The northern states seem to have only two seasons annually: winter and road construction. Ted and I hit a lot of road construction on our way from visiting Ted’s brother to seeing our grandson in Rockford, IL. As a result, we arrived about an hour later than we’d planned. It was fun to see Sky’s Star Wars-themed apartment. If there’s Star Wars merch, Sky (named Anakin Sky) probably has it. Ted took a picture of Sky and me. Check out the coffee table–and underneath the coffee table–and the helmet on the right. And this was just the beginning of the themed décor.

We had a nice visit with Sky and then went out for dinner together and visited some more. We arrived later than we’d expected, and stayed longer than we’d expected, so it’s all good. I love having independent adult grandchildren who stay in touch and welcome visits from Grandma and Grandpa.

After dinner with Sky, Ted and I headed for I-39 and home. At a rest stop, we saw this truck with a very long load. The big question: How does it turn corners? Surely it needs an escort vehicle.

When we arrived at home, the first thing we saw was a pretty “Welcome home” garden bouquet from Kari.

As I was putting away our “real” Wisconsin cheese, there were more welcome home items. We didn’t have to go to the grocery store first thing in the morning–we had hamburger for our hard rolls, bread and fruit for lunch, cookies for fun, and milk to go with them.

You know you did more right than wrong when you were raising your kids when they grow up to be as thoughtful as this. It was wonderful to spend time with some of our friends and family, and it was good to be home again. Long live the American road trip!

When Ted and I visited Jeff and La in El Centro, CA last spring, we saw what used to be the World’s Tallest Flagpole in Calipatria, CA. A little while after that, I accidentally learned that the tallest freestanding flagpole in North America is now on the Acuity Insurance campus near Sheboygan, WI–right along our route to visit Ted’s brother.

Calipatria is 184 feet below sea level, and its flagpole is 184 feet tall, so the top of the flagpole is at sea level. The flagpole on the Acuity Insurance campus, dedicated in June 2014, is 400 feet tall. It is billed as the World’s Tallest Symbol of Freedom. (The tallest freestanding flagpole in the world is in Cairo, Egypt.) The flagpole is anchored in 680 cubic feet of concrete reinforced with steel rods and weighs 420,000 pounds. The flag is 70 feet by 140 feet (9,800 square feet) and weighs 250 pounds. Each stripe is over 5 feet high, and each star is over 3 feet across. While driving on I-43, you can see the flag for about 10 minutes before you reach the site. At least 5 people are needed to safely lower the flag and to keep it from touching the ground. Acuity keeps six flags on hand at any given time.

Ok, been there, seen that.

We continued on to Ted’s brother’s home and spent several days visiting with him. You probably have to be from Wisconsin to know how to play sheephead, and you’d have to be a member of our family to know that I’m a pretty decent player, but I get a greatly unfair number of horrible hands dealt to me, and I usually lose. Well, this time was different! On our first evening together, I was the big winner! I had at least one queen in every hand, and several hands with three or four queens. Awesome! It’s almost embarrassing that it’s so rare for this to happen to me that Ted felt the need to immediately text the kids to let them know that I was the winner. Also, maybe embarrassing that they were probably all surprised. I guess I proved it could be done–just not very often. Things evened out, which is good. Ted won on the second evening, and Gary won on the third evening.

In addition to playing cards, we also spent time in conversation and exchanging/sharing family news. For meals, we visited some of our favorite restaurants in the area. Here’s a photo of the brothers.

Of course, Ted and I took time to pick up some real cheese from a local cheese factory (enough of Missouri’s grocery store cheese!) and some of our favorite pastries and hard rolls from a local bakery.

Again, you might have to be from Wisconsin to know what “hard rolls” are. When Ted and I lived in Maryland, we asked bakeries and grocery stores for hard rolls. Most just said, “No, we don’t have them,” but one grocer told us he thought they had some buns left from the day before, if we wanted them. Let me just say that “hard” is not equivalent to “stale.” In fact, the rolls are quite soft, so I don’t know where the name came from. They are made without eggs and become stale (hard?) very quickly, but they are perfect with hamburgers.

The next morning, we packed our luggage and bakery into the car and met Gary for one more lunch together. We all ordered breakfast, and it was delicious, as usual.

On the way out of the restaurant, I noticed this decorated tree in the lobby. It looks fall-themed, so I’m guessing they let it stand in the corner all year and change the decorations seasonally.

After our lunchtime breakfast, Ted and I headed south toward our home and Gary went north toward his. We had another good family visit.

I always look forward to getting together with my college friends. During my first three years of college, I became good friends with four members of the future Orchard Street Gang (OSG). Three of us (Eileen, Lin, and I) and a friend of Eileen’s (Lin), decided to live together off campus during the summer following our junior year. During that summer, we made plans to move to a larger house (located on Orchard Street) for our senior year, and we needed two more people to cover the rent, so Barb (another dormmate) and Carol were added to our group. Can you believe we each paid $50/month in rent and chipped in $5/week for groceries and the telephone?! We had a free subscription to the campus newspaper, but that’s an undercover story that I can’t tell here. We paid $150/semester for tuition, and books ran about $50/semester. The minimum wage at the time was $1.25/hour and an annual starting salary of $5,000–more, if you were lucky–was good pay, but even so, I can’t believe how much college costs now!

Only Lin had a car, and we all grocery shopped together. I have trouble now picturing six of us with a shopping cart, but that’s what we did. If we had money left over (more often than you would think), we stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for a treat on our way home from the grocery store. The food we bought was for us and for our guests. Breakfast, lunch, and weekends were on our own for cooking and kitchen clean-up, and we had a rotating schedule to cook dinner Monday-Thursday. If you didn’t cook, you were on a rotating team of two to do the dishes. We each cleaned our own bedrooms (two of us per bedroom) and rotated cleaning the kitchen, dining room, living room, and two bathrooms. It was a great system, and we never had an argument or a fight. We all married our senior-year college sweethearts within a year of graduation, so we were well-acquainted with each other’s husbands too.

As young marrieds, with small children, we kept in touch, but we didn’t see each other in person as a group until 2018, 49 years later, when we met in Madison. Eileen suggested a group reunion and addressed her email to the “Orchard Street Gang”–and that’s how the OSG was officially formalized. I had seen Eileen and Leila several times because they live in WI where Ted and I regularly visit our families, but I hadn’t seen Lin or Carol in all those years. None of us was surprised that it felt like we’d just left college. We were still BFFs, and we laughed when we learned that we all used the Orchard Street cooking/cleaning rotation with our children as they grew up. Here’s our 2018 reunion photo.

Barb lived in FL, and I didn’t see her until 2020, when four of the OSG members had a Zoom reunion.

Leila, Eileen, and I have met in Madison a number of times–together or in pairs–since our college graduation, and we planned to do so again this year. Fortunately, Lin, who lives in MT, was in WI at the time, attending a workshop for two weeks, and could join us; unfortunately, Leila, who has Parkinson’s disease, was unexpectedly hospitalized for a minor Parkinson’s-related issue, so she couldn’t meet with us. Lin, Eileen, and I had a wonderful time together for a few hours, and here are the OSG-25 reunion attendees in the big chair outside the Great Dane restaurant. (See the logo on the chair back.) It goes without saying–but I’m going to say it anyway–that we’re looking forward to our next get-together.

It was nice to have an open day on Ted’s and my visit to Wisconsin. We slept late, had lunch followed by those fabulous desserts, and because the weather was so beautiful, we decided to stop in Wisconsin Dells for a boat tour. We’ve been there several times over the years, but the Dells boat tour is always beautiful. (Full disclosure: Several people and groups we wanted to spend time with were only available on certain days during our visit, so we had to schedule around them, giving us one extra day. This was it.)

The city of Wisconsin Dells is a huge and kitschy tourist trap with a lot of hotels and resorts, each of which features some tacky thing to make your kids want to stay there. For example, here’s some information about and a photo of one of the hotels. (Another source mentioned that it takes 10 minutes to tour the “White House.”) I saw these transformer figures at a different hotel, so they were probably added to the upside-down White House photo.

If you skip the tourist trap area like we did and go directly to the river docks on the “quiet side” of the city, you can take a peaceful, leisurely two-hour cruise through the Dells, a unique area on the Wisconsin River. No transformers included.

The dells (originally the “dalles”) were created when a huge glacial lake in central Wisconsin breached its ice dam about 11,000 years ago. The water rushed free in a catastrophic flood, and the force of the water and the sediment it carried and dropped formed the dells in less than a week–perhaps in as little time as three days. It is hypothesized that the noise of the fiercely rushing water could have been heard as far away as in the five surrounding states.

