The Blogette of Dr. D

Ted and Kari like to get together for an afternoon of Scrabble. Kari has time off from her organic farm work in January, and Kathy gave Ted a new Scrabble game for Christmas, so the two of them decided it was time to play Scrabble again.

Scrabble afternoons are a special father-daughter time.

Photo credit: Theo

Licorice?

Ted and I enjoyed the 1996 movie “Twister.” Of course, it was far from meteorologically accurate, but that outrageousness made it fun. When the loosely-described sequel, “Twisters,” was released in July 2024, we went to see it for more fun. Again, it was definitely not scientifically accurate, but it was an enjoyable two hours. Shortly after the release of “Twisters,” I saw this meme.

Jimmy Carter

Former President Jimmy Carter (October 1, 1924-December 29, 2024) was generally unappreciated during his term as President of the United States–including by me. As time went on and Carter demonstrated his beliefs in countless humanitarian ways, I began to respect him more and more.

Until he died, when the news outlets reported the things he accomplished during his presidency, I didn’t realize what an impact Carter had quietly made on our country and on the world. In 1977, the first act of his presidency was to pardon Vietnam draft resisters; the Camp David Accords (1978) are the longest-standing peace agreements in the Middle East and are still in place today; the Salt II talks with President Brezhnev of the Soviet Union resulted in the nuclear arms reduction treaty. As President and throughout his life, he worked constantly for global human rights.

Carter was determined to put principles over politics, regardless of the political consequences of his actions. Political analysts believe this is most likely what cost him a second term as President. He wasn’t a great politician, because his goal was not to be politically correct, but to lead a life of purpose. The accolades made in his honor after his death reflect a person who achieved his goal and can only be described as an exceptionally fine human being.

Range: 106

The low temperature at our house during the extremely (for us) cold weather that followed our January 5 snowstorm was -2 degrees. Our high temperature last summer was 104 degrees. That’s a 106-degree range over the past six months! Neither the high nor the low temperature recorded on our thermometer is a record temperature, so our range is even greater. Ted and I like the variety in our weather, although I’m far more partial to warm weather.

Word of the week: Snow

January 23, 2025

During the last week of December, the St. Louis National Weather Service Office issued a special weather statement advising the area of an upcoming major winter storm, beginning January 5 and bringing the likelihood of freezing rain, sleet, snow, and even thunder snow, followed by a period of extremely cold weather, with temperatures 20-30 degrees below normal. One of the friends I saw that week knows that Ted worked as a lead forecaster for the NWS. After greeting each other, she said, “I’m so glad to see you. I want to know what Ted says about this storm they’re talking about.”

Well, usually Ted tells me it probably won’t be as bad as it sounds, and a week out is hard to forecast for specific areas because air currents can move a weather system north or south a few miles, making a huge difference in which area(s) will get rain, freezing rain, or snow. This time, I told my friend, Ted started major storm prep six days in advance of the forecast storm. (1) He started the snowblower to make sure it works. We haven’t used it for at least two years and, if it needed repair, there were a few days to get it fixed before the storm arrived. It worked fine, so (2) he filled two one-gallon containers with gas for the snowblower. (3) Then he filled the gas tanks on both cars. Our main supply of firewood is outdoors, but we keep a pile of firewood in the garage so it will stay dry and be ready to use in the fireplace. (4) Ted hauled in as much wood as we had room for in the garage so that we could (a) enjoy a fire on the cold evenings and/or (b) heat the family room with the fireplace and stay warm if freezing rain broke the power lines. (5) He and I planned menus and made up a grocery list; then (6) he offered to go to the grocery store to stock up before everyone else went on the weekend. (7) We dug out our boots, heaviest jackets, and thickest gloves, and then, . . . we waited.

Our first snowfall of the season (November 30) was pretty, but minor. Neither we nor our neighbors needed to shovel our driveways, because the ground was warm enough to melt the snow on them. We had an unusually warm November (23 days above 55 degrees) and December (10 days above 55 degrees). It was so warm that our daffodils sprouted and are about 3 inches tall. In the photo below, you can see that some of the trees on the far left and far right of the photo still have leaves on them, and the bushes growing at the edge of the woods across the street are still green. You can’t see the grass, but it was still green too.

On January 5, just as predicted, we had thunder snow, and the major weather event that inspired all of Ted’s prep work looked like this. We saw some lightning and heard some thunder, and the heavy snow fell rapidly.

The snow stopped falling by mid-afternoon, giving us a break before the back edge of the system circled around to hit us with another punch later. The smart people (only we and two other neighbors) took advantage of the break to clear Part 1 of the storm. The yardstick is hard to read, but it says 7.5 inches of snow. The photo looks like the snow slopes downward into a valley-like depression in the center, but it was level, just like it looks at the road across the upper center and in the foreground of the photo.

I enjoy using the snowblower, so I cleared the driveway. It took both of us to find it. Ted helped me identify the edges of the concrete and I pushed the snowblower as he directed. You can see my boundary paths on both sides of the driveway. Then I cleared the middle.

When I finished clearing the driveway, Ted took over with the snowblower and cleared the sidewalks and the patio, then used a shovel to clear the porches and the corners. When he finished, he told me he was still having fun (like a kid playing in the snow), so he cleared two neighbors’ driveways–first Claudia’s (our age, widowed, and doesn’t have a snowblower), then Peggy’s (93 years old). Peggy hasn’t driven for a number of years, so Ted cleared only one side of her driveway to allow her family–most of whom live nearby–to get to the house when they come to visit.

It was really hard for me to clear the driveway, especially on the upward slope going toward the road. My feet kept slipping while I pushed the snowblower, and I had to fight it to keep it moving in a straight line. This is the reason.

I broke up some of the icy bottom layer and examined a chunk of it. No wonder my feet kept slipping–I was walking on a layer of frozen rain topped with a layer of sleet! In NWS-speak, Ted would say, “The forecast verified.” That means it was right on the money. We had everything in the forecast: freezing rain, sleet, snow, and thunder snow, followed by extremely cold weather.

Everything is clear. Or as close as we can get to clear. It was time to go inside to wait for Part 2 of the storm.

Part 2 (the back side of the storm) arrived overnight and dropped another 4.5 inches of snow on us.

Because we had already cleared snow once, the snowbanks made it easier for us to see where the edges of the concrete were this time.

This storm dropped a total of 13 inches of freezing rain, sleet, and snow on our neighborhood. (If you’re doing the math from my measurements above, the “error” is because the yardstick didn’t penetrate the ice/sleet at the bottom, and I took this measurement in an area without that layer.)

I cleared our driveway again. It was much easier than yesterday with roughly half as much new snowfall. Ted cleared the sidewalks and the patio and shoveled out whatever the snowblower couldn’t do. Then he cleared Claudia’s driveway again. Someone else cleared Peggy’s.

