Still Alive?

Where's Grandpa been?

Just realized that it's been over a month since the last post. (Actually I was reminded by the wife person) It's not like nothing has been going on. I guess I just get lazy or, by the time I think of something to post, I get an idea for another one. Usually while I'm on on one of my driving excursions I get my great ideas. I even compose them in my mind but, by the time I get back to the computing thing, it's lost. (Too bad cuz some really good stuff is floating around out there in never, never land) I'm considering getting one of those voice recording gizmos.
As a matter of fact since the last post we've had a ninetieth birthday, a christening, a first tooth, at least one trip to the Twin Cities, Evansville and Madison. I cruised the Mississippi river shore line stalking the not so elusive Tundra Swan. I even had a "Man Date" grocery shopping excursion with a neighbor who is equally nutty about the super market experience. (Just take my word for it, we had a great time and scored some real savings at the cash register.)
And! Just this past weekend we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary early by treating each other to dinner and a The Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert in Madison. (It was an late afternoon performance so us not so youngsters could get home at a reasonable hour.)
All in all it's been a pretty busy month and rather than trying to tell about it in several hundred thousand words, I'll just drop in a few photos of the highlights.

Great Grandma gets an unexpected assist from Saffie.

A few of the hundreds of Sandhills gathered along the Wisconsin River
near Spring Green flipping me "The Wing" before they continue their journey South.
(Someone took the time to count over fifteen hundred of them)

Some of the thousands of swans on a stop over
on the Mississippi near Brownsville Minnesota.
(Just about ten miles south of La Crosse)
Picture quality suffered from being threatened by some renegade geese
who are in a witness protection program.

Edith either squeezing out a her first tooth or just another baby toot!
(Must be all that "Pull My Finger" training)

Don't know? I expected a German construction gang doing road work.

Too Much Input?