George Crandall’s family moved to the dells area in 1892. Over the years, whenever farmers wanted to sell their land, the family bought it, tore down the barns, and planted trees. It is said they planted over 37,000 trees in the area. The family failed in their effort to make the riverbank a national park, but they turned the land over to a foundation, which later sold it to the state DNR on the condition that it will never be developed. As a result, 11,000 years after the ice dam broke, Ted and I spent a wonderful two hours enjoying the beautiful scenery in the Wisconsin Dells.

Here’s the dock where the Dells tour begins and that’s our boat in the center.

While we were waiting to board the boat, this woman sat beside me, and I asked her if I could take a picture of her shirt. She told me she bought it when she went to Ben & Jerry’s in Vermont.

This was the beginning of our tour.

This rock formation is called “Black Hawk’s Profile.” Surprise! It’s also informally called “The Old Man of the River”–maybe by those who don’t know who Black Hawk was and can’t remember his name.

This is Witches’ Gulch, the first of two shore stops on the boat tour. Gulches like this were quickly carved by tributaries rushing out of the glacial lake when the ice dam broke. Deep in the gulch, we saw “Witches’ Falls” that empty into a pool named “Witches’ Bathtub.” Witches’ Gulch is a popular place for evening ghost tours.

Some of the rock formations were very narrow.

We felt pretty relaxed on our extra day.

As we walked back to our boat, the sun created a pretty scene in the gulch.

The second land stop on our boat tour was at Stand Rock. That would be the tower-like rock on the left in my photo. Stand Rock is 46 feet tall.

H.H. Bennett owned a photography studio near Wisconsin Dells. Due to the low demand for portraits, he decided to do landscape photography, and he took numerous pictures of the sandstone formations in the dells. He didn’t think two-dimensional pictures did justice to the scenery, so he started making stereoscopes. He sold them nationally, and that led to large numbers of people who wanted to visit the dells in person.

Meanwhile, Bennett worked on inventing a stop action shutter to take clear pictures of moving objects. His best-known stop action photo is an 1886 image of his son jumping across the Stand Rock formation. The gap between the two rocks is about five-and-a-half feet. It took 17 tries before Bennett successfully captured his son mid-air between the rock formations. When Boston audiences saw the photo below, they gasped!

The cost of insurance became too high to have humans jump between the rocks for tourists, so a dog makes the jump now. Rescue dogs are specially trained to do this, and you can see the net below that will catch the dog, if necessary. The dog does only one jump–right to left and then back, where his human counterpart has a treat for him. The dog is fast!!! He jumps over, turns around, and jumps back in only a few seconds. I cut this frame from my video. Those who tried to catch the dog mid-air on their stop action cameras missed it.

The dells come to an abrupt end and look like an ordinary riverbank beyond Stand Rock. This was the end point for our boat tour, so we headed back to the dock where we boarded the boat.

This is how the riverbank looks if you turn your head to the right of the above photo. We’re heading back into the dells.

On our way from the boat to our car, we saw this Corvette in a free parking lot. I told you it’s a kitschy tourist town.

It was a lovely, relaxing afternoon. We had a light dinner before leaving Wisconsin Dells and then we headed for Madison, our next stop.

The first stop on Ted’s and my visits to friends and family was the GC 25 event; the second scheduled stop was a visit with my Aunt Ruth. She lives in the LaCrosse area near her daughters, Lara and Linda, who are two of the six GCs (girl cousins), so Ted and I were loosely following Lara and Linda across the entire state from the east to the west. Aunt Ruth had a busy Sunday, but said she’d be happy to see us Monday afternoon.

Lara had to go back to work on Monday, but Linda was available to spend some extra time with us. We met her at her new house, and she gave us a tour. It’s a beautiful home in a brand-new subdivision. It’s so new that her yard is not yet sodded and her retaining wall is still under construction. It’s instantly obvious that, unlike Ted and me, she is a talented home decorator. After the home tour, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. Look at the delicious food we ordered.

After lunch, Linda went home, and Ted and I went to visit Aunt Ruth. She has always been my favorite aunt–maybe because she’s the aunt closest to my age. My mother was the oldest of six children, and Aunt Ruth was the youngest. She was 12 years younger than my mother and is only 13 years older than I am. Uncle Ken, Aunt Ruth’s husband, was always my favorite uncle too. I remember when they became engaged. He was movie-star handsome, and I was thrilled that she was going to marry someone like him. Sadly, Uncle Ken died 2 years ago at the age of 98.

Jessie, one of Aunt Ruth’s granddaughters, visited her at the same time we were there, so she took some pictures of us.

Aunt Ruth recently moved from her house to an assisted living facility where she has a very nice apartment, including 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a full kitchen and bathroom. She showed me her bedroom with the bedspread that was always on Grandma and Grandpa’s bed. Grandma crocheted the bedspread and now Aunt Ruth has it. Look at the detailed crochet work Grandma did. She loved doing what she called “handwork”–embroidery, crochet, knitting, etc. I wonder how long it took her to finish this piece of handwork.

After our visit with Aunt Ruth, Ted and I went to a local Italian restaurant for dinner. Ted’s lasagna, my spaghetti, and the desserts–cheesecake for Ted and spumoni ice cream for me–were out of this world! We had the entire following day to ourselves before we had to be in Madison for my Orchard Street Gang reunion (upcoming post) so, just for fun, we decided to stick around for a light lunch and then go back to the Italian restaurant for dessert. Neither of us could decide if we wanted the same thing again or if we wanted to order the opposite. Our final choice was to order one of each and split them so that we could both enjoy two great flavors. The waitress said that she was fully in tune with customers who ordered only dessert, and she insisted that it was easier to put the ice cream in two bowls than to have us split one. Doesn’t the picture below make your mouth water? This was the best spumoni ice cream and the best cheesecake either of us has ever had.

We ate every bite and had to remember our manners to keep from licking the dishes clean. 🙂

From LaCrosse to Madison is only a two-and-a-half hour drive, so we decided to stop in Wisconsin Dells for a boat tour along the way. Vacations with open schedules and family/friend visits are great!

There are six girl cousins on my mother’s side of the family. I’ve never heard of the six boy cousins getting together as a group, nor do they all attend every family event, but we girls have so much fun together that we go to extended family events and plan getaways just to see each other. In fact, we identify ourselves as the GCs. Here we are at Lara’s wedding in 1991. (A few of the boy cousins were present, but not all of them.)

Our next full-group gathering was at Aunt Katy and Uncle Gibby’s 50th wedding anniversary party in 1999. (Only two boy cousins were at this family event.)

Although we each see each other at various times, the next time the GCs gathered as a full group was in 2013 when we spent a weekend in Door County Wisconsin. We planned this getaway for the six of us because, as our extended family ages and people move to different parts of the country, large family events don’t happen as often as we’d like to see each other. Not to mention that all of our children were grown up and didn’t need us at home. Here we are on the hallowed ground of Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Go Packers!

While we were shopping in Egg Harbor (Door County), Lara found “our” sign.

Our most recent gathering was this one in early September–the GC-25, which stands for Girl Cousins-2025. Donna and her sister, Nancy, hosted us at Donna’s house in Lake Geneva, WI. On Friday evening we were greeted by the most beautiful charcuterie board I’ve ever seen, arranged by Nancy, who is the definition of “the hostess with the mostess.” She loves hosting parties and making gorgeous food displays. Even better, she’s good at both.

With a glass of wine and charcuterie to eat, the next order of business was to take a group photo. Judi is missing because she took the photo. While we ate, Nancy (waving at the end of the table) kept us laughing with a few party games and the weekend was off to our usual start–lots of chatter and even more laughter!

We started Saturday morning with brunch at Donna’s house and then–what else?–went shopping on the main street of Lake Geneva. The street is lined with boutique shops.

Nancy is deliberately picking her nose to photo-bomb my picture (above). Linda is not in the photo because she’s trying on a pair of jeans. She bought several articles of clothing and, as she tried things on and modeled them, we always took a group vote to decide whether or not she should buy the item. Linda won the prize for most purchases. On Saturday afternoon, she purchased so many things that a shopkeeper asked her if she’d like a large shopping bag that would hold all of her smaller bags. Then, before leaving, we had to return to two stores where she had left purchases that were larger than she wanted to carry for several hours.

Actually, Linda started shopping before she arrived at Donna’s house. As she and Lara (they are sisters and live near each other) were driving from their homes near LaCrosse, WI to Lake Geneva, Linda saw a car at a dealership along the way and stopped to buy it! She has/had two cars–a high-end Porsche and a Mercedes–but a driver made an illegal left turn as Linda was approaching an intersection and the other driver hit her Mercedes, totaling it. She’s been looking for a replacement vehicle, and the BMW caught her eye, so she bought it. She’s widowed, but says she needs two cars because the Porsche tires are over $1,500 each, so she doesn’t like to wear them out on long trips. (The rest of us have never had that problem.) Lara drove the new car the rest of the way to Donna’s house and Linda drove her Porsche.

