All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
2026, History, In Memorium, Music

The Edmund Fitzgerald

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Yesterday was the 51st anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Good grief, how can it have been that long?

The EF was commissioned in 1958 and was a taconite hauler from the northern Minnesota mines to various iron works in ports on the Great Lakes.  When she was launched, she was the largest ship on the Great Lakes and remains the largest to have sunk there as well.  She was carrying over 26,000 tons of taconite on that last voyage and she lies 530 below the surface — just 17 miles from Whitefish Bay, where she was headed.  Although life rafts were found deployed, no one survived.  Only one body was found on the wreck itself, no others have been discovered.

I found this interesting animation online:

Of course most of us remember the Edmund Fitzgerald because of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot.  I’m guessing that it’s cemented in many of our minds because it was a staple on the Late Great Morning Show.

He wrote it in early 1976, after having read about the tragedy after it happened.  Lightfoot was up for two Grammys, best song and best male pop vocal, but was beaten out by I Write the Songs and Stevie Wonder.  I’m pretty sure that all of us here on the Trail would have voted for one of our classics.  I still tear up when I hear it.  And then after I play it again, I usually put on The Mary Ellen Carter as well!

Any other good historical ballads that you like?

2026, animals, dreams, Family, home, Kids, Movies, Uncategorized

Jori!

58 Comments

Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard was published in 1945, the first of a trio of “Red” books.  At some point Walt Disney picked up the rights and the movie came out in 1962.  My folks always took me (and sometimes my sister) to the Disney movies and I was absolutely besotted by the big Irish Setter in the film.  I was six, so not quite up to reading the original book on my own, so my mom read it to me.  I read it again on my own a year or so later.  (This is not a rant about how Walt Disney completely re-wrote much of his source material; but suffice it to say it was my earliest lesson in how books and Hollywood weren’t always in sync.)

From the moment I watched that movie, Irish Setters have had my heart.  It took me eight years to convince my folks that we needed to add a red dog to our family and one of the first things I did as a young adult, in my first house, was get an Irish Setter of my own (Scarlett).  Other setters followed (Tristan, Rhiannon).

YA and I knew quickly after Guinevere passed that we needed a dog in the house; since I grew up in a two-dog household and usually had two dogs at a time as an adult, I knew it was time for two dogs.  And I knew that one of those dogs had to be red. 

I contacted the rescue organization that we had adopted Rhiannon from, filled out the paperwork and haunted the website.  We also searched other sites but Irish Setters are not a very popular breed – they got wildly overbred back in the Disney movie days.  They also aren’t the easiest dogs… very high energy and quite stubborn.  We also looked into puppies from breeders but the price tags were so very high; YA and I are also both committed rescue folks, so that avenue didn’t go anywhere.

Jori showed up on the Save Our Setters website on a Monday morning in early September.  It was so hard not to make a nuisance of myself throughout the process, and I’m not sure if I was successful.  Then came the call from the foster, who had the biggest say in who would be a good fit for Jori; we had a great talk; she said she had three other folks to interview and then I would hear back.  Three days of torture before I got THE call; Jori was ours.  I’m pretty sure I shrieked a bit on the phone.  There were some tears as well.

The foster (and Jori) were in Georgia but before I got myself too worked up about transport, it turned out the foster was going to an English Setter dog show in St. Louis the first week of November.  Driving to St. Louis and back was much more do-able than driving (or flying) to Georgia and back.  So that’s why last week I had a solo drive to Purina Farms on Tuesday and a dual drive home on Wednesday (the dog show was at the P.F. arena in Gray Summit). 

Jori is the name that YA and I gave her.  It’s short for Jorinda from an old Grimm’s fairy tale that I always loved as a kid: Jorinda and Jorindel.  Jori has been on my short list for dog names most of my life and now is the time.  Not YA’s first choice, but I overrode her objections.

She is settling in amazing well for a rescue – clearly feels at home and has taken over my bed already.  Freya thinks it’s wonderful to have a playmate – they tussle over toys, chase each other in the yard and wrestle in the house.  Jori loves everybody within the first minute of meeting them and at this point has no manners at all about letting you know.  She’s very very happy about the large variety of treats we have at the house.  So far she’s figured out “sit”, “come”, “uppie [for going upstairs].  She’s loves walking but pulls and because she’s huge for a female setter, she is quite strong.  We’re working on this but did I mention stubborn??

So that was the big Where in the World is VS mystery from last week. 

How have you picked out names for your pets?  Kids?

