Awww-- Do I Have To?

Sometimes it takes a galvanizing event to get you off your butt and to make you do all those little things you've been putting off. Such was the case for us today. After a June and July spent teaching, packing up our rooms for the summer, having the pleasure of both of our moms and Kyle and Josh visit, horseback riding, vacationing in Maine and Minnesota, after all of that, tomorrow August 1, is the day when the god-daughters arrive for a week. We haven't seen the girls in a while, and we're really looking forward to spending some time with them, but the oldest has allergies to dogs and dust mites, among other things, so the focus of today was cleaning and dusting and vacuuming.

When we began it seemed like a huge chore, if not a downright imposition. We have a weekly house cleaner-- and usually we feel that her labor and a swipe-swipe here and there is enough to prepare for most guests, which is why we pay her. Grumbling a bit, we split the house upstairs and down and went to work. Down here, we still had stuff that wasn't put properly away from each of our trips, not to mention two piles of mail from the time we were gone. Then there were things that had been waiting to be hung up, clutter on the deck to be dealt with, an air filter to change, and so on. Once we got going, there were magazines to toss, the front stoop to sweep and outside window sills to wipe. In the end, lots of odd jobs that just never seemed worth doing by themselves got done today.

As a result we are tired but satisfied. Any resentment is long gone-- in fact we're kind of glad we had to do it, AND we're going to have a great time with the girls.

Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle

I saw the movie Salt today. To tell you the truth, my expectations were sort of low because of the reviews, but I like a kick-ass movie in the summer, and I also like Angelina Jolie, as nutty as she is at times. I was far from disappointed. To me, Salt was the perfect summer action film. The main character, Evelyn Salt, is the child of a champion wrestler and a chess master (c'mon- you know that's awesome), which makes her an unbeatable strategist and fighter (I know, right?). Kind of like Kevin Costner's character in No Way Out, she finds herself in a thorny predicament not of her own making. Even so, over the course of the film, she demonstrates love and loyalty, and she never kills a single person who isn't an enemy of the state with blood on his hands, although she does have to injure and disable a few others who get in her way. I totally have my fingers crossed for a sequel.

Last week we also saw The Kids Are All Right, which is being marketed as a light summer comedy. (Yeah, and Finland is on the way to Orr.) I found this movie very painful to watch, despite (or because of) the fact that it is full of excellent performances: the actors create complex characters in a difficult situation who are hard to sympathize with.

Both movies feature strong women and the men who would walk all over them and take everything that they've worked for, given half a chance. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that in the end of each the women do prevail, but those meddling guys who think they're so entitled really make me mad.

Summer Simile

Every summer is busy, but this one seems even more so. Our house guests and trips are like stones across a river: starting in June we hop from one to another until we reach September on the other side.

Bears and Wolves, Oh My

We never did get to that bear sanctuary, but we did visit the North American Bear Center as well as the International Wolf Center, both just a mile or so from Ely, MN where we were staying. These centers have bears and wolves on the premises that can not be released into the wild; their mission is to educate and raise awareness about these animals. Since they are located in an area with healthy bear and wolf populations, a large part of their message is dedicated to finding a balanced interaction between humans and these wild predators.

It wasn't long ago that by government mandate wolves were to be eradicated from the continental U.S. People believed that because of competition for game and the threat to livestock and humans that this was a prudent response, and American wolves were nearly wiped out.

Bears have not fared much better. Although not systematically targeted for extinction, in most places, any bear that comes too close to populated places will most likely be shot because of the unpredictable peril it poses.

I left Ely feeling that we people have a lot of work to do to re-establish an equilibrium with these creatures, not to mention the coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, and the surplus deer population that we have.

All of this was on my mind this evening when I read the news about the bear rampage in Yellowstone last night. The details are still emerging, but one man is dead and two people are injured after a bear tore through their tent campsite just 5 miles from the entrance gate to the park. It looks like this is just another tragic consequence of our failure to find a way to dwell peaceably with the other animals in our world.