As I said earlier, the smart people went outside during the break in the storm and cleared the first 7.5 inches of snow–plus some of the freezing rain and sleet. Unfortunately, two of our neighbors did not, and they both had a hard time trying to clear 13 inches of ice, sleet, and snow.

Kevin (foreground) doesn’t have a snowblower, so he was using a shovel. I noticed him struggling while I was working on our driveway, and Ted said while he (Ted) was clearing our sidewalks, Kevin was lifting and dumping a shovelful of snow, then stopping to catch his breath before lifting another load. Ted took our snowblower to Kevin and let him use it instead of his shovel. (I didn’t want to put boots on to go outside to take a picture. Pardon the window screen.)

When Kevin finished, he took our snowblower across the street and helped Larry (blue jacket) and Maxine (partially hidden by Larry’s blown snow) clear their driveway. We don’t get enough snow in our area to make it worth a super-size snowblower, so this storm was hard work for everyone. Even MoDOT is understaffed and has many new, inexperienced plow drivers. In spite of MoDOT employees working 12-hour shifts for 6 days, the road in front of our house wasn’t cleared until the third day after the storm started. Meanwhile, our snowblower cleared five driveways: ours (twice), Claudia’s (twice), and Peggy’s, as well as part of Kevin’s and part of Larry’s. It’s a trusty little machine!

Needless to say, countless businesses were closed for several days and schools were closed all week–Monday through Friday. We didn’t even have mail pick-up or delivery for 6 days–Monday through Saturday. I guess the USPS does stop for (freezing) rain, sleet, and snow! Maybe not for dark of night.

We had a few days of very cold weather and some sunshine before Storm #2 struck. Looking out of an upstairs window on one of those days, I saw these icicles.

While he was outdoors, Ted took a picture of more icicles.

I went outside too and couldn’t resist a photo of our fluffy-looking lawn furniture.

The weight of the ice, sleet, and snow really stretched our pool cover straps. When we close the pool for the winter, we drop the water level below the circulation jets–about 16-18 inches below the pool deck surface. A pool antifreeze is added to the remaining water when we close the pool. The pool cover sank under the weight of the ice, sleet, and snow. The dark splotches on it in the photo are ice, caused by unfrozen pool water that soaked through the sunken porous cover and froze in the cold air, adding more weight to the cover. The cover will spring up again when everything on it melts.

Storm #2 arrived on January 10, four days after Part 2 of Storm #1 left the area. If you compare this photo to the first one in this post, you’ll notice that all of the trees are now bare and the bushes at the edge of the woods are no longer green. The extremely cold, and sometimes windy, weather was too much for them to hold their fall leaves any longer.

Storm #2 didn’t bring much snow–only 2 inches. Still, we had 15 inches of snow in six days, an unusual occurrence in St. Louis. Interesting fact: Anchorage, Alaska has had only 2 inches of snow so far this winter.

Sometimes, we can leave 2 inches of snow on the ground and let the sun melt it in a day or two. This time, it was so cold that the snow wasn’t going to disappear any time soon; it would just get packed down by the cars and freeze. Ted used the snowblower to clear our concrete for a third time in less than a week. This is not typical of St. Louis snowfall!

With a clear driveway, and clear roads at last, Ted made a quick run to the grocery store for a few items. We didn’t need bread (remember that we stocked up a week ago as part of storm prep), but it looks like a lot of other people did.

After all our work clearing snow, we had time to relax indoors. While the temperatures dropped, we spent every evening with a cozy fire in the fireplace.

Here’s the good news for those like me who look forward to spring: March 20, the first day of astronomical spring, will be here in just 56 days. Meterological spring (March 1) will arrive in only 37 days. Come on, Spring!

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Note: The heavy snow and cold weather prevented the snow from melting as quickly as usual. We had at least one inch of snow on the ground for a consecutive 16 days, the 16th-highest number of days on record.

St. Louis’ all-time record for at least one inch of snow on the ground is 66 days in January-March 1978. At that time, the NWS gave daily live weather reports as a service to KMOX radio. When Ted’s boss gave one of those reports in February, he was asked how long the cold and snow were going to last. His answer was, “I hate to say it will be awhile before it warms up, but five of our forecasters went to Florida this week.” Our family included one of those five forecasters. We were vacationing at Disney World during the kids’ cycle break from their year-round school schedule.

Garden Glow

January 4, 2025

For Christmas, Ted and I decided to give ourselves the gift of the Missouri Botanical Garden Glow followed by dinner at a restaurant. Just as we didn’t have time to walk and admire the holiday lights and decorations on Historic Main Street before Christmas, we didn’t have time to attend Glow before Christmas either. Like Historic Main Street, Glow opens on Thanksgiving Day (timed tickets required for this event) but remains open through the first weekend after New Year’s Day.

Here’s the entrance to Glow.

The grounds’ 79 acres were covered with light displays. At an ambling and admiring pace, it took us about an hour-and-a-half to walk the entire path on a clear, calm winter evening with temperatures in the mid-30s. A variety of large St. Louis area corporations sponsored many of the light displays.

I couldn’t help wondering how the decorators managed to cover the trees in the picture above so thoroughly with lights. The trunks and bases of the trees looked very authentic, and the display title included the word “oak” in its name. The leaves were oak-shaped, but the trees were not. Curious minds want to know, so I took a close look at the branches to see how the lights were attached. That made it obvious that the trees were not actually rooted in the garden, which led me to wonder how the installers transported and stored the “trees.” I looked even closer and now I know. Check the assembly lines indicated by my arrows in the two photos below. The trunk is comprised of two pieces, the large branches attach to it, and the smaller branches attach to the larger ones. Some assembly required. 🙂

Artificial or not, the little patch of trees was a pretty display. Maybe we should buy one or two of these for our own holiday lighting.

I remember this display from our Glow visit in 2023, but I still like it. The tree is one of three set in an emptied reflecting pool, and the multiple layers of lights over it create an illusion of water below. (The illusion probably disappears in daylight when you can see the web of the lights’ electrical wires in the empty pool.)

Some of the displays are static; others are not. This one (another photo of the blue tree above) is not. I took a short video to capture some of the lighting changes. A variety of holiday music plays throughout the park. Turn on your audio if you want to hear some of it.

Here’s another light display.

I didn’t think a still photo did justice to this display, so I took another short video. Again, you can listen to the music if you want to. It’s easy to see why we chose Glow as our Christmas gift.

When we reached this point, we were nearly back at the main entrance where our walk began.

We decided to have our Christmas gift dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in the Chesterfield Valley–about halfway between the Botanical Garden and our house. By the time we arrived, the crowd had thinned, our server was very nice, the pasta was delicious, and we finished our meal with the Factory’s signature spumoni ice cream.

Now our 2024 winter holiday season is over. We went to the International Women’s Brass Conference concert, celebrated with our family, spent time with friends, enjoyed the holiday lights on Historic Main Street, and had a beautiful evening at the Garden Glow. It was a nice way to end 2024 and to begin 2025. Happy new year!

