Just A Peck 0045 // Trolls, Pickles, Fasts
Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here!
JOURNAL
Our construction project, now in its fifth month, is nearing completion. When the glass was replaced with actual windows, they were unable to tint them to match the previous windows, which wouldn’t normally be a big deal, but all of the remaining original glass is still tinted. It turns out that matching tint to windows that were dyed twenty-five years ago is impossible, so the tint guys got as close as they could.
Jody and I spent an afternoon exploring the Knife River Folk Trail. Some really spectacular views and lots of troll-sign. We didn’t spot any actual trolls, but we did see some deer, and I fed a carrot to one of the troll’s horses.
I passed Day 100 of my 250-day intermittent fasting and calorie tracking challenge! Almost halfway!
Duluth not only hit 70 for the first time in 2026 on Friday, but it also hit 80! I went to a lovely “It Hit 70” gathering with some friends, but neglected to take any photos.
Our friend Audrey is heading to grad school out of state and threw a Pickle Ball (her school’s mascot is a fighting pickle). Kaylee and I dressed up and had a fun night watching a pickle-themed fashion show, a blind brine tasting, and a silent auction. (I won a cool comedy/drama fire poker!)
One of the silver linings of this insane house repair is that I have a full wall in the garage I can use to build a little workshop. This week an electrician wired the wall for power and added garage lights. I also spent a lot of time disassembling a set of old repurposed kitchen cabinets that were a junky stand-in for garage storage and setting up a couple of wheeled tool storage units that will eventually fit under the workbench.
WHAT I WATCHED THIS WEEK
WHAT I READ THIS WEEK
In Progress:
- Babel, Kuang
- Gödel, Escher, Bach, Hofstadter
- Hollywood: The Oral History, Basinger, Wasson
MEMORIES
Five Years Ago:
Spencer was in the Duluth Playhouse production of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, which had access to the rabbits from the original production. It was one of the first post-pandemic Playhouse productions, and audiences still needed to be masked.
QUICK LINKS
- The Guardian's updated 100 best novels of all time. (Middlemarch is #1!)
- The Hindenburg's smoking room
- The Computer Hobby Movement in Canada
- Wikipedia as a Windows XP desktop
- PBS North on Kyle Orla
- What childhood folklore did you learn as a kid?
- The Duluth summer weekend guide 2026
- Sounds of the 60s: The IBM 1401
- Tristan Davey's Punch Card Archive
- Search for your next book by mood instead of genre
WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT
I finally gave in and picked up Mothership, a sci-fi/horror TTRPG (think Alien), and a bunch of modules. I’m excited to dig into this and start planning a campaign.
MY FAVORITE POEM OF THE WEEK
The Raincoat
When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me
to massage therapy, deep tissue work,
osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine
unspooled a bit, I could breathe again,
and move more in a body unclouded
by pain. My mom would tell me to sing
songs to her the whole forty-five minute
drive to Middle Two Rock Road and forty-
five minutes back from physical therapy.
She’d say, even my voice sounded unfettered
by my spine afterward. So I sang and sang,
because I thought she liked it. I never
asked her what she gave up to drive me,
or how her day was before this chore. Today,
at her age, I was driving myself home from yet
another spine appointment, singing along
to some maudlin but solid song on the radio,
and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.
— Ada Limón, "The Raincoat" (in honor of Mother's Day)
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!