A Shoulder to Stand On
Posted at 5:55 AM on July 14, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(22 Comments)
Day two of the Great Staycation is full of fun and relaxation.
Spending time with friends is one benefit of an at-home vacation. And if you can enlist them in your schemes, it's possible to do things during a staycation that are out of the question during normal times when everyone is so busy.
Like making a living replica of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
And to do it ON the Hennepin Avenue Bridge is simply delightful, no matter what those people honking their horns have to say about it. Of course they're cranky - they're going to work and we're enjoying the company of friends.
Honestly, there are moments in the middle of something like this when you turn to your pals and say "This is so much FUN! Why don't we do this every day?"
Even in our most relaxing moments, we are at our best when we realize that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
And speaking of standing on the shoulders of giants, even though I'm not actually at work today, I am able to offer you (with the assistance of producer Mike Pengra and online producer Julia Schrenkler, an opportunity to win some tickets to see Arlo Guthrie at the Fitzgerald Theater this Thursday night.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
We'll take names until 1pm Wednesday afternoon.
Good luck, everyone, and don't look down!
What was the last surprising feat you accomplished with a little help from your friends?
Comments (22)
Also, in honor of Woody Guthrie's birthday today (he would have been 97), we're going to feature the interview we did last week with Charlie Maguire, Pop Wagner and Tony Glover, who will be doing a Guthrie tribute show tonight at the Ginkgo Coffeehouse in St. Paul. Stay tuned!
Good Morning!
This morning's opening set was the most brilliant sequence you have yet done and that is a very high bar to exceed! Thanks, I'd say the staycation is working well from this end.
Have a Terrific Tuesday everyone!
Good morning, all.
Will anyone be tuning in to the Tour de France on this 14th of July? :-)
Man, what a creative force this radioheartland is! And what an outstanding use of friends!
My friends and I haven't really accomplished much, but we certainly have lots of laughs and fun, proving my theory that friends are the frosting on the bread of life....
Of course it's the friends of RH that make it happen!
I live in a small town in Southern MN. We aren't likely to do any unusual things here. The town does have an annual appleskiver dinner to support the volunteer fire department. This is about as unusual as it gets here.
The appleskivers are a Danish tradition and just seem to be a pancake that is some how made into a ball shape about as big as a baseball. They don't taste like chicken.
Morning everyone! Enjoy every second of your Staycation, Dale.
I am at the cabin for a a few days. Since this is an old and needy structure, there always seems to be some surprising feat that needs accomplishing. One recent event was digging a 4 ft deep X 1 ft wide X 20 ft long trench for a water/sewer line. Somehow digging a ditch doesn't present as dramatic and spectacular a picture as a human Hennepin Avenue Bridge, but we were pretty ecstatic at its completion : )
Speaking of what friends can do with and for each other, Pop Wagner reports that through his fundraiser/birthday party held recently at the Mpls. Eagles Club, he made enough money to pay his medical expenses. Pop says, "I am so very thankful for the community ... a better word might be extended family (of which all of you are important members), that came forward to help .... I am indeed very fortunate. I could just about feel the bones healing from all the love and goodwill comming my way."
Wow, a really great show today, my friends. Thank You!!!
happy birthday, Woody. wow - i'd sure love to go down to hear Arlo - have a good time, you folks that manage to get there!
Teri, that's just too much work to call a "staycation" but i hear that cabins require that - working the whole time you're there.
i'm looking forward to a day of being home, watching Dodger and Alba fight over that little, teeny hill, and maybe - just maybe - some RAIN tonight!!
Great show! I've always been a Woody Guthrie fan, as well as an Arlo Guthrie fan. If I could make it to St. Paul tonight, I would definitely be at the Gingko coffeehouse :) While I would love to go the Arlo concert on Thursday, there's just no way I could take more time off work. He is a great live performer! I went to see him when he came up to Calumet a couple of years ago. It was fantastic!
watch it dale. if you can do this on a staycation you can do it form anywhere. now mike pengra knows all he has to do is upload your feed from wherever. you can broadcast from your living room or the other side of the world. thats the good news/bad news about technology.
thanks for choosing to spend you vacation with us. its nice to hear you doing the woody tribute with the boys. i think i will try to get over to the ginko tonight.
Tim, I think Dale is broadcasting prerecorded and is not live from his home. He's just recorded it so that it seems like it is live. I don't know what that tells us, if I have it right. I guess it tells us that Dale is good at faking things. I mean that a compilment and I'm glad he can do it.
So Dale works extra hard for some unspecified about of time choosing play lists, recording lead ins and lead outs (?) for songs, telling computer what's his name what to play, and getting Mike to hang around and play the right tracks, writing blog entries, and then Dale gets to go home and stay there for a few days?
I think he'd need a few days just to recover.
I'm glad he gets time off, but it begins to sound like the times I'd go teach when I was feeling yuckie (not contagious) because it was easier than preparing for and prepping a substitute.
Gus now has some experience running a radio show, couldn't he step in and help Mike keep the show going?
I just got BACK from a stay-cation. Turned off the computer and the tv for the week as well, although I did listen to the show every morning while puttering around the house. Did a lot of cooking/preserving. Ate my first salad of greens and peppers from my own little potted garden. Did one full day by myself at the zoo... saw the bird show twice!! Couple of evenings on the patio w/ friends/neighbors. Fab.
So enjoy Dale...
And, hi to all you Heartlanders!
I bet Dale is checking the blog from home though. I always check the blog but rarely chime in any more...pretty busy work days lately.
gotta go.......
Welcome back Sherrilee! I admire your discipline to deprive yourself of computer and TV. Were you born tenacious?
Last March, when Lora told me she was abstaining from alcohol for lent, and I said, "I suppose I could give up the blog," she laughed at me saying, "No you couldn't!", so I nixed that idea and gave up listening to Rush Limbaugh instead.
Donna - I probably would not have put "tenacious" on a list of ten words describing myself, except that now that you mention it, I am a "icing-last" kind of person. I will always do the nasty job first to get it out of the way and save the icing for last! So I guess I AM tenacious. Thanks!!!
Maybe I chose the wrong word, Sherrilee. Dictionary.com lists these synonyms for tenacious:
bullheaded
dogged
hardheaded
headstrong
mulish
pertinacious
perverse
pigheaded
stiff-necked
willful
clinging
fast
I was only trying to say you were strong. :)
Donna - I think "tenacious" is fine. I love being able to see myself in new ways... from other folks' perspectives. THANKS!
There's a feature on our website for the Woody Guthrie tribute interview (Charlie Maguire, Pop Wagner and Tony Glover) that we aired Saturday and again today.
Here it is, if you missed it:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/07/09/guthrie_tribute/
Sherilee -- there's a bird show at the Zoo??
A feat accomplished with friends: (in this case, relatives...)For several years we organized a house and yard clean-up party at Grandma's -- all the aunts and uncles and cousins. While there, we all say "Wow, we should do this at my house, too." But we've yet to get that organized.
16 dozen deviled eggs...A recent trip to help friends marry off their daughter with dinner for 175+ and no caterer. Although there were many other parts of the meal, I was most proud of the fact that we could devil that many eggs together and still be speaking at the end!
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