“The Fool’s Errand” ***Author’s note: This is the second installation of a small fiction project I have been working on. I will post portions of the story during 2018, so stay tuned. Below is part two. Click here for chapters one and two of part one.*** Chapter three: The Crumbling Cathedral –Late autumn 2019; four months before the Deserter’s Dying Declaration– The assembled militia guzzled coffee in the church gymnasium. The general had taken a big risk to muster the entire group, save for the patrols out at the time, in one place. He sensed dissension and wanted to deal with it head-on. So close, he thought, our time is so close. Stemming the tide on internal quarrels as their time to act approached outweighed the chance of the Invaders locating and maybe bombing the church. The men assembled, and the general’s keen eye noticed that the men divided themselves into two groups. On one side, behind a few officers, sat two-thirds of the militia. Behind him sat the remaining third. After roll call, the general asked if anyone would like to speak. The militiamen were not surprised by the general’s informality. He began most musters in this fashion. Normally…Continue reading The Fool’s Errand–Part One, Chapter Three
A winter hike around the Louisville Swamp on the Mazomani Trail
Mere miles from the 16th-biggest metropolitan area in the United States lies an underutilized gem. At 14,000 acres, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge hugs the Minnesota River in stretches along 70 miles of the Minnesota River. And, get this, parts of the refuge come as close as eight and six miles from the skyscrapers in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul respectively. The refuge is a good spot for hiking and hunting. The refuge affords Twin Citians the opportunity to open their day hunting waterfowl in a swamp and end it bowhunting deer from a tree while working a full shift in between. The refuge truly is an oasis for the urban outdoorsman. One thing I like about the refuge is that it increases the likelihood I will raise my family in the Twin Cities metro area. The refuge provides some real outdoors activities near a thriving metropolis. I am a big fan of winter walks (see my recent post on the topic here), and–despite having grown up near it–I had never been to the Louisville Swamp. I decided to marry the two together. So last week, I dragged my sister along with me to hike the Mazomani Trail around…Continue reading A winter hike around the Louisville Swamp on the Mazomani Trail
“The Rob Special”–a protein-packed meal with perfect macros for just $1.99
Eating healthy lunches while working can be tough. Healthy options–like Chipotle when done right, for example–are expensive and time-consuming. I’ve figured out a way to eat a week’s worth of lunches for under $10 with near-perfect macronutrients. Over the course of the year, using this and other similar recipes, you could spend just $520 on work week lunches. A year’s worth of Chipotle lunches costs $2340 without a pop or chips. That’s an $1820 savings in a year. Plus, you don’t have to go wait in Chipotle’s line. And we all know that a Chipotle jaunt around lunch time takes 45 minutes at a minimum. Recipe like this could save you 45 minutes per day Monday through Friday. That’s 11,700 minutes in a year–or 195 hours! For a lawyer or other professional billing by the hour, that’s a huge savings. At big law firms requiring 1900 hours billed per year, 195 would cover about five week’s of billing. And while no one would actually eat every single meal at his or her desk billing for an entire year, the point remains; using this recipe (and others like it), you can save a bundle of time and oodles of money. My…Continue reading “The Rob Special”–a protein-packed meal with perfect macros for just $1.99
The straw that may break this camel’s back
No, it’s not that I hate parking on city streets ( I do). No, it’s not even that someone broke my side mirror. That happens. But what may cause me to leave the city is stuff like what’s not there under my windshield wiper. Do you see it? No? Well, me neither. That’s right. Someone smashed my mirror (probably by accident) and left no note. This is another reason I hope to move out of the city. Maybe I am naive, but I want to believe towns exist where I’d get a call or note if someone smashed my mirror.
Lenten post-lift breakfast
It’s Ash Wednesday today, so Catholics fast from meat. Doesn’t mean I skimp on my post-workout protein. Here’s my break-fast today. Get it? Fast-break. Breakfast. Looks gross. That’s .75 cup oatmeal, two cans of tuna, and broccoli. The whole meal is just 405 calories and has 47.5 grams of protein, 40.5 grams of carbs, and 7 grams of fat.
