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Continue reading →: Some Hard-hitting Reporting
I’m still up in northern Minnesota after two weeks of working from a campsite, on my way back this weekend. My lawn needed mowing when I left, and I know of no one who might have mowed it. And with the temps falling, it’s time to winterize my camper (until…
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Continue reading →: Exploring Northern Minnesota’s Hogback Lake: A Camping Adventure
I took to the northwoods last weekend, along with thousands, maybe tens of thousands of other Minnesotans. Along the North Shore near the popular and photogenic bear and bean lakes—which, since Instagram, seem to have more traffic than New York City—cars lined up waiting for a turn on the six…
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Continue reading →: Fall Preparations
I planted a couple dozen tulip bulbs today, so that they can be the first things up in the spring and the rabbits can eat them before they bloom, the bastards. When planting tulip bulbs, I kind of feel that quote from Martin Luther, who when asked what he would…
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Continue reading →: Welcome to the Theater of Despair
A couple of weeks ago I got some kind of stomach virus where I was vaguely nauseous, but primarily the bug expressed itself on the other end. And since I work from home, my toilet became my office chair, which led me to contemplate the lack of back support toilets…
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Continue reading →: Why I Chose a Heat Pump Over Traditional Systems
A few months ago, I wrote briefly here about a heat pump that I had installed, a more efficient source of heat than a traditional furnace. The main point of that post was more of a reflection on my severe, sometimes crippling nostalgia, but then a couple weeks ago I…
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Continue reading →: A new poem
I’ve long said that I’m good for about one poem per year, but as the years have gone on it seems more like it’s one about every 18 months. You’d hope with a quantity so low that the quality would be high, but I don’t want to get your hopes…
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Continue reading →: Lake Superior Circle tour, part 3
I left Pancake Bay about 1 p.m. intending to drive 200 miles to Pukaskwa National Park on the north-central shore of Lake Superior. Unlike provincial parks in Ontario, Pukaskwa still has first come, first served spots, but by the time I got there at 6 p.m. everything was booked. Fortunately,…
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Continue reading →: On the Edge of the Drain: Creativity in Waiting
My brain is not exactly overflowing with brilliant ideas*. At times I can be creative, but those times are far, like the sun, and few between, like hair on your balls. In fact I picture what’s happening inside my mind not as an overflowing so much as a kind of…
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Continue reading →: Lake Superior Circle Tour, part 2
Somehow the Lake Superior Circle Tour has been an official thing since the 1960s, but I didn’t know about it. There is, of course, an app, which is how you know things are real, but there’s also a yearly circle tour adventure guide (get it for $6), which not only…
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Continue reading →: Lake Superior Circle Tour, part 1
Ohio and Michigan go to war, I drive around Lake Superior and do dishes. I hadn’t used my camper since I got back March 30 after living and working from it for three months in the southwest. I think I was a little burned out; usually I would have taken…
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Continue reading →: Load Bearing Potato
I’m not great at coming up with creative similes and analogies, though I understand that writers generally should be. I’m also kind of lazy, and since thinking is hard, I found myself the other day underwhelmingly describing (via a text thread to some friends) a beautiful woman I had seen.…
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Continue reading →: I am on the long list of possible VP picks (and so are you)
And these are the top 10 items on my agenda when I take office. Although I am not currently being vetted, I am on the long list of possible VP picks. In the middle of a presidential election of historic proportions, VP picks matter. The outgoing president is very old.…
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Continue reading →: Navigating the Egg Aisle: A Guide to Types of EggsAt the Hy-Vee grocery store near me in Robbinsdale, MN, recently, there were more than a dozen different “kinds” of eggs one could buy, each carton advertising some specific quality you might want in an egg. It was overwhelming. The cheapest were no frills, seemingly brandless “Grade A large white…
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Continue reading →: Help kid be best kid that kid can be
A few diary posts from the last few days… July 7-8 – Help kid be best kid that kid can be Sometimes I think that people have children just to give them something to do. Because after a certain age, it’s hard to think of how to stay busy. So…
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Continue reading →: Crouton Connoisseur: My Epic Salad Failure
Bathe me in A1 and au jus, for I am not a salad eater, though I long to be one. I bought two bags of croutons and three bottles of salad dressing and now the croutons are gone. I bought these items in yet another attempt at becoming a person…
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Continue reading →: Memories of Shitty Cars: From Datsun to Capri
A brief memoir of shitty cars, dangerous drivers, and unbreakable bonds Growing up we always had shitty cars. Dad was a self-taught hobbyist mechanic, mostly out of necessity because my parents didn’t have much money with five kids, but he also had a knack for it and enjoyed figuring things…
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Continue reading →: Could the afterlife just be infinite clapping?
Sometimes I think about the pearly gates. About how, if there is such a thing, maybe when I arrive someday a bunch of people will be there, and as I walk toward them a few will rise and begin clapping, and then a few more, and then hundreds of them,…
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Continue reading →: The Next Frontier in Remote Work: Working from Blimp
I had another commentary in the Star Tribune this week (posted below in case you don’t have a subscription). I think it’s probably a top ten or fifteen for me among the things I’ve written, so I’m glad they published it. I’d titled it “Working from blimp” and ended it…
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Continue reading →: I want to avenge my father’s death, but he is still alive
It feels as though I need an adventure. Some new path to shock me out of this simmering, thickening soup of self. This alway happens. Here is the routine. Here is the comfort in doing the same things. Here is the bubble. Live inside it where the voices of your…
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Continue reading →: The new people
A few weeks ago someone with the Star Tribune wrote to me asking if I’d like to be a more regular contributor to the commentary section of the paper, based, evidently, on my one and only commentary there about the weird lack of winter we had in Minnesota, though it…
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Continue reading →: The Food Pyramid Dilemma: Balancing Enjoyment and Health
This week I saw the dentist, and for some reason—insurance probably, or to make you feel bad about both your teeth and your body—the hygienist took my blood pressure. Then she took it again, and then a third time, and then she said that I should probably call my doctor,…
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Take a break from the chaos and read about my life to feel better about your own.
Hi. I’m Adam Overland, a writer based in Minneapolis. These are the meanderings of my muddled mind. I’ve written humor columns for various print publications, so naturally that’s dead and here I am, waiting for the last gasp.
