Well, I am back for another week in the twin cities. Rather than continually rent and return cars, I found it slightly cheaper to rent on the long-term. When you think rugged, versatile, and tough enough to handle the harsh Minnesota winters, you do not think Volkswagen Beetle. Nevertheless, this will be my car for the next month. Those with a keen eye will notice the Georgia plates as well. So not only will I be driving a poorly designed vehicle -- it is also unlikely to have been winterized in any way, shape, or form. Nothing in this vehicle is laid out in a manner that is driver-friendly. Let me roll down the window...oops there go the windshield wipers again. Oops now the radio is scanning. Oops, now the defroster is on full blast and the hood popped open, and I somehow changed the clock. In all honesty though, I spent about 20 minutes fighting with the trunk, which would neither open nor close. I eventually pried it open from the inside by crawling into the truck from the backseat and forcing it out while holding the trunk release button on the remote. After slamming it shut, I'm now afraid to open it ever again. I am sure the Beetle and I will have many more exciting adventures like this in the coming month. I think I shall name it Beulah.
A friend of mine from L.A. was in Minneapolis for business and doing important lawyering stuff, so I thought it might be good to meet up. It was my first true trip to downtown. I soon discovered that the downtown area is canvassed in these things called skyways. And I can't really convey how ridiculous this is until you actually see it. You could walk for miles from building to building without ever setting foot outside. You may be thinking to yourself, "Gosh, that's really neat!" and shortly thereafter you may also think "Holy shit, how bad does the weather in Minneapolis get to justify building skyways around the whole city?!" It is a strange concept. They are not merely walkways from one building to the next. It's an entire city in its own right. If you need to go from your place of work to go pick up a prescription, get a haircut, grab some lunch, deposit a check, meet someone at a convention center, check-in to a hotel, or go shopping, it's all on the skyway level. It's like living in a bubble.
Admittedly, skyways would have sounded nice in D.C. on some of those cold winter days during college, but I think there's something psychologically important about getting outside, even if it is chilly out. There is another Skyway system set up in St Paul as well. This all makes me very nervous. There's no skyway system in D.C. because nobody has ever thought of building one, and so far nobody has died from not having a skyway with the exception of William Henry Harrison. So if
two cities think it's a good idea to have them . . . should I invest in a parka?
