Category Archives: Mysteries

2025, Automotive, Mysteries, Seasons

Redundancies

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The first car that I owned was a 1968 Datsun 510.  I bought it used when I lived in Northfield – in 1977 – for a whooping $400.  It had some rust but ran pretty well.  The owner wouldn’t sell it to me until we test drove it; I don’t think he believed I could drive a stick. 

Back then inexpensive cars didn’t do anything special for you.  No pings to tell you that you haven’t turned off the lights, no messages that your oil life is down to 15%, no back-up cameras, no seat warmers, and certainly no notifications that your tire air pressure is getting low.

Even though my current car is 11 years old, I bought it new from a dealership so I can still take it in when the air pressure light goes on, usually after the first cold snap of each fall/winter. They check the tires and fill any that are low.  No charge for this.  A couple of years ago, a new warning blinked at me, on a cold cold morning in January – a TPMS warning.  I looked it up in the manual and online – Tire Pressure Monitoring System.  Didn’t I already have that?

When I had the car’s check-up in April (right before I drove to Indy for the eclipse), I asked the mechanics to look at it – they said they took care of it.  Unfortunately, when the got cold in December, the light came back on.  I ignored it for a couple of weeks, it warmed up and the light turned off.  When I had the oil changed in January, I asked them to look at it again.  Turns out there are FOUR of these sensors and they not only go wonky fairly often but they run on batteries, so eventually the batteries run down.  They had fixed one of these sensors in April, but now there were two more sensors acting up.  The reality is that they are actually a built-in redundancy, a back-up to the main system, which works just fine.  If the light was bothering me, I could cough up $120 each to have them adjusted and get new batteries for them.  If I wait until the next time I need new tires, it will be a lot less.  So, since the warning isn’t even accurate, I decided to ignore it.  Then when it warmed up… the light went off again.  Sigh. 

Hopefully it won’t come on again until it gets really cold again.

Do you have any “back-ups”, just in case…….

100 Words, 2025, Business, Family, Mysteries

Postal Game

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It was bound to happen.  The postal tide has turned.

As a working young adult, YA now gets a chunk of mail.  Lots of credit card offers, lots of requests from charities. Stuff from her healthcare folks, catalogs for trendy clothes.  Very little useful stuff at all and almost all of it ends up in the trash.  But it occurred to me today when I was sorting our letters, all of which went into one pile for her, that she gets more mail than I do these days. 

Unfortunately the mail I do get is mostly the bills.

You get anything interesting in the mail these days? 

2025, Business, Family, Food, Mysteries

Coffee Break

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These days I rarely stop at coffee shops.  Mostly I’m just too cheap when I can make my own coffee or tea at home for a fraction of the cost.  But every couple of months, YA and I will make a stop at a Caribou if we are out and about.

In early days, when there was a Caribou two blocks from house, I will admit I was more of a regular.  But in keeping with my “like it cheaper” gene, I purchased myself a mug that I could use whenever I stopped by.  Saved a bit of money and saved yet another coffee cup in the trash.  Even though this mug is close to 25 years old, it’s in pristine shape – it doesn’t get used that often and I wash it by hand instead of throwing it in the dishwasher.  When we lost our little Caribou (first the big Lyndale closing and then the Minnehaha Creek bridge re-build), my use of my mug plummeted.

When I dragged it out to the car with me yesterday, it was probably the first time in a year that it had gotten any use.  The young man behind the counter was astonished to see it.  He picked it up, turned it around, looked at the bottom then called over co-workers to look at it.  The big draw turned out to be the logo, which apparently was “updated” back in 2010.  If you had asked me, I would not have been able to tell you what the new logo looks like:

Guess I’m just oblivious.  But it turned out OK… they were all so enamored of my antique mug that they gave me my decaf for free!

Do you have a favorite cup/mug for your coffee or tea?   

2025, books, History, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Antique Reads

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Lucy Worsley is a favorite historian of mine.  A couple of months ago I watched something about the history of murder mysteries in Britain.  It was interesting and, of course, it sent me down a rabbit hole. 

In addition to referencing quite a few early murder mysteries, she also mentioned the first few books in which women were featured as detectives.  I immediately went online to the library.  The very first woman detective was introduced by Andrew Forrester in 1864 in the very unoriginally titled The Female Detective.  I have that on hold but I was particularly drawn to Susan Hopely: The Adventures of a Maid-Servant by Catherine Crowe.  This was the first female “detective” authored by a woman. The Hennepin County system didn’t have it but I did find it listed on the InterLibrary Loan page.  I immediately requested it.