But back to the shopping . . . We went into a candy store that featured freeze-dried gummies. I took a picture of one. They are very light and fragile. The shopkeeper offered to let us try one and it was delicious! They immediately dissolved in our mouths, leaving the sweet flavor of the gummy. I wanted to buy a bag to bring home, but the shopkeeper said they won’t travel well, which I believe, given how fragile they are and the fact that that were in cellophane bags.

After about two hours of walking, we were ready for a break, so we stopped for a beverage. Left to right, that’s Judi, Nancy, Linda, Donna, me, and Lara. Pay attention to how happy we all look in all of our pictures. We have so-o-o-o much fun together!

Nancy is a hoot and is probably the only one of us who would want her photo taken with a flag-draped bear. We all agree that Donna, Lara, and I are the “good” cousins. The other three–Linda, Nancy, and Judi–are the “bad” cousins. They don’t do anything illegal or immoral, but they are far more daring and extroverted than the “good” cousins. If any of us ever needs to be bailed out of jail, it will be one (or more) of the “bad” cousins. We “good” cousins have agreed to post bail if necessary. Together, the six of us are in perfect balance.

The downtown streets of Lake Geneva are punctuated with hanging flower baskets. Lake Geneva has been a retreat for extremely wealthy Chicagoans since the Gilded Age. One of them (I don’t remember his name) regularly hosted well-known celebrities. Donna (our resident cousin) said that, before the man died, you could be anywhere in town and say, “Is that a look-alike, or is it really Fill-in-the-Blank?” and it was really Fill-in-the-Blank. That man also hosted theme parties and sometimes invited members of the community to attend them. One party had a Wizard of Oz theme, complete with costumes and a yellow brick road. He hired little people to play the role of munchkins. For all of his life, the man was a philanthropist, contributing large sums of money to a variety of community needs. When he died, the man also left a large sum of money to the city, designated to purchase flower baskets like these every year for the central area of the city.

The shopping district ended at the shore of Lake Geneva (yes, the name of the city and of the lake), and we needed another group photo to add to our collections.

Here’s a picture of part of the lakefront. Oh, how I miss the glaciated sand-bottom lakes and rivers of Wisconsin! I never swam in a mud- or rock-bottomed lake until I moved away from Wisconsin. There’s no comparison.

I found a plethora of humorous signs along the sidewalks and in the stores. Here are some of them.

I guess every state needs something to brag about.

It’s no longer true, but when I was growing up in Wisconsin, the legal age for drinking beer was 18, and the legal age for drinking alcohol was 21. As a result, there were “teen bars” for the 18-20-year-olds. Once you aged out to 21, you didn’t go back to the teen bars. You were far too “adult” for that–and you can buy beer in a “21” bar if you want it. The teen bars were rowdy and, on the weekends, were usually filled to the fire code limit with standing room only and a waiting line to enter. The first time I was in a “21” bar, I was amazed at the nice seating (no one standing) and the quiet (you could converse without shouting).

After our shopping expedition, we attended a magic show. As you can see at the stage, there were smoke and mirrors and bright flashing lights. Naturally, we recognized that these are distractions so the audience doesn’t watch the magician’s hands. The theater was built by the magician and his wife (also his assistant when he needs someone to cut in half) and is small by design–only about 150 seats, with no bad seat in the house. It was a very good show, and the magician had a constant engaging patter of talk. Audience members participated in some of the tricks.

Yet another group picture of the GCs. The empty seat is Nancy’s.

After the show, the magician (left) and his assistant wife (right) go to the lobby to sign autographs and to stand for pictures with audience members.

Then it was time for dinner, including Jon and Ted.

Linda, Lara, Judi, and Nancy all traveled alone for the weekend, but Donna’s husband, Jon, lives at her house and Ted was with me for a nine-day trip to visit Wisconsin and Illinois friends and family. Jon and Ted enjoy each other’s company, so they spent the weekend time together. I’m sure they enjoyed that a lot more than listening to the GCs’ constant chatter and laughter. We all have (or had–two of the GCs are widowed) great husbands who like each other. We were talking about our wonderful mates at dinner and decided we needed a toast. We raised our glasses and said, “To our men!”

It was a long and fun-filled day so after dinner, it was time to relax.

The constant talk and storytelling continued, and we definitely exemplified Judi’s belief that “nobody knows your crazy family better than your cousins.” There were so many hilarious stories to tell! My favorites were those about Grandma Drott, Nancy’s and Donna’s other grandma. We all knew Grandma Drott because we all grew up within about 15 miles of each other, and Grandma Drott lived within that radius and was a regular visitor to Nancy and Donna’s home.

At one point, we started talking about the magic show and tried to figure out how the magician did some of the tricks. This is one of them and we had lots of suggestions about how to do it.

I surprised myself by figuring it out, and then we needed a teaching session. Nancy didn’t believe it and started searching Google. I thought magicians’ secrets were never, never, ever shared, but somebody tattled to Google, and the trick worked exactly as I said. Yay for me! Now I know how to perform one magic trick. We also figured out how to do three of the magician’s other tricks–even without Google’s help.

Everyone except Ted and me stayed at Donna’s house. Donna (a “good” cousin) told me she and Jon went to bed after Ted and I left to go to our motel (at past 1:00 a.m.), but the other four had a pajama party before they went to sleep.

From the time Ted and Jon joined the GCs, the two of them hardly said a word because, as I’ve mentioned, the GCs together don’t stop talking or laughing. I apologized to Ted for his having to endure the entire evening with “my” group, but he said it was actually fun to watch us in action. I told Donna this the next morning, and she said the same thing about her and Jon. Yes, we all found wonderful husbands.

We had brunch at Donna’s house again on Sunday morning, and then it was time to leave–but not before taking another group photo.

As all of us were gathering up our things and heading for our cars (Donna and Jon were going to their granddaughter’s soccer game), I heard Jon tell Ted, “Now comes the Lorenzen farewell and that’ll be another half-hour.” Yes, that’s true. (Jon and Ted have been married to Donna and me for many years, and have been through these farewells many times.) Good-bye hugs were followed by more family stories, which then required another round of good-bye hugs followed by another round of stories, followed by . . . You get the picture. It took about a half-hour, spot-on for Jon’s timing, before we got into our cars. As each car left, the driver gave two quick horn toots in memory of Grandpa, who always tooted his horn twice after he backed out of the driveway and started down the road.

We have so much fun together and we look forward to our group gatherings so eagerly that we decided to do this more often. The consensus was that two years will be good, with hostess duties rotating. I was chosen as the next hostess and I’ve already been given a list of activities that the others want to do at GC-27–STL. What a wonderful group we are! Let’s hear it for the GCs!

Yesterday was a memorable day in our neighborhood. It started when Ted went to Huck’s to get his daily cup of coffee. As he was leaving the parking lot to come home, the exit he regularly uses was blocked off. He turned to use the other exit and saw a long stream of cars rushing out of a nearby parking lot (that we now realize was a staging site) and speeding down the road toward our house. Because of the road barrier, Ted had to take a longer route home, changing course repeatedly, due to more barriers, including one at the street behind our house. He parked and decided to walk the short distance home. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), a county police officer stationed at the corner told him to get back into his car and wait.

Meanwhile, I was at home with two carpenters who are installing new cabinets in our laundry room (which faces the street) when I heard one of them say, “What’s going on??!!” I got up to look out the window. We saw a stream of cars (the same ones Ted saw a mile away a few minutes before) rapidly passing our house without even pausing at the stop sign at the corner. The cars–at least 18 that we could see–lined the curb across the street from us, and law enforcement officers–at least 23, including FBI, ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations), St. Charles County police, and two medics–jumped out of their cars and surrounded the house across the street from us where our friend, Peggy, used to live.

All of this was done in silence–unmarked cars, no sirens, and every officer running directly to his previously designated place to cover every side of the house and property. There are five officers on the side of the house in the photo below–two behind the tree (one on each side of it), two clearly visible, and one behind the officer in the right center of the photo. The two officers beside the white vehicle are the drone operators.

It’s hard to see in the photo below because of the tree branches, but there are nine officers lined up in front of the garage and every one of them has a rifle. All those weapons definitely boosted my heart rate and blood pressure! Three other officers had already breached the front door (standing open) and were inside the house. Two drones were sent into the house as well.

