On the Road Again

We'll have to look up the words to , "On the Road Again," because all we know is that title sentence and there must be more. But it felt good to start the trip after all the packing, planning and pondering - the three "p's" of preparation. We drove 554 miles today. It was 87 at one point and then rainy and in the sixties later. I prefer the sixties. We traversed Wisconsin and Minnesota and marvelled at the valleys and glens, bluffs and woods. I love to look at the farms and try to imagine who lives there and what stories they have to share. Every little town has a cemetery and you know there's a story at every grave. The Mississippi river itself could cough up thousands of stories at every crossing. The pix show a bridge over the Missis at Wabasha, Mn, the backwaters of the Missis and a sunset in South Dakota.

A Happy Adventure

On this 40th anniversary of our first son's birth, we're setting off on a happy happy trip out to meet the newborn son of our second son. Looking back forty years we couldn't have imagined all the events that have filled our lives. And now, we've packed up all our cares and woes and stuffed the truck and camper with clothes and food and busy little projects and we'll travel across this amazing nation. Forty years ago traveling with a machine that can keep us in touch with the whole world would have been unthinkable and now we've packed two of them. We have this laptop computer with us and a TracFone.- holey moley Batman, we are totally cool! We always start our trips with Bing behind the wheel in his cowboy hat singing, "On the Road Again"

--so, here we go!!

A Child is Born

I don't know the statistics. But I would guess that a child is born somewhere in this world, every minute of every day. It means so little until that child is yours. And then, it means the world to you. That little person is suddenly your reason for living, your purpose in life. All your life experiences and the thousands of little lessons you have amassed will go toward keeping your child safe and healthy - healthy in mind, body and emotions. I read a book called, "Embraced by the Light", and in one of the chapters the author describes how the souls in Heaven await their time to be born on Earth with great joy. The souls in Heaven who know the soul about to be birthed are so happy and excited for that soul and I always picture my deceased Mom and Dad and all the relatives that have passed on, cheering when we add another soul to our family. Our second son and his wife are now new parents and they are embarking on that wondrous and awesome journey where their souls are forever entwined with their little one's soul. I won't mention the name of the cutie pie because there are so many scary warnings about things that fiends can do with information from the internet, but they have given him a beautiful and strong name and have honored one who has gone before him in the wife's family. May their parenting be filled with love, joy and loads of common sense.

Spring Flowers on Our Property

A visit by our Green Bay loved ones and some needed rain brought out the blossoms. It's a wondrous time of year as nature awakens!

Busy Times and Magical Rain

Our area of Wisconsin's northwoods has been in severe drought for five years and when we get rain now, it's an occasion to cheer. We finally logged over a half inch today and it was such a relief to see the dusty ground soak up the water. This will bring out the leaves and blossoms and buds that have been in a holding pattern for over a month even though we've had beautifully warm weather. The pictures show rain on the deck, Bing working with the wood splitter to get the wood supply for 2012/13 ready to dry, the new used boat we've bought, the muck bucket process that Tony and Bing are using to get muck out of the channel.

Forgot the Pictures

Well, here are the pictures from the last posting.

Visiting the Elders

We took a little trip this week. We headed to Minneapolis to do a little visiting with Bing's mom, 97, and his Uncle Ray, 93. Bing's sister, Sue, and her husband, Dan, live there too so we spent some time with them. Sue has that artistic gene, like her Uncle Ray, so she has the prettiest front yard in the whole neighborhood. She's had awards from the city the last few years for her displays........Their metropolitan area has broadband so we continued our experiment with the laptop, trying to figure out how to get internet access before we go atraveling this summer. But no such luck. This time we were able to get a good signal right in the parking lot pf Grandma Milli's apartment building but still couldn't figure out how to access the internet. I was going to try to send the accompanying pictures right from there but instead I'm writing this back home.............We did bring the laptop into Uncle Ray's nursing home and showed him some family pictures that he enjoyed. He's pretty frail and in pain now and needs long term care. Plans are in the works to empty his house and sell it and his belongings. He says he's ready to meet Jesus and that he is really appreciative of all the care and support he receives from his two nieces and one nephew who live nearby. Bing and Dan and John looked at several nursing homes and decided on one where he will have his own room and bathroom and enough space to display some of his artwork. He still loves to sketch and we saw some beautiful pencil portraits that he had done on regular printer paper - if only that talent could be bottled and somehow applied to others................Milli is still doing fine in her apartment and so appreciative that she still has the quality of life she has........Sue, Bing, Milli and I spent several hours in the casino on Wednesday but Sue and I were the only winners - about thirty dollars each.