Day 1007 -- Clear Lake

Clear Lake is just east of Clearwater. Apparently, the water is really clear up here, or at least it was when they were naming things. This image is from a bike journey of the Paul Bunyan Trail through Minnesota. OK, there's one problem. This is Clear Lake, Iowa, where the bikers launched their journey.

This is Clear Lake, Minnesota, from the web page of the Traveler's Country Club on the Mississippi. OK, if I mixed them up, do you think you could really tell?

I had to run outside this morning, since I don't have access to a gym or a treadmill here in Grandma Jogger's town. it was cold, but I survived. I ran just 4.5 miles. It was enough to loosen me up. I've been diddling around most of the day, doing a little grading.

Day 1006 -- Clearwater

This might be the Clearwater city hall. It's hard to tell. It's the main image on their web page.

Another nice thing about Snap Fitness is that they are open on Thanksgiving morning. I got up early and went down for a five mile run on the treadmill. Then the Little Joggers and I piled into the minivan and drove down to Grandma Jogger's house for a terrific Thanksgiving dinner. Now I'm watching the Packers and digesting.

Day 1005 -- St. Augusta

St. Augusta is a small town south of St. Cloud. As far as I recall, we only ever drove through it. There are lots of little towns around St. Cloud that we at least went to a garage sale or a church bazaar, but I don't think St. Augie was among them. (We're very informal about our saints up in Central Minnesota. St. Augusta is "St. Augie", St. Joseph is "St. Joe", and St. Benedict is "St. Ben". St. Cloud is just "St. Cloud". No nickname for him. (In case you're wondering, I believe that St. Cloud is a corruption of St. Claude, the French missionary.))

This picture of a garage fire in St. Augie is from the web page of the St. Augusta Fire Department. The fire was in September, 2008.

I went to Snap Fitness for the first time today. Our town has not one, but two 24/7 fitness places. Snap Fitness was having and end-of-the-year special, and I signed up. The main advantage over the gym at school is that they are open any time. I started my run at 5:30 this morning, a half an hour before the gym is open. The main disadvantage is that they don't have a track, only a treadmill. For now, I'm keeping both memberships, to see how much use I get out of each one. Anyway, after starting out a bit too fast on the treadmill, I backed off and had a slower seven-mile run.

Day 1004 -- St. Cloud

From City-Data.com, an entrance to St. Cloud State University. When I taught at St. John's, we lived in St. Cloud, because that's where the rentals were. There were some rentals in St. Joseph, where the College of St. Benedict is, but a lot more in St. Cloud. However, I didn't spend a lot of time at St. Cloud State. It's funny, because I actually no more people in the math department at St. Cloud State now than I did back then. Anyway, I don't know whether this archway was there in the early nineties. I don't remember it.

Today I ran a quick three. Shortly after I finished, it started raining, and it's been raining periodically all day. It's threatening to turn to snow tomorrow. We'll see.

Day 1003 -- The College of St. Benedict

The College of St. Benedict is the sister school to St. John's. They are actually pretty much joint programs. All classes at both colleges are open to students from either. When I was there, most people in the math department taught on both campuses, as least occasionally. Most of my classes were at St. John's, but some were at St. Ben's.

The seven or eight miles between the campuses present a logistical problem: ten minutes between classes ain't gonna do it. They have (or at least they used to have) seventy-minute periods with thirty minutes passing time. Since they can't get that many classes into a day, they have a six-day schedule. Monday would be a Day 1, then Tuesday would be a Day 2, Wednesday a Day 3, and so on until the next Monday would be a Day 6. Then Tuesday would be the next Day 1. Most classes met on either even or odd days, but some labs and stuff would meet only one or two days of the cycle. It was easy enough to get used to, but it did make it kind of a challenge to schedule doctor's appointments. "Are you free in the afternoon on Tuesdays?" "Well, it depends...."

This is the Bendicta Arts Center on the St. Ben's campus. I'm pretty sure that it was there when I was, but apparently it has been rehabbed. It won some sort of Design award from an organization with the initials AIA. I fished around on their web site, and I was unable to determine what AIA stands for, although one of the A's is clearly "Architecture" or "Architects".

I ran five and a half miles this morning. It was a bit warmer than yesterday, but a bit breezier. I have no grounds to complain, considering that we are this far into November, and haven't had any really bad weather, yet. I have only had to run indoors a couple of days.

Day 1002 -- St. John's University

In December of 1988, I earned my Master's degree from the University of Michigan, and started looking for a job. Back then, it was possible (barely) to get a job at the college level with a Master's degree. In fact, I got a two-year position at St. John's University, here in Collegeville, MN.

This was a good experience for me. The math department (which is a combined department between St. John's and its sister school, the College of St. Benedict) was terrific to me. They gave me some decent courses, and not just the junk that no one wanted to teach. They gave me freedom to teach my own way, but they were also there to help me when I needed it. It's no stretch to say that that job, my first full-time teaching job, helped shape the teacher that I am today.

This is the Abbey Church on the St. John's campus. Collegeville is little more than the college, the abbey, and a handful of houses. If you were to travel back in time to the early 90's, you would not see this scene. First of all, I was a much younger Jogger. But actually, I wasn't a jogger at all. I didn't start running until about a decade later.

I ran nine miles and change today. It was a little cold, but I got warmed up pretty quickly. Nine miles is sort of a drop-back long run for me, after 11 last week. I'll planning to try for 13 this next weekend, but that depends on the weather, and on where we are for Thanksgiving.

Day 6B5 -- Avon

When I'm out on a run, I almost always say hello to pedestrians: fellow joggers, actual runners, walker, dog-walkers, etc. I'll wave to a car if I think I know the driver. And I always wave at the police. It's my way of saying "Thank you". It can't be an easy job. No doubt it is 90% boredom, 9% hassle, and 1% downright danger. Today, I get my chance to wave at the police in Avon, Minnesota. I also call your attention to Avon's motto: "Lakes, Loons, Living". Now, doesn't that make you want to visit?

I overslept a bit this morning. It wasn't enough to skip my run, but it was enough to make me shorten it. I ended up running about 4.4 miles. The weather continues to be decent. It was cool, but there was almost no wind, so it wasn't a bad run. So now I have started on my second thousand.