Wow! It's been nearly a month since my last blog. Things have been fast and furious around here. Probably one of the busiest months in a long time.
Where to begin (This is where a 76 year old memory comes in handy) There were trips to Minneapolis, Evansville, Chicago and Duluth as well as a paddlewheel boat cruise up the Mississippi. visits from my California son, an Evilbear and helpful neighbors. There's some funny things and some sad. I'll try to whip through the boring stuff and embellish the more interesting things. In not necessarily numerical, alphabetical or sequential order, here we go.
As a belated birthday present to JoAnne, we took a Saturday paddlewheel boat lunch cruise up The River. It was really pleasant and relaxing. (Just what Busy Bee Jo needed) A few highlights were going through the locks and whale watching. The locks part went smoothly but not much on the whale watching front. (Although it did keep the other passengers alert.) I guess the only real humor of the day was being accompanied on the cruise by a Tammy Faye Baker lookalike. I tried to get a photo of her without being too obvious because, I'm sure, she didn't want to cause a distraction from the less made up surroundings.
The following week my oldest son, Rick, flew in from California for a weeklong visit. We talk on the phone a lot but don't get together very often due to a couple of thousand miles of Nebraska separating us. We put in a pretty busy week of golfing, sightseeing and a bunch of picture taking (mostly on Rick's part). When he's not bragging about parring the eighth hole, I'm sure he's completely boring everyone back home with his hundreds of barn and tractor photos. We slipped in a trip to Chicago to lunch on Chicago Style Pizza with daughter Elaine and dropped in on niece, Michelle, and nephew Ron's (What a cool name for a nephew. Even cooler, he has a son named Ronnie!) birthday party at my sister's house. It was a great week with great weather. As a matter of fact Jo even let us use her convertible one day.
One of my favorite bloggers, Evilbear by name, emailed me that he was planning to take a photo tour along The River. Being THE Mississippi River nut, I was more than eager to pass on more riverside travel information than, I'm sure, he wanted. Somehow we have become fans of each other's blog without ever meeting or even having ever known each other. We made plans to get together for a face to face, in depth discussion of potential photo ops. We met at the local Hardies, exchanged pleasantries and got to know each other a little bit. Then I sent him on his way North not knowing that within twenty four hours I would be making the same trip.
Last Thursday night we received word that, Summer's husband, Reid's mother had passed away up in Duluth. Super G swung into action. We were packed, and on our way so rapidly that we actually reached Minneapolis before Evilbear was out of LaCrosse. On these "Missions of Mercy" my main job is to drive and provide comic relief. (when appropriate) On the other hand, Super G (Jo) is there to give relief to Summer and Reid caring for the grandkids. The wake and funeral service were quite emotional with many people eulogizing Rita (Reid's mom). In spite of her own physical ailments she really touched and improved the lives of many others.
Afterwards we headed back to good old Fennimore. The ride home was a little more relaxed and enjoyable than the trip up north had been. We took a number of scenic routes on the Wisconsin side of The River and other than a few blinding rain storms it was a pleasant ending to an otherwise sad week. The big surprise came when we arrived at our house. It seemed that on the previous Sunday, our Pastor had given a sermon about people helping people. (could have been the Good Samaritan story?) At any rate the following day some of our neighboring families, kids and all, swooped in on the Blume estate and raked up all the leaves in sight. (one family hadn't even heard the sermon) A little aside here. The kids from across the street had been "stealing" our leaves all week long creating a huge leaf pile in their yard. The funny part is that they would take turns burying each other in the pile. Not funny? Well it is if you realize that I live across the street from the funeral parlor and these kids belong to the undertaker. Makes you wonder what else they do for kicks over there.
The one thing that didn't happen was my high school buddy, Ken, and his wife, Linda, were due to come for a visit to Fennimore on Saturday. Needless to say, on Saturday Jo and I were up in Duluth. Not to be cheated out of the opportunity to see Fennimore first hand Ken and Linda drove up from Chicago anyway and seemed to have pretty good time without us visiting some of the local establishments that we've never been to.
Well, that's what I've been up to. As if this rant hasn't "run off" long enough, let me add a few photos illustrate a tad of the doings.

Just a peek of "Old Muddy" from the upper deck.
(I wish I could remember all the different nicknames of the Mississippi
that Chevy Chase used in his "Vacation" film.)

"Big Wheel Keeps on turnin"
(Enough to make Mary proud!)

"Super G" enjoying a well deserved relaxing moment in the sun.

Tammy Faye???

Railroad Swing bridge.

The guy who sits in his little cabin waiting for a boat to come by
so he can open and close the bridge and wave.
(He had a special wave for Tammy Fay.)

Son Rick, in search of "The Photo".

Who sez we don't pamper of our cows up here?
Cows get thirsty too!

Kickapoo Valley dressed in it's Full Fall Finery.

The Blume Estate before being ravaged by leaf thieves.

For a peek at some fine photos, check out Evilbear's blog at - http://evilbearphotography.blogspot.com/

"Hey! Don't Slam The Door!"

That's something I hear from JoAnne quite a bit. No, she's not referring to the device that blocks out the "peskies" of this world. Pesky insects, pesky salesmen, pesky Witnesses and pesky cookie sellers. No, she's referring to that pesky piece of land that interrupts the Lake Michigan Shoreline just Northeast of us, the County of Door. It's a little strip of land that, beginning in "Titletown USA" extends northward into Lake Michigan and becomes "The Cape Cod of the Midwest". For years I've stated my preference for the Northwoods section of Wisconsin over this fingerfull of hotels, motels, timeshares, condos, galleries, gift shops, restaurants, orchards and wineries. This past week has changed my view of Door County. This trip I viewed it over the shoulder of a three year old on an adventure and an eight month old whose every move is an adventure. Our vacation club membership provided us with a great two bedroom condo that was perfect for Jo and I as well as son Derek, his wife Jeanna and Grandkids Saffie and Sebastian. Saffie discovered, with some apprehension, the delight of waves lapping onto your bare feet as well as a giant bull gently lapping at your cheek. She took great pleasure in finding a stone to throw and finding it to throw again. She experienced the glow and warmth of a fire crackling away in a fireplace and the cackling of a mother hen with her brood of chicks. She learned that bunches of grapes grew on a vine and that baby goats went after a bottle of milk more eagerly than her baby bother. Hopefully all these things will remain in her memory for years to come, I know that they're etched in mine. After this past week, I still prefer The Northwoods but I have a new fondness for the Door. I promise not to slam it anymore!