Because the carpenters are using our driveway for their vehicles and saw, Ted and I are parking our cars on the street. That’s my one-year-old car that the armed officer is using for protection. I couldn’t help picturing the driver’s side of my car riddled with bullet holes. It was time to take cover. I went to a back room on the other end of our house–out of the direct line of fire–and one of the carpenters decided to do some of the work on the agenda for our basement. The other carpenter, Christopher, shrugged and started his video recorder. Part of his video is at the end of this post.

Fortunately, no shots were fired, and handcuffed residents were peacefully escorted out of the house. I counted 18 people in handcuffs, three of whom also wore leg shackles.

This is the drone officer preparing a second drone to send into the house, . . .

. . . and here he goes, ready to launch Drone #2.

Roughly three hours later, everything was under control. The handcuffed people had been taken away; others were no longer restrained and were standing around, chatting with the officers, like the lady at the rear of the van in the driveway. The officer bending over in the lower right of the photo is going through some of what could be evidence or supplies in the box. I didn’t go outside to ask her. I’m guessing that the man (St. Charles County police) and woman (FBI) in the left center are congratulating each other on a well-coordinated mission. The streets were opened to traffic again and pedestrians were walking by, no doubt wondering “What’s going on here?”

After the enforcement officers left the scene, the reporters arrived and knocked on doors (including ours), asking for information from neighbors who witnessed the activity. Channels 2 (and their sister station, Channel 11), 4, and 5 were all here. I think only one neighbor agreed to speak with a reporter. Ironically, she was at her exercise class during the operation and–like Ted–was only allowed to access her house after the danger of civilian injuries was past. Christopher offered his video but refused an interview.

A few hours later, local TV channels played Christopher’s video and reported that this event had been a triple sting. Two homes with about 20 residents in each, as well as the nearby, very popular Golden Apple Buffet were raided simultaneously. The residents of both homes were employees of the Golden Apple Buffet. I have seen five of the residents coming and going from the house across the street since the law enforcement personnel left, so I assume that not everyone who lived there was guilty of whatever illegal activity might have been going on. I’m sure we’ll learn more details in the coming days.

Note: I had to cut Christopher’s video to make it fit this blog, and the cutting app takes credit at the end, as you’ll see. Around the 20-second mark of the video, right after the line of officers enters the house, you can see the drone flying across the center of the screen from to right to left. It has two headlights.

Kathy and Annette came to visit Ted and me and Kari’s family. It was a one-day visit, and the plan was to have a relaxing afternoon in the pool and on the patio, enjoying an August summer day. The reality was that the weather was cool and raining. As a result, we spent the afternoon indoors and never ran out of things to talk about. In fact, I don’t think we ever left the kitchen table after doing the lunch dishes until we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Annette’s birthday is in September, and Kari had a little gift for her–a handheld fan. Annette had fun playing with the fan while we waited for our pizzas.

Kathy and Annette left for home after we finished our pizza dinner, but first we took some group photos. I took a picture and then Annette insisted that I had to be included in a picture, so she took one.

Whenever our family gets together–whether it’s all of us or some of us–it’s always a guaranteed good day with good times and good memories.

The Mid Rivers Mall parking lot was the setting for the first One World festival in our county–a Friday-Sunday weekend event. Ted and I thought it looked like fun, so we decided to see what it was like. The only free time we had that weekend was near the closing time of the festival on Saturday, and the crowds had thinned, but it looked like it had been a success. Here’s a photo of a family looking at the picture they took at the entrance to the event.

Just beyond the entrance, we walked through these colorful arches.

There was upbeat music. I assume these were local performers, because of the lack of publicity and the little girl you can see at the lower right corner of the stage. She had some solo parts with the two men beside her (relatives?). Maybe she’s an upcoming star like Michael Jackson, who started singing with the Jackson Five at the age of five. The music had a happy sound and helped create a mood of celebration.

There was also a skating rink. Only these two people were skating while we were at the festival, but I’m sure there were more during the peak afternoon hours.

When we passed this booth, the Wisconsin State Fair flashed through our minds. The two most popular “had to have” foods at that event were roasted corn on the cob and cream puffs. The husks were pulled back on the corn cob to provide a handle, and the entire cob was dipped in Wisconsin butter before it was handed to the customer. The cream puffs were filled with whipped cream and covered with a heavy dusting of powdered sugar. Don’t inhale before taking a bite. If you do, you’ll have to cough out the powdered sugar you inhaled. Healthy food, no. Highlights of the once-a-year fair, definitely.

Then we saw this booth and knew we were in Missouri. Funnel cakes. Present at every outdoor public event. (Not as good as roasted corn followed by a cream puff.)

Here’s another colorful attraction. There were lots of booths selling a variety of items–jewelry, hats, purses, T-shirts, food, trinkets, etc. Ted and I hope this was the start of an annual festival and, if it was, we’re going to go during the peak hours next year.

Jeff texted an interesting question today. He and Zack occasionally recommend songs to each other and, today, he sent a song recommendation to Zack to “cue it up on his playlist.” Zack responded that he would “be sure to queue it up.”

“Cue” refers to a signal or a prompt that triggers an action; “queue” refers to a line or sequence of people or things waiting for something. Jeff’s thought was that either could be correct in his exchange with Zack because Zack could “queue” the song in line to play later, or he could “cue” the song whenever he’s ready to listen to it. Jeff asked for my thoughts.

I checked with Grammarly and Google, and I have to fall in line with Jeff. If Zack has a string of songs to play, including the one suggested by Jeff, he could “cue” (prompt) the “queue” (line) when he wants to listen to the song.

Fun times with English. 🙂

Kari and I have attended the St. Charles City-County Library Book Fair regularly on our own. After the pandemic ended, we started going to the book fair together and have made it a tradition. The first weekend in August is the annual date for the three-day event (Friday-Sunday). It caught us by surprise this year with the first day of August on a Friday, but luckily, it was easy for us to make plans to fit it into our schedules. Last year, we went on Saturday and discovered that the books were already well picked over, so this year we went on Friday afternoon, when it opened to the general public. (Library members may shop on Friday morning.)

As usual, I did well and came home with 35 new-to-me books. Unfortunately, I needed a small loan from Kari because of inflation. I brought $100.00 in cash, assuming that would be enough, as it was unlikely I’d find more than 50 books to purchase at $2.00 per hardcover book. Well, this year the price went up to $3.00 per hardcover book, so my 35 books cost $105.00. Still a great bargain over the bookstore prices, but $5.00 more than I brought in cash. (Another good reason to go to the book fair with a partner. 🙂 ) Here’s my haul for this year, already on the closet shelves that I keep empty for my annual collection of book fair books.

In the years we’ve been going to the book fair together, Kari and I have made it a tradition to have ice cream and conversation at Kilwin’s on Main Street in St. Charles after we have all the books we want. Today was no exception. We spent about an hour at the book fair and another two hours at Kilwin’s. It’s a great tradition, and it’s already on our calendars for the next book fair on the first weekend of August in 2026.

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

–Cicero

Ted and I have been working on updating our house and yard for two years, and we’re almost finished. In late July, we finished the outdoor updates with some tree trimming and thinning.

Tulip tree

This tulip tree is special. When our children were in elementary school, every fourth-grader was given a tree sapling on Arbor Day. At the time, the saying was that the best survival rate for these saplings was at the homes of the kids’ grandparents. Our kids’ grandparents did not live nearby, so we planted them in our yard.

Jeff and Kathy each received an evergreen. Both of those died within a few months. Thom was given an oak tree. He named it Fred, and it lived for a few years until bunnies chewed off all the bark at the bottom of the trunk. Kari’s sapling was a tulip tree. She named it Paul, in honor of her Grandpa Paul. Roughly 40 years later, that tree still lives. Unfortunately, a disease struck it a year ago and our arborist has been working with us to save it. It looks much better now than it did before the treatments.

Now that the tulip tree is healthier, we decided that it’s time to prune the formerly-diseased, now-dead branches. The workers needed a cherry-picker to reach the high branches.

Here are the before and after pruning pictures. The “after” tree doesn’t look as full in this photo as it does in the above “healthier” photo because I took this picture earlier in the year, before it was fully leafed out. The tree looks better without the deadwood.

Magnolia trees

Long ago, in 2010, Ted and I hired a landscape designer to beautify our yard. He must have been amused at our naiveté. We don’t have strong gardening skills, so we took his word for everything and paid him a small fortune (in our terms) to install what he’d planned. Some of the things his team planted were very nice; most of them were overdone and/or overplanted; and about one-half of them died within 2-4 years (after the one-year survival warranty, of course).

