Visit to Nashville

With a UHaul trailer in tow and full of furniture and belongings for Jessica, we drove to Nashville a week ago today. We came home again on Saturday. In between, we caught up with the newly engaged couple, got to see their new house, enjoyed a nice dinner that they treated us to, and helped them with several "new house projects." This included plantings in the yard, curtains in several of their rooms, and the addition of a railing to the front porch of their house. Jessica supervised the construction. She had to work until 2:30AM (closing the restaurant where she works), so she was entitled to a slow start each morning.


Some calculations were involved.


Jessica's cat, Ozzie, watched from the front windows, always looking for an opportunity to sneak outside. Josey watched from the fenced-in back yard (when she wasn't barking at and playing with the neighbors' dogs).



Here is the finished product together with the wicker furniture we donated to Jessica and Mike.


Below are "before" and "after" pictures of the house. The "before" picture was a realtor's shot. The "after" picture shows the new porch railing and the improvement that the plantings made. Kathie dug up a number of plants from our yard and took them along, and they really dressed up the house.



Here are Jess and Mike posing for us the morning we left to drive home. Then there is another shot of Jess with us.

The New Dental Hygienist

Niece Kris graduated from the College of DuPage last week and is now an official, professional dental hygienist. We were pleased to be able to attend the pinning ceremony, which was held the evening prior to the next day's graduation exercises. Below you can see Kris (tan suit; cranberry blouse) along with her classmates.


Speeches were given by program administrators and the college president.



Here is Kris receiving her pin. The next photo shows her receiving a corporate-sponsored award for best demonstration of care for patients. Following that, you can see Kris reciting a professional pledge.




Here are all of the family members who were present, followed by a shot of Kris showing off her new pin.



I thought the following three pictures were especially nice ones: Kris with her grandmother, with her friend Tom, and with her immediate family members. Everyone was very proud, of course. All best wishes and good luck to you, Kris!!

Playground and Gymnastics

Having fallen behind on my postings, let me report on the day before we started rebuilding Betsy and Pete's porch. Because I had a pickup full of flower boxes and tools, I drove over early to deliver these things and to spend a little time with the grandkids. (Later in the day, we attended Kris's graduation. More on that in the next posting.)

Henry is enrolled in a gymnastics class, as you may know. We arrived a bit early, so there was time for Henry to try out some of the playground equipment.



Clara watched and smiled. I think that little girl must smile 90% of the time! Life must be good for her.


Gymnastics begins with the required stretching.


Clara continued to smile.


Meanwhile, the gymnastics students worked through their exercises. You may notice that not all of them, including Henry, were at all times focused on the teacher's instructions. Betsy says that it must be a little like herding puppies.


Nevertheless, when the class was over, everyone got a sticker and hand stamps. Henry asked for an extra one near his belly button, and I think he was most proud of it.

Hey, Henry! Guess What? Bear Butt!

My oldest son has taught my only grandson (so far) to giggle at the thought of various butts. As a "bad" grandfather, I've been adding to the problem, I'm sure with some disgruntlement on Henry's mother's part. (I've been trying to gruntle her, but no luck so far.) Nevertheless, I wanted Henry to know about this departing bear. It isn't a very good picture---the critter just wouldn't hold still for me. The last night that we spent at the lake (about a week ago), I was sitting in the living room, while Kathie was downstairs playing pinball. I looked out our front screen door to see a bear walking by. This is our confirmed first experience of a bear on our property. I called to Kathie, so that she would not miss the event, grabbed my camera, and ran outside to try to get pictures. Of course, the bear wouldn't stand still long enough for me to focus and shoot a decent picture. So, all I got was this departing bear butt, blurry at that. So, Henry! Guess what? Bear butt!

Boom!

My sister recently loaned me her copy of Tom Brokaw's latest book, entitled Boom! I like Brokaw to begin with, and I very much liked his book, The Greatest Generation. So, I anticipated that this one would be good too. "Good" would be an understatement, at least from my biased point of view. The book is mostly about the 60's, with Brokaw concentrating on 1968-1973. I like to think I was greatly influenced by the 60's, although some say that if you can remember the 60's you really weren't there. I finished my MS in 1968 and started working at the UI that year. My first child, Will, was born in 1968 (sadly, the very same day we lost Martin Luther King). Will is really the only reason I escaped being drafted into the Army that year. Boom! chronicles, through interviews and Brokaw's own personal reflections, issues surrounding the Viet Nam war, civil rights, women's rights, politics, and the cultural revolutions of the times. Those times and our present times have many parallels, especially that of engaging in a morally wrong war based on lies and failed policy. The difference now is that, comparatively, there seems to be so little public outcry. Will we ever learn?

I highly recommend this book to you. For my kids, I think I'll make it assigned reading. And, there will be a quiz!

Happy Mothers Day!

