Summer Time

At last, it looks like summer is here to stay. Hot and humid with thunderstorm watches and warnings. I'm finally learning the difference between a watch and a warning as well as which siren means fire and which one means tornado (a handy thing to know in either case. Like most towns around us, we have a complete volunteer fire department so the siren is the ultimate call to arms, so to speak). We have survived the stormy season so far. Although, I did experience some large hail the other day. Hardly worth talking about, only the size of a nickel. Can't even buy penny candy with anything the size of a nickel. Other communities around here got Quarter sized and some golf ball sized. Now, that's worth something. (Do you know how much golf balls are going for these days?) Besides the half-tree loss that I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, the only weather related setbacks were a couple of clogged gutters. Not nearly as dramatic as Sally and Uncas' tree bearing gutters. (Also mentioned a few blogs back) Speaking of clogging, I recently attained the Email address of another old friend. The reason that clogging reminded me of that old friend, Barb, who was a freelance writing partner, a client and a friend, is that she married a real "Doer", Trey, who flies (both planes and the fishing kind), and anytime the occasion arises, dons his kilts and blows a mean bagpipe. Being the ever devoted wife, Barb has joined Trey in his many endeavors which brings me back to clogging. I could say that the sound of my clogged gutters resembled that of a poorly tuned bag of air. But that's not it. But consider this, Barb and Trey, a handsome couple I may add, wearing kilts with the pipes (drum I believe in Barb's case) hung from one shoulder a creel over the other, both wearing bright tartan kilts and olive drab rubber waders striding across the tarmac to their waiting biplane, leather helmets and goggles in place and white scarfs blowing in the breeze. Now that's clogging if I've ever seen it. In all fairness to Barb and Trey, I do envy many of their endeavors (Not counting bag piping) and I am hoping to renew our friendship through, at least, the internet. All in all the internet has been a wonderful tool in rekindling a number of old friendships and hopefully many more in the future. So far I've remet (I love to throw in words like this to rile up my spell check) a friend that I grew up with, both physically and professionally, a couple of good friends who influenced me so much with their photographic talents, and a kid who became such a close friend that was considered part of the family. It has also allowed me to keep in touch with family and friends across the nation, a thing that is so enjoyable in my elderlyness (Take that spellcheck!)

A quick pic of yours truly with Mom on her 96th birthday fighting over bag of popcorn!
(She's a lot stronger than she looks)

Cubs turn 50

The Cubs' bats finally woke up last night. With a 9 to 2 win over the Giants they reached their fiftieth victory for the year. The win could be due, in part, to the fine dining in San Francisco although on a recent trip to that city, I could not find one restaurant that served a decent plate of Rice-o-Roni. After grieving through 4 straight loses I finally got a chance to fly my "W" flag today. Hopefully I can leave it up for a few more days. Speaking of the Cubs. A couple of days ago during one of my many day dream periods, I wondered why the Cubs keep being so hard on me. It's not bad enough that they haven't won a World series in a hundred years but, must they constantly mess with me with nearly unpronounceable players' names. I no sooner master Nomar Garciaparra and they trade him. Then at last we had guys with names that we could, not only say, but spell. We got names like Lee, Soto, Lilly, Wood and Ward. But, then they bring in Kosuke Fukudome, Jose Eleazar Ascanio, Aramis Nin Ramirez and two silent "T" guys Fontenot and Theriot. Fortunately I did get a pronunciation education at a game earlier this year from a nine year seated directly behind my right ear (that's the good one). He not only knew every players' name but he knew the correct pronuniation which he repeated over and over and over and over and over again during each player's entire at bat in a shrill and squeeky little voice that could crack the caramel off your Cracker Jack. Well, I have to hit the couch for a little afternoon nap so I can stay awake for another victory tonight. These Left Coast games are real killers not starting until after 9 pm and lasting until close to midnight.
I'll leave you with a quote that I ran across the other day.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

Couldn't resist getting a little arty with the pic!