New friends

December 31, 2024

One day last October, Ted and I were cleaning and doing the laundry. As I passed the front door, I noticed two people–a man and a woman–walking away from the door. Their car was parked directly in front of our house, as if intentionally–not like the canvassers who park out of sight and then troll the street. Thinking they might have car trouble or need help, I opened the door and called to them, asking if I could help in any way. They laughed and said, “No, we know your son, and he suggested we stop in to say ‘hello’ to you.” They had rung the doorbell, but with the vacuum cleaner running, we hadn’t heard it. Luckily, I passed the front door and saw them before they left.

We introduced ourselves to each other and I chatted with them for a few minutes, then asked if they’d like to meet Ted as well. They enthusiastically said “yes,” so I went to the house and called to Ted. The four of us continued talking with each other and none of us seemed ready to part, so I invited them inside. We enjoyed each other’s company so much that they stayed at least another hour, and we made plans to get together again soon.

The backstory is that Jeff and La are currently serving a mission for their church. While they were attending mission training last spring, they met Mike and Mary Jane (our visitors), who were assigned to a mission in the St. Louis area. At that time, Jeff told them we lived in the St. Louis area, but he didn’t tell us to expect visitors, so meeting them was a happy surprise for us. Before they left, we took a group photo. Here you can see me, Ted, Mary Jane, and Mike.

Mike and Mary Jane asked for suggestions about things to see while they are in St. Louis. One of the places we mentioned was The Hill–an Italian community in the city, well-known for its Italian grocery stores and restaurants. It’s the birthplace of Joe DiMaggio, Joe Garagiola, Yogi Berra, and Jack Buck–three major league baseball players and a baseball broadcaster–who grew up together on The Hill and were all inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. We met at Mama’s on the Hill for dinner and had another wonderful time together. It was even better than our first visit, so we decided to meet again.

Mike and Mary Jane invited us to their home for dinner and introduced us to two other missionaries who lived in the same apartment building. The six of us talked nonstop for at least three hours, and Mary Jane commented to me that “We’ve become fast friends in a hurry, haven’t we?” I agreed.

Another of our suggestions for things to do in the area was to visit Historic Main Street in St. Charles (close to our home) during the holiday season to see the lights and decorations. Their daughter came for a holiday visit and the three of them planned to go to Main Street. We invited them for dinner at our house after they finished viewing the holiday decorations. We also invited Kari’s family, but the guys were all working, so only Kari could join us. It was fun for Mike and Mary Jane and for us to meet one of each other’s children–in this case, daughters. It was a small holiday get-together with friends and family members, and we celebrated with Christmas candy and cookies for dessert.

The downside of this friendship is that in May, Mike and Mary Jane’s St. Louis mission will be finished and they will be returning home to the Salt Lake City area. We will still be here. Luckily, we have grandchildren in the SLC area, so there’s a possibility of the four of us getting together again when we visit our grandchildren, and we’ve all expressed a strong desire to keep in touch with each other.

You never know what’s going to happen in your day. One day, a few months ago, we unexpectedly made new friends.

Historic holiday lights

December 30, 2024

Ted and I always enjoy walking on Historic Main Street in St. Charles when the holiday lights and decorations are on display from Thanksgiving until New Year’s. We didn’t have time to do this before Christmas, so we went on the Saturday after Christmas. The lights and decorations were still there, but the international Christmas characters, the carolers, and the drum and fife corps no longer perform after Christmas Eve, when a parade sends Santa on his way to deliver gifts to all the good boys and girls.

In winter, the sun sets early enough that the lights are pretty by 4:30 p.m., so that’s when we went. We discovered an advantage to being there on a Saturday winter evening: the shops were open until 9:00 and we could see their merchandise through the windows. We regularly shop at several stores in this area, but we haven’t been in all of them, so it was fun to see what they sell and to make plans to visit some new places the next time we go to Main Street.

The boutique shops on Historic Main Street are all in old houses–some dating back to the 1600s–and people live on the upper level of many of the shops. I think every single shop had decorations and/or holiday lights.

The trees along the street were also decorated, making this a pretty place to walk on a beautiful winter evening. You can tell by the number of parked cars that we were a small part of the crowd looking at the lights–even after Christmas! I was lucky to find a parking spot. (Someone left, so I pulled in.)

The downtown parks had Christmas lights in the trees.

The trees in Frontier Park at the Missouri River glowed with holiday lights along the Katy Trail (foreground).

This tree had a small sleigh and presented a cute photo op for the parents of this little boy.

St. Charles apparently keeps and re-uses its decorations for many years. In 2017, the same sleigh was placed beside a tree along the riverfront in Frontier Park. Our family group attended the Christmas Eve parade that year and I took a photo of Dylan pretending to pull the sleigh, Sky holding the pretend reins, and Teddy along for the ride.

Family Christmas

December 26, 2024

As always, Christmas is special whenever it’s celebrated with family and friends. Kathy and Annette arrived on the afternoon of the 23rd and stayed at our house. Dean and Dylan had to work that day, but Kari and Theo joined us for the afternoon and dinner. I served baked potato soup–winter comfort food–with Cherries on a Cloud for dessert. The photo shows the entire dessert, not one serving–it’s large enough to cut into twelve pieces. (It’s a baked meringue shell with a marshmallow / cream cheese / whipped cream filling, topped with cherries.)

Kari’s family hosted us for the family Christmas celebration. Sky and Adelle were able to come from Rockford, IL to celebrate Christmas with our family on Christmas Eve and with Adelle’s family (nearby) on Christmas Day. Dean had a cozy fire in the family room, and everyone shifted from room to room throughout the afternoon and evening, forming a variety of interesting conversational groups.

With ten of us, there were a lot of presents under the tree. (Note the unique tree topper.)

For dinner, Kari prepared a family favorite that we describe as “ham dinner.” It includes baked ham, mashed potatoes with delicious ham gravy, green beans, and Waldorf salad. I made a marshmallow and whipped cream torte with a chocolate crumb crust for dessert.

After dinner, it was time to open the gifts. (Some of us had colds and others didn’t want to catch a cold, thus the masks.)

Even the cat(s) had some gifts. You can see the milk carton cat bed in the photo. The cat looks cautious because it is watching a wind-up toy move around in unpredictable patterns and the cat isn’t sure what to do about it.

The next morning (Christmas Day), Kathy and Annette went to Columbia to celebrate the holiday with Annette’s son, and the rest of us relaxed. Everyone at Kari’s house was busy with individual activities for a while in the afternoon, so Kari came over to spend a little time with us. Naturally, we talked about how nice the family Christmas had been. In the evening, Ted and I settled in for a movie with a Christmas cookie snack. A good time was had by all during this special season. Merry Christmas!

