We watched The Fall Guy tonight! Tons of action and a fun movie overall.

The Singing Sakatah Hills State Trail is closed right by Highway 60 and Dalton Ave near Cannon Lake. They have a section fenced off where the trail edge has collapsed. The record rains must have been too much for this area. Couple of trees down too.

I currently have 326 different Masked Email addresses set in Fastmail. It takes effort but is a powerful way to limit tracking and increase security. 🔒🥸

First challenge for my lake camera was getting it off the ground to keep the raccoons from playing with it.

Second was protecting the cable from water and making sure that the cords were waterproof.

Now the third issue is keeping the lawn guys from shredding the USB cable with the weed whipper. 😬

Eerie sky as this storm came in. There was a literal calm before the storm and then the wind kicked up big time. 70 mph winds. We’ve all gone to the basement.

Serious storm system coming through clearing out this incredible heat and humidity that we’ve had the last two days. There is a lot of energy in the sky. Hoping the 1" hail doesn’t come to pass. Just got very dark.

Did a 4-mile walk tonight around Lake Harriet with Tammy and Mazie and claimed the 2024 National Parks Challenge.

Scenes as Allianz Field emptied out tonight.

Wish the United would have won but we had a fun time (after the shade arrived) with my Mom and Kurt watching them play the Seattle Sounders to a 3-2 loss. ⚽️

Floating down Minnehaha Creek in South Minneapolis.

Tubing Minnehaha Creek

It was a nice hot day to enjoy a float down Minnehaha Creek today. Tiffany and Andrew were visiting so we got the tubes inflated, drove to Utley Park in Edina to put in and floated right back to our house taking out in Minnehaha Creek Park. This was the furthest we’ve gone on the tubes going 3.7 miles and took just over 2 hours. 💦

Two people holding inflatable river tubes are standing outdoors with trees in the background.A person is floating in the water with their feet visible in the foreground, while another group of people is seen floating on inflatables in the background, surrounded by lush green trees.A person on a colorful inflatable raft is navigating under a fallen tree in a forested river.A person is relaxing on an inflatable raft in a river with houses and greenery in the background.A person in a hat and plaid shirt is taking a selfie while relaxing in a river with another person on an inflatable float in the background.A person wearing a hat is relaxing on a red and yellow inflatable raft floating down a tree-lined river on a sunny day.A tunnel-like structure surrounded by dense greenery opens into a body of water with a sign reading FOX ISLAND nearby.A stone arch bridge spans over a gently flowing, tree-surrounded creek on a sunny day.

Don's Bench in Turtle Park

Today we commemorated the 86th Birthday for Don Olson, Tammy’s Dad who passed away in January. Tammy arranged for the family to meet at Northwood Park in New Hope. Don used to coach softball games here regularly and he enjoyed the park and called it Turtle Park. He used to enjoy coming here regularly and watching the turtles in the creek.

After we all had some donuts and coffee we made our way on the same walking path that Don would take and surprised the group when we came across the park bench that Tammy had worked with the park to install.

The inscription reads:

In Memory of Grandpa Don
Who Loved Nature and Turtle Park

You can find the bench at the GPS coordinates 45° 01’ 31.8" N 93° 23’ 21.7" W (45.025508, -93.389363) in Northwood Park or Bassett Creek Regional Trail in New Hope.

Minnesota State Fair

Great night at the Minnesota State Fair with Tiffany & Andrew! 🎉

A group of six people are smiling and giving thumbs up at a crowded outdoor event.A group of people is smiling and holding a cup full of cookies in front of a crowded cookie stand.A group of people at an outdoor event are enjoying roasted corn on the cob while others mill about in the background near a CORN ROAST stand.Several people are riding colorful chairlifts above a busy fairground filled with visitors and various stalls under a partly cloudy sky.People are gathered around a food truck named Baba's, which offers modern Middle Eastern cuisine at an outdoor event.A young man and an older woman are joyfully posing for a selfie in front of a park or fairground setting with trees, booths, and bystanders in the background.A large Ferris wheel with colorful gondolas stands against a dusk sky, surrounded by trees and a crowd of people at a fairground.A band is performing on the Schell's Stage at Minnesota State Fair, with an audience watching.A large, brightly lit slide at a nighttime carnival, attended by numerous people, many of whom are either descending the slide or observing from below.

Extended my domain registrations with NameCheap for thingelstad.com, weeklything.com, jamiethingelstad.com, thinglestad.com, thingelstad.xyz, roadsignmath.xyz, and things4good.xyz before price increases in September.

Steve Earle — Alone Again at the Dakota

Last night Tammy and I saw Steve Earle at the Dakota. Mazie and I saw him last year at the Dakota. I also saw Earle’s Copperhead Road 30th Anniversary show in 2018 and saw him at the Minnesota Zoo in 2017. I’m a fan of Steve Earle and love these solo acoustic shows.

He played for nearly two hours and covered a big part of his catalog. I loved his comment about writing “Tom Ames’ Prayer” when he was 20 and “God is God” in his 50s.

He shared one of his favorite quotes from Townes Van Zandt:

There are only two kinds of songs; there’s the blues, and there’s zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

He called out to his “teachers” with songs and stories: Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Guy Clark.

It also happened that the show was on the 4 year anniversary of his son Justin Townes Earle death from fentanyl. This was the second time I’d heard him talk about the loss of his son. So very sad.

Shannon McNally

Shannon McNally opened the show with a solid set that I enjoyed a lot as well. She shared great stories of the road and her songs were inspiring.

The thing that bugs me about Now pages is that they don’t have history. How about a “Now” category and then redirect the /now URL to the most recent version? Or maybe a Now page that is very long with a section for each update? 🤔 In the meantime, my now page is back.

My Mom and Mazie (I chipped in too) decided it was time to reclaim the completely wild garden plot at the cabin. It took a couple of hours but is restored! We even caged volunteer tomatoes on the paths and put down straw for winter. First picture shows the before situation. 👩‍🌾

I queued up with the newest High Kings vinyl and got it signed after the show.

Tammy and I had a great time seeing The High Kings at the Parkway Theater tonight. 🎶

Tyler got his gaming PC assembled and running tonight! It was super fun to help him out with this. So many LEDs! 🤩