The designer placed three trees in stupid (my opinion) places: two beneath the pergola and one beside the pool deck. After (I think) 9 years, one of the trees beneath the pergola died. For the 15 years since they were planted, we have tried to keep the other two trees trimmed to fit under the pergola and beside the pool. Although we enjoy the magnolia blooms every spring, we decided that those plants just want to be trees, not shrubs. They’re growing almost faster than we can keep them trimmed back. We were starting to feel a little claustrophobic with a tree closing off half of our view on one side of the pergola and of skimming leaves from the other one out of the pool. It was time for them to become “giving trees” and to give mulch to gardeners, so we had them removed.

Here goes magnolia tree #1. Surprisingly (to us), it took less than 30 minutes to make these trees disappear. That’s a tiny fraction of the time we’ve been spending to keep them pruned away from the pergola and the pool!

Because of the (idiotic) places these trees were planted, the tree company could not get a stump grinder in place, so we have low-cut stumps now. We’ll have to think of a way to enhance them. Any ideas?

And here goes magnolia tree #2.

Our patio view no longer feels claustrophobic. Here’s the before picture, followed by the after picture.

As you can see, we still have plenty of trees without those two magnolias.

Burning bush hedge

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that, when fall arrives and the burning bushes turn bright red, it looks like nearly everyone in the area has at least two burning bushes in their yard. We have six–four in a privacy hedge, one beside the storage shed, and one at one end of our house. The burning bush hedge reached a point where Ted and I could not trim it without a tall stepladder, so we decided to take it down and keep it shorter. Here’s one of the tree guys beginning to do that for us.

The worker has part of the hedge trimmed, but hasn’t yet done some of the back side. You can see how much he’s taking off.

Here’s the hedge at a manageable height. With air and light, the bushes will fill out by next spring. A four-man professional team with professional knowledge and tools, completed all this tree/bush work in under 3 hours. I’m looking forward to the time we’ll save next spring when we’ll only have the now height-accessible burning bush hedge to trim.

Japanese maple

The landscape designer put a Japanese maple in a dumb place too. It’s one of his plantings that has survived and we’ve continued to trim it in the shape it had when it was planted. Over time, however, it’s getting to be a challenge to keep it trimmed away from the sidewalk so that we can walk past it without ducking. It’s also reached a point at which we can’t reach any higher with our electric trimmer to keep it trimmed back. Like the magnolias, we decided this little tree also wants to be a real tree, so we trimmed it from the bottom up. The carpet roses along the front porch (again, planted by the landscaper) have also survived, but they never look very good and can barely be seen from the road. In addition, Ted is tired of deadheading them all the time. We took them out this year.

Now the Japanese maple can grow to be a tree and the annuals we planted along the porch have brought us numerous compliments from neighbors and passing pedestrians.

That completes our outdoor updates–at least for a few years. We still have a little bit to do inside our house. Watch for the coming changes. They’re in progress as I write this post.

Theo, Ted, and I saw Superman yesterday. In my opinion, it was a combination of any current adventure movies (lots of noise and action, and the hero won), Jurassic Park (dinosaur-like super-creatures), Star Wars (weird, robotic super-creatures), the original Superman, and updated Superman. (Lois Lane is no longer pining for Superman. The two now obviously have a G-rated relationship and she knows Superman and Clark Kent are the same person.)

Yes, Kelly Anne Conway, the word “immigrant” is mentioned, but the three of us agreed there was nothing preach-y about it, nor did we think the movie was woke–no matter how you define that word. It was just fictional fun. The surprise of the movie was the number of laugh lines.

It’s still hot outside, so the three of us headed to DQ for treats afterwards. It was an afternoon well spent with our grandson.

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look up in the sky! It’s bird! It’s a plane! It’s. . .Superman!

Eighty-seven years ago (1938), a baby arrived in America from a home in turmoil.  A family in Kansas raised him, and he struggled to balance two identities.  This was the beginning of Superman comics and has been the backstory ever since.  The first Superman story stated he was sent to Earth from Krypton, a fictional doomed planet.  His origin provided a convenient plot device:  it explained his superpowers.

The comic book Action Comics No. 1, published in June 1938. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Superman’s motto was to fight for “truth, justice, and the American way.” James Gunn, the director of Superman, told the Times of London, “For me, it (Superman) is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”  The first page of the Superman story describes Superman as a “champion of the oppressed.” 

The image above was originally produced in 1949 and distributed to schools by the Institute for American Democracy, an offshoot of the Anti-Defamation League.  The art team at DC digitally restored the poster in 2017.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, wrote Superman’s story as World War II loomed.  While fascism rolled through Europe and echoed in the United States, Superman’s early adventures show him fighting “for the little guys, for abused women, for exploited mine workers, and against corrupt politicians,” said Danny Fingeroth, author of Superman on the Couch:  What Comic Book Heroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society.  Throughout his adventures, Fingeroth tells us “Superman is the immigrant embodying the best of American qualities, even though he’s from somewhere else.”

Like Superman, the large majority of superheroes are outsiders.  That’s the common thread that gives them staying power for people from many walks of life.  Other immigrant superheroes include Green Lantern (beings from various planets), Wonder Woman (from a fictional island), Star Wars characters (from a galaxy far, far away), and even Deadpool (Canada).  Check Google for more.

Unfortunately, in these divisive times, everything seems to be political and, with immigration crackdowns ramping up, right-wing media is referring to the new Superman movie as “Superwoke.”  My CNN newsfeed today reported that Kelly Ann Conway, a former Trump adviser, said, “We don’t go to the movie theater to be lectured and to have somebody throw their ideology on to us.”  In contrast, Define American founder Jose Antonio Vargas and narrative strategist Andrew Slack wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, “You can’t politicize the truth.  Superman has been an ‘illegal alien’ for 87 years.” 

It’s not surprising that, last week, the White House’s social media accounts shared an AI-generated image of the movie poster depicting President Trump in the title role.  Sadly, however, that post was soon followed by one from the Department of Homeland Security, which shared the iconic image of ET’s bicycling silhouette with text superimposed over the moon saying, “GO HOME.”

Superman is a fictional and thus, an imaginary, character.  Does everything have to be political?  Still, Kelly Ann is partially right:  We don’t select movies based on our political ideologies and we don’t go to the movies to be lectured or to politically analyze them.  We go to the movies to have fun, to find adventure, to feel thrills, and to laugh—and maybe during this heat wave, to stay cool.

Dean Cain, now a conservative commentator, said the Superman director’s decision to invoke immigration while promoting the film could be a costly mistake.  So far, he’s wrong.  The movie finished in the Number One position on its opening weekend and continues to draw large audiences.  It topped the box office again in its second week.  It has now grossed $235 million in the United States and $406.8 million worldwide.  It looks like a lot of people just want to have fun.

The Superman comic books were my favorites when I was a child.  I remember buying them for 10 cents each and re-reading them over and over because I enjoyed them so much.  Ted and I are going to see Superman, and we’re going to have fun watching it for 2 hours and 9 minutes with no political commentary. 😊

Author’s note: To provide full disclosure, I based this post on an article in CNN. It incensed me to read that people are slamming an imaginary character, with a reputation as a champion of the underdog, as being woke (according to their definition of the word). Even worse, in my opinion, they are trying to take the fun out of a fictional movie by describing it as pro-immigration propaganda. Someone had to speak up for Superman, and because I’ve always liked him–fictional or not–I decided it should be me.

I recently had lunch with my friend, Cindy, whose sister was on the last plane that took off from the St. Louis airport just before the May 16 tornado struck. Cindy’s sister said the pilot used the gate microphone to say, “They’re closing the airport for storms. Get on the plane, stow your luggage, sit down, and buckle up. We’re taking off!” The photo below was taken by a reporter from Fox 2 TV, a local station. Cindy’s sister had a safe flight.

There’s a house near ours that Ted and I refer to as the “party house” of the neighborhood. Those folks have a swimming pool and a lot of friends and relatives. It’s not unusual to see a dozen or more cars parked on the street in that area on weekends. It’s never a problem–no vandalism, no kids running in the street interfering with traffic, no loud music, no late hours–just a lot of people having fun.

In the last few years, our neighbors across the street from our house have yielded their position of “Best Neighborhood Fireworks” to the folks in the party house. The party house fireworks show typically lasts about 30-40 minutes, and the fireworks are non-stop. Frankly, it’s as good a show (and longer) than any public displays (usually about 20 minutes) in the area, and we have no traffic or parking problems to watch it.

This year, several families gathered in one neighbor’s driveway to watch the fireworks, and one member of the group counted 60 cars parked on the street and more that she couldn’t see around the curve. When I say “party house,” I mean it! We non-party house folks assumed that all guests contributed to the cost of the fireworks, but that’s really not our problem–we just enjoy the show.

