Life In Duluth
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"The time that you enjoy wasting....is not wasted time"What's New Here?Oh no, not another blog! Oh yes...replacing the old Journal (which was only posted to on rare occasions during the past five years) is my personal blog.A review of our recently finished trip to Hawai`i is now online, along with over 100 pics! What's On This Site?A brief description of the links in the left frame:
About Where I LiveDuluth, Minnesota sits at the western tip of Lake Superior, the largest fresh-water lake in the world. It's a fairly small city, with just over 80,000 residents claiming it as home. Another 20,000+ live on the other side of St. Louis Bay in Superior, Wisconsin. Together, these two cities are known as the Twin Ports.Duluth is marked by two major geographical features. The first, of course, is Lake Superior, and the second are the hills that overlook the city. If you ever get the chance to visit our city, a drive along Skyline Drive is a must. The majority of this scenic road overlooks the city, affording you the best opportunity to view the area. It is a city that has made the transition from being a manufacturing city to a city based more on tourism than anything else. Major industry departed Duluth during the 1970's, mostly; U.S. Steel being the primary loss. Having an economy based on tourism has it's advantages and disadvantages. Those of us who live here believe the advantages carry far more weight. The absence of industry (with the main exception being StoraEnso, formerly better known as Lake Superior Paper Industries) has also led to the absence of pollution. Duluth is simply an easier place to breathe the air than it used to be! Now for the downside; the climate. You'll not find palm trees, and if you can't handle a little -30 weather from time to time, then Duluth is not for you. On the other side of the coin (there are nearly always two sides), we get a reprieve from the roasting heat that most other folks encounter every summer. Ninety degree days are very rare here. The big lake (like it or not) provides additional relief during the summer months. An east or southeast wind will invariably mean that the temp near the lake (where most of us in Duluth live) will be 50-60, while at the same time it'll be 80-90 up over the hill. The difference is that extreme. We don't suffer from the major crime which plagues other larger cities such as Minneapolis. We don't have to fight out way through bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic for an hour (or more) each day just to get to work. I could go on and on about the benefits (and drawbacks) about living in Duluth, but instead.......me thinks I'll just put forth a little list.
A Little About MyselfBeing in my forties, I find, through a shift in perception, one main advantage. A lot of how you feel comes down to perception in the end run. Instead of feeling old for someone in his 30's, I now feel young for someone in his 40's. See how simply that works?I've had the privilege of calling Duluth home for my entire life, and it likely always will be, at least until I retire. No other place has been my home, and it's highly unlikely any other place ever will. I went through the wanderlust phase during my late teens and early 20's; Mpls-St. Paul was one place I once wanted to live. Happily, I didn't follow through on that inkling. Phoenix was considered as a destination after visiting there in 1987. Turns out.....I would miss the snow and the cold! Go figure. I've been employed by a local government agency since 1981. This was not intended to be a career, and I still don't know if you could call it that. A supervisor who was able to put where I work into perspective said a few years ago "this is just a place to spend time between weekends". Working there, for lack of a better, more noble purpose, is what I do to make doing the things I enjoy doing away from there possible. What do I like? Computers are one obvious answer. In May 1992, I purchased my first computer; a CompuAdd 386 33 mhz with a 120 meg hard drive (remember back when 120 megs was enough??). Using this computer, I found the online world through Prodigy Services. Prodigy also allowed my first exposure to something in late 1995 that led to some pretty interesting experiences. That "something" was Prodigy Chat, or more precisely, Prodigy Pseudo Chat. It held my attention for nearly two years, until early August 1997. After that, I moved on to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) for various reasons. Specifically, I saw Prodigy Pseudo Chat in a major decline (I wasn't wrong on this; Prodigy Classic dissolved a year later). I also believed that Prodigy has always intended for it's Prodigy Internet service to be it's solo offering; the days of Prodigy Classic (and it's proprietary Chat areas) were numbered. It was fun, for the most part, but most good things end eventually. It was time for my involvement in Prodigy Chat to come to an end. IRC was simply better. Where else can you jump into a channel with 500 other people?? Or click on a wav (or mp3) and download it in real time? Other Sundry StuffOkay, there are a few non-puter related things that actually hold my interest from time to time. A huge interest of mine is high-school hockey. You can check out my tribute to this by clicking the Minnesota High School Hockey link in the left frame.My wife and I love to travel...I know few people who don't! We discovered our paradise during our wedding/honeymoon trip in February 1996, on the island of Maui. Combining incredible beauty from the sands of Kaanapali to the rain forest leading to Hana, and especially the crater of Haleakala, with weather that makes us yearn for a return trip whenever the temperature falls below 30 here (which is six months of the year), we will never forget Maui even if we never return there. Since I work for a governmental agency, I have an interest in they are doing on the WWW these days. The State Of Minnesota has a very extensive site. I haven't spent much time plowing through everything there, but it has plenty of information to digest. What I didn't notice and would like to see a lot more of pertains to Minnesota history. Perhaps if anyone out there has a good link to share with me....I'd appreciate it! A huge reason I'm able to have a home page (not to mention being alive today to begin with) is because of the wonderful fellowship I found in Alcoholics Anonymous in 1982. They were able to help stop the downward slide in my life when will power was useless. I'll be forever indebted to the countless folks who gave so much so selflessly, and continue to do so today. While we're on the subject of drugs, is anyone out there contemplating quitting smoking? If so, or even if you're just a little bit curious, check out The AS3 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). "AS3" stands for alt.support.stop-smoking; I highly recommend this newsgroup to anybody considering making what could be a life-saving choice. It could make the difference between quitting and "well, I'm thinking of it". If you have quit, no matter how long you've stayed quit, no matter how difficult or easy it's going for you, you'll find people whom have experienced the same struggles. Feel free to lurk, or actively post! I know of more than one person who has stated this newsgroup was the difference between staying quit and resuming smoking when the going got tough. I was very impressed by the amount of good information the FAQ contains. It covers several methods of quitting; it also answers many common questions pertaining to quitting smoking with various quotes from folks who have walked down this path towards freeing themselves from what I believe to be the most difficult addiction there is to overcome. Thanks for stopping by! |