I'm back

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything here. Last week was a rough week, mostly for reasons I can't get into yet. But I will when I can. And at some point I'll have some thoughts on the election results, but on to happier things ...
I saw the aurora borealis tonight. One of the things I was most excited about when moving up to Duluth was the possibility of seeing the northern lights. I was hoping to see them often, but until tonight, had only seen them once -- and it was from the middle of downtown where there was a lot of light pollution. So I was thrilled when, upon waking from a late afternoon nap, I looked outside and saw the shimmering green lights of the aurora borealis. I tried to take some pictures, but you never know how that sort of thing will turn out. If they do, I'll try to post them. But it was awe-inspiring just to watch. They're very dynamic; they don't just shimmer in one place, they move around fluidly -- as if the sky were playing with a colorful liquid mercury, except without all the craziness and death that can accompany that sort of activity.

In other news, it's pledge time at Minnesota Public Radio (probably in all the other states, too, though I don't know if they all do it at the same time or not). The pledge drive is cool in a way because, for instance, I got to listen to two hours of "This American Life" tonight -- sort of a "best of" collection that included two David Sedaris readings. But pledge time is also immensely annoying because every 10-15 minutes you get to hear 5-10 minutes of them begging, cajoling and guilting you into donating money. I think it would be just as effective to ask for money every 30 or 60 minutes for 5 minutes at a time, rather than constantly annoying me to death. I don't really know, but I'd sure like to give it a try. At any rate, I did decide to donate. I'm not a daily listener, but I do enjoy much of their programming, so what the heck. I also get a free gift with the donation. This sort of offer has never really made sense to me. Have we become such a materialistic, self-involved society that people won't even DONATE money anymore without wanting something back? That's not even really donating. It's paying for what will become, over the course of a year, a $120 travel mug. (Actually, they have a really wide range of gifts, which was nice, but it also sort of worked against them. I would much rather have several of the $10-per-month gifts than most of the more expensive ones. Incidentally, I chose the "9/11 Commission Report.")