A neophyte tackles the Bataan Death March
In 1942–almost 70 years before I joined the unit–my old infantry battalion was a part of the group of American forces that surrendered to the Japanese in the Philippines just six months into World War II and then participated in the Bataan Death March. Numbering 76,000 Americans and Filipinos, there has been no greater United States military surrender in history. During the battle preceding the surrender, my battalion’s former regiment–the 4th Marine Regiment–was responsible for the beach defenses at Corregidor–a small island situated in the entrance to Manila Bay. As the Japanese onslaught reached Corregidor, the malnourished, ill-supplied Americans fought despite facing no incoming American reinforcements. Still the Marines fought. In the face of certain defeat, the Army general in control of the American forces ordered a wholesale surrender. The Marines gathered together and burned their regimental colors to avoid its capture. After falling into Japanese hands, the 4th Marine Regiment’s Marines embarked on the so-called Bataan Death March. By the end of the war–whether from combat action, the Death March, or the following horrors in the prison camps–two-thirds of the 4th Marine Regiment’s officers and the majority of its enlisted Marines were killed. The tale in my unit was that…Continue reading A neophyte tackles the Bataan Death March
A plaintiffs’ counsel’s dream
Saw this today at the gym: a final warning in a litany of attempts to clean up the glass? Or a derelict premises owner? **Also note the frustrating passive voice. I must know who broke the glass.
Putting your old gift cards to work: “The gift card date”
Here’s something fun my wife and I came up with. You know that pile of unused gift cards stacked up in your junk drawer? Grab the cards up and make it a date. Buzz around town using them even if each one is a departure from the previous one. It’s fun because the date is “free” and you don’t know quite how it will go. Our date idea was pretty last minute, and we had limited time, but we still had a blast. First, we went to Lion’s Tap, Minnesota’s best burger place (full disclosure: I worked there in high school). I brought along an old gift card I found in the junk drawer and asked our server if there was any money on it. She ran the card through their system and noted it had $10 on it. She printed off a receipt showing me the $10 balance, and I noticed the something on the printout. The gift card was from 2010. I had this lunch for free with an eight year-old gift card: Next, we went off to use a movie theater gift card. The gift card had $30 on it from my wife’s birthday. We watched the new…Continue reading Putting your old gift cards to work: “The gift card date”
February donation
After the wonderful feeling from donating tons of old clothes in December, we decided to repeat in February. Believe it or not, we found enough (more!) clothes to fit five normal-sized garbage bags. And while this was not the eight “giant” garbage bags we donated in December, we still got rid of a lot of stuff we don’t need. We use a foundation that comes to our house and picks up the bags. I repeat: we don’t have to drive anywhere; we put the bags out and they are gone by the end of the day. There’s probably a foundation in your area that will take your stuff away. Try it! I tend to be a sentimental pack rat. My wife is not. I am learning that it’s nice to purge. Our happiness should not come through the things we own unless they enable an activity that makes us happy. Reading, writing, lifting weights, hiking, being outside, and spending time with those I care about make me happy. A pair of cheap, ugly $20 slacks I bought in college that might fit if I lost 20 pounds? No happiness there. “Dress shoes” I bought for $40 and look like a worn jock…Continue reading February donation
The Fool’s Errand–Part One, Chapters One and Two
“The Fool’s Errand” ***Author’s note: Here is a small fiction project I have been working on for fun. I will post portions of the story during 2018, so stay tuned. Below is part one.*** Chapter one: The Deserter’s Dying Declaration Tim Meyer woke up an hour before the late winter sun’s first rays. Fifty miles, he thought. Just fifty miles. Almost every morning the thought woke him. He and the other men in the militia finally obtained the information they needed. They had the answer. Finally, he thought, at long last we have it. Now the fifty miles. After months of pain and agony, they might end the fighting. Stop this awful bloodshed, he thought. Tim kissed his sleeping wife and left the bedroom. Opening a door to the outside, he retrieved a jug from the snow filled with frozen coffee. Throwing another log into the stove, he warmed the coffee and drank it. No cream like . . . before, he thought, but still: hot coffee. In between sips, he thought of the other guys in the militia. Does it wake them up early too? he wondered. Does the fifty miles consume them? And, for the thousandth time he…Continue reading The Fool’s Errand–Part One, Chapters One and Two