Wrong Way

We were off to a bear sanctuary tonight about an hour from this town in the boundary waters. We had an internet generated map and directions, and I was driving. This is just the type of situation where technology fails me, or I it, depending on your perspective. I glanced at the tiny map quickly and then thrust it into the hands of my navigator. I believed I knew the general direction we were going, and I was happy to leave the specifics to her. The only detail I double checked was how to find the road leading out of town. Off we set on a winding road through national forests, past lakes and over rivers. It was beautiful.

According to the turn-by-turn summary, it was over 20 miles before we were supposed to make a right to stay on the same county road. At 21, 22, and 23 miles, we rationalized that perhaps it wasn't a right turn as much as a bear right. The road was empty and no waypoint towns were mentioned on our little map. We wouldn't actually switch route numbers for another 25 miles, so we barreled along our wilderness way, never even passing a place to pause and confirm our direction. At 50 miles, we finally found a gas station and we stopped to fill up and find out if we may have lost our way. As my mom was off asking directions, my iPhone finally got a signal, and I hastily punched in our destination to plan a route from our current location.

My jaw dropped when I saw that we had gone 180 degrees away from the bear preserve. When I checked the little map, I had assumed that we were traveling east, and I mistook our destination for our departure point. It would take two an a half hours to get to the bears, by which time the preserve would be closed. I cringed, sucked in my breath, and informed the other members of our party, egg-faced.

The upside was that we were only 6 miles from Lake Superior. We spent an hour on the coast at a couple of state parks-- walking a breakwater and visiting a light house. It turned out to be a pleasant, but bearless, evening. Later we were telling the tale at dinner, and I was even able to laugh a little, especially imagining what it would have been like had I stubbornly driven onward, stopping only when the road dead-ended on the shores of Gitchigoomie. Maybe a great lake glittering in my path would have convinced me that I had made a mistake. Maybe.

Humingbird Humdinger

This morning at breakfast, the hummingbird show was on again. The plot thickened when there was trouble even at the peaceful feeder from yesterday, so I decided to do some quick research into hummingbird behavior. I found that my assumptions from yesterday were all wrong-- it turns out that aggression is the rule and cooperation the exceptions. At this time of year, those guys are fueling up for their fall migration which includes a 500 mile non-stop leg over the Gulf of Mexico. No one is sure how they even do it-- the energy they need exceeds their body weight!

Golly. I guess in that situation, I might be a little testy about sharing, too.

Bird v Bird

We're on our second big trip of the summer, this time traveling in Northern Minnesota. Our first stop has been Itasca State Park, the place where the headwaters of the Mississippi River are. We are staying in a cool log cabin right up the hill from the lake. Around the lodge and visitors' center there are hummingbird feeders everywhere, but unlike many of these plastic hourglass shaped contraptions that I've seen in the yards and gardens near home, droves of hummingbirds actually congregate at these. I've seen more ruby-throats today than in my whole life combined.

At dinner tonight, we were seated by a window overlooking the lake. The sun was setting, and the sky was a lovely golden, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the drama unfolding at the hummingbird feeder right outside. My panfried walleye grew cold as one thumb-sized bird refused to share the nectar. If another hummer landed while he was eating, this teeny meanie would rear back, poke that lilliputian chest out, and blur his emerald wings at the newcomer. If that display of ill will failed to intimidate, he would fly around the feeder and physically chase the other bird off. Then he would retreat to a branch above the feeder, vigilantly guarding it from any other hummingbirds who might try to get a little nourishment. The tiny terrorist was tirelessly aggressive, sometimes scaring his fellow feeders off with just a mean little look.

I wondered if hummingbirds are naturally so selfish, but then I noticed that right around the corner was another feeder where three, four, five, and even six other birds were able to share a meal without any conflict. Who'da thunk that even hummingbirds have bullies?