Sebastian controls his excitement on the way to Door County.

Derek, Jeanna and Saffie check the Eastern shore for sea monsters.

Saffie works on her herding technique.

Saffie meet Mr. Bull . . .

. . . Mr. Bull meet Saffie.

Finding the perfect stone means everything
when you're only a stone's throw from an ice cream shop.

Al Johnson's may have goats on the roof but,
Julie's has Blumes on her chair!

"Watch it or I'll stomp the juice out of you!"

Meanwhile Sebastian tangles with a stubborn highchair.

Saffie contemplates a day well spent and
plans for tomorrow's adventures.

Grandpa toasts the Door for a fun and restful week while . . .

. . . Sebastian remains relatively unimpressed.

A complete album of the Door County Adventure (including a short video) will soon be available for viewing on Grandma Jo's Picasa page.

Bon Appetite! (Or dining out in Southwest Wisconsin)

A few blogs back I ran on about my adopted hometown, Fennimore Wisconsin. In it I tried to not compare it to my original hometown, Chicago. In general Jo and I are fairly content in our comfy little rural community but, things came to a head this past weekend. Originally a good friend, and former high school classmate, and his wife from the Chicago area were coming up to visit. It was kind of a reciprocal deal as we had gone down to visit and have dinner with them a couple of months ago. We had dinner at a restaurant that Jo and I both like very much and had many a fine dinners at in the past. As in the past the service was great, the food was outstanding and the atmosphere was perfect for a get together with old friends. As the weekend for our Wisconsin get together approached, the question arose, "where to have dinner with Ken and Linda?". We started down the list of potential eating places in the area. Nothing really stood out or even came close to the place we went to in Illinois. Now in Fennimore itself, after Hardys and Subway, fine dining doesn't exist. So this means that after a three and a half, or more, hour drive we need to ask our guests to get back in the car and travel a little farther. Our first choice was a restaurant (twenty miles away) that is part of an old restored brewery which also houses the "National Brewing Museum". I called there only to find out that the on night we chose they were hosting a giant "Brewfest" and dinner wasn't being served. Next choice, a good steak house in Prairie du Chien (twenty five miles away) was closed for the owner's daughter's wedding. The list continued to get shorter and the distances longer when good old Ken came to the rescue. He came down with a case of the flu and they had to cancel the trip up north. What Ken didn't know is that his sickness really saved four folks a lot of grief and growling stomachs because, when Saturday night rolled around, Jo and I decided that we may as well go out to dinner ourselves. We hopped into the car (Jo's new one that she lets me drive on weekends) and with the top down we drove off into a beautiful Wisconsin evening. We headed to Mineral Point to the restaurant we had decided to take Ken and Linda to. Only thirty miles away and although the service was usually pretty poor the food was good and the menu has more interesting choices than your run-of-the-mill supper clubs. I had called earlier to make reservations only to be told that they didn't take reservations. But we took a chance and as we arrived we were greeted by hungry, impatient looking people milling around outside the place. Given the number of people and knowing how slow the service was, it didn't look like we would eat anytime before Thanksgiving. Let's move on. There's a little lake outside of town (Mineral Point) that has a golf course and a restaurant. Folks say the food is pretty good. After driving a couple of miles down a barely paved one and a half lane road we started noticing more and more cars parked on the shoulder. As the "club house" came into view it was apparent that there was a rather large wedding party going on. It was so crowed that half the guests were celebrating in the parking lot. Oh well there's another golf course on the other side of town. The food there is good and with so many people at the wedding it shouldn't be too crowed. Wrongo!!! This place was hosting, not only a large private party but a just as large golf outing. We were told that we could be seated in the nearly empty dining room but probably couldn't get served for at least an hour or so. (The "or so" was the deal closer) Hey, there's a place in Dodgeville, less than ten miles away, where an old friend and very good cook is chef. Our attitudes and the crisp Wisconsin evening are starting to cool off making the top down excursion even more uncomfortable. We arrive at still another jam packed parking lot but I do find a "Close up" spot where I park as Jo runs in to check on the possibility of getting some kind of meal. She was gone a long time,. Maybe she found a table for one and ate on without me or, maybe she got a job as a cook or waitress or maybe she just got trampled by the crowd of "well fed" celebraters. It turned out that after waiting for a long time just to speak to someone, she finally figured out that there was a (a very riotous) private party, a wedding dinner, and a full dining room and bar. After she managed to fight her way back to the car we sat looking at each in awe. We had driven in excess of fifty miles in just under two hours and still hadn't had a bite to eat. It was getting late a, without driving at least forty or fifty miles more, our choices were Culvers, Hardys, A & W, Pizza Hut or Country Kitchen. Country Kitchen got the nod. So off we went. We were greeted by a friendly young waitress who seated us in a clean and cozy little booth. Five or six other groups of diners (all about my age or older), who probably had the good sense to come here in the first place, were enjoying pleasant conversation and plain old good food. We ordered straight off the "Seniors" menu and in no time at all we had devoured sensible portions of vittles that were just this side of home cookin'. Back in the car (with the top up now) we headed home deciding that the next time we want to go out for a "nice dinner" we're going to drive straight to the airport and fly to Chicago, St Louis or San Francisco and save a lot of time and frustration. And when Ken and Linda do come up to have dinner with us in Wisconsin it will probably be a home cooked meal in our dining room in Fennimore.
Adding insult to injury, I opened my email only to find an ad for my favoritest food in the world ...

