the dharma blog

Went for a hike at Sunfish Park in Lake Elmo with my parents today.

Here’s me and my dad:

update: There, that worked. Now I”ll actually write something.

We did a lap around the interior lake at Sunfish. It was a clear day in the woods. Gray skies, but without any leaves on the trees it’s a perfect time to be out there because you can see so far through the trees. We saw a few birds, including at least one robin.

The picture was taken with my mom’s camera-phone. She got it from my brother when he left for the Peace Corps. Not much use for a Sprint PCS camera phone in Nicaragua. Amazing how technology works its way into life. She had the film camera with too, but we took a couple with the phone and I emailed it to myself standing right by that bench. Didn’t think about it until after it chimed that it had sent the email successfully. It was waiting in my inbox by the time we got back to their house.

I always thought they wanted to move to New York City when they retired. Today my dad told me they’ve been talking about moving to Northern California. Wow. He said when he left he told everyone that he’d be back. Just didn’t say when. I hope they do it. Stillwater seems nearly lost to us. Driving in I saw so many cars covered in anti-abortion (or “pro-birth” as I think I’ll start calling them because it is a disgrace to call them “pro-life”) bumper stickers, so many assholes driving like idiots in expensive SUVs.

I digress. We’re going to watch the football game now for whatever reason. My mom is making a good salad, Dad and I are eating some Cheetos, pretzels and mustard, pickled herring. The Broncos just lost 24-49 to the Colts, they even took a sack on their last play of the game.

It’s a good Sunday.

My mom and dad: