Today is not a good day for a picnic in Minnesota; the wind chill temperature at noon is 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Public Service Announcement: remember to regularly empty your wet/dry vacuum and clean your filter. Otherwise you’ll end up with a mess like this.

Trying out the inherited snow roof rake. The fifteen feet of extensions reached even the furthest leaves. This is our first Minnesota house and I plan to be extra vigilant protecting the roof from the mysterious (to me anyway) ice dams.

Suburban Dad looks so stoked to be able to get his decorative post firmly planted in his front yard.

“Set Posts Without Mixing!”

The abandoned woodlot trailer; a native species of Minnesota.

We both needed a break after spending most of the day catching up on the post-vacation email backlog.

Time on the beach with a stoked dog makes up for the lack of any surfable waves.

Completed a bucket list hike today

Franklin Trail from Carpinteria to Culbertson Crest (and back)

I am happy to report that I am still physically able to, and still very much enjoy, walking up and down dry, dusty, chaparral-covered hills.

The invitation to submit your photo documenting the vegetation recovery after the May 2013 fire is a nice touch and hopefully engages visitors in the health of the park.

(I hiked the park about a month after that fire; much of it was a smoky, barren landscape. This is my first time here since then and it’s heartening to see so much regrowth.)

Big Sycamore Canyon, Point Mugu State Park

What’s your definition of “home” town?

Is it the town you grew up in, or the town you enjoyed living in the most, the town you are currently living in, or something else? (Maybe they’re all the same.)

Today, I’m visiting the first definition.

Veterans Parkway, Manhattan Beach, California

Welcome to Monday. First commute in below-freezing temperatures this season.

Catching up on @macgenie’s photoblog challenge…

Technically not a lot of movement at this exact moment, but it took some movement to get myself in place for a early-evening, post-work, nap on Wirth Lake, Minneapolis.

I’m a little late to the party, so here’s my day 1 (patience) contribution to @macgenie’s photo challenge. Here I’m waiting for a very slow train to go by on my morning commute. I bike a little over 12 miles and this train crossing is less than a quarter mile from my workplace. I get stuck here about once a week, so I pass the time by taking photos of whatever is (slowly) rolling by.

When I was a kid in Southern California we would endlessly practice making what we called the Surfer ’S’ on our Pee Chee folders. This one is on the Minneapolis Midtown Greenway.

Searching for muskrats and other smelly things with Ollie the Dog at Bde Maka Ska.

Celebrated Fathers Day at the local bingo hall with my spouse’s parents. This takes way more concentration than I remembered.

The colors of the rental kayaks on Bde Maka Ska remind me of summertime snow-cones. A nice walk with Ollie the Dog to start a Sunday.