Considering the amount of time we spent trying to find a place to eat I could have dam near gone to Chicago and truly enjoyed myself.
One more little aside about the weekend. It started with us going to Milwaukee's Miller Park to be humiliated by the Cubs great showing against the Brewers but ended with us celebrating little Saffron's third birthday. (By the way, at Saffron's party I treated my self to a homemade version of a Chicago style hot dog. All is not bad!)

End of an Era!!!

Today I waved a last goodbye to an old friend. We sold our 1993 Honda Civic. Fortunately Jo wasn't here to see it drive off into the sunshine. It would have been like seeing her kid off to college or jail or to Piggly Wiggly. The "Blueberry", as Derek had named it years ago, is off to a new home. After eighteen years and over two hundred and ninety thousand miles the little bugger was starting to show wear. (happens to the best of us) The paint was wearing thin, the rusty areas were overpowering the nonrusty areas, the air conditioner was only conditioning part of the air and the muffler wasn't doing a very good job of muffling. In spite of all that, she (I think it was a she), still gave us forty plus dependable miles for every gallon of gas we fed her. BUT! The sorrow of her passing is short lived. Just watch the Wisconsin (and Illinois and Minnesota) highways for "The Little Old Lady From Fennimore" zipping by in "Blueberry's" presently unnicknamed successor. And one of them will probably be topless.

We could call it the "Newberry"
but I think Chrysler had a model called that in the past.
(Oh I guess it was a Newport)

My Kinda Town . . .