I took some videos of the fireworks this year, starting when the first one of a group was launched. The long series lasted a full two minutes, and there were at least 6-8 long series. Just like at the public displays, there’s a brief pause between series, while the group lines up the next display and sets it off. To stay within the space limitations of this blog, I took some 30-second videos. Here’s one–and remember, this is only one-fourth of how many fireworks went off in a two-minute display. There’s sound of you want to hear the bangs.

Here’s a shot in which my camera must have auto-corrected for the darkness, but I think it’s an interesting picture. The time stamp of the photo is 9:42 p.m., and it was dark at the time.

Several political scientists have outlined the process of democratic institutions declining, as witnessed by norms that can lead to autocracy. The following is a generalized outline of the ten potential steps that could contribute to a country becoming autocratic.

  • Exploiting crises and polarizing rhetoric. Leaders exploit economic or social insecurities to gain power, often using populist and nationalist appeals and blaming external forces or minority groups for societal problems.
  • Weakening of government institutions. This includes measures like extending executive power, abolishing term limits, or enacting regressive constitutional reforms to grant greater authority to the executive branch at the expense of legislative or judicial checks and balances.
  • Repressing dissent and controlling information. Restrictions are placed on civil society organizations, protests, and independent media. Surveillance and censorship technologies may be used to control the flow of information and to stifle criticism
  • Crippling the opposition. Opposition parties are weakened through infiltration, co-optation, and scare tactics to diminish their ability to challenge the ruling power.
  • Capturing elite support. Leaders secure the allegiance of influential figures in the military, business, or other sectors through patronage networks, financial incentives, or intimidation.
  • Manipulating elections and undermining the electoral process. While retaining the façade of democratic elections, leaders may engage in gerrymandering, change voter eligibility rules, or place allies on electoral commissions to ensure favorable results.
  • Undermining the rule of law and judicial independence. Courts are reshaped through ideological appointments or other means to ensure they align with the ruling party’s agenda and do not independently challenge executive actions.
  • Concentrating power in the hands of an individual or a small group. Authority becomes increasingly centralized, often bypassing constitutional constraints and reducing the accountability of the ruling power to the people.
  • Cultivating a cult of personality around the leader. Leaders promote an image of indispensability and charisma, often through propaganda and control over state media, reinforcing public allegiance to the ruling power.
  • Maintaining power through a combination of co-optation and repression. The regime balances distributing state resources and benefits to loyalists with the suppression of dissenting voices and opposition.

Peggy’s birthday is in the summer, and the women in our neighborhood have made it a tradition to bring a luncheon party to her house. It’s fun for Peggy, who’s widowed and doesn’t drive, and it’s fun for the rest of us because we’re a happy group of people. This year, we couldn’t walk across the street or next door. We had to drive about 15 minutes to Peggy’s new home. She sold her house last spring and is now living with her daughter.

I visited her at her new location in late spring, and she gave me a tour of her daughter’s house. Peggy has the entire finished walk-out basement to herself, including the patio. Of course, she wouldn’t move without bringing some of her John Wayne collection with her. John Wayne is her favorite movie star, and she loves watching old westerns on TV–especially those starring John Wayne.

Before I visited Peggy in person, I asked her what she misses. Her answer: hot fudge sundaes. On the way to her daughter’s house, I picked up a hot fudge sundae for her and put it into an ice chest to keep it cold for the last few minutes of the drive. She was thrilled!

For Peggy’s 94th birthday this year, the neighborhood group decided to surprise her with an afternoon visit. We all contributed something, and brought paper plates, cups, etc., beverages, chocolate macaroons, a fruit salad with coconut in it (coconut and chocolate are favorites of Peggy’s), and a dessert. The dessert was my contribution. You can see a piece of it on the plate in the lower left corner of the photo below. Peggy’s daughter and son-in-law were out of town, but her granddaughter was staying with her in their absence, and she joined our party. She took this picture of us.

Peggy was totally surprised when we showed up. If you’re wondering how we knew she didn’t fake it, look closely at her in the photo. When she knows people are coming, she puts in her front tooth, but it’s missing. She jokes about the tooth and will say things like “I knew you were coming, so I put in my tooth!” Yes, we’re a fun group!

The word “recession” keeps appearing in the news these days. Will there be a recession or not? Here are some recession indicators to guide us.

Theo and I both like to bake. We’ve talked about baking something together for a long time and we finally set a date to do it during his summer vacation from school. Theo wanted to try baking something with a yeast dough, so we made caramel-pecan rolls. They rose beautifully and looked great going into the oven.

They looked even better when we took them out of the oven.

Kari and Ted were also at our house, and the four of us all thought it would be a good idea to have a warm caramel-pecan roll, fresh from the oven. It was a great idea, and they tasted delicious!

It was fun to do this with Theo, and we want to do it again. Next time, I’ll go to his house and Theo will teach me to bake something he likes that I’ve never tried. Yummy!

I ordered a birthday gift from Wal-Mart for Hadley’s birthday. As usual, I received shipping updates. I was surprised to see an update telling me that the package would arrive at 2:59 pm local time. I texted Thom to watch the porch and let me know what time it came. Thom and I were both impressed when it arrived at 2:59 pm!

The Pizza Hut near our home offered take-out pizzas during the COVID pandemic, but did not open for indoor dining until mid-2024. Business must be slow, if my photo of this sign, taken several months ago, is any indication.

Our across-the-street neighbor, Paul, has (now, had) two 75- to 80-foot tall oak trees in the front yard. There were a lot of galls on the trees, and he didn’t like all the wasps that were hanging around his yard. Galls form when gall wasps lay their eggs on the branches of the tree. The galls girdle the branch and are basically the tree’s reaction to the presence of insects. Here’s a picture of what the galls look like.

Paul decided to cut down both trees. He told us that he and his son were planning to take the first tree down last week. He said they’ve rented equipment and taken down trees in the past, and would do it again. After our conversation with Paul, Ted and I went home, figuratively scratching our heads. That was a mighty big tree to fell unless you’re a professional, so we hoped Paul knew what he was doing. He did. He called a professional tree service to do the job instead.

It took the four-man professional crew four days to do the work. On Day One, they roped one guy and sent him up the tree to cut off the limbs. Before cutting, each limb was roped to the other oak tree so it could be eased down, rather than dropped. The limbs were huge!! I’m not sure what they’ll rope the limbs of the second tree to when Paul takes that one down later this summer. The cutter guy and his chainsaw worked upward until only a few smaller limbs were left at the top. That took all day.

On Day Two, the guys took down the tree trunk in large chunks, beginning at the top. After felling the final piece of the trunk, the second day’s work ended. Ted and I were not at home to watch the process, but that evening, we met our next-door neighbors as they were leaving the restaurant we were entering. The first thing they said to us was, “Hi, neighbors!” The second thing was, “Did your house shake when that tree trunk came down?” Because we weren’t home when it happened, they described it to us. They said the last portion of that huge, heavy trunk fell so hard, it was like an earthquake, and shook all the walls and floors in their house!

The tall tree in the photo below is the other one Paul is going to remove. It’s smaller than the now missing tree. Look at the size of those trunk pieces! The stump doesn’t show in my photo, but it was more than three feet in diameter. And Paul thought he and his son could handle that??!! It’s a good thing they opted out of the do-it-yourself method.

On the next day, Day Three, the crew came back with a claw, a piece of heavy equipment with jaws, to pick up the chunks and put them into a dump truck.

Here’s a closer look at the pieces of the tree trunk. For scale, there’s a tree crew member cleaning up debris at the garage door.

On Day Four, a guy came with a stump grinder. It took him between two and three hours to grind the huge stump. Now, this is all that’s left of the over 40-year-old, tall, oak tree.

Kathy and Annette arrived at our house for lunch on Father’s Day, and Kari and Theo arrived a bit later to spend the afternoon with us. We had lots of fun and good conversation (with scotcheroos) until dinner time. Then we headed for pizza at Dewey’s. Because of the different arrival times, we traveled in a caravan of four cars–ours, Kari’s, Theo’s, and Kathy and Annette’s. I was the leader and managed to set a pace that allowed all of us to stay together on the roads, because not everyone knew the way to Dewey’s from our house. Dean met us at the restaurant, giving us seven people who came in five cars. Wow!

The girls’ families treated Ted and me to dinner and we enjoyed more group conversation as we ate. Too soon, it was time for Kathy and Annette to start their (roughly) three-hour drive home, but it was a good day with our family and a great way to celebrate our dads. Dean and Ted, you two guys are the best!

Ted and I celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary with a two-day event this year.

