A madcap whirl of life

We have not done much without the dogs since Boscoe's diabetes; one of us always needs to be here at 7 p.m. to feed him and give him his injection, which pretty much rules out date nights. But prevailing upon the patient and agreeable Debbie, we went out of town last weekend. And the weekend before that. Two weekends in a row! Cavorting, carousing, living it up! This is almost unheard of for us--even before the diabetes set in.

Two weekends ago, it was St. Louis--more on that in a few days. Last weekend, it was Duluth, our old stomping grounds, my childhood home, the place where we met, etc etc etc. We went up to see our friends and their remodeled kitchen, and to visit the art show of our friends at Kenspeckle Letterpress. I've known Ken Speckle, as he is sometimes known, since I was in second grade; I like to brag that he is my oldest friend, even though he is not all that old. (His name is actually Rick Allen.) ("Kenspeckle" is a Scottish word that means distinctive.)

Doug and I have his art in nearly every room of our house and we send his Christmas cards every December, but we had never attended his Earth Day show (which I thought he had been holding for 15 years, but no, Rick says it only feels like 15 years; it's been four).

Four or fifteen, either way, it was time.

So we left Debbie a mere two pages of instructions, not as detailed as they could have been, smooched the boys on the top of the head, and hit the road. Childless! Free! Let's speed! Let's take the top down and toss our empties out the windows!

The art show was at Sivertson's Gallery in Canal Park, down by Lake Superior. It was mobbed! A madhouse! There was banjo music and free beer and an incredible peppered smoked salmon all up for grabs. And the wonderful thing, I realized as I looked around, was that all of that was there because they love the artist and his work and that of his wife, who is a designer. The smoked fish? They've done posters for their shop. The banjo player? They designed the cover of his latest CD. The beer? They designed the label.

After the show, Rick and Marian took us over to their studio and showed us their ancient letter presses (and their brand new, still-in-the-box, computers).

It was an amazing warm day in Duluth--amazing for April, amazing for any time of the year. Often down at the lake it's windy and chilly, even in July, but this day was sunny and calm and bright and Ann and I sneaked away and went for a long walk on the lakewalk, from Canal Park all the way to the edge of Leif Erickson Park and back. In sandals! With naked toes! In April! In Northern Minnesota! OK, if you're not from Minnesota you can't know how remarkable that is, but trust me, it is.

It was still warm enough in the evening to sit outside and have a drink....

...and eat pretzels, or, if you prefer, press them into your face.

Abby modeled her princess dress for us, and we had an incredible meal. Grilled pork chops, and green beans with mushrooms, and the wine kept flowing, and ... It's a good thing Ann doesn't cook for us every night, though if she did we might die stuffed, but we would die happy.

Grain Belt Nordeast was deemed a success--even tastier when chased with peanut-butter cookies.

In the morning the wind shifted, and our visit back to the lakewalk was truncated by cold. We were home by mid-afternoon, with two weekends' worth of laundry to do and no groceries in the house. But happy in good friendship, and happy to see the boys.

Nature note: The great-blue-heron is back at Como Lake. We spotted him flying in about 5 p.m. Saturday, after a day of gentle rain.