IWBC Holiday Brass Concert

December 4, 2024

With Thanksgiving falling as late as possible this year, Christmas arrived in a hurry. Even worse, we had a major weather change in early December, which sometimes triggers laryngitis for me. This time, I had an unusually bad case and felt terrible for a week, setting our Christmas preparations behind schedule. As a result, the only community holiday event we attended before Christmas was the Holiday Brass Concert at a church in St. Louis County.

I attended the concert with a friend last year and it was so good, I wanted Ted to hear it this year. It’s presented by the International Women’s Brass Conference and includes brass and percussion instruments. The IWBC presents four performances each December in the Manchester United Methodist Church. The church seats 1,200 people, and all four concerts sell out every year. Ted and I bought our Dec. 2 tickets in early June as soon as they went on sale. The concert is indescribable. No photos were allowed, so I’m going to describe some of the concert highlights, but words cannot begin to do justice to the experience.

The church is beautifully decorated for Christmas and has excellent acoustics, both of which greatly contribute to the experience. There is a large balcony above the sanctuary, flanked by a smaller balcony on each side, as well as a large balcony above the rear of the nave. An outstanding choir I estimated at around 80-100 members performs in the back of the sanctuary, and musical pieces are performed in the aisles, along the side walls, and in the corners of the nave, as well as in all the balconies. In addition to every variety of brass instrument, there are marimbas, alphorns, bagpipes, a piano, and soloists. A sign language interpreter is present during vocal musical pieces.

Except for the final selection, the entire group of musicians does not perform simultaneously in a concert-style seating arrangement, nor do they always perform in the front of the nave. Selections are performed by smaller ensembles of 4-12 musicians at a time, with individual musicians participating in multiple ensemble combinations. While one ensemble performs somewhere in the building–sometimes vocally, sometimes instrumentally–the next moves silently and invisibly into place at another station. As soon as the first ensemble finishes, there is time for brief applause before the next ensemble begins. With each musical selection followed by a piece performed in a different area of the nave, the music seems to surround the audience. The variety of ensembles and performance locations is a highlight of this concert.

The selections and the quality of music are impressive. Four alphorns played “Silent Night”–two in the front balcony and one on each side of the rear balcony; the bagpipers played as they came down the center aisle; for one song, the choir entered from the rear and spread along the two side walls.

Even a video would not capture the experience of this holiday concert. The best I can offer visually is a picture of a man in Halifax, NS playing an alphorn. Even so, his alphorn is white, not brass-colored. An alphorn varies from 9.5-13.0 feet long and, at full volume, can be heard over several kilometers. (A friend of mine knows an alphorn player and asked him if the instrument comes apart for transporting it. The answer is that there is a case for it, but it does not come apart.) Imagine one of these horns playing from each of four balcony corners simultaneously. Awesome!

Ted and I have already marked our calendar to order our tickets in early June for next year’s IWBC Holiday Brass Concert.

‘Tis the season

December 1, 2024

While Ted and I were shopping for holiday items, I saw this red dress at Penney’s. It was so-o-o-o tempting to buy it and shock the family by wearing it to our family Christmas gathering, but I resisted and left it for someone else.

I had a Barnes & Noble gift certificate from Kari and Dean burning a hole in my purse, so I went to the store’s big Christmas sale to spend the gift card, getting two books for the price of one.

While I was there, I saw this display. Someone needs to pay attention. The sign says “One-of-a-Kind Gifts” but there are numerous identical items on display. That’s not what “one” means.

It’s the Christmas season, so I’m displaying my Christmas Lego collection–a traditional exchange Thom and I have had since he was old enough to buy a few Christmas presents with his allowance. The tradition continues. The snowman with the red hat in the right corner is this year’s item from Thom.

Have you ever seen a mini puzzle with pieces like this? Kathy and Annette found one for me.

I always enjoy all the Christmas decorations and traditions. Merry Christmas to all.

FHN bites the dust

November 30, 2024

The Francis Howell School District grew rapidly in the 1970s and needed many new buildings. Jeff and Kathy attended Fairmount Elementary School the first year it opened. The school filled so rapidly that, when Jeff was in sixth grade, he attended another new school–Henderson Junior High. I remember that the library had a minimal number of books, including a single set of encyclopedias for reference. As an increasing number of students attended that school, a new junior high school was constructed on the property, and the building Jeff attended was renamed Francis Howell North High School.

Jeff attended school in that same building from sixth through twelfth grade. The building was oddly constructed and had a confusing system of room numbers. Parents were given school maps to find the classrooms for parent-teacher conferences. During the time Jeff and our other children attended that school, additions to the building kept coming and the layout became even more challenging to navigate. Jeff and a good friend of his gave a speech together on graduation day. Like all graduation speeches, it was forgettable, except for one remark that I still remember. In essence, the boys mentioned that every year, they were in the same building, but every year, the front door was in a different place.

That school was not built to last. Fairmount Elementary School is still doing well, as is the second Henderson Junior High, but Francis Howell North built an entirely new high school on the property and demolished the original building this past year.

Note: Cost overruns on the new building were extraordinary–$86 million became $164 million. Due this cost overrun, 71 other projects expected to be funded by $240 million provided for district building improvements by the voter-approved Proposition S in 2020 are currently on hold. The state auditor is investigating the building costs and the fact that a former district employee hired a low-rated management firm owned by his brother to oversee the project. Our tax dollars at work, right?

The new high school is finished, and the original building is now a pile of rubble. In contrast, the high school my Grandma S. attended (graduated in 1911) is still standing and so is the high school my father attended (graduated 1937).

Out with the old

November 11, 2024

We bought a new side-by-side refrigerator in 1997. A number of years ago, the icemaker stopped making ice in a controlled manner, but we don’t use much ice, so it was easy to turn the icemaker on when we needed a bucket of ice, then turn it off until we used up that supply, then turn it back on. No big deal, and everything else worked fine. Everyone–friends, salesmen, and any type of serviceman who came to our house to fix anything over the years–told us to keep our old appliances as long as we could, because the new ones are expensive, and they don’t last very long. The servicemen often told us tales of things they fixed in the first two or three years of a new appliance’s life, and of appliances that needed to be replaced after only five years.

Time went on, and the icemaker began to cause problems. It dispensed undersized ice cubes, dropped non-stop ice cubes into a glass, and randomly allowed ice cubes to slip out of the chute and fall to the hardwood floor, where they melted if we didn’t hear them drop and pick them up immediately. It was becoming a major nuisance. Sure, we could have manually made ice cubes in trays, but the refrigerator was 28 years old, so we decided to put it to rest.

We liked our side-by-side refrigerator, and we like the water/ice dispenser on the outside of the unit, making it unnecessary to open either the freezer to scoop ice out of a tray, or the refrigerator to fill a glass with chilled water. Well, that style is fading away and is available in only a few models. Nearly all of the new models have French doors on top and a freezer drawer at the bottom with a large box for the icemaker to drop cubes into–thus using up freezer space and requiring the user to open the freezer to scoop ice into a glass. We settled on a Bosch refrigerator because (1) it’s a very good brand, and (2) they had two models with an icemaker/water dispenser on the outside of the door.

