When annette and i were on our way to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore we drove on secondary roads across Wisconsin. We passed an iron welder’s workshop where they make spiral stairs and assorted other welded objects. I suddenly realized i’d been past that spot before… once fairly recently. A bit further up the road i spotted another landmark: a old weather-beaten advertisment for Wisconsin cheese products. A bit further i spotted the driveway leading to a modest home and barn complex.

“Hay!” i blurted.

“What?” Annette asked.

“Hay. That barn back there is where Scott and i picked up two loads of hay.”

“Ah,” Annette said contemplatively. “I going to guess you never expected to be able to say those words four years ago.”

I found that i could not disagree.

So, i’m writing this from the “Bridges Cafeteria” in the Fairview-University Medical Complex. Annette is 9 floors below me. I’m the visitor, she’s the patient. Nothing too serious, just testing. Problem is they need to put her under, so i’m here as the transportation provider.

I won’t pretend that i prefer this arrangement more than if our roles were reversed. There is something so creepy about hospitals. The very idea of eating food prepared on these premises is enough to put me off cafeterias in general.

The view is nice enough, but the cafeteria space seems sort of grafted onto the roof in that it doesn’t follow the line of the building. There is 50 feet of roof blocking the view off to my left.

From my current position i’m looking South across the Mississippi River and i94. Minneapolis is thickly treed. It is remarkable to see brick and concrete buildings rising up out of what seems like a rain forest canopy. From street level, where i spend 95% of my time, it seems the trees aren’t quite as dense, but when viewed from the 8th floor of a building sitting on the East Bank of the Mississippi the trees form a carpet extending to the horizon.