2026, animals, Fantasy, holidays, Kids, Media, Mysteries

Plague Doctor

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Halloween was kind of a bust here.  We only had 19 trick-or-treaters before I closed up shop at 8:30. And 3 of those were my little friends whose parents drove them over just to see me.  If they hadn’t come, it would have been 16.  A LOT of leftover candy… sadly we bought stuff that we like.

One of the things I like to do when kids come up to the house is guess what their costumes are.  Some are easy.  Spider girl.  Cowboy.  Ninja.  Cat.  But some were clearly off my radar; my knowledge of popular culture is just not up to snuff for Halloween.  One tween was all sparkled up with tuile and a jaunty hat; she told me she was Moulin Rouge.  I was thinking another was Barbie but turned out she was the American Girl Doll Courtney, complete with a small rollie case with the doll itself inside.

The one who took the cake was a kid, maybe 11 or 12.  I thought he was a monk… robe with rope as a belt, a few medallions, a long cross necklace.  Nope… he told me he was a plague doctor.  It took me by surprise and by the time I had the question “Where is your plague mask” come to my lips, the little group he was with had headed back the sidewalk where some parents were waiting.

Plague doctor?  Really?  I was dumbstruck.  Do kids know what a plague doctor was? Are plague doctors in popular culture these days.  Rabbit hole time.

Apparently plague doctors are alive and well among us:

  • The Plague Doctor from Vigil: The Longest Night. He’s a bad guy trying to resurrect an evil goddess.
  • The Doctor from Plague Road. This is a post-apocalyptic and ruined world game in which The Doctor explores and fights bad guys.
  • Plague Knight from Shovel Knight. Also a villain whose modus operandi is explosive alchemy potions.
  • The Leech from Wytchwood. Yet another sinister figure who injects diseases into his patients.
  • The Warden from The Serpent Road. This alchemist’s role is stopping a spreading infection with potion crafting.
  • Corbus from Thymesia. This character has survived the plague with an experimental treatment that leaves him with raven-like abilities.

This is just a handful and most of the games are in the dark fantasy genre.  Almost all of them wear the traditional bird-like mask (which I also discovered, were fashioned so that there were receptacles along each side of the long beak for perfumes and drugs).  I suppose that it’s easy to cast such a scary and suspicious-looking character into a bad guy in these games but it seems a little unfair to stain the service of all the doctors who tried to help with the plague despite the risks and the odds of not surviving themselves.

Any memorable costumes this year (or that you can remember from past years??

2026, animals, Fantasy, pets, TV

Lamb Chop Slayer

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Years ago, YA came home with the first of the Lamb Chop chew toys for Guinevere.  Guinevere was the Queen of Destruction when it came to stuffy toys.  She could disable and disembowel a squeaky toy in a matter of minutes and once it didn’t squeak, it was just a useless clump of foam to her.  I was extremely queasy about letting her have a Lamb Chop toy; it meant nothing to YA but I remember Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop from my childhood with affection. 

Seeing Lamb Chop murdered before my eyes was not something I was looking forward to.  To everyone’s surprise, Guinevere treated Lamb Chop almost with reverence, gently nibbing on it.  No ripping it’s guts out, no chewing it’s head off.  It was weirdly wonderful.  When the Lamb Chop toys went on sale, we bought ten of them.  Every Solstice she got a fresh one and when she passed, there were at least six of them still in service.

Freya has inherited all the Lamb Chops and so far, four of them have met their maker.  She is rabid about getting to the squeaker, but unlike Guinevere who would just disable the squeaker, Freya wants to eat the squeaker!  (Add this to a long list of things that Freya thinks she needs to chew/eat.)  So in addition to the awful mess that an expiring Lamb Chop makes, I am now the Official Director of “Watch-Freya-To-Make-Sure-She-Doesn’t-Eat-The-Squeaker”.  This means when she gets close (when she can get her whole snoot inside the toy), I have to take the toy and get the squeaker out myself.  So now I am the one pulling out the innards of a beloved childhood character.  From murder watch to pre-emptive murder itself.

Any childhood characters you think would make a good dog toy?  Or that you would prefer NOT to see chewed on?

100 Words, 2026, Mysteries, Travel

Where in the World is VS?

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VS is out of town today.

  • Founded in 1926 by William Danforth
  • Covers over 300 acres
  • As a working research campus, the first commercially produced dry dog food was developed here
  • The Visitor Center here has education exhibits, wagon rides, a hayloft play area and hands-on animal encounters with chicks, lambs, bunnies and cows (milking).
  • Dogs are welcome here if vaccinated, leashed and well-socialized.