Here’s what we’ve enjoyed for 28 years.

The installation guys surveyed our house for the best route in and out with a refrigerator and measured all the doorways and both refrigerators before deciding what Ted and I already knew–the exterior door in the kitchen is the best one to use for this. Unfortunately, the new refrigerator was wider than the doors would allow, so the guys had to remove the interior door and the storm door to bring in the new refrigerator.

They took the doors off the old refrigerator, and there was no dolly in sight, so I thought they were going to slide it across the room to the doorway. I didn’t want the hardwood floor scratched, so I asked if they planned to put something under the old unit. “Oh, no,” the senior guy said, “we’ll just carry it to the truck.” “Yikes!” I thought. “They must be really strong!”

Well, each man had a harness that circled his waist with an over-the-shoulder strap that circled from one hip up and over the opposite shoulder, then back to the hip. In the photo below, you can see the long strap they slipped under the refrigerator and a little bit of the harness shoulder strap on the man’s left side. Each man hooked one end of the long strap to the harness at his waist. When they picked up the refrigerator, I could see how the belt was holding the weight and distributing it over their entire bodies, rather than taxing only their arms and shoulders. All they had to do was balance the refrigerator to keep it from tipping over.

They carefully maneuvered the refrigerator through the doorway and parked it on the patio, leaving the belt to pick it up again later to carry the refrigerator to the truck. I think Ted and I could have carried a refrigerator with a belt and harness like that. It was a great system!

Here’s our new refrigerator. Neither of us was thrilled about the French doors and the freezer drawer, but as time goes on, we’re getting used to both and we like it. Best of all, we can get a drink of cold water and/or dispense ice without opening any doors and letting the cold air out.

We’ve heeded the advice to keep our old appliances until they wear out. When we updated our kitchen in 2023, we kept our old refrigerator and stove, planning to replace them when they wore out. Well, the refrigerator is gone now, but the stove still lives. We bought it in or around 1993, making it over 30 years old. It still works perfectly and has never been repaired. When it dies, we’ll get a new one and then all of our kitchen appliances will be stainless steel instead of white. This will probably happen just in time for stainless steel appliances to go out of style. I’ve already seen brightly colored appliances in stores and I’m half-expecting poppy red, harvest gold, and avocado green appliances from the 1970s to return, because retro is “in.”

P.S. Our first washer and dryer lasted 22 years. Our current one is 30 years old and still working, with only minor repairs over the years (two thermostats for the dryer and a solenoid for the washer). They don’t make ’em like they used to!

Little jobs

November 7, 2024

Before the weather got too cold, I thought I should scratch some little jobs off my list.

The stain on our mailbox post and on the front porch support posts has faded badly. Ted and I finally drove to the home decorating store to buy stain, and then I went to work. If you look at the bottom of the mailbox post in the photo below, you can see how faded the color was before I freshened it with new stain.

The same was true of the porch posts, but they look better now. I was wearing a boot for an ankle injury, so Ted helped me by climbing the ladder to stain the high parts and I stuck to what I could reach.

Okay, the little outdoor jobs were finished, but I still had one little indoor job to do. We have a jet tub in the upstairs bathroom. Because of the extra depth of the tub and the placement of the jets, shower curtains are too long–unless you want the jets to massage the shower curtain rather than your body. That’s not a problem for me–I just cut the curtain shorter and hemmed it.

We had the bathroom re-painted as part of the 2023 interior update of our house, so we bought a new shower curtain for the bathroom to celebrate. The piece I cut from the bottom of the curtain was long enough to make a matching valance for the bathroom window. That piece of fabric has been waiting for me to do something with it for over a year, and I finally did.

Obviously, the cure for procrastination is to just do it. Now I can’t help wondering, “What took me so long?”

Buried treasures

I was cleaning up computer files and found these smiles.

Autumn: the year’s last, loveliest smile*

We have had absolutely beautiful fall weather since early September. We continued to have warm temperatures in the upper 70s and upper 80s and we even set a few daytime and overnight high temperature records. During that time, the trees displayed their beautiful fall colors.

Unfortunately, the beautiful weather included no measurable rain for the entire month of October. We made up for that with 4+ inches of rain last week, then 7 inches of rain last night, and severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings both times. I think that gets our area out of its drought status! The storms were followed by a cold front, so I don’t think we’re going to experience any more days in the upper 80s this year. It was wonderful while it lasted, but now it’s time for hot chocolate and snuggly sweaters and blankets.

*The title quote is attributed to William Cullen Bryant

Holiday crafts

With Christmas not that far in the future, I started thinking about our holiday decorations. Ironically, now that our children are grown and Ted and I are retired, it seems I no longer have time for craft projects. That’s a shame, because I enjoy doing a variety of crafts. It surprises me how many holiday decorations I’ve made over the years.

Before we had children, I worked for the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Tabulations for the first computerized decennial census were in progress, and computer punch cards were everywhere. My office mates and I (and lots of other people with access to used punch cards) made Christmas wreaths from them.

Years later, my friends and I became interested in pinecone Christmas wreaths. FYI, cemeteries are great places to find free pinecones. They plant a lot of evergreen trees in cemeteries! I made two wreaths for our home and eight more as Christmas gifts.

When our kids were little, I knew they would enjoy an Advent calendar, so I made a calendar and the required 24 ornaments. When she had children of her own, Kari and I made Advent calendars together so she could hang one in her house as well.

I gave one of the calendars to Thom. Some of the ornaments showed wear, so Katie made replacement ornaments for their children to hang. The tradition continues!

My mother taught me to knit and crochet. I enjoy knitting, but crochet? Not so much. Still, when I see a pattern I really want to make, I’ll crochet. One year, I crocheted Christmas angels.

I admired the tatted Christmas ornaments that Ted’s mother made, so she taught me to tat. I’ve made countless tatted ornaments for myself and to give to others as gifts.

One year, I saw a ceramic Nativity set I liked, and I decided that I should make one. I’d never worked with ceramics before, and most people seem to start by making a mug or an ashtray. I didn’t want either one, so I reasoned that making a 15-piece Nativity set wasn’t any different than making a mug or an ashtray–I just had to do the same things to more pieces. I made a Nativity set for Ted and myself and two more to give to our parents as Christmas gifts that year.

Another year, I made felt appliqúed stockings for our (at the time) three children. After Kari was born, I thought she should have a matching stocking, but there was no way to match the older felt stockings, so I made counted cross-stitch stockings for all four kids. Surprising and gratifying to me, they still hang them. I can’t speak for Thom’s stockings because I don’t have a recent picture of his Christmas decorations.

Jeff lent his counted cross-stitch stocking to his grandson, Ollie. Does that make it a “heritage” stocking from Ollie’s great-grandma (me)?

