Laurel Krahn
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windowseat.bsky.social
Laurel Krahn
@windowseat.bsky.social
Polymath, web pioneer, former 📺 critic, ⚾️ fan, SF fan, fanfic & fanvid fan, disabled, grey-ace, Minnesotan. Masked & vaxxed. Tired. (She/her)
Widow as of 11/12/24 💔
Contact, links, donate: https://linktr.ee/LaurelKrahn
Sports talk: wintwins.bsky.social
Pinned
New pinned post/thread. 🧵

Contact info, wishlist, ways to send support:
linktr.ee/LaurelKrahn

My husband of 19 years @kevingaustin.bsky.social passed away suddenly on 11/11/24; our cats died that year too & my parents in the year before that & it is A LOT. 💔

I do post about other stuff too...
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
NOAA has been depriving us of more incredible folk songs.
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.

The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.

Why?

It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 3:19 AM
These are still available and are great for fall countdown calendars or treat bags to give away on Thanksgiving or whatever.
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Good lord, what was going on in 2014 that I joked about this. (Oh, I guess there were two tiny flashlights in the Advent thing I put together.)
Fiendish idea for next year's advent calendar: different tiny flashlight each day! (Or not. 2 this year so far.)
December 1, 2024 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
I forgot that in 2021 I did a thread to try and keep track of what I put in our Advent calendar that year. The things in addition to candy I suppose.
Our Advent calendar this year is one I put together over the last month. Reusing some drawstring plastic bags that are then placed in a larger open holiday gift bag. We pick bags at random each day.

Plastic bags are like these (got ‘em a couple of years ago):
December 1, 2024 at 4:54 PM
Last year at this time I was super excited because I'd come up with a clever plan so I could wrap reusable sleeves to reuse each year for our media advent calendar where I could slip a standard sized DVD or Blu inside. (I never wrapped a thing after Kevin died.)
I got silver glittery plastic bins from Target that are just the right size for DVDs (or CDs) and then filled them with wrapped DVDs/BluRays/CDs.

Didn’t put numbered stickers on them this year, just going with random choices.
November 11, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Seriously if someone would pay me to put together customized Advent calendars or treat bags I'd probably great with that though the problem is I'm best at this if I know people, you know? I love giving gifts but balk if I don't know the recipient well enough to be sure they'd like the gifts/treats.
November 11, 2025 at 7:34 AM
👀

I love Advent calendars though I'm picky & in recent years was making my own though now that it's just me it seems weird so I was trying to think if there were any I would like so I could have regular little treats/surprises. (I advocate for doing this sort of thing all winter or all year.)
everything is bonkers right now and we need a timeline cleanse. let’s play a game. if I handed you a blank check but you could ONLY spend it on an Advent calendar, what absurdly pricy collection of little treats are you buying yourself?
November 11, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Yup, pretty much sums it up
November 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Hit me up if Joe Mauer ever wants someone to crank out content for him on the internet. Joe-Posting I can do. (I used to think I should try to get a gig with the Twins but I doubt remote work is available.) (Ah well.)
November 11, 2025 at 7:28 AM
I wonder if anyone would pay me to post about nonsense on the internet. I can do that! (The funny thing is though with my mental illness the second someone asks me to do something I probably wouldn't be able to do it.) (heavy sigh.)

seriously though no one has ever paid me to write stuff.
November 11, 2025 at 7:24 AM
If people actually got SNAP automatically Kevin & I would've had SNAP for years instead of never getting it. (A social worker I talked to on Friday says she'll help hook me up when it's possible to do so but who knows I've heard this before.)
November 11, 2025 at 7:16 AM
/sighs in "I'm a Ward 13 resident and I voted Davis - Fateh - Hampton." (I tried.) (Kevin would've too.) (I've been wondering a lot about death rates in wards because I'm morbid lately.)
Final-round Mpls mayor ballots in. Short 🧵:
- Frey won 7 wards, Fateh 6
- Frey won the 5 votingest wards (excluding exhausted ballots) … over *60%* in each. Fateh won next 5 but basically didn’t matter at that point.
- All wards redistricted since ‘21. Still, Ward 6 went from 64% Frey to 72% Fateh!
November 11, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Smith, Klobuchar voted no
More than 15 Senate Democrats join GOP to advance nationwide ban on hemp products, including CBD gummies,
oh the paul amendment is going down 78-22
November 11, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
I’m sort of at the point where if you’re an elected democrat and you vote with republicans on even one issue I will donate to any primary challenger. Shoot, even if you’re friendly to a Republican. The only way forward is aggressive antagonism
November 11, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
On the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald the song is still the worst choice for a lap dance.
November 11, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Edmund Fitzgerald day is good, it’s important for everyone to fear & respect Lake Superior
November 11, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
They say the Edmund Fitzgerald encountered 25-35’ waves on Lake Superior. That’s beyond the big days at most of the top surfing spots in California or Hawaii. Gnarly.
Enjoying everyone (in comments here and elsewhere) finding out this week that the Great Lakes are, in fact, scary big, and just plain scary sometimes.
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.

The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.

Why?

It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
29 bells.
November 10, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
I'll never forget that wicked wind 50 years ago tonight.
I was 14 when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. Here's my perspective on the Fitz storm 50 years later. Just hit play.
#mnwx
www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...
Warming trend: Temperatures heading for the 50s once again this week
Southerly winds this week will push milder air into Minnesota as the week rolls on.
www.mprnews.org
November 11, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
November 11, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Fifty years ago today the gales of November came early. I put a mournful sticker on my car to commemorate the occasion.
November 11, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Because of this, there was increased pressure to improve ship and sailing safety practices and regulations in the wake of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And it's thanks to these changes that we have not lost a single ship to the lakes since that night.
November 11, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Most importantly though, what you need to know is:
1) Between 1875 and 1975 the number of Great Lakes shipwrecks amounted to ONE SHIP PER WEEK FOR AN ENTIRE CENTURY.
2) There has not been a ship lost to the Great Lakes since November 10, 1975.
November 11, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Help me convince @offline.mountainherder.xyz to let me put a bumper sticker on our car, specifically this one
November 11, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Reposted by Laurel Krahn
Not directly related, but every time I see the Edmund Fitzgerald referred to I think of the woman I worked with that thought the Gordon Lightfoot song was, “The Wreck of the Ella Fitzgerald."
November 11, 2025 at 5:22 AM