Any thoughts about where she might be?

2026, Computers, Government, Kids, Uncategorized

Choices!

35 Comments

Voting on Election Day has always been my modus operandi – except, of course, during COVID.  That year YA and I drove downtown to drop off our ballots.  With YA’s travel and work schedule, she has used mail-in ballots more the last couple of years, including the upcoming election.  Although I’ve been trying not to let the internet shove my anxiety over the edge, I have seen quite a few exhortations online to not actually MAIL your mail-in ballot.  This led me to the Secretary of State website to find drop-off spots for ballots.  I even volunteered to drop it off for her.

That’s when I discovered all the early-voting options in Minneapolis, including a pop-up, one-day site just a few blocks from my house.  I have been absolutely slammed the last couple of weeks with appointments, meetings and projects, with no end in site for a bit to I decided to check it out.  Well, let me tell you, I wasn’t the only one!  It was hopping.  The little parking lot was full, people parking on the street all around the park building and so many people on the move.  I was a little worried that with this much activity, it would be a long wait.

But no.  The line moved really quickly and as I got closer to the gymnasium, I saw why.  There were at least 20 voting booths with another 10 or so sitting stations, 10 folks doing the check-in, 1 guy monitoring the check-in and he was notifying another gal who was directing voters when there was space.  Everything is on the computer now… remember those big books of print-outs that used to be needed?  History.  They were even printing out individual ballots.  2 ballot boxes.  So many volunteers.  This was easily 3 times larger of an operation than my normal polling place on election day.  It was amazing.

It took 20 minutes total, including the walk from my car to the park building and back and the additional form that I had to fill out to drop off YA’s ballot.  Done and dusted in 20 minutes.  I suppose I could have just waited, but it feels nice to have to have options and have it off my to-list.  Can’t ask for better than that!

Have you voted already?  Going tomorrow?  Mail-in or in-person?

2026, books, Mysteries, Stories, Uncategorized, Words

Connections

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Over the weekend I finished No Two Persons by Erica Baumeister.   It’s for my “other” book club.   The author refers to it as a connected collection of short stories, but it really didn’t feel that way.   Alice is the first character we meet – she is an author – and in the rest of the stories we meet those who read her book.  Even though it was clear that it wasn’t a novel in the traditional sense, it felt like much more involved than a random group of short stories.

Even towards the beginning it seemed that the various people in the book were connected in more ways than just being readers.  I was keeping track of them in my head and when I got finished, I realized I really wanted to see those connections on paper.  So I pulled out my markers and post-it notes and made a chart.  Nothing fancy, but it did the job.   The two smaller post-it notes are fairly minor characters but since they both touched more than one life in the book, they got added.  Miranda got two lines because she had a “give back” connection to Alice.  I can’t say more without it being a big old spoiler alert.

Language in the book was wonderful; I really felt like I got to know each of the main characters and what was motivating them.  None of the individuals felt stereotypical – Baumeister did a good job of making them real to me. 

It was a pretty quick read because I was really drawn in from the beginning and I’m recommending it highly.  5 stars.  Absolutely sure this will make the Top Ten list this year.

Do you like charts?  Have a favorite kind?  Pi charts?  Venn diagrams?  Bar charts?   Scatter charts?  Remember the last time you MADE a chart?

2026, Family, Food, home, pets

Who’s In Charge?

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Freya is extremely food motivated.  I’m pretty sure if I left a 40-pound bag of dog food open in the kitchen, she would eat until she popped.  She’s not eating me out of house and home, although I’m going to need a separate line on my budget for dog treats.  The good news is that combined with her smarts, it makes it very easy to work on training. 

Of course, I’m not sure who’s being trained.

Nimue is not all that food motivated.  If she feels like it, she’ll show up at meal time but sometimes she comes down later to partake.  She does have dry food out all the time so she’s certainly not going hungry.   She does have one exception; she loves her Friskies Party Treats.  If I shake the jar (I keep them on my bedstand), she comes right away. 

The treat parade started when Guinevere was young.  If her stomach went empty too long, she’d throw up bile – ick.  So I began giving her a couple of dog treats in the morning to tide her over an hour or so before breakfast.  This was when I started giving Nimue a couple of treats as well.  Took a few tries to find that she loves Friskies.  I’m not sure when the two of them convinced me that they should also get a few treats at bedtime.  7:30 p.m. to be specific. 

