Jo Walton ([info]papersky) wrote,
@ 2009-06-19 12:58:00
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Trip to Minneapolis
Physical observations (formatted as list)

Great Blue Herons: 5
Foxes: 2
Lakes: 4
Cormorants in tree (perhaps not cormorants?): 6
Deer: 3

Lake Champlain looks just like the Long Lake as drawn by Tolkien. The south part is choked with waterlilies.

Wisconsin!

Philosophical observations (formatted as poetry)

Off, away, between
a blue figure in the corner
of a changing landscape.
Train views are like water,
always the same, changing always
fleeting, glimpsed, gone.
It's easier to say
"the crack in the teacup opens
a lane to the land of the dead"
than
the pattern on the tea-cup opens
delight throughout your head
it doesn't mean the first is truer.
Wisconsin!
Who knew!

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[info]hobbitbabe
2009-06-19 05:16 pm UTC (link)
Train views are like water,
always the same, changing always
fleeting, glimpsed, gone.

Oh, it is so like that.

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[info]kate_nepveu
2009-06-19 05:20 pm UTC (link)
Hope you felt okay post-Schenectady food; Chad & I had varying degrees of stomach unhappiness and I ditched my leftovers just to be safe.

(Hit enter too soon--)

SteelyKid the next morning scraped a good bit off her crib rail but I am hoping she didn't like the taste and is going to stop, because seriously.

Edited at 2009-06-19 05:21 pm UTC

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[info]papersky
2009-06-30 11:59 pm UTC (link)
I was absolutely fine, but I only ate the sweet potato chips. I ate the cold leftover ones for breakfast, and they were surprisingly still good.

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[info]princejvstin
2009-06-19 05:23 pm UTC (link)
Only 4 lakes?

You weren't trying very hard. :grins:

Minneapolis is known as the City of Lakes for a reason. :)

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[info]mrissa
2009-06-20 01:55 pm UTC (link)
I was just about to be alarmed on Jo's behalf for that very reason. Don't worry, Jo. We can get you more lakes.

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[info]carandol
2009-06-20 01:03 am UTC (link)
A few hours ago, Lake Champlain meant nothing to me. Then there was a news report that scientists have found definite evidence that there used to be a lake on Mars "about the size of Lake Champlain." They never mentioned its similarity to the Long Lake, a much more useful comparison!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090618-mars-lake-proof-picture.html

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[info]carloshasanax
2009-07-04 09:59 pm UTC (link)
I'm so pleased you were surprised by Wisconsin! (I hope in a good way.) It's my home state, and there's rarely a day I don't think about it.

The poem is a little Niedecker-y too, which is appropriate.

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[info]papersky
2009-07-05 08:37 am UTC (link)
I had never heard anyone mention Wisconsin except in the context of Wiscon, and jokes about cheese. So I was astonished to find it was beautiful, with hills and trees and water and bluffs and just generally terrific landscape to go through on a train. It's now my favourite state to look at, taking over from Vermont.

It must have been a lovely place to grow up.

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[info]carloshasanax
2009-07-05 01:37 pm UTC (link)
It's beautiful. Even in the bleak seasons it's beautiful, like a German Expressionist woodcut. And the people are solid.

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