Jamie Thingelstad

Helped Tyler order the first three components for his Gaming PC from NewEgg. He’s officially starting that project. Fun!

In September 2016 we experienced a major flood on Cannon Lake, and now in 2024 we are going through an even more severe flood. I’m going to use the completely unscientific gauge of the seating at the end of our dock. In 2016 the water was right up to the seat. This year, only about 3 inches of the upper part of the seats is popping above the water.

I wasn’t sure how bad the flooding would be this year. I have cameras mostly for keeping track of weather and storms and things were generally looking okay. Tammy went to the lake on Thursday to check on things and reported the lake was a couple inches below the top of the dock. Given there wasn’t much rain in the forecast I sort of thought it would be okay.

Then today the lake association sent an email that there were sandbags available at the Channel Inn for homeowners that needed them, and the lake was probably going to rise another foot. I got into the car immediately and went drove there.

As I got to Faribault I started to see how bad the flooding was. There was a road on the periphery of Faribault that was flooded and impassable. As I drove toward Cannon Lake I saw that the water was up very high. Shager Beach wasn’t there at all, entirely under water. The public docks along the south side of the lake were all badly damaged. As I got closer to our place I saw that some of the houses had as much as 100’ of lakeshore underwater.

The good news for us is our place is on a bit of a rise. We are at least 20 feet higher than many other places. Happily our basement is still dry. The biggest issue is the pontoon, which was why I was there. Unfortunately the sumac trees along our shore have gone nuts and the camera I can usually watch the boat from showed nothing of value.

When I got there I could see right away we had some problems.

What to do? I had to think on it a bit. There is no chance of getting the pontoon out from under the canopy. I didn’t like the look of the back of the pontoon. It was much lower and the back of the canopy was visibly higher in the air. I don’t want the motor sinking. After some consideration I switched into swimming shorts, put on a life jacket, and got a single aluminum paddle. I wasn’t going to repeat walking off the dock like I did in 2016, so I use the paddle and very carefully made my way step my step down the stairs and along the dock. I was about waist high in the water.

Once I got to the boat I lowered the ladder and used that to climb into it. The boat was pretty high up to get into otherwise. My goal was to make the boat as short as possible. The bimini was on its lowest setting, but I could drop it all the way down and get another foot. This was not easy. The boat was holding the canopy up and there was a lot of weight. I gave it a lot of muscle and finally lifted the canopy off enough to get the bimini down all the way.

Then I crawled into the boat and noticed that one of the cover poles was bent into a C-shape. I knocked out all of the poles to again lower the profile of the boat. After doing this, I could tell the boat was floating a little bit. It wasn’t pinned in place anymore. I then carefully grabbed a tie down and went back down the ladder. I loosely tied the boat to the canopy support. It cannot go anywhere, it is totally trapped. But when the water lowers the rope could be useful.

I don’t think there is anything else I can do. I definitely bought myself some room. I think the lake could raise another 6" or 12" and it would probably be okay. We’ll see. 🤞

After I took care of this, I repositioned the lake camera and put a new access point in place outside to make this work. Now I have full eyes on the boat and know what is going on. 👀

After tending to my situation I looked around a bit and took some photos. I’ve got it pretty easy. Some folks have their entire houses flooded. It was sad to see.

I also took a video as I drove along Cannon Lake Trail, which is the small road on a strip of land between Cannon Lake and Wells Lake. Feel for these folks. 🙏

On our walk around Lake Harriet today we took a stroll through the Rose Garden as well. There were many roses out in full bloom but it seemed like they had either been battered heavily in the rain or were maybe a bit past their prime. Probably a bit of both.

Just heard the water level on Cannon Lake is expected to increase another foot. Time to head to the cabin to make sure things will be okay. 🛟

The grapes in our backyard are coming along. 🍇

Regular dose of Vitamin G while we were in Ireland.

In the spirit of Harper’s Index, for our Ireland trip.

Part of the Ireland 2024 Collection.

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

Fairly simple challenge — embed a chess game that you played on lichess.org into a blog post on your site. It should be fully embedded, not just a link. Add a brief commentary on the game and where you felt the critical points were. Would be great to include the PGN and reference the moves where it makes sense.

Completed! ✅

This post is part of the Summer Challenge Collection, a collection of tasks or projects for our kids to do over the summer.

For this challenge you’ll need to spec out the components of a Gaming PC. Make sure to include all of the components that you would need, with links for each of them, as well as an explanation of why you are picking that specific component and how it all fits together for what your goal is.

Completed! ✅

Two recent headlines that will make Tammy very happy:

• Dr Pepper Ties Pepsi as America’s No. 2 Soda - WSJ
• Eating cheese plays a role in healthy, happy aging – who are we to argue?

I dig Tetris and Tetromino things (proof? Tetris Shower), so this Tetris Font of course caught my attention. 🤩

Got home after two weeks in Ireland to our sump pump system being in alarm mode making a very loud alert — thankfully still working okay! It is handling 15 gallons per minute right now! 😬 Also a smoke detector giving a low battery chirp. There were three power outages while we were gone.

Weather: Very nice, cool morning. Super humid in Minneapolis.

• Mazie goes for a short run. Tammy a walk for last morning treats.
• Breakfast at hotel.
• Taxi pickup at 9:00 AM. John, our taxi driver shares many stories from his life. Highlights include patio project gone awry by Mick, his wife Pam, his cute grandson that lives with him, and much more.
• Check-in and check bags. Compared to day 1: Tammy 23.9kg — 0.1 kg under limit (52.7 lbs ⬆️ 4.7 lbs), Jamie 19.9kg (43.9 lbs ⬆️ 1.9 lbs), Mazie 18.2kg (40.1 lbs ⬆️ 5.1 lbs), and Tyler 16.9kg (37.3 lbs ⬆️ 6.3 lbs). Total of 174 lbs luggage.
• Stop at Butler’s Chocolates and get Caramel Squares that Tammy tried to get that morning but they didn’t have.
• Cleared US Customs.
• DL115 from DUB to MSP. ✈️
• Land in MSP. Bumpy ride and landing.
• Lyft home!

Jump to day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 or see Ireland 2024 Collection.

Back in Minneapolis! Can someone turn down the humidity? Yikes.

Our time in Ireland is winding down. It has been great. So many experiences and memories. Wonderful. Tomorrow is a travel day as we fly back home.

Weather: Another beautiful day. No jackets needed. No rain. Periods of sunshine.

Our last full day in Ireland.

• Tammy and Mazie go for their runs in Dublin. Jamie does blog posts.
• Breakfast at hotel.
• Walk to Tara Street Station and take Greystones Dart train to Dalkey.
• Get off in Dalkey and walk to Dalkey Castle. Stop in The Gutter Bookshop on the way. Cappuccino at Thyme Out.
• Dalkey Castle tour.
• Explore stores in Dalkey: Hark, Papermint Store.
• Shared lunch at Finnegans of Dalkey.
• Walk to pier.
• Have Ken the Ferryman take us to Dalkey Island.
• Explore Dalkey Island.
• Return back with Ken.
• Afternoon treats at Thyme Out: Salted Caramel Bar, Carrot Cake.
• Afternoon gelato for Jamie.
• Explore downtown Dalkey.
• Return to Hark for Mouni and Gutter Bookshop for “Duffy and Son”.
• Take Howth Dart train from Dalkey back to Tara Street Station.
• Walk back to Hard Rock Dublin to change for evening.
• Went to Bunsen for delicious burgers after trying them on day 15.
• Walked into Temple Bar for one song and then proceeded to O’Donoghues.
• Listened to traditional music set at O’Donoghues.
• Walked back to Temple Bar for one final set of music.
• Walk back to Hard Rock Dublin for the night.

Jump to day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 or see Ireland 2024 Collection.

On our last night in Dublin we decided to walk over to O’Donoghue’s Pub to listen to a traditional Irish music set. My cousin Josh has been here multiple times and loved it. At 8:30 the music started and it was good but there wasn’t any singing. It was a five piece instrumental set.

We were looking for something a bit more sing-along so headed back to the Temple Bar where another couple musicians were just getting setup and let a raucus first set of a wide variety of tunes. Not as traditional as we were hoping for, but still very fun. What a fun way to wrap up our last night in Dublin.

On our day in Dalkey we caught a ride from Ken the Ferryman and he took us the brief distance to Dalkey Island. Dalkey Island is uninhabited now, but records indicate people living there more than 1,000 years ago. Dalkey Island at one point had a church on it. Today the ruins of that church, a military cannon station, and a radar structure still stand. Other than that it has goats, but we didn’t see any of them, and a lot of seagulls.