It took Freya about a day to realize that there were treats to be had when the kitty was getting her Yums.  It took her about another day to figure out that 7:30 was the magic hour each night.  So now, they are both presenting themselves at 7:30 for treats.  See the header photo for the “Gimme treats” eyes.  And they will both lie to me if necessary.  Last night I got home late with Freya from dog class and Nimue blatantly lied to me about getting her treats.  When I asked YA, she confirmed that she had given Nimue treats at 7:30 in my absence!

Clearly where treats are involved, I’m not in charge.  And I’m not highly motivated to change that.  Maybe I should get a treat at 7:30!

Do you have any nightly rituals (with or without pets)?

2026, Art, Baboon Achievers, Food, gardening, Gatherings

PJ

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PJ / Margaret brought something special to the Trail.  Wicked sense of humor, acerbic wit, thoughtful comments and great stories.  What a life she lived.  I thought we needed a full day to remember her.  Bill commented earlier that we all probably had our own special connection with her, so hopefully today, we can all share.  I have many memories but will just share a few that really stand out to me.  The rest will be up to you all.

The Garden Restoration.  When PJ got hit by a car and couldn’t do her spring gardening, it was amazing how many baboons came together on a Saturday to lend a hand.  Even Lisa showed up in her green cocktail dress (she didn’t garden in the dress).  Everybody picked a patch and went to work.  And, like magic, food showed up.  Amazing how that happens when baboons show up.  PJ sat on the patio and cheered us on.  She mentioned it to me more than once over the years; I know she was profoundly moved and grateful.

Paper Cutting.  Danish paper artist, Karen Bit Vejle brought her to show to the Swedish American Institute and the Twin Cities folks met for a field trip.  It was amazing to hear PJ translate some of the informational blurbs in all the Scandinavian languages – Danish, Swedish, Norwegian.  I don’t remember Finnish or Icelandic, but I’m pretty sure she could have handled those if they were there.  Amazing.

Don Panchos.  I delivered Ben’s farm fresh eggs to PJ several times and on our first egg visit, she clued me into a great Mexican bakery just a few blocks from her house – Don Panchos.  It got to be a ritual for me to stop there after every trip to take eggs. 

Advice.  PJ was a thoughtful woman and she gave me some excellent advice once about letting other people give of themselves without trying to make everything fair or even.  Wonderful advice that I think of often.

I could go on, but I’m going to let other baboons tell their stories.  Margaret, I already miss you terribly.

Tell me about your connection to PJ / Margaret.

2026, Automotive, Business, Family, Mysteries

Forwards / Backwards

23 Comments

When YA and I out together, I drive 99.9% of the time.  She likes to keep her car pristine which means driving it as little as possible; I get nervous being in the passenger seat when she drives.   So, me doing the driving is better for both of us.

Of course YA doesn’t think that being the passenger relieves her of the duty to backseat drive.  She wants to me move to another lane is the traffic is too slow for her.  She wants me to move back to the right lane sooner if our exit is coming up.  She wants to make sure I’m going at least the speed limit at all times.  She thinks I leave too much space between us and the car in front of us.  For those of you who have met YA, you know she is not shy about sharing my “failings” with me.  Ignoring her or “I am aware” are my usual modi operandi.

Parking is often an issue for her.  She is forever instructing me to back into parking spots so we can pull straight out when we leave.  Since I detest backing into parking spots (can’t even remember the last time I did), I always decline.  I’m pretty sure that the time it takes for me to back in is longer than the time to back out into the parking lot.  YA is adamant that it would save time.  I told her once that I didn’t want to stress myself out to do something would only save a nano-second.  She quickly replied that all those nano-seconds over a lifetime might add up.  Pretty fast thinking on her part but how would I ever know if it had added up?  I doubt on my deathbed and I’ll get a sign that I had 25 more minutes because of the times I backed in.

I was thinking of this last week when I was at the Dunkin drive-though very early.  The only three cars in the lot were parked in the very farthest corner from the building and all were backed in.  My first thought was that you must really be glad to be done with work if you need to roar out of your parking spot head-first at the end of your shift.  Made me laugh a little.  Second thought was that management “suggested” it to employees so that it would be clear that employees weren’t hogging the good customer spots.  This was the case in a few malls that I’ve worked at over the years.  Third thought was that it was a coincidence; you all know I’m not that great about coincidence.   But I’m not going to ask.

What about you?  Pull in or back in?  Any good parking stories?