This began a two-month run around, having to do with the ILL system mis-referencing it and involving several emails between me and two different folks in the ILL department.  I had actually forgotten about it when with no notice, it showed up at my local library.  Later that night, when I opened it up (hoping to remember why I had asked for it in the first place), I discovered that the pages were REALLY old, despite a fairly new cover.  I spent some time looking at things on line and was fairly certain that these were pages from one of the original print run from 1842. 

It seemed too incredible that I had a 183-year old book in my hands, so I turned to the one person I know who knows about this kind of thing…. Our Bill!  He graciously allowed me to bring the book over and upon inspection he agreed that those pages were mostly likely from the first print run in 1842.  He then walked me through some of his book collection, showing me quite a few other books which were as old.  This made me feel a little bit better about carrying this book around and I didn’t drag it around with me to the gym or appointments.  When reading it at home, I was very very careful and when I returned it to the library after I’d finished it, instead of sending it down the automatic chute, I carried it inside and handed it delicately to a librarian to scan!

Do you have any fragile/delicate antiques?

2025, books, Mysteries, Words

Search Engine

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I drove down to the Eden Prairie library yesterday to pick up a copy of Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler for the next Blevins.  I’ve seen the Robert Montgomery movie but haven’t actually read the novel yet.

The library app showed it checked so I headed to the Mystery section.  There were a few Chandlers there but not Lady.  Next checked in Fiction; same deal.  Finally decided I should look back at the app to make sure I hadn’t mis-read it.  On the app it showed this particular tome in Non-Fiction.  WT….  Headed back to Non-Fiction, and found it using the Library of Congress classification.  The sign on the shelf said “World Fiction”. 

I didn’t look any farther to see if maybe he’s shelved anywhere else.  I know there are lots of subgenres of all kinds of lit these days but I’m perplexed about why some Chandler is in Mystery, some if in Fiction and some is in World Fiction!

Do you have an author you think should be included on the World Fiction shelves?

100 Words, 2025, Gatherings, Mysteries, Weather

Polar Plunge

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Watching out the bus window on my way downtown, I saw a young man sitting on the roof of a porch, facing the sun, wearing a pair of shorts.  Nothing else.  It was 12°.  I thought maybe it was some strange life-size blow up doll but then he moved.  

The bus kept going but I haven’t been able to get him out of my head and I haven’t been able to come up with even one far-fetched reason he would have been sitting up there, basically naked, on such a cold day.

Any thoughts?  Ever done a Polar Plunge?

2025, Mysteries, Technology, Travel

The Waiting Game

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People watching at the airport is almost as much fun as at the State Fair – if you’re not stressing out.  I take a page from my mother’s playbook and always get to the airport with way too much time so I’m not usually too worried about time in the TSA line. 

There was a pretty long line on Saturday so there was plenty to watch.  The most interesting was the young couple in front of me.  When I first noticed them, the young man was wearing a fairly large, stuffed backpack and handling a big carry-on as well.  The young woman was unencumbered.  Before I had a chance to process that, she tried to take over carry-on duty.  He wouldn’t let go of the bag.  She was mad.  She ripped it out of his hands and if looks could kill, he would have been a goner.  Then he made two really bad mistakes.  First he tried to take the bag back and when she spoke to him in a stern voice, he smiled.  I wanted to say “ooh, buddy, bad move” but I didn’t need to.  She blasted him and they didn’t speak for  minutes until they got right up to the TSA desk.  I didn’t see them again.

Our plane wasn’t at the gate on time – late from its last stop I assume.  There was a red-haired woman who was just freaking out about this.  Not enough to get security called on her, but enough that all of us in the waiting area heard every word.  She somehow seemed to think that the gate agent could magically make a plane appear.  After venting her spleen she wandered off; I didn’t see her come back.  There weren’t any other flights that were leaving any time around the time of our flight so I don’t know what she did.  Maybe she had a couple of stiff drinks and was the last one onto the plane?

Of course when the plane did come and we were all loaded, the pilot made an announcement about some outside door flap being frozen.  Twenty minutes they said, which is airline speak for “at least an hour”.    We were going to St. Louis, so I’m guessing from the flurry of panicked phone calls, there were quite a few people with connecting flights.  The woman in front of me was positively melting down about it.  I wasn’t connecting although my sibling gathering was planned for that afternoon.  No meltdown from me. 

We made most of the hour up in the air so I was in time for the sibling gathering but not enough time to stop at the deli to pick anything up for the party!

How do you like to pass the time while waiting?