Random Ronnings from the Weekend (RRW

Just a bunch of leftover stuff from the past weekend. This time I'm going to let the pictures tell the story. And, to any of you who wonder about the cloud paintjob on the Honda in the previous post, it's a very expensive option that can be attained by driving 400 miles or more straight North to the clear air of the north woods, park in a clearing and admire. Now that that's clear, on to the pics.

Just a little cuteness to get things started

A cozy screened in retreat on the edge of the woods

A beaver dam pond. Can you spot Sophie
(a brown and white Springer Spaniel)
in the lower left corner?

All the outdoor Eagles were a little too far away but, this guy,
at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota,
was kind enough to pose for us.
(notice how his eyelid closes from the side rather than from the top)
Wabasha was also the location for the Grumpy Old Men movie.

Mom and twins being interrupted from a midmorning snack

No need to travel to the North Woods to see a Maple forest.
Just check out Sally and Uncas' front gutter (eave trough for you rural folk)

What's New?

This is going to be a tough task (TT for the short cut folks). There is so much new news (NN) from this past weekend. So, I'll try to keep it as short as possible. Let's start with Thursday. We went to Madison, bought a new car, did some shopping, went home, packed and hit the hay. (How's that for short?) Now to make a short story long, we went to Madison and bought a new Honda Accord. We had pretty much decided not to get a new car UNTIL the dealer agreed to take BOTH of our old cars as a trade in. The car is blue and beautiful and we've already put close to a thousand miles on it. The shopping was for birthday gifts for daughters Sally and Elaine, son Rick and new puppy Sammy. Friday began by seeing how much stuff we could stuff (SS) into the new car. Good thing we got the larger car. We successfully crammed in suitcases, a cooler, two beanbag toss boards with accessories, a croquette set, a variety of gifts, other foody things, pillows, still and video cameras, Jo and I. (Oh yeah we also had a couple of inkjet printers to drop off at Best Buy in La Crosse for recycling) The trip Up North was fairly normal for us. A few arguments with Wanda (our GPS voice), a couple of u-turns, some cool wildlife spottings, (Bald Eagles, a Sandhill Crane family and some Does and Fawns. Road kill doesn't count.) After a blinding downpour, we arrived at Uncas' folks' place. And, what a cool place (CP) it is. Twenty acres in the woods just west of Lake Superior along Minnesota's North Shore. The place is completely self sufficient (off the grid). All the power is provide by large solar panels, a small generator and propane gas. And, it's fully equipped with a state-of-the-art outhouse (SH). There is also a fully equipped indoor bathroom. The place is loaded with so many great things that I'm going to need a separate posting complete with photos to do it real justice.
The real story of the weekend was the arrival of Sammy, Sally and Uncas' new Dachshund puppy. Sammy was the center of attention and guest of honor at a Saturday afternoon cookout (SAC). He won the hearts of all present and formed an immediate friendship with Uncas' parents' Springer Spaniel, Sophie. Here, for a change, I'll let Sammy speak for himself.

"Speak Sammy, Speak!!!!"

Blub, Blub, Blub!

Just saying Hey from a dryer part of Southwestern Wisconsin! Although we got a lot of rain this past week, (I think over 6 inches total) we fared a whole lot better than so many of the neighboring areas. Luckily we had enough breaks in the weather that "farmer/botanist" JoAnne had an opportunity to finish filling all the bare spaces in the yard with one form of vegetation or another.

I've really fallen behind on my photo shooting. The subjects have been available but, it seems that I don't happen to be in the same time frame with them. Our Hostas are growing to tremendous proportions and I want to shot some of them to post here. But, so far, the planets haven't aligned properly for the "right" shot. For Fathers' Day I received my own, real live, Cubs Win (W) flag and I plan a photo extravaganza to show here. Once again, haven't gotten everything together for the "Big" shot. But, I promise, you'll be the first to see me and my pet flag in full color right here in Ron City.