After almost fifteen years of living in Fennimore, I've realized that this, in truth, is my home. Today I took a little time out of my hectic schedule to look around and see where I'm really at. I won't try to compare Fennimore with Chicago (although it may be necessary to make note of some similarities and some unsimilarities). As you approach Fennimore you won't mistake the looming skyline for a looming skyline. As a matter of fact it's pretty much the same as thousands of other small rural communities around the country. After a while of living "out this way" one can determine where he's at by the size, shape and color of the closest water tower.

The industry in town is anchored by a Rayovac plant on the East side. Significantly this plant came very close to closing due to offshore sourcing to China. Most employees were let go and production was nearly nil. Turned out that those Chinese producers couldn't come close to the quality that Rayovac was known for. Voila! The work and the workers all returned to the Fennimore facility and now all my clocks, tools and numerous other battery powered gizmos are purring away on good old dependable Rayovacs. Like most other Wisconsin towns, we have our own award winning cheese factory.

Unlike most other Wisconsin towns our factory is guarded by Igor, a giant cheese loving mouse (he is sometimes referred to as a rat but, I think mouse is more cheese friendly) If you look real close, squint your eyes and, maybe have a few glasses of wine to go with your cheese, you will see the similarity between Fennimore's Igor and Chicago's Picasso.
Unlike most other Wisconsin towns Fennimore sports ONLY three taverns. (If you count the bowling alley, golf course and a sports bar a couple miles out of town, we almost come up to Wisconsin standards) For example, about five miles down the road, there's a town of twenty homes and one tavern. Now that's how Wisconsin is meant to be. (Ironically the bar is named Cheers II, and everybody in there DOES know everyone else's name)
Main street in town, Lincoln Avenue, which is a State route, is fairly unexciting with most of the traffic just passing through. The businesses are the usual standard drug store, insurance agency, newspaper office and a lawyer or two. If dining out is on the agenda, going South to North there's a Chinese restaurant with better cooks than battery makers. A block or so up the street you'll find the atypical small town restaurant, Fruit Cakes (I don't understand the name but what do I know about fine dining. It was previously named "Our Little Restaurant and Bakery" that made a little more sense to me) At the top of Lincoln is Friedericks Family Restaurant which is housed in a building that resembles a train station. This will mean more after you learn about "Dinky". The dining scene is rounded out with a more commercial flair. We have BOTH a Subway and a Hardees. Interestingly like most small towns (and large town neighborhoods) the older citizens (mainly male) have a morning meeting place. In Fennimore there are two such places. Fruitcakes attracts the rural crowd who swarm in after morning chores are done. And, the "townies" gravitate to Hardees where most of them have their own ceramic coffee mug.
On the corner of Eleventh Street and Lincoln Avenue stands the "Old Opera House" a lovely two story building which formerly housed the nicest restaurant in the area as well as the nicest bar in the area with the nicest hotel rooms in the area upstairs. It also contained (you guessed it) the nicest banquet hall in the area and around the corner, downstairs was a fairly nice bar/pizza place. Unfortunately tough financial times and a summer of Lincoln Avenue construction took its toll on the place so it sits empty waiting for the next entrepreneur to hit town with a sack of money. In its heyday the restaurant was named "The Silent Woman". Kinda catchy but the logo caught the eye of many a woman's rights groups.