Today is a good day to remember someone for whom being a mother seemed to come quite naturally. All the good things that can be said about mothers can be said about mine. There was never a question about her being ready to love us, help us, or nurture us. She and Dad may have had Republican, even conservative, tendencies, but somehow they raised a couple of Democrats, who, I like to believe, have open, tolerant, thoughtful stakes in life. Thanks, Mom (and Dad) for that, and a very happy Mothers Day, Mom!


I've wanted for a long time to share this fun old picture that I found of mother. On the back it says, "Honora at Lend-A-Hand." What was she thinking? You've got to love her smile!


Finally, the day would be incomplete without my acknowledging the other wonderful women in my life who are special mothers. One is my darling spouse, and the other is her mother, who has also been a sweet mother to me for these past almost 20 years. Happy Mothers Day to them both!

Bird Convention

Regular readers of this blog may tire of my frequent posting of images from our bird feeders, but it is hard for us to tire of the activity there, especially this time of year. During the past ten days, we have enjoyed growth in both the number and variety of birds visiting us. Maybe some of this is due to migration, or maybe it is due to the birds simply finding our feeders. In any event, it has been fun. I have lost track of the total number of species we have seen. Not pictured here, but seen at the feeders, have been: grackles, nuthatches, chickadees, hairy woodpeckers, white-throated sparrows, and goldfinches. There are probably others that I've overlooked. Then, on the water, we have seen loons, wood ducks, mallards, and others. Kathie and I can't resist taking the following pictures nor sharing them with you. You probably know that you can click on these pictures to see a larger image. Then use your "Back" button to come back to this page.

We start with a rose-breasted grosbeak. In Iowa, we feel lucky to see these once or twice during the spring. Here, they are around daily.


Never on the feeder itself, this robin (the same one nesting below our deck) does spend time on the ground just below the feeder.


Next is a purple finch. These birds and their mates spend lots of time directly on the feeders, unless chased away by more aggressive birds.


Lots of blue jays have been around. I have seen as many eight at one time on the ground beneath the feeders. They also visit the feeder itself, tending to take a seed or two away to a branch, where it can be picked apart and eaten.


Below is an evening grosbeak and its mate. They are not as brightly colored as they will be later in the season. We love these yellow and black birds, as well as the many goldfinches we see.


Finally (at least for this time around), here is a baltimore oriole. We don't have any oranges out for them, but they seem to be attracted by the activity of the other birds, and maybe they are eating some of the seeds too.

Events at the Lake

The fishing score is now officially: Kathie 4, Bill 2. Note the very nice, personalized fishing rod that friends in the UI Graduate College gave me when I retired. It says, "To Wild Bill From the GC." I love it!


All kinds of interesting things are starting to bud, leaf out, and grow. This fungus was unusually pretty, we thought.


Every spring, this support beam under the deck of our lake house becomes home to at least one robin and sometimes two. I got this shot out the lower level back window. She is so skittish that whenever we go anywhere near the back yard or step onto the deck, she flies away. Maybe when we go home for a couple of weeks, she can complete the hatching and get the little ones launched.

Guess Who's Engaged!!

We had an extra nice May Day surprise. Jessica called to tell us that on April 30th, after she and Mike closed on their new house and moved in, Mike surprised her with an engagement ring and a proposal. We couldn't be happier! Mike is a great guy. Besides, it is always helpful to have another cook in the family!

Here are two pictures I have of them from past fun times. The first was on the occasion of their cooking a special dinner for us and a group of our best friends. The second was taken on Cherokee Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, when the four of us were out for an adventure. Don't they look great together?

Kathie Breaks the Ice

Kathie catches the first fish of the season! In fact, she caught four, one walleye, one perch, and two bass. I, on the other hand, caught zip, zero, nada, zilch, nothing. Some days are like that.

P.S. No fish were harmed in the making of this blog posting.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Today is the opening of fishing season. We awoke to falling snow, which persisted until about 9:30AM. Even with that, lots of boats were out in pursuit of whatever might be biting. We, on the other hand, spent our morning putting our dock and boat lift back in the water. Two of our neighbors agreed to come and give us a hand. First, we all donned our chest waders. The lake water is only about 45 degrees! In fact, there is still some ice out in the largest open bodies of water on the flowage, so getting wet was not in our plans.


The outer section of the dock is on wheels, so we rolled it out, attempting to get it reasonably well aligned with the steps. Then we adjusted the two stands on the shore end of the section.




Next comes the platform that lies between the outer dock section and the shore, where it nestles up under the bottom of the steps.


After the dock was in place, the boat lift was to be moved down next to the dock. Evidently, Josey decided to watch this step from a place of safety.


The lift was rolled down to the water. Then its wheels were removed and its stands were bolted into place, after which the lift was positioned near the dock but well out into the lake.




Here we all are, Nate, me, and Brian, after a job well done. Thanks so much for your help, guys!!