Kathy hangs both stockings–the felt appliqúed one and the counted cross-stitched one.

Kari hangs hers near a table-sized Christmas tree.

I made this tree skirt a long time ago–probably when I made the felt-appliqúed stockings for the kids.

Just thinking about these projects makes me want to make something new, but now that the children are grown and I’m retired, I don’t seem to have the time. How can that be??!! I think I should set a 2025 goal to make some new craft projects.

Our youngest grandchild

For Hadley’s first birthday, I made a quilt for her.

Now she’s three, and she still likes it. ♥♥♥

Duct tape: Most useful invention ever

P.S. Not our car.

We voted!

October 31, 2024

Missouri has only two weeks of early voting, and Ted and I wanted to vote early. We went on the second day and found ourselves in an unexpected traffic backup–something that has never happened to us when we’ve voted in the past. It took us at least 45 minutes to move 0.2 miles on I-70 to the exit ramp, and that was less than one-third of the distance we needed to go. Considering that when we eventually arrived at the Election Authority building, we’d have to find a parking place and then stand in line to vote, we decided to come back on another day when the crowds (hopefully) diminished a bit.

Since then, the local news reports have been filled with information about the large number of voters turning out for early voting and how backed-up the traffic and voter lines are in St. Charles County. One report informed us that St. Louis City has a smaller population than St. Charles County and has 8 early polling locations. St. Louis County has a larger population than St. Charles County and has 14 early polling locations. St. Charles County has 2–yes, 2–early polling sites, and both have traffic jams and voter lines that circle the buildings. After a few days, the news included information that more poll workers had been added to the sites, police traffic control was on-site to help with traffic, and an additional day of early voting–Monday, November 4–had been added. Even so, the traffic and voter lines on TV didn’t look any shorter than those shown in earlier reports.

When you’re a meteorologist (or married to one), lots of things are about the weather. We’ve been having absolutely gorgeous fall weather with much higher-than-normal temperatures in the upper 70s and upper 80s. A cold front was expected to bring severe storms last night with colder weather behind it–not to mention that today is Hallowe’en. (Note: the forecast “verified” in meteorological speak–we had severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings at 2:15 a.m. last night.) Ted and I figured that: (1) fewer people would want to stand in a long line surrounded by puddles in upper 50s/low 60s cloudy weather with nicer weather coming back tomorrow; and (2) lots of people wouldn’t want to be tied up at the polls late in the afternoon with trick-or-treaters expected after 5:00 p.m., so we picked today to vote. We came prepared with lawn chairs, extra jackets, water bottles, and snacks.

Sure enough, the line on I-70 was 0.1 mile shorter than last week, and we made faster forward progress. Not speedy; just faster than last week. We inched our way to the Election Authority building for 57 minutes before we parked the car, having traveled a whopping 0.75 miles in that time. On our way home, I took this picture of the traffic backup near the corner of the street that is home to the Election Authority building (left side of picture). On the right side of the photo, the line extends down the exit ramp and onto I-70. The Election Authority building is on a dead-end street, so there’s only one way to get there once you’re near that street, and the streets from the other two directions were also backed up.

We finally reached the Election Authority parking lot, and then it took another 5 minutes for a traffic guide to indicate where we should park and to inform us of the one-way route around the building to exit after voting.

After an hour of mostly idling the car, we were surprised to see that the line of voters wasn’t that long. This is what we expected–a line that went all the way around the building. (Photo credit to online news 3 three days ago.)

This is what we got. There were only about a dozen voters behind me when I took this picture. Where are all those people from all those cars??!!

It’s probably best not to be an undecided voter when you arrive at the polling place. Every candidate and every ballot issue has a sign and none of them really contributes to a decision-making process: “Vote for me!” “No, vote for me!” “Vote YES.” “Vote NO.”

It only took about 30 minutes to go through the line, check in, pick up a ballot, and vote. There were far fewer people inside the building than when Ted and I voted here in 2020 during the pandemic, and everything went very smoothly, with no disruptions. (I think the traffic cops held up the traffic to slow access to the building. In other words, I think we idled in the car in a traffic line instead of waiting outside the building in a people line.)

Based on my observations, the election site and the ballots are secure. The curbside voting and drop-off ballot boxes were staffed, guarded, and secure. It looks like St. Charles County will have a fair election. And, of course, the people here are what TV commentators have been calling “Midwest nice.” 🙂

We voted and headed for home. It took us only 18 minutes to drive the same distance that required nearly a full hour in the other direction.

When the political ads started playing on TV this evening, I wondered why they were still playing, since I’d already voted. Then I remembered that there are still four more days to vote: Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, November 5. Get out and vote!

P.S. We left the extra jackets, lawn chairs, and snacks in the car. Thanks to the crummy weather, traffic control, and extra poll workers, the voter line didn’t circle the building, so we reached the front of the line relatively quickly.

One less bare wall

September 22, 2024

When Ted and I updated the interior of our house in 2022-23, we deliberately chose not to re-hang artwork or to set out decorative objects that we were getting tired of looking at. We also decided to simply leave the affected walls and surfaces bare in order to provide incentive for us to shop for new things.

It takes patience to find something that tells you, “This is the one.” We’ve been browsing in a variety of places every now and then–not too often, because you have to give the stores time to put out new stuff if you don’t like what you see. When I see furniture ads on TV, I don’t look at the furniture–I look at the artwork on the walls and at the accessories on the tables. If it looks appealing, we check out that store.

Last weekend, we went to Main Street in St. Charles to browse at the annual Mosaics Fine Art Festival. We weren’t sure we wanted a mosaic piece, but we’ve seen beautiful mosaic work on our travels, so it was worth a look. Not only that, but the weather was beautiful for a stroll through a festival. Surprise! We saw just about every variety of art–except mosaics!

After walking the half mile up Main Street where the displays were placed, and then the half mile down Main Street to get back to where we started, we liked only one thing. Wouldn’t you know it? We saw it at the third booth we visited! The walk gave us time to think it over, though, and to come back after some time had passed to see if we still liked it. This piece said, “Take me home,” so we did.

We hung it the next day, and it looks just as good as we hoped it would. It was made by an artist from Iowa. He titled the piece “Out of Balance.” We had to make a decision about which horizontal line to level when we hung it, because none of the horizontal lines is parallel to any of the others–therefore, they’re “Out of Balance”! It goes well with the vases Kathy bought from the Chicago Art Museum and gave to us for Christmas one year. We like it!

P.S. The small bowl in front of the vases is also from Kathy. She’s so artistic!

Trophy wall

September 22, 2024

It takes 2-3 weeks to receive the official copy of the title for a new car in Missouri these days, so Ted and I went back to the dealer a few days ago to pick up the title for my new car. While we were at the dealer, I walked over to the “trophy wall” (as I call it) to see if our picture was included. It was.