2025, education, Mysteries, Words

Weird Words

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Vocabulary has always been a fun topic for me.  It started in the fifth grade when Mrs. McCracken offered extra credit if we found the week’s vocabulary words out and about in the real world (books, newspaper, etc.) 

I get an email every day with a new vocabulary word from a dictionary site.  I’d say that about 60% of the time, I know the word or can work it out based on its parts.  Nothing else, just a few seconds of each day.

But in the last couple of weeks I’ve come across two that not only did I not know, but I had to look up how they would be used in a sentence to make sense of them. 

Animadvert – to comment unfavorably or critically.  First recorded in 1630–40.  From the Latin animadvertere, meaning “to heed, censure;” combines animum, meaning “mind,” + advertere, meaning “to notice or advert¹.”   Here are two examples.  “The famous director was not afraid to animadvert on the lack of originality in modern filmmaking” and “The union leaders publicly animadverted on the company’s decision to cut wages, arguing it was retaliation”. 

Carpophagous – feed on fruit, fruit-eating.  First recorded in 1830–40.   Combines carpo-¹, meaning “fruit,” + -phagous, meaning “eating.”   Again, two examples.  “The carpophagous bat species are crucial for pollination as they feed on nectar and fruit” and “The carpophagous diet of the iguana primarily consists of fruits and leafy greens”. 

Both of these words strike me as not being too useful these days.  I suppose in biology circles you might eventually stumble across carpophagous but even having sentences for animadvert, I’m having trouble imagining anybody using it these days.  I could be wrong – but I don’t think so (Monk theme song…)

Any words you think the English language would be better off without?

2025, Art, Mysteries, Seasons

Winter Lights

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Normally I don’t consider myself dull or boring but every now and then I wonder.

  • Midsommer Murders – I’ve seen every episode repeatedly – but every afternoon if I am at home and have the television on, that’s what I settle on.
  • State Fair. I’m not suggesting that the State Fair is boring but seriously, five or six trips every year?  Clearly the repetitiveness has to be a bit of the appeal.
  • A Christmas Carol. Read it every year and watch various versions repeatedly throughout the holiday season.
  • Death on the Nile. Two versions that I like… I don’t want to even guess how many times I’ve watched one or the other of them.  Ditto for Murder on the Orient Express (although only one acceptable version of this).

I joined the Arboretum four years ago during Pandemic – it was one place where it was easy to spend time without worrying about social distancing as well as being comforting.  Since then I have gone often, including every year for the Winter Lights display.  I love walking through the Arb when it’s brisk and chilly, seeing the lovely lights in shapes of flowers, snowflakes, butterflies.  YA won’t come every year because the displays don’t change much.

This year, I ended up parking in the last parking lot near what I’ve always thought of as the “end” of the light tour, several little houses, all lit up and that are a magnet for kids of all ages.  For some reason I decided that instead of heading up to the main building I would do the little houses first and then do the lights backwards.  There were hundreds of visitors at the Arb that night and I was absolutely the only one going in that direction.  A couple of times it was a little funny as I had to step aside on a path to let a glut of people pass in the opposite way.

It was a fun experience and I may do it backwards again next year… since I’m sure I’ll go again.

What’s something you can do/see over and over again?

2025, Mysteries, Nature, Weather

Earmuffs and Mittens

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Although I grew up in Missouri, I spent many summer and winter vacations in northern Wisconsin, either at the family homestead or at relative’s cabins on the Eau Claire lakes.  When it was time to pick a college, I announced to my parents that I would only apply to schools in Wisconsin or Minnesota.  When I had been in Northfield for two months, I took my first trip to the Twin Cities.  All it took was that weekend – I knew this was where I wanted to be.  After wasband finished graduate school in Milwaukee, we hightailed it here.  After 40+ years, I’d like to consider myself a Minnesotan rather than a Missourian. 

It is partly the weather that drew me here so I’ve been surprised by what seems to be a trend the last several years of many Minnesotans over-reacting to the weather before the weather even gets here.  So many times there is an alarming forecast and people almost burrow in, stocking up and preparing not to leave their homes.  Then, of course, 8 out of 10 times, the dreaded weather never arrives.

This has happened to me once already, when snow was forecast for the week before Christmas.  On that Tuesday, my book club baled on our rare in person meeting which was scheduled for Thursday.  There was snow on Thursday but not nearly what was threatened.  Main road and highways were fine.

Now I’ve gotten an email from a friend with whom I have concert plans in March, asking if I’d rather get online viewing tickets instead of driving downtown to see the show in person.  Because it’s March, when we often have snowstorms. 

This is a trend that mystifies me.  Does this make me a tough Minnesotan?

How do you handle weather where you are?