We have a fine butcher shop which brags about having 36 varieties of Bratwursts and, each Fall, its parking lot is lined with hunters bringing in their antlered (and unanterlered) kill for processing. We have two lumber companies. Not unusual for a town our size but, how many towns have a lumber company owned by Bill Wood? Fennimore is home to Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. I don't really know much about the college except that it keeps growing and building more buildings. I guess they specialize in Nursing, Mechanics and citizen safety (police and fireman stuff)
And!!! Would you believe? We have no less than FIVE bakeries. (and you wonder why I keep gaining weight) Each bakery sorta does its own thing. One only does baked goods. Another cakes and pastries. I'm not sure what the other three specialize in. I usually pass out after hitting the first two. You can add in our Kwik-Trip and Caseys for doughnuts etc. and you're never more than a few steps away from temptation.
Historically, Fennimore like Chicago was a railroad hub. Of course Fennimore only had one train (a narrow gauge one at that) while Chicago had a few more. The railroad era is well documented in our very own "Railway Museum" which features an actual narrow gauge engine and tender named the "Dinky".
There's a small replica of a Chicago & Northwestern train. For a buck your kid or grandkid or childish cousin Kenny can ride in the little passenger cars while a old guy dressed in an engineer hat toots the whistle for all of the town to hear. For a quick, easy lesson on Fennimore's past, a local artist has painted a mural depicting the whole thing on the side of some buildings adjoining the RR park. If you cross the street and wander on behind the Subway you'll find one of the real treasures of Fennimore. Almost as great as Dinky and Igor is the Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum. This truly a "Must" stop. The museum is now located in an old Red Schoolhouse and presents some of the best collections of toys and dolls available. Many important collectors lend their "collections" for exhibit there.
To round out our little (long winded) tour, we pass the town supermarket, four gas stations (what we lack in taverns we make up in gas stations) some doctors and a dentist who's also a Brigadier General in the Army Reserves and even the "The Place With Your Friendly Hardware Man".
Appropriately last on my list is the place across the street from our home, The Larson Family Funeral Home. How convenient can it be?
That pretty well wraps up our little tour of what has become my hometown. I'm sure I've missed some really important stuff. What the hell come see for yourself!
Oh yeah! the mosquito at the top of the page. We have NO mosquitoes in Fennimore. Honest to God, maybe one or two will wander into town on occasion but normally we are Mosquito Free! This sorta makes up for the lack of great restaurants.....NOT!

Price is Right or Deal No Deal?

While spending the past week in Minnesota, I had the chance to watch quite a bit of TV (HD TV I may add). One morning, it may have been Thursday, I tuned in to one of my favorite game shows, The Price is Right, when what to my wondering eyes did appear - a jolly young man in an Armani suit. It wasn't Santa, it wasn't Drew Carey, it was none other than our President, Barack Obama. It struck as an odd coincidence, the Prez speaking to us about the National budget in a time slot usually devoted to giddy, greedy, goofy acting housewives and college students trying to win something they don't really need for nothing. Ironically each prize that's won actually benefits our economy in way of some kind of "now you got it, now pay taxes on it" tax. Barack didn't have a wheel to spin or curtains with unknown stuff behind them or even pretty models with shiny aluminum attache cases, just his mouth and, I assume a teleprompter. I tried to concentrate on what he was saying and, although I won't be expecting any prizes, I guess it pretty much summed up as "The Price WILL be Right!" I don't want to get into anything political here so let's move on to another observation from a week of HD TV viewing.

What the hell happened to Bob? Remember Bob the guy who was the envy of all his neighbors and the idol of all his neighbor's wide eyed wives. Bob who by taking a certain little pill had improved the size of that certain part of the male anatomy. Well, I did did a little research and found out what happened to old smiley. It seems that at a neighborhood cookout one of Bob's many female admirers got her frilly little beach coverup a little to close to the chestnuts roasting on an open fire and lit up like an America's Got Talent contestant. Bob, in his haste to smoother the smoldering suiter, tripped over that certain part of his oversized male anatomy, bonked his head and rendered himself unconscious. Firemen, who were called to the scene, mistakenly grabbed that certain part of Bob's male anatomy and tried to attach it to a nearby hydrant, turned it on and . . . now all parts of Bob's anatomy are scattered over the once lusty neighborhood. So, no more smug smiley face hawking illusions of greater dimensions and giggly, jiggly housewives will have to take their fantasies elsewhere.
At least we all have the assurance of our President that bigger, and better things lay ahead. And, there are plenty of game shows to help provide tax dollars to offset our country's deficit.

I'm not sure which part of this post this photo pertains to.
Take your pick!