That’s our salesman, Scott, standing on the right side of the “I ♥ Spirit Lexus” sign.

When we go back for the 5,000 mile free maintenance visit, I’ll check to see how long they keep these photos on display. After all, that countertop has a finite length.

Family photos

While we were visiting my Aunt Ruth on our Wisconsin road trip, she showed me some family pictures. One was a portrait of my parents’ wedding party. (Aunt Ruth and my mother were sisters.) Ruth asked if I’d like to have the picture and I gratefully said “yes.”

I have a wedding picture of my parents, but not of their wedding party. The bridesmaids are (left to right) my dad’s sisters, Lenore (Lynn) and Geraldine (Gerry). Of course, my mother is the bride and her sister, Shirley, is the junior bridesmaid. I think the groomsman on the left is my first cousin once removed, the son of my grandpa’s sister and therefore my mother’s cousin. I have no idea who the other groomsman is. My dad is in his Army Air Force uniform because he was on furlough from active duty. After serving in Europe and North Africa, he was expecting to be sent to South Carolina. While my parents were on their honeymoon, however, Japan surrendered, and active combat ended. My dad was released from service, but not discharged. He remained in the Air Force reserves until he retired as a full colonel at the age of 60.

This is a picture of my grandpa on his 90^th birthday with his five children–my mom and her siblings. My grandma died eight years before this and Donald, the sixth child, died at the age of eight from a ruptured appendix. In the back row are my mother with her brothers, Rollie (left) and Gibby (right). Grandpa is in the center and my aunts, Ruth (left) and Shirley (right) are in the front. This photo was in a frame for nearly 40 years, and I didn’t want Aunt Ruth to damage it by removing it for me to take a picture of it, so there’s some glass reflection in my photo.

This picture was also taken on my grandpa’s 90^th birthday and shows him with his brother, Garry. My great-grandpa immigrated from Germany to Wisconsin. When he was settled, my great-grandma followed with their three young children–my grandpa (Lorenz), his brother Garry, and his sister Lydia. What courage that must have taken for both of my great-grandparents!

Ted and I have a photo gallery in our house, and I plan to frame these photos and add them to the gallery with other family photos dating from the very early 1900s through our latest addition, our great-grandson.

Road trip: travel

It normally takes Ted and me about nine hours to go from Kiel to our house, but there was so much road construction along the way, that the trip was longer this time. Driving I-55 from Chicago to St. Louis includes Route 66 travel.

We had a happy adventure on our way home when we stopped for gas at Wally’s in Pontiac, IL.

I’ll let a screenshot from Wally’s website describe what you’’ll find at Wally’s.

I took some pictures in the store. It’s so big, that it’s hard to show it in a photo, but try to look all the way across the store in the picture below. It’s not Wall Drug (South Dakota), but Wally’s takes the gas station convenience store to a whole new level!

There’s an entire room offering a huge variety of ice-cold beer. (For people who are going to drive?)

The wall art at the entrances to the restrooms is impressive. That’s a 1955 Plymouth Belvedere towing a vintage Shasta trailer, in case you’re wondering.

Buy a t-shirt and express the joy of Wally’s. Wallelujah to all!

A vintage Winnebago motor home is parked in the store. It’s a perfect backdrop for the camping gear you can buy at Wally’s.

Wally’s mascot bear is “driving” the Winnebago.

After this stop, Ted and I were refreshed and ready to hit the road for the last stretch to our house. It was a wonderful nine days, and we loved seeing our friends and family members in person again. There were so many laughs and so many good memories to be shared at every stop, that we are still feeling the joy of the fun we had with everyone. Long live the American Road Trip!

Road trip: Brother, high school class

Our last stop on this trip was a visit with Ted’s brother, Gary, and a reunion with Ted’s high school classmates.

We had a funny experience as we drove to Gary’s house. I was driving through a small town on a state highway and, as I passed an intersection, a black van marked “Sheriff” pulled into the traffic behind me. That was fine; I hadn’t been doing anything wrong. As I continued driving, I noticed a string of three identical black vans behind me. I knew the first one was the sheriff, but as we crested a hill, it looked like the second car also had a light bar on the top. With a sheriff–or possibly, two sheriffs–directly behind me, I made sure to drive no faster than the 55 mph speed limit.

As we drove through small town after small town, I repeatedly adjusted my speed from 55 to 45 to 35 to 25 to 35 to 45 to 55 again. The three black vans stayed right behind me. As we rounded a curve, I identified the third van as another sheriff! I don’t think I’ve ever been followed by three consecutive sheriffs! Ted and I laughed about it and I continued driving exactly at the speed limit, forcing the officers of the law to do the same or to–gasp!–break the law by speeding to pass me. We wondered if the sheriffs were getting frustrated at having to drive at the speed limit. Do they (slightly) exceed the speed limit like the rest of us when there is no one to see them?

The sheriffs’ convoy followed us for nearly an hour. I could have turned onto a side road, let them pass, made a U-turn, and come back to the highway, but frankly, it was kind of amusing to keep three sheriffs within the law. We were going to arrive two hours before Gary would be ready for us anyway, so we had plenty of time to dawdle our way across the state. Eventually, however, I had to turn to go to Gary’s house, and the sheriffs continued on the state highway and probably followed someone else. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Now, back to our visit with Gary. A few years ago, there was a fire in Gary’s apartment building. It wasn’t in Gary’s apartment, but there are only four apartments in the building, and they all had water and smoke damage. When the damage was repaired, Gary was able to move to a different unit than his original apartment. He (and Ted and I) like this unit much better because the window views are open land rather than the cul de sac on which the apartment is located. This is the kitchen/living room area. There are three bedrooms along the right side of the apartment (obviously, not shown here).

On our first night together, we went out for pizza and then played sheephead, a popular Wisconsin card game. The next night, we went to a more upscale local restaurant that featured Early American decor.

The ladies’ room had an old-fashioned, comfy appearance.

Ted and I planned our trip to include time for me to see my college friends while Eileen was in Madison for a UW football weekend, and we planned our time in Kiel so that Ted could attend his high school class’s annual reunion lunch at the Altona Supper Club. Our kids used to chuckle over the term “supper club” when we traveled with them to Wisconsin. I have no idea why these restaurants have that designation, but a Google search says that “supper clubs are an iconic mainstay of Wisconsin, filled with comfort food and good conversation.” This noon meal included all the Wisconsin noontime “dinner” goodies—a variety of meats and seafood, potatoes, salad, vegetables, dinner rolls, and dessert–and everything was delicious.

Three class reunions were taking place simultaneously at the supper club. Ted attended his 50^th class reunion, but that was the only time after his high school graduation that he’d seen his classmates until now, so it took us a few minutes to locate someone he recognized. After we picked up our name tags, things became easier. Without them, Ted admitted there were very few people he recognized on sight. It was a nice gathering, and Ted enjoyed talking with some of his old friends. The midday reunions have been held annually for several years, and a group picture is taken every year. Ted is the third man from the right in the back row.