A number of years ago, when we didn’t know what to buy each other for birthday and anniversary gifts, we realized that we’ve reached a point in our lives that allows us to buy what we want when we want it, rather than waiting to receive it as a gift from each other. We decided to skip birthday and anniversary gifts and to treat ourselves three times a year to dinner at our favorite restaurant–Bentley’s, at the Lake of the Ozarks. It’s nearly a three-hour drive to Bentley’s and we drive, eat, and drive home on the same day (we’re night owls). It’s not fun to drive that far in crummy weather, so we check the forecast to see which day near our anniversary date will have the nicest weather. This year, it was Tuesday. We had our usual delicious meal and, as always, as we were driving home, we told each other that the meal and the staff (who we know well after all these years) are worth every minute of the drive.

Usually, that’s the extent of our anniversary celebration, but this year was different. Our anniversary fell on the same day as the “No Kings” nationwide protests, and we decided to attend our first protest. I never attended a protest in the 1960s because I am far less brave than those who did. I did not want to go to jail (do not pass go; do not collect $200), nor did I want to be beaten with a billy club, fired on with a fire hose, or corralled by a martial dog. The “No Kings” protest at our local mall looked much safer than the Vietnam and civil right protests, so we went. It was a large, happy crowd that stretched about a half-mile along the sidewalk, but the traffic was backed up farther than that. We picked a good protest for a starter. Nationally, an estimated 5 million people participated.

Later, I saw this protester in my news feed and, if I’d made a sign for the protest, it would have had a picture of Elvis with a caption that said “the only American king.” (Long-time Elvis fan here.)

The protest ended at 1:30, so Ted and I ran a few minor errands and then had hot fudge sundaes to celebrate our day.

Even though we’d had a fantastic anniversary dinner at Bentley’s earlier in the week, we didn’t think we should cook or do dishes on this special day, so we ordered a carry-out pizza, lit our anniversary candle (a wedding gift from our florist with instructions to burn it every year on our anniversary, which we’ve done), and watched the PBS movie of the week–Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”

We had a great anniversary and we’re looking forward to the next 56 years together. 🙂

My friend, Liz, and a friend of hers have season tickets to performances at Stages, the theater at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center. Unfortunately, Liz’s friend was ill and could not attend the June performance. She generously told Liz to gift her ticket to someone else, and Liz asked me if I’d like to join her for lunch and the play. I said “yes.”

We started with lunch at Café Provencal. Liz promised me a “very European experience” with delicious food. I enjoyed it so much, I can’t wait to take Ted there so he can enjoy it too. The restaurant has lots of outdoor dining, and the weather was nice, but the restaurant sits at the side of a very busy street with lots of traffic noise, so we opted for indoor seating. The decor was very French. We each had a salad and (are you ready for it?) French onion soup. We agreed that it was the most delicious French onion soup either of us has ever had. The best word we could think of to describe it was “depth”–a depth of flavor that provided a taste of substance far beyond water plus the usual ingredients. (I should be a food critic.) I’m going to order the soup again when Ted and I go there, just to repeat that gastronomic experience.

Stages is only a few blocks from the restaurant and we had time to enjoy ourselves in one of the lounge-type seating areas before the doors opened for the performance. It’s an intimate theater (read “small”) with free adjacent parking and only 529 seats. (529? Really? One more seat would make a nice round number.) Our seats were in the first row, center, of the balcony.

The play was titled “Murder for Two.” The “two” refers to the fact that there are only two performers–and they were both outstanding. Together, they play 13 roles and the piano. The plot is a musical farce about a small-town police officer who dreams of becoming a detective. When a Great American Novelist is murdered, the officer jumps at the chance to prove he has the skills to be promoted to detective. He works with his partner (the other actor), and they discover who the killer is–more by accident than skill. It was fun. The two men played the piano throughout the performance–sometimes individually, sometimes together–and sang songs that provided plot exposition.

The restaurant was charming, lunch was delicious, the play was fun, and time with Liz?–priceless. That’s what friends are for.

Our family has five birthdays, plus Mother’s Day in a 23-day period, so we often celebrate our birthday “season” with group events. This time, we celebrated three birthdays at Kari’s house.

The custom is to open gifts in the calendar order of the birthdays, so Dean was first. One of his gifts was a bag of his favorite candy.

Theo received a sketch pad so that he can continue to amaze us with his artistic pencil drawings.

Kari has been wanting to make her own vanilla, so my gift to her was a jar, vanilla beans, and rum. She’s so happy, it looks like she’s already enjoying the rum instead of saving it to make vanilla!

Theo made the birthday dessert: a chocolate cake with mousse and ganache. “Delicious” doesn’t begin to describe it. It was a chocolate lovers’ dream–and Theo and his Grandpa Ted have always been choc-o-holics.

Don’t you love birthday parties?!

I love it when I accidentally run across photos and other things I’ve forgotten about. Those items give my spirits a lift with the memories they bring to my mind.

I recently found this photo of Kari and Dean, leaving to celebrate MORP–the opposite of PROM and, technically, an anti-prom culture activity. I don’t remember where they went that evening, but it wasn’t to the prom.

On another day, I found a picture of Jeff and La, taken at their wedding reception. They look so young! It’s hard to believe they are now expecting their second grandchild.

Author’s note: This is one of the few pictures in which Jeff resembles me. Face-on, he’s such an image of his dad that, at his son’s wedding, another wedding guest introduced himself to Ted and remarked, “You must be Jeff’s dad. He’s the spitting image of you.”

Finally, I found this object in the back of a drawer. My uncle Gibby was a typesetter. When I was a child, he set type and made print blocks for his children and his nieces and nephews. If I press mine onto an inkpad, it still “prints” my name.

My surprise finds are unpredictable. I wonder when and what the next one will be.

I think it’s been five years since Kathy and I spent a day together in Columbia. We’ve been together regularly during the intervening years, including some meetings in Columbia, but always with other family members. In May, Kathy invited me for a mother-daughter day in Columbia again, and it was wonderful to have nearly 11 hours of each other’s exclusive company. Including family members is a good thing, but so is one-on-one time.

Over the years of our “Columbia Days,” we’ve established a routine for our get-togethers. Columbia is a halfway point for each of us, and we meet at the intersection of our routes–US 63 and I-70. There’s a Bob Evans restaurant at the intersection, where we begin our time together with lunch. The restaurant is not usually crowded, so we eat and talk for about two hours before heading to downtown Columbia.

The next part of the routine is to walk Broadway, the main street through the downtown area, stopping at our three favorite stores: Blue Stem, Peace Nook, and The Candy Factory. Blue Stem offers a variety of unique and beautiful artistic creations made by Missouri artists. Peace Nook is an eclectic store that reminds me of the 1960s and 70s, describing itself as “a non-profit store . . . with all proceeds supporting our educational work to promote peace, social justice, sustainability, and a liveable climate.” The Candy Factory crafts gourmet chocolates and other candies. We sometimes buy something at Blue Stem; we always buy something at Peace Nook; and we always buy our specific chocolate favorites (and sometimes others) at The Candy Factory.

After our time downtown (usually late afternoon), we head for the mall food court where we purchase beverages and eat some of our chocolates while we talk for several hours. Then it’s time for a late dinner at Shakespeare’s Pizza, where we eat and talk for a few more hours before going home.

The real purpose (and my treasure) of our mother-daughter day is our personal conversations. It’s always hard to leave for home after our Columbia Day, knowing that this special day is over, but we each face a 90-minute drive, so we reluctantly go back to Bob Evans (where we’ve left one car for the day), get into our cars, and go home. Until next time, . . . .

Ted and I have greatly enjoyed the friendship that has developed over the past seven months with our friends, Mike and Mary Jane, and the feeling is mutual. It was bittersweet to share our last get-together in early May during the final days of their mission in St. Louis as they prepared to return to their home in Utah. As always, we had a great time together.

For our farewell evening, Ted and I invited Mike and Mary Jane to dinner at our house. On a previous visit, the four of us had talked about the wonderful things you can make with rhubarb: sauce, pie, jam, etc. I asked if they’d ever had rhubarb kuchen, and they said, “No, what is it?” I know a lot of people who don’t like rhubarb (or have never eaten it), but the four of us all admitted to growing up with and liking rhubarb. Early May is rhubarb season so, as long as I was freezing rhubarb, I set some aside to make a rhubarb kuchen for our final group dessert.

Mike’s reaction was totally unexpected. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes light up like Mike’s did when he saw the kuchen. “Is that rhubarb?!” he asked, in a tone of disbelief. It was extremely flattering to the person who baked it for Mike. (Ahem. Me.) Mike ate two pieces and smiled through every bite. Mary Jane asked for the recipe so she could make it in the future.

Our evening together stretched out a little longer than usual because none of us wanted to say good-bye. When it was finally time for Mike and Mary Jane to leave, there were hugs and then repeated hugs. We’ll keep in touch and we hope to see each other again in the future, but it won’t be regularly like it’s been over the past seven months. Bittersweet is real: wonderfully happy friendships with emotionally difficult partings.

