Hunkering Down

A funny thing happened on my way to this post, I realized that I had a post about Grandma's Marathon last year. That means I've kept this whole thing up for a year. I then realized that I passed my blogiversary in April and didn't even realize...What do you get for a first year virtual birthday? 1 GB of storage? An external hard drive? More vacuum tubes for the internets?

So, here we are again. Grandma's weekend. The weekend when everyone pulls down their pants and allows an invading hoard to bite their shiney metal asses.



I read in the paper yesterday that the marathon pumps 9 Million dollars into the local economy. I suppose that means that I should be thrilled that it takes me two hours to get to the other side of Duluth. I suppose it means that I shouldn't go down to London Road and hold out steaming cups of coffee to the runners as they pass the water tables, al la Kramer. I guess I just get my extra large sized knickers in a twist over the whole thing. I think it's cool when the Beargrease Sled Dog Race stops traffic momentarily and a team slams into my car...it connects me to the past history of travel in this region, if, that is, there were cars to slam your sled dog team into.

But runners run and sweat and blister and puke and poop and MAKE ME LOOK FAT.

OK, so the truth is out. Can we move on?

I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio the other day and they were talking to the author of The Last Child in the Woods. It really got me thinking about what kind of world it will be in 20 or 30 years when we have heated up a bit and all of the kids that grew up in front of the sickly glow of the computer screen are in charge. Will they even care about saving the woods? Why would you care about preserving nature when you've never had a connection to it?

So this was all ruminating within my cerebrum (my brain has four stomachs) when I decided that we should escape Duluth for the day and travel somewhere away from the marathon crowd. Perhaps we could go on a hike? Rent a canoe? See nature somewhere?

And I returned home to find my children glued to the computer where they had been all day.

Daughter was not amused by my idea. She thought it was half baked and irrational. She said this while clutching my laptop to her chest and growling in the back of her throat.

Son was all for it. He is my nature child. He spends way too much time in front of the computer but he also understands the meditative quality of the woods. We often play the game together of "imagine what this place looked like 300 years ago...1000 years ago..." He is the child that I would invite to my shack in the woods in order to proof read my manifesto.

So, we will be compromising on this high holy weekend of "OH MY GOD DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING TO DOWNTOWN DULUTH."

We will be grilling outside. We will be doing some tie dye. We will be making some homemade ice cream. And we will stay away from the computer.

And those frickin' runners!