Only other news at this time is I've been car shopping. After extensive research and test driving and financial wrangling, I've been able to narrow the quest down to one vehicle and, more importantly, a justifiable price range. After constantly hearing auto manufacturers bally hoo their cars as, "as good as an Accord". I wondered what would be better than being as good as an Accord? Duh!!! An Accord of course. So, if all goes well with the financial dealings, we may be heading up to Duluth this coming weekend in a.... yep, new Accord.

All in all this coming weekend should be pretty exciting. We're going to Duluth to meet up with Sally and Uncas and stay at Uncas' folks place. They live north of Duluth just off of Lake Superior. They have lots of land and, from what I've seen in photos, it's kind of rustic. The other big treat will be the introduction of "Sammy", Sally and Uncas' new puppy which they are picking up this weekend. So, watch for lots of pictures. Car, puppy, house in the woods and maybe even Ron with his "W" flag. As you probably know, the Cubs just keep on winning.

See ya round the corner.

Fall has Fell!

I guess I spoke too soon on Sunday. After a rather dull week the new one started off with a bang. A little yard work in the morning and then...all @##$$%^$%$ brought loose. While Jo was in the bathroom hosing off some excess potting soil the Fennimore tornado siren starting wailing. A quick check of the TV news weather bulletin showed a lot of bright colored stuff going on just north of us. It seemed that the worst of the storm(s) were following the Wisconsin River valley which is several miles north of Fennimore. We were feeling relatively safe as we monitored things on the on and off antics of the Satellite TV until we looked out of the window only to see a wall of water so heavy that we couldn't see the street, let alone the house across the street. The rain let up, the sun came out and it seemed as though things had calmed down. But, when I looked out the front door I discovered that half of one of our maple trees was lying in the street. Jo suggested that I go out and move it off the street. HA! I reminded her that I was 72 years old and that was half of a tree lying there and if it was in the street, the city would come and move it. Sure enough, in no time at all, the trusty Fennimore Volunteer Fire Department showed up and Jo saw first hand that this husky crew could hardly move it. A chain saw and a front loader later and it was gone leaving only a slightly smaller version of a mighty maple. Not much of an adventure when you consider what other folks around the area are experiencing. Lake Delton, GONE! A 257 acre lake containing around 400,000,000 gallons of water drained into the Wisconsin River taking entire houses with it. And, hundreds of other homes under water throughout the area. Half a tree isn't much of a hardship by comparison. Besides, that's just that many less leaves to rake when Fall really arrives.

Valley Delton 20 feet deep, a quarter mile wide - Formerly Lake Delton

Can Fall be far behind?

We had our half day of Spring and we're now in the midst of Summer. Hot weather, thunderstorms, tornado warnings and the still in first place, best record in baseball, Cubs losing two in a row. This week has been a lot less exciting than the weather. I guess the highlight was moving Jo's mom to a new assisted living facility. She is now residing in beautiful downtown Dodgeville, only minutes from Jo's workplace. It's a nice place with a seemingly sociable group of residents. But one of the best features is that it's only blocks away from both MacDonalds and Culvers making it mighty handy when a Big Mac or Frozen Custard attack erupts. The other events of the week were all sales related. For me it was new car shopping which was not nearly as exciting or challenging as when done in the Chicago area. (not as much price haggling due to the lack of cutthroat competition.) Sally and Uncas were new dog shopping. Hot Bulletin: New dog has been found and will debut in a couple of weeks. JoAnne shopped for more flowers. Another Hot Bulletin: Bare ground has been discovered in the Blume yard. Action is being taken to alleviate the situation. And, Derek and Jeanna took up the opposing position by SELLING. They hosted a garage sale this Friday and Saturday between the storms cells that ran through Wisconsin. Haven't gotten the final sales figures yet but I think I did see some video cassettes and audio equipment in a funnel-shaped cloud heading for Kansas. Today looks like a day of watching the rain fall, keeping out of the way of the "Cleaning Frenzy Frau" and basic computer playing around. (Can't even watch a Cubs' game until tonight)
So, I'll leave you with a photo from a nicer day and a quote from that sage philosopher, Dave Barry. "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."