-729- 3800. The next Hyggeaften will be January 20, 2012.
Another sidetrack that may be of interest is a brunch, also at the Danish American Center. Here are the details about that:
Sunday, November 20, 2011: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Please join us for the next breakfast on Sunday, November 20, from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm. The cost is $8.50 per adult, $5.00 for children age 4-12, younger children free of charge. This year, the November breakfast will have a special menu: æbleskiver, medisterpølse (Danish sausage), egg, rugbrød (pumpernickel bread), fruit cup, juice and coffee.
We would love to have more volunteers to help serve or cook. In particular, we are looking for somebody that would be willing to learn how to mix the batter. Volunteering to help does not mean working every breakfast. Sometimes people are able to help with one during the year and some work at more. Every little bit helps… and it is a fun group of people to work with and serve! If you are interested or have any questions, call Lisa Jensen at 612-724-7705.
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I’m on board for atleast game board eve, and we’ll see about the Open Book part – may depend on whether Husband comes with me or not – he’d be interested in just the games, I think.
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I’m in. I could make it for the Open Book open house too – that sounds fun. I was there once when they first opened, but haven’t gotten back since then.
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Me too, either option sounds good to me.
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Anybaboon catch the Bing.com photo for today? It’s made just for us!
http://www.bing.com
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Excellent!
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nice
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I don’t like to be sidetracked when I’m trying to accomplish something, but my life seems to be one interruption or sidetrack after another – I think being the mother of 3 tends to make that happen. I guess sidetracks are different than interruptions but interruptions can lead to sidetracks.
Every once in a while, a sidetrack leads to something good. tim mentioned being sidetracked looking things up on the internet. I can’t remember what sidetrack led me to Baboon Trail, but I’m pretty sure I was “researching” something else and something I found led me to wonder “Whatever happened to the Morning Show and Dale & Jim Ed?” (I was a faithful listener then various things happened to make me able to listen less frequently and when it moved to the Current, I hardly ever listened anymore.) Then somehow I found Dale’s blog and with it a collection of delightful people.
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My personal definition of “Motherhood: the job where nothing you are doing is so important that it can’t be interrupted.” I realize there are probably other jobs that fit that description, however.
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Oh, and a corollary is Martin Mull’s quote (which I’m sure I’ve posted here before): “Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain.”
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Strike 🙂
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7-10 split here
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well, if the pins stand for accomplishing something, yes there were a lot of strikes over the years – knocking the pins all helter-skelter. but if a strike stands for accomplishing something, then there were so many gutter balls.
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Krista and Jim, and anyone else showing up tomorrow afternoon: what’s your preferred drinks
coffee decaf coffee, tea, a kind of pop? a kind of juice? etc.
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Coffee is fine for me, Clyde. Please don’t go to any trouble. Would you like us to bring something?
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A classic MN question to which I give the classic Mn answer:
nope.
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I’m also a coffee drinker and you also don’t need to go to any trouble to please me. I appreciate the opportunity to make visit you at your home.
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Actually, both Krista and Jim have given a classic Minnesotan answer worthy of being in a GK sketch… “Now don’t go to any trouble on my account…!” 😆
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We are where we live.
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