(fleeting)

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Last week, I finally made it to Subtext Books in downtown St Paul for the first time. Absolutely one of the best bookstores I’ve ever been to.

Two bookmarks from Subtext Books, one side showing a splattering of black ink, the other side largely blank but labelled Notes; in the center of both, a faint round stamp that reads: Subtext Books Downtown St Paul MN Established 2012

(Original series here, with subsequent discoveries here.)

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I’m going to the Ren Fest today for the first time in over thirty-five years, and possibly only the second or third time ever. This weekend’s theme is, apparently, Oktoberfest and I am told there will be yodelers. I think I’ve just developed an anticipatory hangover.

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I grew up in the ’70s, so I’m having a very hard adjusting to the fact that bald eagle sightings are now a daily occurrence for me.

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A snowy morning, and a snowy day ahead.

predawn view of my backyard with every branch of every tree outlined in snow
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blue sky marbled with high cirrus clouds; the contrail of a transcontinental airplane passing left to right in the lower right; a faint sundog barely visible in the upper left
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Crescent moon through bare branches out my kitchen window this morning, unphotographable.

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A Day in the Life.
14 October 2022, 07:30 CDT.
Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Waking up to the first snow of the season.

the railing and wall of a balcony, and the branches of many trees, all dense with fresh snow
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blue sky with a tiny white cloud in one corner and the yellow leaves of a tree in the other corner
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Do you live in Minnesota? Find out what’s under your house.

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trees in outline against an evening sky
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This morning, I went inside a bookstore for the first time since January 2020. I picked up part of an online order, I browsed, and I bought a few more books. It was almost normal.

Bookmark with a drawing of a stack of books whose titles spell the word tsundoku the flipside of the bookmark showing the definition of the word tsundoku: acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up in one's home. See also smartpiling

And, of course, I grabbed a pinch of bookmarks.

a pile of bookmarks

(Original series here, with subsequent discoveries here.)

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A Day in the Life
Minneapolis, 05:30 CDT

two mugs, coffee grounds, tea tin, sugar jar, notebook & pencil, iphone

How I begin every morning

tea for her

coffee
and the blank page
for me

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Key Master of Brainerd.

A mural on the side of a building for The Current, a Twin Cities radio station: Paul Bunyon standing with a boombox over his head, like Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything. Babe the blue ox is nearby, a radio tower is in the distance
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So sorry that Sixth Chamber closed for good today.

Here are two bookmarks. One is from the mid 90s, the other from the late 90s. These two are from my envelope of on-deck bookmarks. Many more are scattered throughout my library, tucked in books, waiting to be rediscovered.

two bookmarks from Sixth Chamber Used Books in St Paul MN