Before leaving this part of Wisconsin, Ted and I stopped at the Gibbsville Cheese Factory to buy some “real” (i.e., not supermarket) Wisconsin cheese to take home with us. Gibbsville offered a new version of Ted’s favorite, super sharp cheddar. The “Special Reserve Super Sharp Cheddar” brought a smile and a quick “That’s really good!” from Ted. He bought six pounds of it to take home with us. We also stopped at the Oostburg Bakery to get some bakery favorites: hard (this does not mean firm or stale) rolls, filled coffee cakes, and Danish pastries.

Of course, we needed a picture of Ted and his brother on our last evening together before Ted and I left in the morning for our long drive home.

Road trip: Aunt and more cousins

Holmen, WI is a small town near La Crosse. It’s where my favorite aunt and three of my cousins–including two more of the six Girl Cousins–and their families live. Sadly, my (also favorite) uncle died a year ago just two months before his 98th birthday. One of the Girl Cousins—Lara—was traveling out-of-state on business, so we didn’t have a chance to see each other this time.

Ted and I stayed in an interesting hotel, themed on Wisconsin wilderness, fishing, and hunting. The supports for a ceiling overhang in the pool room, as well as the wall above the overhang, were painted to look like tall evergreen trees.

We didn’t try sitting in this chair, but it looks like an early attempt at ergonometric design.

On our first day in town, we had dinner at Aunt Ruth’s house and one of my boy cousins—David—and his friend, Deb, joined us. Later, Jim, Lara’s husband (she’s the Girl Cousin who was out of town), came over for a little while. The following day, Aunt Ruth treated all of us to a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. “All of us” included Aunt Ruth, David and Deb, Jim, Ted and me, and Linda—the second Girl Cousin at this stop—and her friend, Paul. At first, I was puzzled that we had to be at the dock by 9:30 a.m. for a dinner cruise, but I soon remembered that, in the upper Midwest, people eat breakfast, dinner, and supper, so dinner would be served at noon. As we entered the park at the boat dock, we passed this “Sister City” garden. La Crosse has six sister cities and each of them has a portion of this garden designed to represent itself.

The weather was perfect for a river cruise, and we saw one beautiful sight after another during the three-hour cruise. The boat had a paddle wheel, and the captain assured us that it was a true paddle wheeler—the paddle provided the power to move the boat.

A short distance upriver, we passed through—not under—a “swing bridge.” As a watercraft approaches, the bridge rotates (swings) ninety degrees to allow the boat to pass, as the boat in the left part of the photo below is doing.

After the boat passes, the bridge swings back. In this picture, it is nearly completely closed.

There are 27 locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi River between Minneapolis, MN and Cape Girardeau, MO. On our river cruise, we passed through Lock & Dam 7 twice—once going upstream, then again going downstream.

Here’s a picture of a barge making a delivery upstream. According to the captain’s narration, most barge traffic serves either the Upper Mississippi River from Minneapolis, MN to St. Louis, MO or the Lower Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans, LA.

These homes have a beautiful river view.

Here’s a picture of boathouses and houseboats. Do you know the difference? A houseboat has an engine; a boathouse does not. 😊 Boathouses are technically not for habitation, but some have amenities to make them more than simply a shed.

Ted and I have traveled along the Mississippi River from Menominee, WI to New Orleans, LA, but this is the first time I’ve seen a Mississippi River sand beach. It reminded me of all the glacier-formed sand-bottom lakes that I enjoyed while growing up in Wisconsin.

It was a great day to be outside on the deck. Not too hot (upper 70s) and not windy. Here’s part of our group. From left to right, Paul, Linda, me, Deb, and David. Ted took the picture.

The dinner was delicious. Turkey and chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, coleslaw, dinner rolls, and carrot cake. David managed to extend his arm far enough to get all of us into his picture. Again, left to right you can see Ted, me, Jim, Aunt Ruth, Linda, Paul, Deb, and David—or at least the idea of David.

After all the passengers had left the ship, one of the crew members took a picture of our group. Once more, left to right, you can see Deb, Ruth, David, me, Jim, Linda, Paul, and Ted. We all had a wonderful time and repeatedly thanked Aunt Ruth for the treat.

Jim, Ted, and I visited with Aunt Ruth for a little while after we returned to her house. As with our other visits, our time together ended too soon. Jim had to run some errands, and Ted and I needed to head for our next hotel.

Road trip: Cousins

Ted’s and my third stop on our road trip was Lake Geneva, WI, where I was able to visit with two of my Girl Cousins from my mother’s side of the family. (We have boy cousins, but our brothers don’t have much interaction among themselves.) Years ago, we girls named ourselves the “Girl Cousins.” Once we had a Girl Cousin Weekend and it was a blast! We talk about having another one, but we’re all too busy to organize it, so it hasn’t happened yet. Donna lives in Lake Geneva and Judi lives in Brookfield, about an hour away from Lake Geneva. Donna moved to Lake Geneva a few years ago, and Ted and I hadn’t seen her new house, so we had a tour. Jon builds large, intricate, and detailed model boats and we enjoyed seeing some of his collection.

Donna served her Grandma Drott’s outstanding lasagna for lunch, and Judi contributed lemon bars for dessert. Then we got down to business, telling funny family stories for several hours because, as Judi said, “Nobody understands the craziness of your family better than your cousins.”

Judi also came in a new car. Mine was one week old; hers was two days old. Ted and I left home for this road trip only five days after I picked up my car and, with trip prep chores to do, we didn’t have time to do more than figure out how the essentials on the car worked: gas cap opener, bright/dim headlights, cruise control, radio, etc. We decided to wait until we returned home to program the garage door opener. Judi said they did the same before coming to Donna and Jon’s house for this visit. We both have lane assist in our new cars and noticed that it’s firm, but easily overridden, if necessary. Just for fun, as we drove to Donna and Jon’s house, we both (in our own cars) had held our hands just barely off the steering wheel to allow the car to turn itself on a curve. I even let mine do an S-curve. It was amazing! Almost like a self-driving car! Then we each (again, in our own cars) heard a warning beep and had a warning light with a message: “Driver does not have hands on steering wheel.” Oops! It was good for a laugh that we both did the same thing.

Much too soon, it was time for Judi and Larry to go home and for Ted and me to head for our hotel de jour, but first, we took pictures.

Here are half of the six Girl Cousins—me, Judi, and Donna.

Then, our husbands. All three men are so nice, and they enjoy each other’s company. We women decided that, in choosing these guys, “We all done good.” This photo features Larry, Ted, and Jon.

We finished with a group photo. Judi propped her camera on a chair back, set the timer, and with only one try, we got this picture, featuring Ted and me, Jon and Donna, and Larry and Judi. Good times!

Road trip: Grandson and college friends