P.S. My rhubarb kuchen recipe is from my grandmother. Our son, Thom, liked it so much, he always ordered it for his birthday cake. Luckily for him, his birthday falls in rhubarb season.

Fall 2024 was so warm that our daffodils sprouted in November. They grew to almost 4 inches tall before it became cold enough to discourage them from getting taller. At the time, I assumed they were a lost cause for spring blooms. “If the bulb has sprouted and then the weather becomes too cold for it to keep growing,” I reasoned, “it probably won’t re-sprout in the spring.” I resigned myself to missing our cheerful row of daffodils in Spring 2025. Happily, I was wrong. When the weather warmed up, the daffodil leaves started growing where they left off in November and produced full-sized plants with full-sized blooms. Conclusion: Daffodils are extremely hardy!

While we always look forward to the daffodil blooms, Ted and I are tired of deadheading and pruning the many roses a 2010 landscaper planted around our property. Last fall and this spring, Ted dug out all but four of those rose bushes, ran them through his wood chipper, and replaced most of them with annuals. The remaining roseless area was a large. empty bed at the garage corner of the house. We had curbing and landscape rock put into that bed several years ago, and we didn’t want to remove it, so we needed to replace those prickly roses with something big to fill that space. We chose a lilac bush. It won’t need nearly as much care as roses did, and the blooms smell wonderful when we walk near them. You can see in the photo that it has lots of room to grow before it will need pruning.

The redbud tree we planted a few years ago started dying late last summer and gave up the fight over the winter. The nursery folks were greatly surprised to hear that a redbud tree didn’t survive, since redbud trees are indigenous to Missouri. We like seeing the redbud blooms in the spring, so we decided to try another one. We had a few blooms from it this spring and we look forward to lots more in the coming years. The new redbud is the little one behind the landscaper on the right. It has some growing to do to catch up with its dead predecessor.

On May 16, I needed to do some shopping at the Galleria in the Central West End area of St. Louis. There were some weather watches posted, but the storms were not expected to reach our area for another two hours–more than enough time for me make the trip and to be home before the storms hit. When I finished shopping, I checked the radar again to see if I should run some errands in our home area or if I should go straight home. It looked iffy, so I decided to make the call when I was closer to home.

The skies were gray when I left the Galleria, indicating an impending storm, but the weather didn’t look dangerous. As I drove farther west, the sky became very dark for a while but then became lighter when my route turned to the north. About halfway home, the rain hit. It was pretty heavy, so my wipers were working rapidly. I made the call to go straight home and to finish my errands after the storm. When I was about two miles from home, the wind hit, blowing sheets of rain across the roads. About a half mile from home, the hail started falling. It was pretty small hail–about 1/4-1/2 inch in size–but I didn’t want hail damage on my new car. With no other cars in sight, I admit that I exceeded the speed limit for the half mile from that point to our garage, where I could put my car under a roof, safe from the hail. It was a good call to skip my home-area errands!

Here’s how the hail looked in our pool. It fell hard enough that some pieces of hail bounced when they hit the surface of the water, then fell back down into the water. It looked like white jumping beans. Our largest hail was 1.5 inches, in flat pieces. Hail covered our lawn, but not completely.

After the storm, I went to Target (I had a lot of errands to do that day) and I overheard a lady and her husband telling a salesperson that they lived only a few miles south of Target and had an 18 to 24-inch accumulation of hail on the ground! The lady said she had gardening buckets outside that were filled and then covered with hail! Their 5- or 6-year-old daughter piped up and said, “It was really deep!” Their largest hail was baseball-sized.

When the hail stopped falling, the wind became apparent. Fortunately, we live in a valley between two hills–one behind our house and one across the street from the front of our house, so we tend to be sheltered from wind. Today, however, the wind blew the pool water surface as if it were a lake (without the whitecaps).

Meanwhile, east of us, a tornado struck very close to the Galleria Mall, where I had been shopping 30 minutes earlier. Looking at the radar when I got home, I saw that I basically drove around the tornado development area (where the skies became very dark) and, thankfully, didn’t need to take cover during my drive home. These are photos of the wedge tornado that struck St. Louis, taken by a camera in the Gateway Arch. The lower photo is darker because the tornado is closer and the air is filled with more debris. The red arc-shaped structure in the lower left corner of the photo is Busch Stadium.

A wedge tornado has a width equal to its height. This one was an EF3 tornado a mile wide, moving at 55 mph, with winds of 152 mph. It traveled 8 miles through the Central West End of the St. Louis area, destroying a 20-block area and damaging roughly 5,000 buildings. It struck along the north side of Forest Park and caused extensive damage to the St. Louis Zoo, which is temporarily closed as a result. The tornado initially touched down in Clayton, then tracked 23 miles to the northeast into Illinois. Sadly, there were 5 fatalities in St. Louis due to the tornado.

An EF4 tornado struck Lambert Airport in April 2011, and the damage in that area was visible for years. This tornado struck a more densely populated area, so the recovery will, again, be a lengthy process. FEMA officials called the residential damage the largest-scale the organization surveyed since the 2011 F5 tornado in Joplin, MO. St. Louis city officials estimated the tornado damage at $1.6 billion, among the highest figures for an individual tornado on record. It was the first deadly tornado in St. Louis since 1959.

A few weeks ago, Jeff wrote a mission letter suggesting that we all look for the small miracles that occur in our lives each day. Today, my pretty big miracle was leaving the Galleria Mall when I did and arriving safely at home.

As I was talking my daily walk on May 5, I saw this pretty cloud. Someplace east of us, thunderstorms were forming.

On May 15, I was driving to the mall to do some shopping and saw this huge cloud. I stopped to take a picture of it and to call Ted, telling him it would be worth his time to go to the top of the hill behind our house (less than a half-mile away) to give his meteorological heart a thrill.

From near our house, the above cloud looked pretty amazing but when I got to the mall, which is on high ground with a big parking lot and no trees to block the view, I was awestruck. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! This cloud extended 180 degrees from north to south on the eastern horizon. I have never seen a cloud that covered half of the horizon! Obviously, a line of thunderstorms was developing–probably in Illinois.

About an hour later, when I finished shopping, the sun was setting and it cast a rosy glow on the same cloud formation. The cloud still covered 180 degrees of the horizon and the thunderstorms were still developing. When I got home, Ted and I checked the radar and saw a solid line of severe thunderstorms stretching from just southeast of St. Louis to Chicago. Wow!

Tonight, Ted and I went out for dinner. The restaurant parking lot had only a few empty parking spaces, so I picked one and pulled in between two pickup trucks. My Hot Mama car looked more like Baby Car.

I buy all of my spices from the Spice Shop where they are fresh and less than half the price of the grocery store offerings. The Spice Shop buys the fresh spices in bulk and puts them in clear plastic containers for sale to customers. When I switched from grocery store spices to Spice Shop spices, I saved my empty grocery store spice bottles and filled them with Spice Shop spices.

We updated our kitchen in 2023 and I ordered a built-in spice rack in the cabinet door over the countertop where I cook and bake. With my spice jars obviously displayed whenever I opened the cabinet door, I wanted some uniformity, so I bought new jars.

Those jars were a disappointment. They were plastic, and my labels didn’t stick very well. They also warped for no apparent reason and became oddly shaped, with large dents on the sides. I searched all over for the kind of jars I wanted (clear glass, square, spice-size, removable shaker caps under the lids) in the quantity I needed (25-30 jars) online and ordered them.

After washing the jars, I started transferring my spices to my new jars. That little blue funnel came with the jars. The containers of spices on the right are from the Spice Shop.

Now I have what I wanted when the spice rack was installed in 2023: an attractive and uniform array of spices.

One day in early March, Ted decided spring was coming, and he thought it was a good time for him to clean the solar lights that we put around the pool. It was a raw, cold, rainy day (see his puffy winter jacket and the wet driveway beneath his car). He backed his car into the driveway so that he could work in the relative comfort of the garage. If it had been up to me, I’d have waited for a warm, sunny day, but he’s a hard, dedicated worker, and he got the job done. That’s my man.

For my 60th birthday, Kyra made a special picture of her and me and she attached 60 Hershey’s Kisses around the edges to form a frame. I’m the one with the short hair. 😉 Note that, in the picture, she and I are holding hands, indicated by the single extended arm. ♥

Ever since Kyra gave me the picture, I’ve kept it on display on the top of the “grandchildren toy cabinet.” Kyra was surprised to learn that I still have the picture. I shared the candy kisses instead of saving them for posterity, but I treasure the picture.